Essay 6 August 2007
At grassroots there is a gulf between the work environments of the clergy, as the teachers, and their parishioners.
Churches now need to be flexible and conscious that the needs of their members are changing faster than ever before.
Education leads to more knowledge and critical judgement.
Increasing wealth gives independence and confidence. The technological revolution gives access to unlimited information.
THE LAYMEN live very busy and competitive working lives. They must be dynamic and respond to change. They have no respect for doing things the way their fathers did before them.
As work becomes more complex there is increasing dependence on the advice and information from other specialists.
The churches are the specialists who should provide relevant teaching to equip Christians to live according to God’s will. The more complex their the more people they deal with and therefore the more they need faith to guide them in what is right and wrong.
A common injunction by preachers is to read the Bible. This sounds noble but it is inappropriate. It is like advising that to be able to cure their medical problems we should study medical journals. Most Christians do not have the time or the ability to be untrained amateurs. They need meaningful teaching to guide them in following God in their busy lives.(Essay Ten)
It is the clergy must be the specialists who provide the messages of faith and their services of worship and prayer to help them to live Christian lives.
If they attend church once a week, this only amounts to about 1% of their waking hours, plus any time spent in prayer or participating in church groups.
The other 99% of their time is spent among people in work or recreation.
This is where they need to be equipped to serve Jesus.
THE CLERGY are fulltime in what is clearly God’s work. They run their churches. They are compassionate and try to help those with problems such as sickness, bereavement or personal failure, in their flocks.
Many churches are also active in substantial good works, such as missionary teaching and charitable contributions to those in need.
In Zimbabwe churches gave made great contributions to education and medical services especially in remote areas. These noble activities are often led by the clergy.
However their most important duties must be spreading the gospel and the spiritual ministry to their parishioners. As noted above, the laymen need succinct specialised Christian teaching to guide them in their busy lives.
Clergy, on the other hand, have to present their teaching, as defined by the rigid manmade dictates of their conservative leaders. They are not answerable to their parishioners but to the hierarchy of their church.
This limits their flexibility to serve the spiritual needs of the dynamic laymen. They may therefore fail to meet the needs of their demanding and discerning laymen, in their role as the teachers of Christianity.
Worship Those who attend worship, do so to recharge them for their Christian living. The clergy should be able to provide this. This is like the motorist who owns his vehicle to travel. He has to depend on specialists to service and maintain it, in order that he can travel.
CONCLUSION The laymen are dynamic, flexible and pragmatic. The clergy are constrained by the rigid and conservative church practices and doctrines. If they cannot provide effective Christian Teaching for everyday, they are failing in their purpose as the representatives of Christ. Worse still the laymen are not getting the help they need to live a full Christian life. This in no way reflects on the clergy, they are prisoners in the system of deceptions. Their church organisations should discard their manmade deceptions and return to Christ’s simple teaching.
