IT’S quite obvious that for many years now, Zimbabwe has been in bad shape either way you look at it – politically, economically.
SATURDAY DIALOGUE WITH PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
And people — from politicians, economists and ordinary people have been scrounging for lasting solutions to this malaise.
Someone once said to me that the state of affairs in this country is simply a reflection of the state of the Church. Here I am not talking about denominations as singular entities, but the Church as a corporate body made up off diverse groupings that profess Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
The proponent of the Christ faith, Jesus Christ, described the Church as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt 5:13, 14).
Essentially what it means is that when things go of the rail in the world, the Church has a spiritual and moral obligation to set them aright. But it is only a relevant Church that has not lost sight of the divine mandate to “make disciples” that is able to bring light and dispel the darkness in the economy, politics and social sector of the nation.
Solutions to the political and socio-economic strife that has been afflicting this nation for decades must come from the Church because politicians have ego–centric and parochial self –serving interests. It his however heart –breaking when the Church appear to be colluding with politicians by watching from the sidelines as things happen. This is not the Church that Christ envisioned when he said “go ye into the world” with the good news.
It must be said in no uncertain terms that by and large, that Church has pursued an agenda other than the one set by Christ, and it for that reason that it appears to have no solutions to the unfolding manifold crises tearing apart this nation. A church with no answers is an irrelevant church because “if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matt 5: 13).
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This is a prevalent problem not only if you look at the role the Church should be playing in the nation, but even within itself: it pursues an agenda that appears to have relegated pointing men to Christ to the peripheries. When was the last time you had an altar call being made in Church and people being afforded an opportunity to surrender their lives to Christ?
I have always argued, with the backing authority of Scripture, that you can do anything with the power of God. But my understanding is that such enormous power should only be used in a manner that brings glory to God and compel men to seek salvation. However, when this power is now being used for showmanship (making people drink petrol and munch grass and flowers), then there is a seriously problems.
It is these things that have turned the church into an institution of shame and rebuke rather than a solution provider to the cry of the nations.
Clearly, we need to revisit our priorities. A house divided against itself can stand and the divisions that have rocked the church and broken it down into smaller groups with their own pursuits has rendered it too weak to be relevant to contemporary society. Against this backdrop, you surely can’t expect a political and economic revival in a nation. But what is obvious is that our nation is in desperate need of a revival.
It is within the Church as a united corporate body of Christ that God has “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…. ” (Colossians 2:3). This country desperately needs the wisdom and knowledge to navigate its way out of the current crisis but when those from whom this should come appear to require massive hand–holding, what will be the result?
Unless barriers of division in the Church are broken down and a united approach is taken to resolve the manifold challenges that we face, we may as well be in for a long night with no sign of the break of dawn!
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