Utumishi Blog

Sorry if this is getting wearying. Maybe this isn’t as relevant to some as to others of us. Maybe a long comment doesn’t always require a long response. But it’s been helpful for me at least to think through some of these issues, many of which are massive ones in our context.

For those who missed it – this was the original comment by Oral Roberts on ‘What is the Gospel? Riches’.

• Part 1 – The glory of God and Psalm 37
• Part 2 – Poverty and hypocrisy
• Part 3 – Adam, Abraham, Solomon and Jesus

And finally:

5. My personal experiences: I have seen many bright young people drop out of school because their parents cannot pay school fees and their dreams fall to the ground. I have seen the sick die when they were taken out of Private hospitals where they offer best medical services, because the family cannot afford, to some cheap government facility where they offer poor medical services. The children of a poor Pastor neither want to be pastors nor marry pastors. Poor churches are riddled with wrangles and frequent splits.
I have received many invitations to preach the gospel in many places: to Chandigarh Northern India, but I never went because I could not raise my ticket. Then I got another invitation to Chennai Southern India, I never went because I could not raise my ticket. Then I got another invitation to Madagascar, I never went because I could not raise my ticket. It is easy to say, may be it was not the will of God. However, the reality is all the other places I have gone preaching and teaching the word of God, I had an invitation but also was able to pay my air ticket. I do not always use circumstances to judge what is the will of God for me. Many sinners travel the world because they can afford it , not because it is the will of God.
6.The early church in the book of Acts was very poor in Acts 3: 6. Then they moved on to Acts 4:34, there was no lack among them. Then Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira his wife died and are buried over their material wealth. Then Acts 6: 3 they appoint seven managers. A church that is stuck in Acts 3:6 is not able to fulfil the great commission. Let no one be deceived the enemies of the gospel bought Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and crucified him, then they paid the guards money to deny Jesus resurrection! Think about it! Do you think it won’t cost money to preach the truth….He is risen.
7. Poverty is not humility! It is neither a virtue nor one of the gifts / fruit of the Holy Spirit. My candid statement……with love n respect for the views of others but the truth is my ultimate goal.

Personal experiences

Oral raises a couple of issues. One is the very real hardships faced by millions in our nation. They’re not helped by the false promises of the prosperity gospel but they very definitely need addressing. In addition to the 3 gospel responses already mentioned, it might be worth adding links to:

• A very helpful article by Tim Keller on ‘The Gospel and The Poor’ in Themelios;
• John Piper’s statement on alleviating suffering at Lausanne 2010 (and see the video below from 11:40);
• Kevin DeYoung’s helpful point about Moral Proximity (which is very well understood in African cultures);
• Kenyan examples of the reality of corruption (intersecting with nepotism and negative ethnicity) which impedes economic development at every level. “…wealth creation requires certain conditions. The rule of law must be enforced, social capital (i.e. trust) must be increased…” (De Young & Gilbert)
• In terms of agriculture in Kenya there is no lack of food and fertility but various structural and cultural issues mean the potential is under-exploited and much basic produce is imported.

The other issue is that of support for pastors and gospel ministry in our context. This is a really tricky one that needs lots more thinking and discussion. At Raising the Bar Tigoni we talked with pastors with different experiences and different models and we could all see advantages and challenges and biblical support for each of them.

