The Rural Pastor Training Program in China (“RPT”)
Vision: To enable rural pastors within China to focus on forming a safe space for Christians to come together and to also provide them with the financial security, educational support for their children, healthcare-related financial support and training.
Beneficiaries:
Rural-China based house church pastors who are consulted, and monies are applied where the need is acute; whether it be for training, family maintenance or healthcare/social/education welfare payments, it is the Pastor Kandoo’s mission to provide a safe and secure place for freedom of worship within a region whereby to openly preach is forbidden.
In 2025, the economy of China was still in recovery, but factory jobs are still being lost. Since Covid two pastors have died prematurely so some of the money is going to their families and the rest to support the salary of the new pastor – there is no official salary for these self-supporting leaders.
Where? The congregations are in Henan, Chongqing and Jiangsu. Pastor Kandoo is a Lead Pastor of these congregations and has been for over 25 years. It is this Pastor (who’s identity is kept anonymized, to allow them to be able to freely practice Christianity with an added layer of assurance). Kandoo takes it upon themselves to visit the three provinces to check in on the progress of the pastors. There are a multitude of Pastors in training, and Kandoo is the person to deliver moral and finance support in the form of monies as well as a boost in their morale.
Kandoo visits each rural congregation approximately once every 2 months. Since the Covid -19 global pandemic, there has been a lot of fatigue from within the internal underground House Churches. That is not only from the Pastors who preach (they are simply worn out from administering funerals and grief counselling) but also adjusting to a world where there is a cry for much needed pastoral care for families who have been faced with the harsh reality of a slowed-down workforce due to economic downturn. Further, this has meant that the rate of unemployment has skyrocketed in the country with little-to-no social welfare. Also, it is important to be low-key (so as not to bring much attention to oneself), and therefore Christmas or Easter-related services and visits are completed a lot earlier than the Global North equivalents in the Georgian calendar. This is to avoid any harassment from local state-sanctioned protectives to expunge the freedoms of practicing the religion.
The Problem
Rural pastors in China are very often isolated and overworked. They also have to work an ordinary “day job” simultaneous to their church work. This is because their congregations are too poor to support them to undertake the role as a full-time post. Moreover, and more unfortunately the Chinese Government does not encourage full-time house church pastors. In the Pastors’ Day jobs, they are denied promotion because the Government is somewhat aware of and disapprove of them being Children of God. Thus, this is exacted in discrimination, and they are often silenced to leave the Faith or be without a job. This means that the jobs they are often made to undertake tend to be grassroots entrepreneurs e.g., pastoral or arable farmers, tea salespeople, or laborers.
These jobs are not only very time-consuming and hand-on manual labor work, but they also leave little-to-no energy for them to undertake their preaching of the Lord’s work and to enact the pastoral care so desperately needed in the Christian communities. Unfortunately, the sheer pressures of having to live a double life has increased exponentially since 2020, whereby a multitude of issues have surfaced meaning Church work has been decreased – or in some cases – ground to a complete halt.
There are little or no socialized medicine care plans in China, neither is there an unemployment benefit or counselling from the state for people regardless of their creed and whatever Faith they may follow. As a result, this is what Pastor Kandoo attributes to there being an increase of numbers of people attending church due to the nature of having a caring community to build their mental resilience and seek solace in the comfort of God.
The Solution:
You can assist the mission of Pastor Kandoo, first and foremostly by ensuring that the three provinces where Pastor Kandoo preaches has security in being able to provide the local pastors a regular salary.
We currently provide 3,000 RMB or 300 USD per year to ten rural pastors. On top of this we are also in dire need of a “Relief Fund” from the Global Christian community to cover health emergencies and education needs (especially since the premature demise of two pastors in recent years has meant an increased emotional burden on the rural population due to lack of church-gatherings). Without this increased financial support, rural pastors’ health will continue to break down and in worst cases, cease to exist entirely. Currently they risk their wealth, health and mental well-being to preach and live their authentic lives as Christians in a country where they are sadly not yet able to freely preach and bring awareness to the Word of God.
