Mega church buildings at the cost of the poor and the faithful?

Kohima, June 30 (EMN): Church – the most sacred place of worship is becoming more of a ‘showpiece’ and a ‘prized possession’ for the people of Nagaland with 90% Christian population. The biggest, largest and tallest buildings in the towns and villages are the churches. The present trend of building mega church buildings better than the others have become the norm of the day. Although there is nothing wrong in building palatial church buildings to glorify God, the big question remains- ‘are the churches sidetracking itself from its major tasks of evangelism and discipleship?’ Undeniably church leader observed that churches have become so complicated and complex in its way of doing things. The craze to build mega churches has burdened the members with numerous donations and fund raiser projects. There have been numerous complaints from church members who say, ‘it has become very expensive to be a Christian.’ As it can be seen, our churches are doing quite well in terms of infrastructural developments and management, but the sad part is it making less and less of a difference in ‘soul winning.’ As someone rightly puts, ‘the kingdom is not about chatter. It is about action.’ Talking to Eastern Mirror, Director of Nagaland Missionary Movement (NMM), Rev. Andrew Semp opined that each church may have its own views and concepts to the rising trend of mega church buildings. However, he emphasised that the church focus and priority should be soul winning. He acknowledged that many churches along with its mega church buildings also are doing a lot of mission work at home and even outside. An eminent officer, on condition of anonymity, remarked that it is absolutely ridiculous to build mega churches when thousand are impoverished and not being able to eke out a decent living, adding such super structures are an insult, to say the least. Questioning the source of income for building mega churches, he maintained it is mostly from donations from corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and diversion of developmental funds from the government schemes that are meant for the public? ‘So, when the very edifice of our place of worship is built upon such sinful sources, what divine blessings would its members get?’ he queried. Stating matter of fact that magnifying the authority of our God is our bounden task as believers, he affirmed that the greater, if not ‘The greatest’ task is the soul not the hall of worship. With social evils on the increasing day by day, killings, rapes, addiction and promiscuity of all sorts, he said people need to seriously ask themselves ‘why is this so-called 90% Christian state of our crumbling?’ Exasperated with the functioning of churches today, the officer opined that there seemed to be any ‘foot soldiers’ for Christ anymore in our land. ‘All church workers require the best of everything! The best church, the best vehicles, foreign trips, Americanised jargons and sermons. It’s the land of Pharisees,’ he added. NBCC general secretary, Dr. Zelhou Keyho, while opining that there is nothing wrong in building mega churches, asserted that churches should not divert from its task of evangelistic mission of reaching out. ‘As the church grows bigger and its buildings get better, our reaching out has to improve and go along the line of our development,’ said Dr. Keyho. At the same time, he lamented that people are missing the enrich aspect of building church by considering the church as a ‘showpiece’ rather than a sacred place to build up believers, edify, strengthen and make believers become more beautiful spiritually. Taxing members, Dr. Keyho observed, has become a problem as the churches do not have the resources. While acknowledging that good church buildings are the pride of our people, he was upset with the secular way of doing things which has intruded the churches and thereby burdening the church members so much in the process. Observing that churches today has become so complicated in its way of doing things, Dr. Keyho said it is losing its vision by focusing more on management rather than reaching out. Hence, he asserted that churches need to return to becoming simpler in order to reach out to the unreached, which according to him, is the purpose of God lest ‘we will be talking about dying churches fifty years from now.’ He also emphasised that leadership ego, pride and charisma must die in order for the church to live, lest it becomes another social institution. A noted peace activist, Niketu Iralu was of the view that Nagas make big plans quickly, big churches, big programmes like sending out 10,000 missionaries to spread the Gospel to the world, etc. While agreeing that there’s nothing wrong with them as big churches are certainly needed with more and more becoming Christians, he commented that God is likely to be saying ‘OK’ to our church buildings and our mission programmes and He is glad we can go to our churches and worship Him, meet one another and all the other things that are good for society's life. Nevertheless, he strongly reminded that God is more interested in the quality of service rendered in schools (government), offices, village council/ VDB meetings and all other work places and ‘whether the funds coming from Delhi are being used properly or misused with awful impunity and unbelievable selfishness?’ Commenting on the MKR Pillai scam case in Nagaland, Iralu said the revelation of Pillai and his Naga and non-Naga accomplices across India, whose activities have been continued undisturbed for so long, shows there is a serious gap and disconnect between the doctrines we are shouting to the world and the way we are actually thinking and living. The great ‘Covenant’ to send 10,000 missionaries On October 15, 1977, during the 41st NBCC Annual Council, a goal was set to enlist 10,000 missionaries by 2000 AD for the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was reaffirmed by the Naga churches in 2010 during the Naga Missionaries Conference held at Dimapur Ao Baptist Church (DABA) from November 18 -21. Unfortunately, even after lapsed of four decades, the promise made remain unfulfilled although there are 67 registered theological colleges in the State. Rev. Semp said the covenant was made with the support of volunteers which include goers, senders, sponsors and people who promise to pray. While acknowledging the fact of the unfulfilled promise, he said with 1585 churches under NBCC and 5,86,593 baptised members ‘we must have already crossed the promise.’ Though there are thousands of Naga theologically trained people in Nagaland today, many of whom ready to go as missionaries, Rev. Semp hopefully wished that if only the churches are ready to sponsor the missionaries, within a year or two, we will surely achieve the ten thousand targets if not more. He informed that according to a survey done by NMM in 2014, confined to reports received from 18 Associations under NBCC, there are only 1114 missionaries. However, he added that there are also many mission agencies, families, individuals, and other denominations working independently which are not recorded in its list. Rev. Semp said NBCC plan to fulfil ‘The Promise’ by motivating the churches to become mission churches. Sharing his views, Iralu posed a question ‘before we go so far out into the world, how about sharing whatever we have in terms of wealth, education, etc, with our fellow Nagas in eastern Nagaland and across the border in Northwest Myanmar?’ According to him, ‘if we were to run some good schools and health programmes we will be sharing our Christianity with them, then we'll be developing to share with the wider world in due course.’ To do this, he said our schools must provide good education to our immediate children now. ‘They'll have that to share with the world!’ he added. Sharing some difficulties faced by the churches in sending out missionaries, Dr. Keyho also opined that people need to be educated to look at missionary at a wider prospect rather than the bygone days of pioneer missionaries. He also maintained that it is time for the churches to do beyond what they are doing of ‘nurturing within our comfort zones’ with its priority on sending our more missionaries in the field. Dr. Keyho felt that theological graduates need to be empowered by the churches, which is one way of fulfilling the promise. He also said that 10,000 should not be the target that may get stagnant. Thom S Rainer and Eric Geiger in the book ‘Simple Church- Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples,’ rightly put that ‘There is an epidemic of fast-food spirituality among believers today. Many churches have become like fast-food establishments. A new idea emerges, and the menu is expanded. And we keep getting more and more unhealthy.’