Dr Asangba Tzudir
The 88th Annual Council of the NBCC held recently resolved for the “faithful stewardship of the resources God has entrusted to the Church” and which calls for utmost transparency and accountability in Church’s action. This is indeed a very timely resolution where materialism continues to create a blinding effect on beings and which has also affected the church as well. Sadly, we generally ‘exalt’ and continue to produce narratives along the dialectics of materialism. A process of changing and shedding off the materialist narrative should begin from the Church. Only then can any Church thrive structurally as well as grow spiritually.
Now, for any Church to thrive, trust is of paramount importance, and a thriving church is one that delivers hope, comfort, healing, peace and unity to their congregation. These are aspects that inform either the presence or lack of trust. However, it won’t simply come unless there is transparency and accountability and which adds to the whole understanding of trust. Trust cannot simply be taken loosely, and so when it is about trust it requires building healthy relationships and gradually with time, trust can be build within such healthy relationships.
On one level it is also about having trust on the other/s. However, on another level, it is not simply about having trust on other/s but involves a conscious and concerted process of trust building and where transparency and accountability needs to be exhibited professionally and which tantamount to the structural as well as spiritual growth of the Church. The weakness of the will being a human condition coupled with the frailty and erring nature of human beings makes trust building very difficult because it creates a diversion from the right and also the right thing to do. Trust is something which can be easily broken and once it is broken, it will be difficult to mend, and even if it is healed, the scar of broken trust will remain because, forgiveness may be sought and given even truly but so long as memory remain to forget becomes a difficult proposition.
This brings us to the question of how the leaders of the church can work to build trust. Beginning with the pastors who have been called to love, serve, shepherd the Church and the community at large have a pivotal role to play in the entire process of trust building and which stems from serving the Lord and the people whole-heartedly with a sense of purpose, duty and integrity. The spirit of purpose, duty and integrity also needs to be imbibed amongst each co-worker who comes with different personalities, characters, strengths and understanding. The greatest challenge in trust building is to create the alignment, the meeting point within the larger purpose and call of the Church.
This alignment needs to be extended to the larger congregation and the community at large, for a church cannot run like the rail tracks that run parallel without having a meeting point. The extension to the larger congregation and community can happen only when there is an element of transparency and accountability in all their acts within and outside the church so that there is a feeling of trust. Shifting personalities within and outside will very easily derail the trust building process. A strong character founded on the principle of Biblical integrity is integral to understanding God’s will and also in doing the right thing. This will also create a niche to change the dialectical materialist narrative.
On the whole, even as NBCC resolves for transparency and accountability in Church’s action, it should be reminded that resources especially money should be ‘handled’ and used not only judiciously but with the understanding that whatever money comes to Church is a loan from God, and that, we are only borrowers making us debtors and not masters, and which demands using it wisely and accordingly in order that it serves the larger God’s purpose.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes weekly guest editorials for The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
