By JAMES WANJERI
"Let us not throw out the child together with the bathwater!"
Last night one of the local stations, NTV ran a feature that showed the thievery (should be a word!) going on in our churches in the name of the Lord. I cannot say that the piece was a bright illumination in the recess of my mind, to the contrary it exposed what I have always known all along. Actually,what most of us know.
As usual with this news pieces,the lynch mob caught on very fast and they were unstoppable. Tweeting and updating their facebook on this matter. Now,freedom of speech is a guaranteed inaleniable right, but as the conversation progressed I saw an emerging attitude of disdain and disgust for religion and churches to be specific.
The tweets were unstoppable:
“pastors are thieves!”
“there is only one church,the catholic church,the others are businesses”
“this bastards conned me”
and on and on and on and on.
Ladies and gentlemen,the state of affairs worries me. Society has always employed a mob mentality in dealing with issues that deserve sober thinking and reason. I can say that in my experience,churches and thieves are not often synonymous. Hang on,read on. I believe that we have cultivated a culture of blanket criticism at very many things.We are a people of many complaints.
I will tell you my church story.ladies and gentlemen. Indulge me please.
My mother was a young single mother with a very loud child (read me) who had too much energy to spare. But growing up,I have always admired my mother’s faith. Faith that was cultivated when in my younger years, we would attend a church called Gospel Revival Centre, and my mother had her fellowship group, made up mostly of women who would visit each other often and encourage each other. And I remember those days when ladies would come to our house and oh how I enjoyed the singing!
In that same church I would meet teacher Gabriel,Asunta and one Ugandan teacher whose name I forget,who taught us a song “asali ya nyuki,tamu sana,Yesu ni zaidi ya asali ya nyuki,njooni muonje tamu sana,Yesu ni zaidi ya asali ya nyuki”(honey is very sweet,but Jesus is sweeter than honey,come taste Him,very sweet,sweeter than honey). And it is in this sunday school classes where I knew the love of God and that I should obey and honor my mother and father,for it is good,a commandment with a promise.
At Cornerstone Faith Assembly I learnt that I was a gifted young man,with talents that God could use. And so together with others,I danced in my sunday school, I sang in my church,I recited memory verses infront of the entire congregation! It is here that as 12 year old boy,I went on evangelism missions to githurai,ngong etc sharing all I had been taught,about the love of God and His saving grace. Furthermore I took part in youth activities and leadership,organised concerts. I grew my gifts on that stage. They taught me to answer questions is class, building my confidence.
When I cleared my KCPE and results were out,my headteacher directed me to Riruta Baptist Church where they wanted some students to sit for a scholarship exam at Rosslyn academy. It was my first time in gigiri area and as I looked around,that poor boy knew he had to succeed. I passed and was offered the chance to be in an international school,but lack of funds for transport daily killed that dream. Who knows what could have been!
Joining High School proved equally elusive until I met a pastor who was a director at a children’s home who gave me papers to get signed for a scholarship. And it was my Cornerstone pastor who signed those papers and I went to The Upperhill School.
Complications soon developed with the sponsor but thank God that Nairobi Chapel,a church I never attended heard of my plea and put me through high school,until my form 4 exams were over.
Thrust into a world I had looked forward to but without guidance,church was the place that kept me grounded. And even when I made mistakes,the lessons i got in church pointed me to a merciful saviour,who loved me anyway. And in my first and second years of campus,plagued by the wrath and burden of wrong choices made,every Thursday I would walk to Mamlaka Chapel at University of Nairobi main campus and with fellow young people, I would receive nourishment for my soul and hold on one more week.
Today I serve at the Nairobi Chapel young adults church. And currently we are carrying out the 5 bob revolution where we give 5 shillings a day to send a child through highschool and the Jubilee ride that involves volunteer bikers who will ride through more than ten countries raising money to put 50 kids through high school for four years.
Ladies and gentlemen,that’s church for me. So you can see why I refuse to believe churches are thieving schemes.
Yet I am not blind to crafty fellows who use religion and church to manipulate and rob. Their judgment awaits them.
Church has done a lot of good,so please. Are we going to forget that becasuse of a few rogues? Please,let us not throw out the child together with the bathwater!
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