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| Cross cultural sensitivity demonstrated by Senior staff of GLA |
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”
John 10:10.
The first week of September this year, gave me an opportunity to attend the sixth Global Missions Health Conference held in Africa, organized by Living in Abundance (LIA) International in Nairobi. Sharing from the theme of; “Pursuing Wholistic impact” in a key note address was the Retired Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya Rt. Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi who opened the conference with the message in the text above.
I thought for
while about how the verse of choice would speak to the theme of Pursuing
Wholistic impact, and aware quite frankly of how the emphasis on abundant life
by many prosperity gospel preachers can end up sounding like a super impressive
life in the bliss, of complete enjoyment and honey moon in the here and now forever
and Amen; a life portrayed mostly of no pain, no suffering, no frustrations or
disappointments but a complete fanfare of abundance of material possessions. I
thought about how this abundance mentality is presumed to be a benefit of
higher faith, sustained by a positive mindset, both in utterance and deeds even
if it meant disguising pain, suffering and present state of reality with the
frustrations in the world.
To my amazement, the Archbishop
went on to invite the participants to consider several calls within the theme among
which he mentioned; the call to Obedience, Holiness, forgiveness, unity, service and preaching the Gospel so
that men are called to salvation. Later
that evening, I spent quite some time reflecting about the Words of Jesus in
John 10:10 and thought about the exhortations implicated in the text for
missionaries at the Missions frontline.
A
call to Gospel proclamation
Firstly, Jesus declared himself
as the giver of abundant life and any other means His hearers would trust as
leading to loss or taking away of life. In contrasting to the thief who comes
only to steal and take away, Christ came to give a rich and satisfying life.
This life in Him is eternal (John 3:16, 36), and overflows from the renewed
relationship with God through receiving forgiveness of sins, and embracing His Son
Jesus Christ who is the gift of love for all who believe, and which grows through
the abundant deposit of the Holy Spirit to blossom to bear fruit of
righteousness (Galatians 6:22-23) and remains expectant in assurance at the
full reality of this abundant life when Christ returns.
"In giving the people we serve less than the Gospel is participating in the mandate of the adversary"
I believe the description above, causes us to
emphasize the priority of Gospel proclamation as the primary tool for pursuing
Wholistic impact. In proclaiming and challenging men to respond to the good
news of the Life Christ offers they can be truly considered to have received
the seed for Wholistic impact. It is an error to entirely hid to the words of
St. Francis of Asis that; “Preach the word if necessary use words”. This phrase
shouldn’t cripple us from keeping the main thing the main thing. Christ commanded
preaching the Gospel; making Disciples, and teaching them to obey all His
commands (Matthew 28:16-20).
As such
the kind of abundant life that is described in terms of monetary and material state
of wellness is but a robbery of the life from those we serve. In giving the
people we serve less than the Gospel is participating in the mandate of the
adversary, whose only interest is stealing humanity’s only hope of salvation,
killing the hopes of men being saved and eventually condemning them eternally.
It is rightly stated by many that
wholistic impact is achieved when the people’s knowledge of God and themselves
(Head), their affections, convictions, emotions and attitudes (Heart), and
their skills, creativity and art of work (Hand) are set free to a full potential
of impact by the Gospel of Christ for the Glory of God. Transformation begins
to truly be seen in families, communities and nations when the Gospel has
influenced those aspects of a believer.
I am
convinced that, we will see little to no impact of Wholistic impact at the
missions’ front line if we pay no attention to preaching the Gospel of Christ,
discipleship and multiplying by conversion into the faith those who have not
confessed Jesus as Lord. The Gospel is the only power of God for salvation of
all who believe (Romans 1:16-17). We are challenged to not settle for less than
this task of sharing Christ with the people our moneys, professional services
and acts of charity and care are impacting. It will be a job well done, if the best good
we can be to people, whether sick, poor or deprived or physically incapacitated
or a minor is giving them the abundant life that is only found in Christ.
"The Gospel is the heart of Wholistic impact"
