Churches
Today we will be solely focussing on the black person
and how their faith has been wrenched from the main and original idea when it
was first established.
Looking back in history during the times of struggle,
you will see that to Africans, church was seen as a place that brought them
peace within and it was their only hope to being freed from oppression. Church
to them was a divergence, helped them escape their realities, unlike in today’s
times where we find that television has replaced the church method of escape
from reality to most people especially the youth.
The main idea behind the establishment of church I
believe was to bring people closer to God, here I am referring to the times
after Jesus Christ was born and sacrificed.
Church was meant to be a place where people came in to
worship God in different ways; either by music, instruments, prayer or just
helping with cleaning. People would go out to preach the word of God, come back
to the church to have those people accept Jesus Christ as their lord and
saviour by being baptised in the church, then they be trained and equipped with
the necessary skills that will help them be good, loyal and faithful Christians
and later on continue the work of preaching the word of God to those on the
streets. In church you would find family, a job and everything else. It was a
place full of love, people who feared the lord and those willing to lend a
helping hand without expecting anything back in return.
That in my own opinion is what church was supposed to
be doing, their main objective.
As we look at Christianity particularly, we would find
that there has been a major shift in the methods and running’s of church in
these times compared to the olden days of our grandparents and those before
them.
It seems as though church has become a battle ground,
where the children of God are constantly at war with themselves, I mean the
flesh versus the spirit. Flesh refers to our bodily needs and wants, the spirit
is that which is what God wants and needs from us, that thing in us that is
always seeking to do God’s will, that is referred to as our spirit form.
To further explain
myself ill use two churches as examples and before I continue I would like to
make it clear that these example are not facts but they are stereotypes that
majority have accepted as truth.
The Grace Bible church. This church is well-known and
it is said to have many celebrities attending, whilst the rest of the people
are wealthy black people. As an outsider, I find the stereotype very
convincing. You find that the church members (majority) drive really expensive
cars, celebrities are in and out, they wear expensive clothes and it has been
said from one young person who attends there that they are constantly competing
with outfits and if you wear the same outfit more that once you are considered
poor and aren’t given much attention.
I do not know that for a fact but it can be easily
believable. Another example is Universal Church. It too holds quite a
reputation as it has been surrounded by a lot of scandals. They say that their
pastors are healers and can heal every illness and it’s a great church. Most
people would disagree though; they say that the pastors are fakes, the church
is a money making business and that they employ people to pretend to be sick so
that it seems as though they are healed. Now that isn’t the first church which
has been accused of being fake, one pastor known as Pastor Mboro has been
accused to be fake as well.
I used these churches as examples because they are very
well-known and that makes it easy to get you (the readers) to get what I am
talking about.
Now in the beginning I gave a brief description of how
I understood the original idea behind “church” and when looking at how things
operate these days a huge difference is noticed immediately.
It seems as though churches operate with money these
days, their main objective is money. Yes it is true that God did speak of
offerings in the bible but it wasn’t to make his people more and more poor but it’s
just a way of showing God that we appreciate him and that we do not put him
after our assets. But I think it is
safe to say that things have gone too far.
We have churches becoming an arena for fashion parade,
car shows and banks. They are using the poor and vulnerable to make money
instead of empowering them.
I mean if all these stereotypes about our churches are
true then we are surely doomed. If you need to look a certain way, drive a
certain car and live a certain lifestyle in order to fit into a certain church,
it is a problem. People are suffering in their leaders hands (government) and
though it is understandable that even pastors and church leaders are human and
can be vulnerable to the things of this world, who should we trust to lead us
then? Everything seems to revolve around money and acts that go against the
commandments of our creator.
Who is our true enemy? Who will help us get to level of
piety and help us maintain that level?
There was a song I was taught by my grandma, a song
that was sung in the streets long ago.
“Bankubile ko
kerekeng, bare nna ke nwa jwala, kganthe jwala ase sebe, sebe sona ke tjhelete”
It means “they threw me out of church because I drink
alcohol, but alcohol isn’t a sin, money is the sin”
Which is true, you need money to buy alcohol and
alcohol just makes you drunk whereas money can cause a person to kill, commit
suicide and evidently stop fearing God.
It is because of the lifestyles portrayed on the media
that everything has lost its balance. The concept of technology in general was
a great one but it turned out to be a curse as it has been the number one
suspect to many sinful acts
The bible has predicted these things happening, when
evil will rule earth and mankind will be lost. This all happens just before
Jesus Christ returns.
I believe the time is nearing and I am scared because I
fear that he will find us in a worse state than what we are today, I fear that
this just a beginning.
Let’s face it, the state of our churches is terrible
and our only hope might as well be prayer.
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