中華神州差傳會

21世紀的中國，穩健地邁入經濟的繁榮，許多事因此蒙受其利，但也有一些事物相對地被犧牲。從國家人口和計劃生育委員會主任張維慶的評論，不難看出這個殘酷的事實，他在“求實”刊物訪談中表示，若沒有禁止四億人口的出生，中國企圖要建立一個富裕的社會將被延緩。

由於社會的轉變快速，人隨之轉變，連帶也造成家庭的破裂。在內蒙鄉村，有資格的老師都被吸引到發展中城市，鄉村學校被迫關門，作父母的只得將五歲大的孩子送到城裡寄宿就讀。也有農民舉家遷到城市，為覓得一份比耕作收入好的工作，而那些為了工作遷到北京城的人，孩子不能進入學校體系，因為他們的戶籍不在那兒。 為什麼一種選擇被認為比另一種選擇更好？為什麼進展與財務上的成功對我那麼重要，以致我選擇用家庭、婚姻、孩子、教會與自己的生命作為賭注？

在市場激烈競爭中，家庭面臨重大風險，更造成福音事工的損失，因為中國家庭教會起初的目的是要將福音遍傳全國，舉家遷移到新地區建立新的宣教據點。但近幾年來，家庭教會的領袖流失在城市裡，新家庭教會的數目在遞減中，而建立基督教家庭的關鍵，最終繫於恢復神建立家庭的見證人。

如果作父母的有混淆，作兒女的就更加無所適從，按聖經的教導，作為一家之頭的父親若沒有清楚的看見，終將招致災禍。想想那些離開家鄉的家庭成員所要面對的嚴重情況─不確定性、疾病、痛苦、財務壓力。對於孩子們，當他們被遷離，無憂無慮的日子、富想樣力的遊戲也跟著被拋到一邊。

牧者更要有這樣的體認， 彼此的扶持與引導的體系，幫助教會家庭走過這些的變動。為人父親的也需要明白他們在家中神聖的呼召，跟隨主耶穌過一個豐盛的生命。幸福是隨著那些神祝福的人，反之亦然。一家的頭應該以跟隨神以及屬神的優先次序為引導。

傳道書8 : 5 - 9說：「 遵守命令的，必不經歷禍患；智慧人的心能辨明時候和定理。」如果為人父母首要關切的，只是那些成就，而不能活出基督的樣式，將是一種何等的傷害。養育一個家庭，意謂著訓練自己的兒女成為未來的父母，畢竟下一代的社會領導人、教會領袖要從他們中間出來。

Raising Families for Christ in China 　◎珊珊
The 21st century China marches steadily to economic boom. In its wake, many things
will give way and some sacrificed to assure its progress. This harsh reality is implied in a comment of Zhang Weiqing, the Minister in Charge of the National Population and Family Commission. In an interview in "Qiushi" (Seeking Truth From Facts), he said that China's drive to build a well-off society would be postponed had the 400 million births not been prevented - considered an achievement reached by the year
2005 and attributed to the family planning started in the 70s. In truth, that number should make us sad, stop and think hard.

As society moves rapidly, people move and families are disrupted. Take for example the villages in Inner Mongolia. Qualified teachers were lured away to the growing cities, forcing village schools to close. Parents had no choice but to send even their (five) six year olds away to board with nannies in the town where they can get schooling. There are also whole families of farmers moving to the city to find better
paying jobs than tilling the ground. Before, one with an earning of 10,000 Yuan (about
US$1,250) was called rich. Now, many would be considered rich since a 2002 statistic showed a two-third increase up from about 550 Yuan of a farmers' income. But that does not paint the whole picture. Abroad, it was reported that 60% of Chinese migrants in New Zealand face violence. The latest casualty was a 19 years old Chinese student whose body was found in a suitcase floating in Auckland's Waitemanta Harbor this past April. Locally, for those moving into the crowded city of Beijing for work, who knows how long they will have to live in substandard living quarters? Their children could not get into the city school system because they are not registered there. Without proper schooling, does that make their future brighter? Not until a remedy is put in place soon enough.

It is easier to get busy than to sit and figure out why. Why is one option deemed better than the other? Why is it the welfare of the people we thought most significant to us now has to take a back seat? Why is progress and financial success all that important to me that I choose to gamble my family, my marriage, my children, my church and my life? Why do I let somebody else set my standard for what is a good life? What is enough? Or when can I laugh again? If this is such a wise formula for success, why am I being asked to gamble the people I want to protect the most-the ones God has put under my care?

To jockey for a place in a competitive market has its risks. Rural workers have become commodities where once they were tenants of the land, producers or owners of their small store. Selling their labor at cheap prices can be somehow demeaning for there are savvy business operators who run by profit, not principles. When workers are maltreated, taken-advantage of, eventually eliminated in the race, the frustration is taken out on their spouses and children. To think, among whom do Christian rural workers compete: non-Christians who watch them to test if their God is real, or fellow-Christians who want the same piece of the pie they want？

The dog-eat-dog game can get pricey. It can also take a toll on the ministry of the gospel message. Since the primary goal of house churches in China is to evangelize the country, we have seen whole families moved to new areas to establish new mission points. But in recent years, house churches are losing their leaders to the city and the number of new house churches has gone down, too. Raising the Christian family eventually is tied to reclaiming the witness of the family of God. Whose responsibility is it to ensure we have both?

When there is confusion at the top, there is more confusion down the line. When the one in charge, that is, the father of the family biblically speaking, does not have a clear mind, it spells disaster. Think of the serious situation the members of displaced families have to face-uncertainty, disease, pain, financial stress, disproportionate burdens, cramped space, and hurried life. Destabilization contributes to violence, even divorce. For the children, laughter, carefree days, imaginative plays are tossed out of the window as they are uprooted and separated from playmates. We know that stressed parents are not easy to live with. It is worse if children feel they are manipulated, used or abused.

We need shepherds skilled in pastoral care for the church to create awareness, mutual support, and guidance system to help them as they go through these changes. We also need fathers who understand their sacred calling at home, and their need to follow the Lord Jesus to productive life. For just as happiness follows the man whom God blesses and not the other way around, the leader of the family should lead by following God and godly priorities.

To do so, one needs both the skill to transform biblical truth into practical life and the determination to conform one's life to biblical truth. (生活化真理, 真理化生活) That entails godly parenting informed with sound biblical work theology and practical Christian economics. The wisdom of the king still admonishes us. Ecclesiastes 8: 5-9 says -"Who obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise of heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him. Since no man knows the future, who can tell what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has the power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt."

Thus, when faced with limitation of power over life and death, uncertainty of unknown future and heavy responsibility, a leader is to discern the truth, wait on God and not panic. God is still the Big Boss who wants to "talk about daily business" with us - what to keep, and what to cut. It is said, "Pray as if everything depends out upon God; work as if everything depends upon you." It is man's folly to leave God out in decision-making, especially with regards to those under him, to his own hurt. The consequences of our deeds speak to us. What a hurt it would be to fail to be a Christlike model when the parents' primary concern is just to achieve. To rear a family means parents are to train up new fathers and mothers among their children. Eventually, they are also where the next crop of leaders of a society would come from, not to mention the church.