BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
It is clear that governmental grants are the most important source of
income. This is an unhealthy situation, because the self respect gained
from work is lacking.
According to the subjects, the church should be involved in the commu-
nity:
- “It should try to teach its members how to give and receive.”
- “Yes, the church helps a lot, we as the youth of the church have projects
which we are running. ‘Adopt a child’ is the name of our current project; we
want to show the community that we as the youth church want to join
hands in alleviating poverty. We adopt a child at Mafora, taking full respon-
sibility in making sure that he/she gets everything, especially a school uni-
form and money for transport. If the school requires a journey, we pay the
fare.” - “Yes, it helps; specifically my church (ZCC) has prayer meetings every day.
Those who are not working, always attend these prayer meetings, even
those who are sick. The services start from 09:00 am in the morning to
12:00 am. There is also another session for those who are working in the
evenings from 16:00 pm until 19:00 pm. But with other projects, our church
is not doing that. Normally our church just encourages people to work for
themselves, doing small jobs. They can even start to sell their products or
food at the church. I think that is the way that our church helps.”
In the research most people replied that the church teaches to give and
receive. Some projects are also helping the community. There is gener-
ally a positive view of the church’s role: - “I think the church should go back to the book of Acts, and study it thor-
oughly in order to understand the work of the church. The work of the
church is to bring the good News to the poor, it is to bring good support to
those who are in need, it is to bring peace to their families who are in need.
Oh yes, Reverend, a good church, is a church that cares for the poor, preg-
nant women, orphans and widows.” - “The Church should preach a spirit of sharing and caring. People should
know how to give. They should give others jobs, food and clothes.” - “The church should also preach that people must be one as the body of
Christ, to feel sorry for one another and remember them in your prayers.”
Concerning the future role of the church most people said that preach-
ing must address the plight of the people. Many also said that the church
should help the poor by direct involvement. The subjects clearly saw a
new future: - “Yes, only if the church can do pastoral work, they will understand the
needs of the people.” - “The church of Christ, regardless of denomination or ethnicity, should work
together. They should have debates on this issue and the government
should be invited to these debates, then we can get a better perspective.”