With thanks to Nick Frost aka @Nick_Frost for this pic
Dear Church in South Africa,
i am not known for my brevity, but let me give this a try.
Firstly, i hope you know just how much i love you. i believe you hold the hope for this nation and the world – not as a particular denomination or style of doing things or expression, but as the collective body of Christ. People who Love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind and who live out their faith in all areas of their life and in particular reaching out to and taking care of the least of these and victimised and marginalised. When you do this, you tend to do it tremendously well.
Secondly and my main point in this post is this: If you did not mention #FeesMustFall or make it a key focus point in your gathering of the body or your meeting time today, then i think you missed a trick. If you didn’t push the planned message to the side [like i did when i spoke at a conference yesterday on community building yesterday] and speak in some way into [or out of] the events of this week, then i think you may have to reconsider that you might have gotten it wrong.
i dream of a church movement that displays the kind of passion that the youth and others of South Africa displayed this last week – we needed to be taking time to listen and to try and understand and more importantly to pitch up.
Fortunately for us all, the journey will continue. There is still time to climb on board. Let’s not be left behind again. Let’s not be caught writing ‘Sorry we weren’t there’ letters of confession afterwards. Let’s be discerning the times and paying attention to where the body of Christ needs to be representing.
We can do this. We need to do this!
Let’s do it well.
love brett fish anderson, member of the body of Christ
p.s. If you are a member of a local church congregation and you agree with this and think your church leadership need to see this and respond in some way then please tag them in it, share it on their walls, print it out and stick it in someone’s hand.
What did your church service have to say about #FeesMustFall today if anything? Please let us know in the comments.
[If you have some catching up to do on this last week, maybe this post will help, click here]
Dear Brett,
Thank you for your letter – I honestly do embrace the challenge you present, accept your point and am absorbing it. I would love to take opportunity to comment, maybe I can learn even more.
I think if you want to make a claim on what the pulpit should be saying you’ll have to take a number—in my 13 years as a pastor I have found views on what the pulpit should be speaking into overwhelming. I have a history in the student movement and also the trade union movement so I understand the important role of advocacy and expressions of power and also the desire for the church to be a social formation in South Africa. But it is important to know what we mean by “church”. Was the church not thoroughly involved in #feesmustfall perhaps even among the key role players? Or by “church” do you mean the pastorate rather than Christian students, Christian academics, Christian government officials, etc?
As a preacher I cannot let go of the centrality of the preaching of Christ and His kingdom. Within the seeds of the gospel lies incredible social change. History speaks to that. What will the gospel do in the hearts of the people of God and what will it lead to? The church’s role is broader in social change, but the pulpit’s role isn’t. I cannot “miss it” by preaching Jesus. I also cannot let go of the one factor that will ignite this earth, cause leadership, bring change, etc. My hope is not in pastorates and church councils but in the Jesus-potential of a church (ie Christians) full of the gospel, including pastorates and church councils, etc.
In our poverty-stressed corner of South Africa there is a little church community in a backwater of unemployment, family-breakdown, violence, low-incomes and poor services. This gospel-filled group of people have put funds together to send orphans from their community to various universities. For these few youngsters, fees have indeed fallen. And there are many such examples of the church actively taking up the strain of this country’s future. I accept the “church” may be weak in public advocacy and we need to learn it better, but I don’t agree that means it is “missing it” or “has gotten it wrong” or “isn’t paying attention” or “isn’t there”.
Thanks Gary. Appreciate your words. When I talk about the church I am always thinking about the people who make up the body of Christ although this particular post was addressed to those who lead the Sunday gatherings associated with local church.
While most of what you said is correct in terms of broader picture strokes I think we have evidenced in SA in particular although the same can be said for Americaland and probably many other areas around the world, that the church as a whole – both official leadership and members – have not had a particularly good track record of speaking up and out and pitching up when it comes to apartheid in particular – a lot of leaders and people did but many more didn’t – and various other ills of the day – poverty, crime, corruption – I think the church did particularly well when it came to the xenophobia related incidents of five or more years ago but many other times ON THE WHOLE we have left a lot to be desired.
There are many issues that need to and are being dealt with some really in incredible ways all around the country, but I still believe that this last week #FeesMustFall was a significant movement that the church needed to take notice of and get involved with and again while many did, probably many more did not, hence the letter. The kingdom come as it is in heaven is all about seeing the rule of God played out in and around our lives and the call to reach out to the least of these a significant mandate for the church – this week those associated with #FeesMustFall were the least of these especially in the much wider implication of what it was about on a national scale. I may be wrong but I believe this needed to be a bit of a central focus for the local and national church this week completely as an outpouring of what it means in our lives to follow Jesus with everything.