One often hears Christians encouraging each other to “take the city for Jesus”.
My response is that they need to venture out of church buildings and redefine their municipal wards as their church.
I believe the Lord’s greatest gifts to us are our humanity and his creation (our environment).
We are busy destroying both.
Recently, the Secretary General of United Nations listed the biggest threats to humanity as inequality, poverty and unemployment.
All three threaten the social fabric of South Africa, which is ranked as the most unequal nation in world.
There is much that NMB Christians can do to save the metro.
We have the numbers – there are more church members than the number of people who voted in the last election.
Let’s stop having meetings and holy huddles and move out of our church buildings.
On a Sunday morning would Jesus be found on a church pew or meeting people in the streets of Ward 43 or 60, or perhaps ministering gangsters in Gelvandale?
What is holding us back?
Is it perhaps a lack of authentic church unity and leadership?
Then there is ego. Why do we believe that we need to find our own solutions?
Courses and programmes developed by NMB churches are making a difference around the globe, but we don’t duplicate them here.
The Church has a duty to take the lead in restoring the socio-economic injustices of the past.
We have the buildings, the people and have the greatest leader who ever walked the earth.
Right now, we need visionary senior leadership who combine forces to coordinate the work that needs to be done.
Good leaders know that the solution to big problems starts with small and measurable actions.
What are some church “doables” today?
Hunger is both the biggest daily priority for many.
Children are dying of malnutrition within half an hour’s drive of any of our churches.
It is estimated that 4,6 million children in South Africa will go to bed hungry tonight and 27% of children under five are stunted due to poor nutrition.
Soup kitchens and feeding schemes are a temporary (but necessary) solution.
Churches made a difference during the Covid lockdowns, and we can build on that success.
Better coordination is needed. TCN has identified duplication in some wards, while others are left out.
The poor should not have to rely on handouts forever.
Churches and schools can be used as training centres and models for vegetable growing initiatives, such as “Farming God’s Way” and “Gardens of Faithfulness”.
Then there is education, without which our citizens are doomed to perpetual poverty.
Most churches have buildings which can be used for classes ranging from Grade RR to adult basic education and training.
Training should focus on marketable skills such as a trade or computer literacy which make people employable or able to start their own business.
One of the biggest supermarkets in the metro only accepts job applications from those who have completed a “Work for a living” course offered by one of our churches.
The course is being replicated globally.
There will be retired congregants willing and able to take the classes.
Christians can also make a difference by joining school governing bodies, and by churches adopting schools in their ward.
Fight to bring God back into our schools.
Church premises can also be used by NGOs to provide health care services.
These interventions will fail if they are confined to a “Christian bubble”.
Churches should provide the glue or social cohesion that holds the ward communities together.
Start by reaching out to your ward councillor. Remind political parties, councillors and ward committees that they are there to serve.
We pay their salaries.
Encourage business people in your ward to become active citizens.
This is already happening through the NMB Business Chamber, which has a growing number of geographic clusters. Connect with them.
There is also an urgent need for the church to become involved in the fight against crime and violence.
The scourges of inequality, poverty and unemployment create a fertile breeding ground for our metro to be overrun by gangsters and crime syndicates.
Churches should be represented on their local crime prevention forums and provide support to the police and security companies wherever possible.
I believe that God will save SA when His people work together in unity.
A unified NMB church body has the talent and the resources to uplift the people of the metro.
We will be judged by whether we have the will to repent for the sins of the past and obey. 1 Timothy 6:18:
“They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share”.
The day pastors in each municipal ward start praying together we will “take our city for Jesus”.
Churches should spend more time having coffee and praying together than focusing on their individual “brands”.
What would happen if we halted all our church activities for a week to free up pastors in each ward to spend time praying, sharing and developing relationships with each other and their ward councillors?
TCN keeps lists of church initiatives already in place in NMB. You can contact us through our website
www.tcn.org.za
Trevor Jennings
Co-founder of Transformation Christian Network the Leadership forum where church, business and the community meet.