12/04/2015
The ministry of reconciliation - is the Church playing its role?
This has been a week of extreme racial divide for South Africa. I have already expressed my views on the Rhodes must fall campaign but I have to say its amazing how lifeless metal or mortar structures have polarised OUR country - emphasis on OUR, to indicate inclusivity of both black and white people of this country, one without the other will not make South Africa the beautiful country it is.
My heart though this morning is on a role of the Church of Christ in the midst of such circumstances. I feel that the circumstances are ripe for the Church to rise as a lead reconciliatory agent. Have we not been given a ministry of reconciliation by our Lord Jesus after all - 2 Cor 5.
Let me take the matter further. Should the Church not also lead in regard to transformation? It seems that church structures and patterns have followed the worldly pattern in the South African context.
At the heart of the current divide is the economic landscape of our country - the inequality in our country caused by our past continues to be a sour thorn. How is the Church influencing this agenda though? Instead of empowerment deals being compliance driven, should we not be seeing partnerships emerge from the Chuch with the heart to do business together as an expression of the Kingdom. How powerful would these partnerships be as an example to a divided South Africa.
So how do we build bridges if our places of worship are still characterised by racial groupings (very few congregations are mixed - most are either black or white). As we fellowship with one another, hearts connect then we can easily shake hands in business.
As a side plate - allow me to be extremely controversial. How is it that we have a lot of black people submitted to white pastors but rarely ever have our white counterparts submitting to black pastors? We have black people leaving the township on Sunday morning to drive to a church in the suburbs but you won't see white people leaving the burbs to attend a church in the township. Is the annointing we carry inferior? Should we not ask the same questions that the studends have been asking @ UCT...that 21 years after democracy, the Church of Christ is still looking more or less like it was 50 years ago...?
Did scripture not say that there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus? We we not baptised into one body? Have we not drank from the same Spirit?
True transformation can never be achieved by Government policy or legislation, nor will it be achieved through the current radicalism of the EFF and the ANC youth league. True transformation and reconciliation is a heart matter. Who then is best positioned to drive this matter of the heart than the one commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation.
I refuse to believe that God created black people as an inferior race. Therefore as a young black believer in Christ, I am not looking for an empowerment deal - no! I am already a joint heir with Christ and fully empowered by the Holy Spirit. But I am looking to partner beyond our racial status with a greater aim of manifesting the Kingdom as we embrace our reconciliatory mandate.
I trully believe we have an awesome oppotunity to manifest the love of God in a way that both Government and the Corporate world can take notice and come to the Church to ask how we are doing it - particularly in the market place.
So let transformation and reconciliation start in the Church, let this message of love for one another begin to be proclaimed on our pulpits, let us endeavour to find ways to worship together so that our hearts may mend and become one - then we shall become the light unto South Africa and the salt of our land - then Isaiah 2: 2-3 shall come to pass. As the Church, we have an awesome opportunity to heal our nation - let us grasp it with both hands.
