he oft repeated fact of the expansion and growth of African Churches over the past decades has reaped enormous benefits to their adherents, attendees and their clergy. It has also impacted in many positive ways on the skylines and architectural landscapes of many cities. Churches seem to have the inspiration and capacity to build from the decays of many cities amazing and breathtaking architecture. Many a Church auditorium is now lavished with comfortable and plush seats and their atmospheres are cooled with constantly humming air conditioners. Many remain a wonder and a joy to behold. The ‘National Ecumenical Centre’ in Abuja, Nigeria is a prime example of the kind impressive architecture I refer to.
In other areas Churches have invested a lot into the local economies by the regular hire of hotel rooms/cinemas for their services ensuring such facilities do not go into decay. A lot of wealth has been generated by these Churches and brought into the local economies. Even in the United Kingdom, Churches like the KICC, Redeemed Christian Church of God, New Wine, Ruach Ministries, New Testament Assembly, and Church of God of Prophecy have been responsible through the regeneration of buildings for breathing life into many communities. I suggest that the Black Majority Church in the UK, remains the single most potent economic force of any charity when you aggregate all their interests together.
Many in Africa, but particularly in Nigeria, have now begun to invest in the building and construction of their own Universities on a large and massive scale. But in order to attend these universities, amongst other qualifications, you must possess the necessary funds to pay the very high fees. Many Churches now have publishing houses, printing and publishing a variety of material of various qualities. Some are into the catering and guest house business, media and some have gone into real estate in a massive way. In many respects Churches have become the topmost wealth generating business in our generation.
The positive elements of this in a Country like Britain, is the empowerment of some of the Blacks, helping them to break glass ceilings and to join the league of the rich and powerful. In this it is bringing about a new emergent voice. However, this has not been significant enough on its own to influence impact or change Government policy. When, however, the Churches do find a common voice with organisations such as African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance it has carried much more weight and significance.
Also in a country like Nigeria and many other African countries it has built a new class of millionaires, sometimes but not always at the expense, of believers and church attendees, it has had some tendency to create an oasis of wealth in the midst of abject poverty.
Some of what I have suggested above leaves me unconvinced that the Church in Africa has found a way to harness its appreciable resources and its remarkable giftedness to bring about social transformation and economic change in a way Shaftsbury and the Clapham sect were able to achieve in England in the 19th Century. And yes I am not ignorant of the dubious role some claim the Church (organised religion) in previous centuries played, and I draw form Trevor Philips’ 2006 Temple Address to the Evangelical Alliance where he referred to: “the most monstrous crime ever committed in the name of and with the collaboration of an organised religion; the missionaries who carried the Bible marched in step with the traders who bore the sword. It is said that Captain John Newton wrote the hymn “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” as his slave ship The Duke of Argyll set sail with yet another human cargo from the West African coast in the mid-1700s.”
However, he does not forget that right there in Newton’s life is the paradox of faith in action and says: “…. for a few years later the Reverend Newton, as he became, published 3-volume account of his experiences, a best selling assault on the slave trade that was to underpin the great campaign for abolition which succeeded 200 years ago next year. The Quakers, Methodists and some Anglicans stood behind the Parliamentarians. And of course it was slave preachers who fomented and led the revolts which in the Caribbean at least eventually made the whole enterprise untenable.”
I also not fully convinced that the Church has re-discovered the golden heights achieved by the Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventist in the early 19th Century through their establishment of Schools and Hospitals and involvement in social activism around the world.
‘Making Poverty History’ was an opportunity for many in the western world to mobilise their governments to get involved in a missionary social economic cause, but after the initial headline grabbing publicity, initiatives and targets, how many of our Churches remain in the vanguard of this movement? What is the role of the African Churches in ensuring that this agenda and the goals set does not fall off the table? How do they use the opportunities this window presents worldwide to develop a coherent social transformation mission to and for Africa, where the Church leads the rebuilding and rebirthing of lands ravaged by legacies of corruption and colonialism? Where the Churches are able to stand up to corrupt and inept governance, where its sets up alternative models that challenges government to act?
The Micah Challenge International is golden opportunity for the African Majority Churches to be involved in social transformation on a global scale. The aim of Micah Challenge is to deepen our engagement with impoverished and marginalized communities; and to challenge international leaders, and leaders of rich and poor countries, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015! We should encourage each other to play our little parts when and if we traveling to Africa to be part of the effort to mobilize Church, governments and other potential partners.
Also with the currency of the commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery the Churches abroad in UK and USA with roots in Africa can use this platform to develop a strategy of holistic mission, embracing the social agenda, including the building of or equipping of hospitals, schools and the use of the time and expertise of their fellow professionals to make some difference in society and not simply to expand mega business empires. Therefore fulfilling in the process their spiritual and prophetic mandate to society. The fact is that many of the adherent to the Churches are responsible for the global remittances which according to the UN report is about $US200bn per annum way in excess of all officials aid flows with remittances from the UK alone amount to around $US6bn. Imagine the differences this can make if a fraction of this is invested at urging of the Churches in socially related agendas in Africa?
For the Church in its mandate should be encouraged to prepare people for eternity and be driven by proclamation evangelism, church planting and personal discipleship but also must balance it with passion for the vision to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide shelter for the refugees, and loose the chains of injustice.”
I am concerned that any continued failure of the Churches to discover and properly articulate its stated mission would bring to the agenda the question of whether they exist as businesses or charities. And if they fail the challenge I would suggest that the government in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa begins to set a social benefit test for Churches. For my arguments is that Churches that play no part in social-economic regeneration of their communities should not have the benefit of assumption that they are operating as charities, they should be taxed accordingly as businesses and the taxes used to develop the immediate vicinity of the communities where they are situated. When this happens then the truth in those communities would begin to speak to the power of the Churches wealth.
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