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Follow Us on Google DiscoverFROM reliable research, Christianity has experienced geometrical increase in the last 100 years in Africa. At the turn of the decade, there were just about 60 million Christians in Africa. But 15 years ago, the figure has shot up to 760 millions. However, a lot of them are not in any local church. A lot have left churches because of the disenchantment with how we handle things. We are large in congregational meetings, but we are short on discipleship and spiritual health. So, our intention is to have healthy local churches in the continent.
How do you intend to go about this?
We intend organising seminars and conducting training for churches and ministers. We are also looking at consultancy and how churches are not running their operations well. For example, a lot of denominations centralise operations in such a way that local churches are not allowed to function healthily. They are just there, but not reaching their communities for impact. So, we intend to educate and mobilise people to begin to allow local churches function. That’s the only way we can reach communities. The idea of centralising everything is killing innovations and affecting the health of local churches.
What do you mean by central operations? It means a mega church with branches that are not allowed to function and grow. They are functionally, financially and morally to the headquarters. They remit 90 percent, sometimes 100 percent of their revenues to the central body. The control is so much that they cannot function or grow on their own. Everything is subjected to what happens at the headquarters. That is what is killing local churches in Africa. We can start local churches and have a measure of control in terms of monitoring their doctrines and pastoral authorities. But they need autonomy to grow on their own and move at their pace for growth. For example, the issue of pastoral transfer has killed many local churches. Yes, transfer is good in some situations, but when pastors are transferred every two, three years, it is killing. When people know a pastor would soon be transferred, they won’t support him, as they should. Research has shown that a local church grows faster, when people know the pastor is staying for a long time. If you check churches that are growing worldwide, the pastor has been there for 10 or 15 years. What other factors affect the health of local churches?
Another factor is competence of pastors. Many local pastors do not know the peculiar nature of their environment. Then, you have to also consider the administrative structures of many local churches, many of which are faulty. Many of our churches only focus on Sunday and midweek services, but there is nothing on growing people and the communities. There is nothing on specific departments and groupings. Most people that worship in local churches only meet once. They are not bonding and the love of Christ is not there.
In most African churches, we have established elders and council members that have money, but do not have the qualities of Christ. In some cases too, we have good elders that have to contend with bad pastors.
Shouldn’t pastors be accountable also to church authorities in any way?
Oh, they should be accountable. They must be accountable to God and the boards of the church. The church should not be a one-man show. The pastor must be a servant and the first among equals. The pastor should never see himself as the Alpha and Omega. He has to overcome inferiority complex and not fail to accept suggestions and criticisms from others. If he considers himself above all of these, he will create problems in the local church. He will drive away a lot of good people that want to contribute to the church’s growth genuinely.
Is this campaign for the next 10 years? Yes, it is. But I’m afraid it will be for the rest of my life. I don’t see myself doing anything different from this henceforth. With the kind of insights, information and passion that God has given, I will do this for the rest of my life across the globe.
Why concentrate on local rather than global or mega churches?
It is local churches that make global churches, as they are created form the former. It is through local churches that we can make communal impact. If you see denominations that boast of having many branches, ask them how many of these are truly healthy. If the local churches are not healthy, the global church is finished. They are the basis units of Christianity. If local churches were making impact in their communities, we’d soon cover the world for God. The sad thing is that we don’t care for local churches.
Most district heads and provincial pastors are only interested in financial reports from local churches. But it is at the local church level that we can mould lives and disciple people. If we fail there, we will fail everywhere else. It is unfortunate that most local churches spend 90 percent of the time, money and resources erecting physical structures. Nothing is wrong with that, but if we pour as little as half of that on building people for the Lord, we will have changed the world.
My fear is that if we continue building structures and not people, we will soon have the same scenario happening across Europe. You see many massive structures without people. Many churches have become monuments. There are worshippers only when there are terrorist attacks, funerals or New Year. It is happening here already. We have structures, but we are not building people. We are almost repeating the mistakes of Europe in Africa. We should build structures, but also ensure the people there are discipled and committed to God.
Is it really possible to have a healthy church? The answer is absolutely and categorically yes. It is not idealism. Everyone seeks medical health. When there is any threat, we rest, take drugs or go to the hospitals. We don’t wait till we are sick to seek help. It is the same with the church because it is the body of Christ.
If you ask: can the church the healthy? I will throw it back by asking: can the human body be healthy? Yes, it can. You are here because your body is healthy. So, if you can be healthy, the body of Christ too can be healthy. There are certain criteria that show how healthy a church is. The first is a healthy pastor, who is competent. That church must have started by God’s expressed directive. Also, there must be healthy relationship. Four, there must be healthy members that are changed and transformed.
There must also be loving atmosphere, not an environment, where members gossip and backbite. People must be able to use their gifts and endowments. You mustn’t pull down others because they are gifted. It must be a prayerful church for the light to shine in the community. There must be commitment to evangelism through our conducts and words of mouths.
The idea of a healthy church is not about perfection, because it is full of people that are fallible and make mistakes. So, it is not about canvassing for a perfect church, but a growing, rapturable church. Church health is not Utopian or figment of the imagination. It is possible. It may not happen in a year, but we keep working at it. Those who want healthy bodies watch what they eat and how they live. It is the same with the church. We can’t just run church without periodic check-ups. Big things don’t kill churches; it is small things that kill churches. Like a pastor falling into moral or financial failure. Like not living in peace in the community or constituting a nuisance through noise or parking indiscriminately. If you are at loggerheads with your neighbours, it will kill the church. Like someone falling into immorality and we refuse to discipline him or her, which is capable of killing the church. If there is grumbling and murmuring yet we ignore them, it will kill the church.
Small things like what?
