They said it could not be
done: I was told a few years ago
by church insiders who were supported by the leaders; it is like shooting
arrows at the moon: You cannot go to
Africa and make a difference. Sadly
there was a part of me that held onto that statement, a part of me that
accepted the statement of pending failure as truth, a part of me that struggled
with Spiritual authority I had allowed the religious church to hold, and the
Truth is, it takes a Greater Power than any of us. The Spiritual resides in the One not the
religion.
It is time for a final surgery. It is, in fact, past time. For literally centuries missionaries have
spent lifetimes over much of the African continent, preparing the soil, if you
will, for the crop to grow. Sadly I
think, in many cases it has been a misapplied varietal; the wrong crop. The nice, constructed, safe and comfortable western
church cannot grow in Africa and it should not.
The truth is that many times these efforts have carried an unspoken,
sadly too spoken as directive, doctrinal commandment: You must be like us.
The term “A mile wide and an inch deep” has been used to
describe Christianity in Africa. If you
look deeply, in many cases, that is exactly what the western church has
planted. It is what the western church
is much of the time. Gandhi once said
(not a quote but close) ‘if Christians ever live what they say they believe,
they will change the world’. Possibly that means smaller and deeper as it
relates to mission.
If the Spirit is speaking
step out.
The question is, even more the challenge is; who will take
on this task of the paradigm shift. Who
will partake in an uncomfortable, but very exciting, trek of being the servant
church in Africa? The servant church is
not a religion; think about it, the religion, a religion any religion
immediately becomes the master.
Believing in a power greater than ourselves, who and how or
what does it act like, this servant?
Our servant path lies parallel to the education of the rural poor. Not that we necessarily should or need to
educate, rather the work of the servant is to assist, empower and lift up the
ones called from the location itself to this very purpose for the local communities. We have tried to maintain our servant
position, admittedly poorly at times.
The truth is, we are in the very process of discovering the ‘job
description’.
If the Spirit is speaking
help us discover.
Never the less, the crop is growing. Young adults are stepping out, standing up,
making different decisions and setting new standards of self discipline and
commitment. We see this time and time
again. It is not something we are doing,
rather a response to encouragement and empowerment.
The young adults of Rionchogu and the surrounding area are
the manifestation of the paradigm shift.
They are the change makers.
The activity of GADL and GAD Kenya in rural Kenya is NOT
shooting arrows at the moon. The
transcendent One who is, was and ever will be was manifested here, on earth, as
a servant, standing for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the oppressed. He stood against the systems of that
oppression, especially religion, and continues to call His church to do the
same.
If the Spirit is speaking
imagine the impossible.