1. Congregation-supported. Seems to be the expected pattern (1 Cor. 9:8-14; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim 5:18) but a) difficult in very poor informal settlement contexts; b) not appropriate in evangelistic/pioneering situations where there is a risk of appearing to peddle the gospel for money and confuse grace (1 Cor. 9:15-18); c) can attract people into ministry with the wrong motives; d) raises a temptation for the pastor to preach and lead in a way that manipulates the congregation and increases the collection. Having said this, the model has been shown to work successfully and with integrity even among poor congregations.
2. Tent-making / self-supporting (or partially self-supporting). This seems to be what Paul was doing in Asia (Acts 20:34) and partially in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:9 cf. Phil. 4:16). This can mean doing some part-time business or craft or having a full-time job and pastoring in the weekends and evenings. The obvious disadvantage is the danger of distraction and having less time and energy to properly pastor the flock (and even more significantly the danger of distraction of heart – business as part of a mission agenda slipping into business as an end in itself). If the business involved fairly low time and energy investment then this can work well. Part-time craft or farming can also be viable but is very hard work. Having a full time job wouldn’t be viable for a single pastor but might be possible, at least for a season, if there was a team of 6-8 men each giving the equivalent of a day or two a week to the ministry of a church.
3. Supported from other congregations and believers. This could take a number of different forms: a) The Philippian model of believer supporting a missionary pastor as he ministers to people in a different place (Phil. 4:16) – this is basically the partnership model that we love at iServe Africa. There are strong (esp. urban) churches and individuals in Kenya which could be supporting many pastors and missionaries in rural area and informal settlements. Challenges include lack of appreciation of the partnership model, a preference for tithing and harambee, and the technical difficulty of sending regular support. b) A denominational model where congregations’ giving is pooled and then divided between the different pastors and churches. This has advantages in terms of accountability but potential challenges in terms of bureaucracy and control issues. c) A church planting model where one congregation sends out a pastor and/or team to another place and commits to support the new church at least in the early stages.

Book of Acts

The progression that Oral notes is very interesting. The apostles had nothing (Acts 3:6). In fact it seems that they stayed that way (cf. 1 Cor. 4:8-13). When the money was brought to their feet they didn’t hold onto it but gave it back, distributing it to the needy believers (Acts 4:35). The wonderful situation  ‘no needy among them’ (Acts 4:34) is indeed closely followed by the scary report of financial misreporting (Acts 5:1-11) and the incident of ethnic tensions in the distributions and the need for strategy and good management (Acts 6:1-7). Certainly money and management are really important issues in the great commission going forth but I would question the idea that money is essential for the progress of the gospel:

• Money was needed to shut up the guards at the tomb and spread a false story (Matt. 28:11-15) but it wasn’t needed by the women who first proclaimed the true message “He is risen” (Luke 24:9-10; John 20:18). Throughout history and across the world today hostile governments have spent and spend vast sums of money seeking to shut up and destroy the gospel message while the persecuted church, meeting in homes and secret locations, hard-pressed and with virtually no financial resources grows and grows unstoppably.
• Continue moving through Acts beyond chapter 6 and you find the next big expansion of gospel mission comes through persecution and scattering (Acts 8:3-4). Philip goes as an IDP to Samaria and just preaches Christ (Acts 8:5). Interestingly there is then the issue of the apostles refusing money (Acts 8:18-20) followed by the preaching of a relatively poor Philip to a far more wealthy African (Acts 8:27-39). Throughout the book of Acts the real driver of mission and church growth is not money but the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Word of Christ.
• It’s interesting to notice that no usage of PA systems is mentioned in the book of Acts. I’m being a bit tongue in cheek here but it’s interesting how, particularly in Africa, we have come to see the PA system as one of the vital things for setting up a new ministry – pastor, room, plastic chairs, pulpit, PA system. And for the more middle class churches of Nairobi we could add ministry vehicle, drum set, soft furnishings, laptop projector and screen. Are these things really necessary for the apostolic gospel to move forward?
• While there is a lot of debate about how exactly to represent economics in the Roman world in the first and second centuries, there is wide agreement that the early church was basically poor – certainly including very very few wealthy and privileged people (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26). And yet during this early period it grew from 120 believers to millions.

Poverty is not humility

Very true. You can be poor and proud and rich and proud. There’s nothing glorious or particularly spiritual about poverty or suffering in itself. It can just be degrading and embittering and crushing. But (hard as it sounds) suffering can be a gift (Philippians 1:29), can be humbling (Dan. 4), can be a means of mission, can be something that the Father uses to make us more like the Son (Rom. 8:28-29). That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight to alleviate suffering and poverty (we should), but it does mean that we see the bigger picture of God’s sovereignty and his purpose for us and his mission and his glory.

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