Marson Sharpley
3 October 2008
opinion
The aim of this article is to define each of the entities under discussion as well as to articulate their intertwined and inter-dependent existence in a twenty first century African setting.
The Gospel is said to be "good news", the Church is supposed to be those who respond to the Gospel and become disciples of Jesus Christ although within sociological contexts as per man's societal organization of himself, while the Church is defined as a man-made and man-run institution which works collaboratively with the State.
The State on the other hand is the governmental organization and activities of a nation through commerce, politics and religion.
The Gospel then is what I would call 'spoken word'.
It is the spreading of the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. In other words it is in hearing the gospel being preached and taught that people's lives are changed and not simply by attending what is commonly called 'church'.
The aim of the gospel is to transform the lives of the hearers through the renewal of their minds. The aim therefore is also to change the hearer's world-view by influencing them to make a mental paradigm shift where 'paradigm' refers to the way we view the world.
People
In my opinion the 'church' refers to people instead of to an organization that owns property and competes with other organizations in the society for members, recognition, resources and dominion.
The organization that is generally referred to, as the 'church' is necessary as a vehicle or institution that organizes protects and provides for its members.
It is an organization that serves to marry people in the society as well as to conduct funerals. The church also acts as a centre of education and medical care. The organization called the church also concentrates on caring for the poor by providing them with food, clothing, and medical and spiritual care.
The church also takes care of orphans and strangers as well as the widows.
The caring for orphans is of course accentuated through the epidemiological status of TB and HIV/AIDS.
The institution known as the church also acts as the moral voice of the society as well as a conscience of the government.
The institution known as the 'church' is therefore a really very busy organization according to the tasks listed above. This is therefore a highly active entity characterized by a lot of movement because of its mandate.
However, being active through a lot of movement does not necessarily mean that the church is advancing the role that god wants it to advance.
The church as an organization is supposed to serve the interests of its members and not the other way around.
The Bible in Genesis 1:26 states that the Lord God gave man dominion over the earth. The church therefore as an institution is supposed to facilitate man's taking of dominion.
Whether we admit it or not, the church is a politically active organization, it is an economically active organization (the church has huge buying power) as well as being an agent of change through health, education and spiritual nourishment.
I have heard some people, especially some of my own friends who have made politics or business their careers strongly expressing their dissatisfaction with churches and church leaders who engage in politics and business. Whilst there might be valid moral and spiritual reasons for caution in these areas by the church, I beg to disagree.
What is 'politics'? Politics entails the pursuance of a meaningful life by individuals and communities for the sole purpose of ensuring sustainable protection and provision of those individuals and communities.
Politics therefore is aimed at setting up institutions and systems that can serve the present and future generations of specific societies.
This to me is so similar to the 'church' that the roles of the two actually compliment each other.
As a church leader I have many politicians, business people, educationists, bureaucrats, technocrats and career civil servants in the congregations.
This then means that church-goers are politicians and some politicians are church-goers. Preachers on the other hand are members of the constituencies that the politicians represent at local, regional and national level.
So then, sociologically speaking, all strata of society are intertwined for the common good of the collective through the institutionalization of working systems.
This in itself becomes a conduit for competition between the very institutions created to serve the common good of the society. The push by such organizations and/or institutions is to 'command and control' the masses of the people that they were meant to serve. This command and control is resident in the economic, social, political and religious spheres. Once you control the stomachs of people then it is easy to impact and control their world-view.
This is exactly what happens between the State and the Church.
Once again here I am referring to the Church as an institution and not the actual people whom I actually prefer to refer to as the 'Church'.
In contemporary twenty first century times, the democratization of national governments has also seen the advent of what are termed 'secular' states. In a secular state the church is not above the state.
This, like any other system has its strengths and weaknesses.
Free Speech
One of the advantages of this system is that it allows free speech as well as the freedom of association and also the tolerance and accommodation of different philosophical and ideological thinking.
This kind of system also encourages the cultivation, nurturing and growth of a heterogeneous society instead of a homogeneous one.
I see the State as having to advance the establishment of a society's order that sometimes requires force, whether subliminal or identifiable.
The Church on the other hand is supposed to be the moral conscience of the State institutions so that the order brought through the State is respected and upheld with the aim of sustaining the society.
The Church is there to ensure that there are set norms and values that the society needs to uphold if it is to be termed a modern society.
Sometimes one of the challenges of all man-made institutions is breaking with tradition. I am sure that tradition for the strengthening of fundamental foundational truths is important, but for advancing change, it just does not work.
In the past, it was traditionally accepted that the clergy concern themselves with church liturgy and theological matters. The clergy were therefore solely dependant upon the offerings and gifts from the church members.
I believe that to be part of the clergy is a divine calling for the purpose of using your God-given gift for the advancement of the Kingdom of God upon the earth.
