Challenges to the Church in Nagaland

I. “What are the three greatest challenges to the church in Nagaland?” II. What are the most important principles that undergird your life as a Christian? Thepfulhouvi Solo [dropcap]T[/dropcap]HESE questionnaires, -from a stranger, personally unknown Naga Girl PhD Researcher, said to be in an American University in the USA- were surprisingly addressed to this Scribbler to: “please give your answers”, promising strict confidentiality. However the Scribbler in a 7 year old unconscionably wrinkled pair of German shoe would like it to be seen in the public domain in Nagaland for every good and not so good Naga Christian who has time he or she can waste. The answers are: 1. Lack of Godly Spirituality. 2. Superficiality. 3. Conforming to the Socio-Political World of Nagaland. * Cronyism and Clannishness in the Church. The challenges of the Church are not from the Greatest to the Least or from the Biggest to the Smallest in the order of Importance. They are all knitted together in one unspiritual life of the Church. My views are given in a composite nutshell Write-up from where the three aspects may be seen not necessarily in the Order of Importance or of Size. The Challenges to the Church in Nagaland are the Negatives, hence they are necessarily accounted here and not the positives unnecessarily. The Church in Nagaland today -by and large- seems to have become like a Corporate Body grown insensitive to reality, become self-serving, and lacking conscionable responsibility to the Faith. It appears like a tranquilized Giraffe lying sidelong in the African jungle with no single Game Attendant alone able to push up the unwieldy recovering animal to a standing position. The Church needs Believers who have the boldness of Faith and the Commitment to God; who are unafraid to upturn the profitable Money Tables in the Church Market and purge the Temple of its worldly Influences. It needs the likes of uncompromising Elijah or Nathan, not compromising like King Saul. The Church may have gotten something like the situation described above though there are still in Nagaland more than 7000 on the side of the Lord who have not bowed their knees to the world. The Pastor is the most pivotal Person in the Church. It appears increasingly difficult today for the Pastor in most Churches in Nagaland to be both the Leader of the Faith and at the same time to be the Leader of the Church Organization. The Church appears an inseparable combination of the two Parts; One –the Church; Two -it’s Acts, the one for preaching the Gospel and the other for management of the Church’s activities.Today, the Pastor has become, in many cases, just a mere paid Employee of the Church without much accountability in the decision making Centre of the Church. The usually young Pastor, theologically trained or not, well versed in the profession like young Saul at the stoning of Stephen, does not have the position to give a decisive voice in the affairs of the Church; others more powerful worldly Members control the strings of Power in the corridors of the Church. This Writer honestly feels: “if one wants to seriously serve God in all Truthfulness, one should not even be a Pastor in a Church in Nagaland today”! In the small self sufficient, simple Village Congregation with small budget, a mature elderly, often theologically untrained but discerning Pastor performs the two separate functions of Preaching the Gospel and of the Governance of the Church tolerably well in its small simple circle, but most of the bigger Church appear like the story mentioned above. Most Churches in Nagaland are relatively big with relatively imposing Church Building and Membership running several hundreds to mostly more than several thousands. And the task of teaching the Gospel and running of the Church Affairs has becomes a responsibility too heavy for the usually young not-sure-of-himself Pastor. He has not the confidence of commitment to overturn the trading Tables the Chief Priest’s 5 sons in the Church Court yard. The Church in Nagaland is compact, solid and consists of close Body of Members where everybody knows not only every other Members but also consists of generations of Families known to each other from very early days in the Village. The Members belong to long standing traditional and Cultural Group of Family, Clan and Khel (a number of related Clans) all the members customarily and traditionally belonging to the same Village; it is odd or unusual for persons from outside the Village to belong to the Church of the Village. There is no Caste system in the Naga Society. The Society has a uniquely open, complete and proudly equal feeling; though as in every human society, there are rich and poor, wise and not so wise, simple or the artful. It is considered anathema and taboo for man and woman to worship man or woman. Cronyism or Clannish Interest tend to crop up in the Church; endangering the Church. Mammon’s influence enters the Church through the Gate of free will Donations, from influence peddlers and from the likes of Anania and Safira; incidentally and unfortunately no Peter or Saul appears with the courage of conviction to “rebuke” the Gurus or the closest cronies. Nagaland Society today is often much influenced by Finance; the Church has not been able to escape the gravitational force of the source of financial Income. Finance often plays an influential part in the protestant Church decision makings. The selection of a Deacon, the Convener of a Committee, the Chairman or Secretary or Treasurer is often subtly influenced by the size of donations. People of Power in the world get a big say in the directions the Church’s decisions. Having nice big Church Building, attending Church in the style of current Christian norms and Hearing the Gospel messages alone is not all of what Christianity is about. It is the doing that is Christianity of Jesus Christ. “Though seeing; they do not see; Though hearing, they do not hear or understand”; said Jesus of his time. Discernment is in shortage in many a Christian Church in the State. It seems God does not reveal much to the Churches in Nagaland today. The Church preaches a lot, as if preaching is everything of what the Faith is all about; however practice lags far behind preaching, so much so that the less educated in the Faith take what its trained Teachers say just like a beautiful fairy Tale. To that extent, even the lives of some world famous preachers do not seem to share the lives of the down-trodden or of the Destitute or of the mere common persons in the Street like Mathew, Zachaes or Lazarus in the time of Jesus. Christians who have not had the interactive experience of the Cares and Worries or Burdens of the poor in their lives cannot deeply and fully appreciate the Gospel