By Morgen Makombo Sikwila
Churches play central role in development. They motivate voluntary and advocacy.
They provide vital services to the most marginalised and needy. They give hope. And yet churches themselves are also ‘in development.’ Like societies and individuals, churches are in constant and necessary process of change.
Churches are not ‘normal’ organisations. They do not fit neatly into theoretical management models. They are a ‘community of believers’.
They are immensely challenging organisations to lead, to be a part of and to support. In social development, churches have frequently to live up to expectations. Some appear uninterested in the poor, others take a ‘handout’ and disempowering approach.
Conflict is all too apparent in some churches. There is gnawing frustration, a sense of unfulfilled expectations, a longing for the church to be different. We yearn to for the church to a set an example and bring light to the world- to transform lives and societies.
While some churches function well to bring light and hope to the world, many changes need to change. Until very recently, official aid donors have viewed churches with scepticism.
The connection between faith and development were fragile and intermittent at best, critical and confrontational at worst.
Religion has traditionally been seen as: divisive- a rallying point of division and conflict ; regressive-maintaining ( if not promoting) injustices such as slavery, colonialism, apartheid and gender inequalities; irrelevant- development being autonomous technical discipline, about which religion has nothing valuable to say; insensitive -exported in culturally highly insensitive ways; and proselytising-seeking to convert others to their faith.
In the last few years, this picture has been changing. There has been resurgence of interest in the development role of faith.
The World Bank now recognises: We cannot fight poverty without tending to people’s spiritual dimension and its many manifestations in religious institutions, leaders and movements.
Official agencies are now recognising the particular and significant contribution that churches make to development. Churches have advantages that they tend to be ‘grassroots’, embedded in remote areas- they are not of the poor, they are the poor.
Churches are sustainable and long term. Churches are often the most valued and trusted institutions in poor communities. They elicit motivate, voluntary and compassionate services from their members, out of sense of calling.
Churches address people’s values, attitudes and behaviour- the core components development issues- in sermons. Churches can also have influential voice in the village and in the nation, speaking out on issues of political and social justice.
Churches are more than simply convenient vehicles for social development. They are able to reach people’s spiritual needs, such as a lack of hope, guilt and a sense of powerlessness.
Most churches have strong teaching on the importance of love and service to others, on commitment and self-sacrifice, on integrity and trust and on forgiveness. This guides a mutual supportive relationship between developmental organisations and church mother body.
The most common type of church partner is the ‘ development department’ (church development organisation). This could be an office, department or even a separate organisation set up to implement development work of the church.
Whichever type of church organisations, they all face challenges to differing degrees when carrying out their mandate.
The challenges are often related tensions over who makes strategic decisions, such as appointing directors for the development offices, developing new programmes or even controlling finances. Even where there are legally constituted development organisation boards, there are tendencies for them to be treated by the religious leadership as advisory at best and at worst as rubber stamps.
It is not uncommon for religious leaders to directly approach international donors and agree on development and relief work for development organisations to implement without consulting organisations’ leadership.
There are also some instances where organisations and religious institutions apply to the same donors for similar programmes without knowing.
Who gets the credit for the development work is also sometimes an issue. Some churches want to be seen to be active in development.
This makes them appear relevant and dynamic and therefore more attractive to new members. On the other hand, tensions also can arise the other way, if the behaviour of the development organisation’s staff adversely affects the reputation of the church in communities.
The relationship between the development work and the religious work is highly influenced by the church leadership. For some churches, leadership is even more powerful than in secular agencies, due to extra dimensions of spiritual authority that is vested in religious leaders.
This give church leaders greater power to influence change both positively and negatively. Enlightened church members are able to drive visionary change processes, but the converse is also true. The extra spiritual power can be abused.
Despite the Bible model of servant leadership, many church leaders behave in an autocratic fashion. There is a common belief in churches that leaders are closer to God than their congregations. Any alternative opinion can be interpreted as questioning God and tantamount to spiritual rebellion.
Church- based organisations are often highly aware of not washing dirty linen in public. Airing organisational issues may be interpreted as gossip and criticism, which are not deemed Christian behaviour. Church culture denies conflict which leads to relationships problems. Many church cultures do not deal well with conflicts that is inherent in any group of people leading to church divisions that impede development.
Besides being a very powerful motivator for development, faith can also influence the method used to implement the development work.
Faith affects the ‘end’ of the development process. Many church development organisations must therefore include spiritual development as a key element of holistic development.
MSc Peace and Governance
BSc Counselling
Diploma in Environmental Health
Certificate in Marketing Management
morgensikwilam@gmail.com
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