Saint Paul was a member of the clergy in his time and yet he made tents to take care of him financially. Wise men came from the East with gifts of wealth for the baby Jesus. The gifts they carried were for the financing of His early ministry as well as his exile into Egypt because of Herod's decree to kill all first-born babies in the hope that one of them was Jesus about whom it was prophesied in the past.
Dies on Cross
When Jesus Christ dies on the cross at Calvary, it is a rich man who takes down His body and buries it. As a pastor, a prophet, an apostle and a leader, I believe that in order for me to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, I need finances. I need money. Now, having been called and chosen into ministry from a past that gave me a wealth of experience, I am not convinced that I am supposed to rubbish that experience because of being 'holy'.
Who will feed my family? Must this be dependent on the offerings of some struggling member of the church body or do I get up off my rear end of a gun and seek legal ways of advancing streams of revenue that will not only feed my family, but create employment for the members of the ministry I am heading. It is this view that then makes me politically aware and active, it is this view that makes me transact business and look for business opportunities.
I challenge anyone to tell me the opposite, because then you will have to take responsibility for my standard of life in all spheres of my life.
It is through actively participating in business and politics that I am able to make the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to the everyday lives of people as life is.
There is no way that a twenty first century church can cater for the needs of it's members if it isolates itself from the everyday life of it's members in the world.
To me the Church and the State are note separate concentric circles, but rather intersecting concentric circles where the common denominator are the people that they have to serve.
The Church has to be in the world with a balanced view that prevents the church from being too heavenly minded and earthly
useless.
At the end of the day it is the church that gives birth to the society and not the other way around.
I have found that through transacting business, both my spouse and I are able to apply biblical principles that yield measurable results that we are able to then testify about in the church.
The role of the church is to develop that nation's moral belief systems, norms and values. I need to then say that there is no way that the Church can impact the society to change the course it is taking without economic and social clout. The Church has to be wealthy for it to have a meaningful impact on society and in order for it to be taken seriously around the bargaining table.
In order for this to have a sustainable and logical affect, the Church has therefore to be guided by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is because the Church must be the conduit and custodian of Godly principles and work ethics as enshrined in the Word of God which is the Bible and which is of course the Gospel.
Message
The Gospel therefore is not an organization, but rather a message. It is good news. The gospel is the principle ingredient for the organization called church to have the capacity to change the mindsets of people for the improvement of the collective in a given society.
The church as the moral conscience of society has no choice, but to advance the establishment of Godly principles to replace demonic systems on the earth through studying and implementing the statutes of God as laid down in the Bible.
To compartmentalize the State and the Church and using 'interference' as an excuse for this compartmentalization is hypocritical because the Church that is comprised of people is intertwined with the State that is also comprised of the same Church people. In other words the real reality of this thing is that the Church is the State and the State is the Church because of their fundamental common denominator viz. the people that make these institutions up. Furthermore, both institutions are created to serve the society that births them.
Non-communist
The above refers to non-communist. Most institutions operate like 'wheels within wheels'. The State is usually divided into three main sections, namely the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary. These state institutions created to sustain the State, which is itself, an institution, have rules and regulations, which interpret them as well as their terms of engagement and modalities of operation. The collapse of these state institutions means the collapse of the State, which means chaos and mayhem. This has been the case in some South American, African and East European nations.
Unless the Church is respected and encouraged to minister the Gospel that teaches universal love and brotherhood, societies can be assured of a serious degeneration of their morals to the point of self-destruction. The need to strike a balance through the concept of disagreeing to agree between the Church and the State cannot be emphasized enough.
These institutions are not meant to compete with each other, but rather to complete each other through respecting the roles each has to play for the upliftment of the families, communities, nations and continents that they operate in.
It is incumbent upon each of these institutions to ensure that their short, medium to long-term modus operandi is informed by tested and tried strategies that are able to be adopted and adapted as time advances and progress manifests itself in the philosophical and technological thinking of the societies concerned. The Church is guided and informed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is in the Bible while the State is guided and informed by the constitution of the country.
The Church cannot only remain critical of the State and vice versa. The two have to compliment each other for the spiritual, political, economic and social advancement of the population they serve.
Transcend
As individuals, develop a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in the Christian context. This relationship should however transcend all religious barriers, which in themselves can allow for the State to place limitations on the social, political and economic activities of the Church.
What I am saying then is that while the Church is the instrument or vehicle which facilitates the advancement and development of the society through the preaching and teaching of the gospel as well as the active implementation of God's principles and statutes, the Church itself is not the gospel. The teaching of the gospel has the ability to change the behaviour of entire nations for the better through changing the thinking of people.
The way we think will inevitably impact the way we act.
In closing, whilst there still remains much to be done to improve the harmonious collaboration between the State and the Church. I believe that in Namibia we have a great deal to be thankful for because the constitution of the Republic of Namibia ensure religious rights seen as part of human rights.
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