Being
here in Uganda I have seen many things about the culture, the people,
and the church as a body that I feel like I should share.
The
people here all go to church or talk about God ALL the time. The more
people I meet the more I realize how going to church, praying, and
talking about God is one of the most basic elements that makes up
their culture and way of life. They pray throughout their whole day,
and no one is shy to say to anyone God bless you (mungu akubariki in
Swahili) or pray with you without question.
At
first glance I think Man I wish it were like this in America, I wish
everyone was as open with their faith and with God as they are. The
more I have been to African churches and worked with many pastors and
Christians here, I slowly noticed something that I had felt since I
first got here. The church in Africa is dying. Even though I go to
church services at churches where there are 300 people packed into a
small building to hear a sermon, or see the streets crowded with
hundreds of people to come and hear us preach along with some African
pastors, and sing songs. There is a spirit of oppression over the
church here, a spirit of religion that drives many of the church
leaders, and of course a spirit of greed that causes many
“Christians” to “help the orphans the widows and the poor”
for the sake of making a profit, and most importantly I was talking
to a pastor and asked him what problems was the church in Africa
facing, he said the biggest problem which is the cause of most of the
other problems is a lack of love.
Beloved,
why can’t we love one another as we should. The church of Africa
doesn’t sound much different to me on paper than the church in
America. I have seen many churches in America give “the prosperity
message” that if you give an offering God will give you back double
“because the bible says so” it is a sick joke at ministry for
greedy people. I have seen pastors who don’t even preach from the
bible and sometimes not even about Jesus, but preach the message that
if you love God and follow him and do good things then you will go to
heaven, not only is that incorrect but if I were saved by the things
that we did not only would we fail and not go to heaven but we would
have no need for God, because to say that God would condemn us for
the bad things that I do and turn away from us, and reward us for the
good things we do and come to our aid when we are righteous he would
be more like man than our God, in which case we would have no need
for him again.
The
church in America spends .01% of all their money to reach unreached
places in the world. The average homeless person in Houston by
statistics taken in 2007 makes around $30,000 per year, and if you
convert that to Ugandan shillings if a homeless person even gave even
half of what they make per year would be about 28 million shillings
the average person where I live in Uganda lives off of less than $2
per day ($4,000 shillings) from food to living costs, let’s put
that in perspective if even a homeless person gave half of what he
made in one year would be enough for one person living in Uganda to
live off of for 7000 days.
It
breaks my heart to see the perversion in every area of the world in
the body of the church, but there are still people fighting for the
right reason and preaching the proper name of Christ, that he came to
die for us that we might be saved not by our good deeds but through
grace we are saved, (Ephesians 2:8 for by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of
God.) and that if we are to speak the name of Christ that nations on
every side will despise you and persecute you. (Mark 13:13 And you
will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to
the end will be saved.)
I
am not asking anyone to give money to people in Africa, or even to
get up and do anything about it. The only thing I urge you to do is
Love God and to seek a relationship with him, because from the
beginning his desire was to be with us. If every Christian were to
seek God in relationship before any ministry before any money comes
out of your pocket, before you take your first step in the morning
through knowing God’s heart the atmosphere of the church would
RADICALLY CHANGE, the atmosphere of your city will change, and most
importantly your heart will change. It is through that relationship
with God that I am even here in Africa and that I am not discouraged
by these things I have come to realize but hope and know that God
will change them because in my relationship with him I know his DEEP
BURNING LOVE FOR ALL PEOPLE and if my heart for these people and the
body of Christ is broken how much more would God’s heart be broken,
for he is the God who reveals my own heart to me.
“it’s
through prayer that God not only reveals his heart, but reveals our
heart to us.”
Well said John, I couldn’t agree more. Your story makes me think of the beginning of 1 Cor 13 —
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Cor 13:1-3
It’s all about love as our motivation, nothing else!
It’s great to see your take on the Body of Christ from a world away and to see your passion for the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work in you right now, and our prayer will be that you continue to be used to do His will in the place He put you.
I’m so glad your Aunt Jacque just sent me your blog and I look forward to keeping up with your experience over there. Brittainy and I are really proud of you, and I look forward to getting to know you when you get back.
Your future cousin-in-law,
Mark
This is deep stuff brother. The realities of the world would sometimes just be easier to just not know about…because once we know, we live responsible for that information. Thanks for being available for God to use you. Use your voice to inspire others to find out more about the hope in Africa – sounds like you’ve discovered it’s not beyond saving. Excited to talk more about this with you in a few weeks! Travel safely to Kenya! Praying for you all.
Jimmy
Dear John, so very well said, but mostly what comes through is how deeply you feel this message. Your love for Christ is & will continue to be a testimony to those around you. It breaks my heart also to see the perversion of the gospel (most esp. that it is about “me”, when it should be about Him). So grateful that you are a part of His body in Africa and walking out your desire to glorify God in the realities of life. (John 13:35) In His love,
John, I really miss you brother! It was good to be able to read your last three blogs, they reminded me of some of the conversations that we’ve had. We have so many things in common. God has put a in us a passion to see His people walk in freedom and to see the chains of injustice shattered. We will never be satisfied unless we are living a life that is given over to those passions(not the passions of this World, but the passions of our Father). Along with these passions can come heavy burdens. Remember, when these burdens become too heavy, you must be able to release them to Jesus(you can trust him to carry them for you). Keep following the passions that God has placed in your heart and don’t ever question the fact that He put them there. But take heart in this – there will be a day when all poverty will cease, there will be a day when all of God’s people will walk in complete freedom, there will be a day when the spirit of religion will never again have power over anyone, there will be a day when the orphans of this world will be united with their true Father forever, there will be a day when the sex trade will never again claim another innocent victim. Until that day comes John, give your life to bring the love and hope of Jesus into the lives of the people that find themselves in those situations. Jesus said this, “In this world you will have trouble. BUT TAKE HEART! I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.” Not will, but HAVE. Take heart John, Jesus is with you and He has overcome the world!