We have images of the Henan and Anhui congregations from the last few years, though Pastor Kandoo’s work has been in operation since the 1990s. We are happy to share with you the photos, but unfortunately the privacy of our attendees and the Pastor are paramount. The images that we have depict conditions presented for the congregation to be small and cramped. However, the attendees are nevertheless buoyed by a Pastor who is able to confidently instill the Word of God in a manner that allows them to be accepted with no no fear and judgement.
The Training Course:
Currently, most of the rural pastors on the program have not been able to access to any formal theological education. RPT (Rural Pastor Training) provides three-day residential courses for twenty rural pastors to meet one other for training and to boost morale as well as offering encouragement in different secret locations. Due to the relative difficulty of meeting in groups at present, Pastor Kandoo goes to visit the congregations in turn to teach in Henan, Chongqing and Anhui. The course(s) Kandoo offers have three main purposes; firstly, it provides encouragement to pastors living in very remote regions who often feel disconnected from the wider world; secondly it enables Pastor Kandoo to provide theological training and practical advice; and finally, it enables the pastors to receive printed books in the language that is accessible to them i.e. Mandarin Simplified Chinese. Some of the texts are translated by RPT who have access to a printing license in Beijing, meaning that this is often a difficult task but can be worth our while to ensure the Word of God is spread amongst his most loved Children.
Sample Pastor Kandoo Course Schedule:
1) Thursday and Friday: Kandoo travels to the relevant province by train.
2) Friday: Prayers in the evening, followed by a hot meal. For some, this is their first warm meal of the day and a space of warmth.
3) Saturday morning: Update by Pastor Kandoo and reports from each visitor on local relations/situation in the Church.
4) Saturday afternoon: Praise the Lord, worship, baptisms and sharing of best practice(s).
5) Saturday evening: Praise and worship party with choir singing
6) Sunday morning: Service and theological training followed by lunch.
Pastor Kandoo introduces the pastors from across China to new theological concepts. It is one that does not compromise the world in which we are so grateful to have Kandoo’s experience; Kandoo has built up a relationship with these pastors over thirty years as their leader and person who brings them to God. They have made a great effort to keep their forty-seven congregations operational. This has involved fundraising for the churches to operate in the capital and personally hand-delivering it to the pastors in their remote locations. It cannot be relied upon to do this online, and hence the safety of members who would otherwise have their privacy compromised.
Under the current environment it is increasingly difficult to congregate but due to Pastor Kandoo’s diplomatic approach and being themselves a person of Chinese identity, they are allowed to travel and encourage the smaller house churches.
To put it simply, they are the backbone of the Christian grassroots church growth in China. Today foreigners tend to give their money to foreign NGOs in Chinese cities. In our case with Pastor Kandoo, the RPT is different because it is run by Chinese for Chinese and reaches the areas of most acute need. This is not something that can be read about elsewhere, for we operate a very confidential prayer group and church, in order to save any of our members and Kandoo from any threat.
The new learn from the old at the RPT conference in Beijing.
Budget for 2025/2026:
| Item | USD ($) |
| Salary per year for twenty church leaders | 8,400 |
| Pastor training x 6 | 4,000 |
| Youth training x 6 | 4,000 |
| Support (financial) for families of deceased pastors and extra travel allowance for Pastor Kandoo to visit and train new upcoming leaders | 10,000 |
| Total to support the continued Church work one year in China | 26,400 USD |
Reporting:
We will send as much as we can in terms of reporting to our beneficiaries. Our charity account is audited annually in the UK and/or Hong Kong to maintain the legal status of the charity. The Pastor Kandoo team will be happy to share more details, and to do so in a confidential way that allows them to be protected given the risk of being “outed” and detrimental impacts of being associated with the Christian religion.
On occasion, in the past, donors have asked to visit the rural church in China:
This can sometimes be arranged depending on the background of the individual REQUESTING ACCESS, PLEASE NOTE: the IS SUBJECT TO time OF THE year, THE GEO-POLITIC political temperature and current administration’S STANCE ON ORGANISED RELIGION in said city. If that OPPORTUNITY is of interest to you, THEN DO please let us know in the contact section of the webpage and we will correspond with you personally via email: info@pastorkandoo.com