The Sunday News
Itai Chapunza
LIKE everything in the world, Christianity evolves, our approach to doing things changes because the world changes its tactics towards the church. The only thing that is constant about Christianity is the God that we worship.
Hebrews 13 verse 8
Jesus doesn’t change, yesterday, today, tomorrow, he is always totally himself.
Traditional churches seemed to neglect the fact that people need money to survive. This is because in those days, a good job was enough to give your family a decent life. As the world modernised the need to earn more money and a good living became more and more magnified. This is partly because of the general inflation and partly because of social inputs like music and movies. We know the devil uses money as a vice, we have seen a rise of organisations that behave like churches but neglect the aspect of Christ as a saviour and focus on what Christ can give to the people.
Ultimately the thrust is to build a cult from such a following because they blindly follow what the prophet said without scriptural verification. The Bible says:
1st John 4 verse 1
My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear, carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
Today’s Christian church is under a lot of pressure to conform to the modern standards of what is right and wrong even though it sometimes goes against our beliefs. The world is on a mission to force us to accept things that they believe are right like gays, lesbians, bisexuals, occasional drunkenness and even things that seem small like corporal punishment for children. We love all people, even the gay, what we are against are their actions. The church is more than ready to receive them and with the help of the spirit of God, help them change to what God has planned for them. The fact is, the church may change its tactics on how to approach the world to show them who we are. But we must not change our mandate in order to accommodate the world. On these subjects, the word of God is very clear.
Thus there is no reason why we should be confused on what to do. One way in which our approach must change is in work ethic and financial independence.
The Bible says a lot of things about money, but today we will focus on only two. The first being, you must be financially independent as an individual and as a church, the second thing is that we must learn to work hard.
1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11
Stay calm, mind your own business, do your own job.
You’ve heard this before but a reminder never hurts.
It important for the church to adopt such a lifestyle. We cannot be moved by the financial carrot being dangled before us if we do our work. This means make sure you invest. Make sure you have an income that is determined by you and no one else. This way, you cannot be manipulated. A good example is what is happening in third world nations. The West tells us to change our stance on human rights in order for them to financially assist us.
By human rights, they mean gay rights. In the words of former President Mugabe addressing the UN “we are not gays”.
The same can be done to you on a smaller scale. You can be forced to work on your day of worship because you are not financially independent. If you need the job or the money, you have to do it. But if you create a stream of income determined by you, then you have a say on when and how you work. Money is a strong driver of a lot of things. If we as church members have excess money, then it is easy to make sure the church as our home is financially strong too. So projects are not delayed, and our footprint on the world is more visible. In the short time we have before Jesus comes, we have to do our level best to turn more to Christ and depopulate hell.
The second thing we must learn to do is to work hard. It’s sad to say this, but most Christians are very lazy. They have a mindset to want to be fed. Maybe not directly, but they expect things to be handed to them. Paul, one of the best examples of what a Christian be should be set a good standard for us. People used to send Paul money all the time, but he did not sit around waiting for handouts. The man worked as a tentmaker.
Acts 18 verse 3
Paul moved with them, and they worked together in their common trade of tent making.
I have gone to churches where the rich manipulate the pastor because they feed him. The pastor no longer preaches as God has told him to but instead he preaches avoiding subjects that will offend the rich. Sometimes you find a situation where he seems to show more liking towards his wealthy congregates and neglects the poor by that churches standards. All this happens because the preacher is financially dependent on the people. So even as a church leader, make sure you have revenue coming in that has nothing to do with the church. Financially weak preachers normally becomes weak in the spirit because they will not charge forward in a manner they should because they are begging. As much as we are strong in the spirit and in prayer, we must use the same momentum to create financial freedom for ourselves so that we become the church that Christ intends us to be —without fear. God loves you.
Facebook — Itai Chapunza Twitter — @itaichapunza
