Archived from http://doinglikewise.blogspot.com/
They said it could not be done: I was told a few years ago by church insiders who were supported by the leaders; it is like shooting arrows at the moon: You cannot go to Africa and make a difference. Sadly there was a part of me that held onto that statement, a part of me that accepted the statement of pending failure as truth, a part of me that struggled with Spiritual authority I had allowed the religious church to hold, and the Truth is, it takes a Greater Power than any of us. The Spiritual resides in the One not the religion.
It is time for a final surgery. It is, in fact, past time. For literally centuries missionaries have spent lifetimes over much of the African continent, preparing the soil, if you will, for the crop to grow. Sadly I think, in many cases it has been a misapplied varietal; the wrong crop. The nice, constructed, safe and comfortable western church cannot grow in Africa and it should not. The truth is that many times these efforts have carried an unspoken, sadly too spoken as directive, doctrinal commandment: You must be like us.
The term “A mile wide and an inch deep” has been used to describe Christianity in Africa. If you look deeply, in many cases, that is exactly what the western church has planted. It is what the western church is much of the time. Gandhi once said (not a quote but close) ‘if Christians ever live what they say they believe, they will change the world’. Possibly that means smaller and deeper as it relates to mission.
If the Spirit is speaking step out.
The question is, even more the challenge is; who will take on this task of the paradigm shift. Who will partake in an uncomfortable, but very exciting, trek of being the servant church in Africa? The servant church is not a religion; think about it, the religion, a religion any religion immediately becomes the master.
Believing in a power greater than ourselves, who and how or what does it act like, this servant? Our servant path lies parallel to the education of the rural poor. Not that we necessarily should or need to educate, rather the work of the servant is to assist, empower and lift up the ones called from the location itself to this very purpose for the local communities. We have tried to maintain our servant position, admittedly poorly at times. The truth is, we are in the very process of discovering the ‘job description’.
If the Spirit is speaking help us discover.
Never the less, the crop is growing. Young adults are stepping out, standing up, making different decisions and setting new standards of self discipline and commitment. We see this time and time again. It is not something we are doing, rather a response to encouragement and empowerment.
The young adults of Rionchogu and the surrounding area are the manifestation of the paradigm shift. They are the change makers.
The activity of GADL and GAD Kenya in rural Kenya is NOT shooting arrows at the moon. The transcendent One who is, was and ever will be was manifested here, on earth, as a servant, standing for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the oppressed. He stood against the systems of that oppression, especially religion, and continues to call His church to do the same.