“So, what are you doing here?” asked the young man I was
driving from Kimasala to town.
An appropriate question to consider a year and a half after
moving to Zambia. My response
would have been different a year ago, 9 months ago, even 6 months ago. Much has changed in our plans and in
our ministry. So, I answered him
according to the most recent development.
“We are working with local churches to establish sports
ministries. I help to train sports
ministers from the church to start teams with the children in the community,
build relationships with the kids, and then share Christ with them.” I probably wasn’t so eloquent, but it
was along those lines.
As I drove down the pot-holed road to town, we started
talking about the churches in Zambia.
I explained that we had planned to join a local church when we arrived,
but found a great need for a church among the non-Zambian community, many of
whom do not leave their secluded, fenced, and guarded golf estate on the edge
of town. My passenger seemed
intrigued by this and asked a few questions before dropping an unexpected one.
“Are you a Christian?”
My first reaction was to say, “Uh, duh.” But, I’ve learned to be a bit more
polite than that, so I answered with a respectful, “Yes.”
“I mean, are you born again?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. We
wouldn’t be here if we weren’t.”
And this is where it started to get interesting. This young man – a teacher at a local
school – began to tell me that church leaders need to be more powerful, and
that churches will continue to fail unless the leaders start doing
miracles. He went on to tell me
that performing miracles is a sign of a true believer.
“Just look at TB Joshua,” he said.
I didn’t know how to respond to that last comment, and
before I had the chance to come up with anything, I came across a local pastor
I’ve been working with to start a team at his church. When I stopped to offer the pastor a ride, my first
passenger hopped out of the car and walked off, leaving the conversation
hanging and me pondering his comments.
That was Saturday.
Now, three days later, I still can’t wrap my head around this
conversation. Not because he made
solid points. I got lost somewhere
in the middle of his monologue.
What I am struggling with is the amount of bad theology prevalent in
other countries that is finding a strong foothold here among the churches of
Zambia as well. The prosperity
gospel, which teaches that, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be blessed
with health and wealth, and, subsequently, failure to have health or wealth is
a sign of lack of faith, is a growing trend here, only exacerbated by the large
(and wealthy) churches that preach this belief. Similarly, the “God-olatry” of the name-it-and-claim-it
teachers is ravaging the spiritual lives of many here and at home. There is a fine line between praying in
faith that God will act, and TELLING God what He is going to do, and I fear
that the line was crossed long ago.
Then there are the TV personalities like “Prophet” TB Joshua, whose
“acts of healing” and “prophecies” have repeatedly been proven false or staged,
yet who still command a massive international following. If somebody claims to be a prophet,
speaking the very words of God, and then those words turn out to be untrue, does
that not mean that he is a false prophet?
If you were expecting me to conclude with some great
theological statement, I am sorry to disappoint. If nothing else, this episode has forced me to refocus my
eyes upon Christ and Christ alone, and it has reminded me that, just because
there are churches at every corner does NOT mean that the Gospel is proclaimed
throughout this land. There is
still work to be done here.
And we feel so blessed to be a part of it.
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