The Church is under Threat

In this column I intend to explain the rationale for having a series that focuses on preparing strong leaders for the Church of tomorrow.

Caption: In this June 9, 2011 file photo, young people in Mexico City attend a guitar class called (Youth Orchestra) to keep themselves away from drugs and from dropping out of school. (CNS photo/Mario Guzman, EPA)

Is there a need for the Church to be overly concerned about the issue of preparing people to defend the Christian faith? Does the Church not do this in the normal way in which it has done over the last 2000 years? What is so special about the 21st century that someone should be suggesting that we need to develop people who could “defend” the Christian faith?

It is necessary to begin by pointing out that in every era the Christian faith faces certain challenges that demand that the true faith be proclaimed and defended.

For example, in the first few centuries of the Church’s life, there was serious persecution of believers by the Roman authorities, and Christians had to defend the faith by laying down their lives as martyrs. During the 15th and 16th centuries there were practices that gave rise to the Protestant Reformation and the Church was never to be the same again.

In our time we may feel that all is well, particularly we who are based in Southern Africa where practising the Christian faith may appear not to be facing any threat.

However, as witnesses of Christ we should always read the signs of the times and stand ready to defend the Gospel message of Christ. I would argue that if we correctly read the signs of the times, we should be able to detect at least three developments that are a serious potential threat to the Church:

• First, the rise of secularism and related developments.

In this regard, some countries that were traditionally Christian, especially in Europe, may now need to be converted back to Christianity. Africa now needs to send missionaries to these countries.

However, because of globalisation and modern information technology, we should not be surprised if secularism becomes a threat to the African Church.

• The threat of Islamisation of the world. Extremist groups in Islam, such as Boko Haram and ISIS, are seeking to establish Islamic states in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. Furthermore, wars in places like Syria and Yemen, and instability in North Africa, are encouraging the mass movement of populations from those countries to countries that were traditionally Christian.
• The “commercialisation” of the Christian faith. Popular movements are rising up, promising people wealth and good health. Using “miracles”, the leaders of these prosperity cults are luring people away from traditional churches that focus on spiritual issues.

There is a need for the Church to prepare leaders who can defend the faith of our fathers and mothers against these developments. The threat of secularism is such that young people need to be very strong to practise their faith against the power of peer pressure.

Islamisation requires of us Christians that we have enough faith to see the difference between Jesus and any human prophet.

Furthermore, the Christian way of spreading and defending the faith is different from the methods used by extremist Islamic groups. The followers of Christ should be people of peace, and our defence of the faith should be based primarily on the principle of Christians being peacemakers who convince others not by force, but by the validity of what they believe and the way they conduct themselves in everyday life.

Countering the commercialised forms of Christianity requires of us to go beyond the promise of material benefits to being truly evangelised, developing in spirituality and closeness to God, and the desire to serve humanity.