of Christ. Nagaland Church today has the Theology but not much of its Practice. This is the sum total of all its composite weaknesses. The Gospel teaching: ‘Do what the Pharisees say but do not be like them, for they encompass the whole world in search of a single convert and when done, that person is worst than what he was’: ‘Obey what the Church says; but do not be like them…………’! The CHURCH is a Calling, a Commitment that requires more than high quality professionalism or competence. It requires “Holiness in their lives” otherwise the system becomes an empty box of Cartoons no longer of use. The Pope, on his own choice, lives and eats in the Vatican Hostel; he is reported to drive not the costly Mercedes Car meant for the Pope but only a simple Ford! The Pope’s 2013 Christmas Address to his Curia, is an address to a good number of Churches in Nagaland particularly Baptist Denomination. There is this Church in the State where the Subject of Christian ‘CHURCH’ was expounded by a creditable very presentable young foreign educated Reverend for 3 long Weeks consecutively on end based on the 13th Chapter of Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthian Church. Everything of Love -Agape, Filial and Eros complete- Grace endless, Compassion, Companionship, warm Friendship, Camaraderie, Support for each other member, Forgiveness, equality of all –black, white and yellow or not- Rich or Poor, Justice, Non-violence, Peace, Tolerance, Humility and “‘Revenge is mine’, said the Lord” together with almost all the splintered Tenets of Christianity, were explained to the brim by the informed Reverend. After expositions of all the limitless Christian Love and Forgiveness; in a trumped up allegation by the manageable Church’s Managing Board, spearheaded by a Person in Power, the Pastor while he was away from the Place on a Gospel Mission, his Church threw him out and shut the Church on him. He –the Pastor- could not open the door from the outside. The door of the Church was closed from the inside! Christians in Nagaland, quite many in whole family, clutching Holy Bibles, go regularly to Church every Sunday and pay Tithe almost compulsorily but those things do not produce any Holiness in the Person’s Heart or in the Church. This is Christianity in Nagaland, well did Pope Francis said there is the need of proficiency and competence in the Church but without “holiness in the lives” of the Church, the growth of God’s people will face stumbling blocks. The educated Church in Nagaland today does not much seem to value spiritual quality; it prizes worldly camaraderie, clannish or crony loyalty to one another more than loyalty to Christ. This culture of discipline and formality prevents the Church from growth in spiritual vocation and facilitate the downward slide to routine than opening up lofty spiritual perspectives. Nagaland today needs to believe in the WORD OF GOD more than in the place name of the Church! Most protestant Church is in the name of the Village or the Place. The Churches have solemn formality, style, training, decorum but appear lacking in warmth, depth, discernment, boldness of conviction and reality of good Christian life. There is an easy tendency to compromise in everything even with the decidedly evil in the name of mistaken Christianity. A stark result of this is reflected in the decades of fruitlessly unsuccessful story of Prohibition or Clean Election project of the Church in the so called Christian State of Nagaland; the uncritical support of the Church for corrupted politicians do not enhance the respect of the Church. The Prayers are repetitive, beggarly, stereotype and trite than contrite; often the Member’s religious views are a mixture of false prophecy or shamanistic premonition. God and the Holy Bible are endlessly praised; like political Leaders praise Japan, Singapore or South Korea’s example of progress in every of their public Speeches but their praises of foreign countries do not bring any change in Nagaland; the same seems to be with the Church in the State; the Church’s profuse praises God or the Bible does not produce any holiness in their hearts. The Love of God in the daily work places, sincerity and honesty to the job are in great shortage. The ferocity and violence with which some of our so-called Naga National Workers, under the banner of “NAGALAND FOR CHRIST”, sometimes inhumanly mistreat innocent Travelers, particularly Hindu Indians, shows the quality of Christianity in our Society. None of the Church Associations have openly come out against the Naga National Militant Groups for misusing the Name of Christ in vain; the Church had not the eye to see the misuse. The real Christian life in Nagaland may have to have a long way to go before TRUTH ‘set them free’. Nothing less than ashes to smear our hearts and sack clothes to cover our Heads, would change the city of Nineveh! Church gatherings in Nagaland are relatively impressive, with sweet music and courteous demeanor in all the Meetings. All private and personal inadequacies are forgotten for the moment and the participants receive collective encouragements from the crowd. There are lots of merriments and laughter in the Christian social gatherings but with the exception of a few, the Church itself suffers from formality, routine and devoid of any serious entrepreneurship for spiritual growth. The Church is organized and compact being driven by collective often clannish or cronies of Cowherds than led by the scriptural Shepherd: Cowherds goad the herd from behind: Shepherd leads the Sheep from the front, he goes ahead of the flock in search of green pastures for his flock. There is not much exercise on Spiritual Innovation or Entrepreneurship in Faith: the Church is often run on a mixture of classic inviolable Tribal or Village Council Decision in the style of Medieval Crusader Fervor of Faith particularly during State Assembly Election when the Church Organization enjoys to enveloped itself in a fervent widely popular activity of good intentioned ‘Fair Election’ but without any discernable fruits affecting the growth of God’s people in the Church. True, there are saints in the Church, silently docile and obediently following the Church unknowingly like the 5 foolish Virgins, because they only know what they know and like Saint Paul initially, do not know what they do not know. Well do the Scripture say: no one can come to the Father by his own Will? The Church leaders cannot jump up above the height of the Ceiling the Architect had set for the Church Building! Indeed, if one do not differentiate loose filled-up soil from the firm soil or hard rocks, one cannot set strong pillars for a House that would withstand the raging storms. The answer to the 2nd Questionnaires is better kept in personal private domain.