Tag: Africa and Worldview Page 2 of 3

The Great Lie America Sent to Tanzania

On August 10, 2016

I’m guessing that if I were to ask most of my readers if they are regular consumers of the preaching of Benny Hinn or Creflo Dollar, they would recoil in horror. We change the station if they happen to appear on our televisions (or maybe watch out of morbid curiosity), but mostly, we do our best to try to distance ourselves from that kind of Christianity. All that emphasis on wealth and health–they are not us.

We just not might realize that the Prosperity Gospel is so tightly connected to the American Dream that many of us have no idea that we’ve accepted parts of it. Those of us who wouldn’t have anything to do with Kenneth Copeland might still be willing to read The Prayer of Jabez or make Jeremiah 29:11 our “life verse.” Even the very popular Hillsong has some veins in the Prosperity movement, as evidenced by its founder’s early book entitled, You Need More Money. A Time magazine poll found that two-thirds of American Christians agreed that God wants people to prosper.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that Joel Osteen leads the largest church in America. Or that the majority of mega-churches in America preach Prosperity. Or that Prosperity preachers dominate the “Christian” airwaves, which means that this is the version of Christianity, more than any other, that gets spread to the rest of the world.

Including Tanzania.

As someone who is in Tanzania with the express purpose of training up church leaders to know, understand, and teach Scripture, it is difficult for me to express the depth of my distress in the Prosperity Gospel. It is embedded everywhere. And it came here from America.

Seen on thousands of cars in Tanzania

Of all the ugly things that America has exported, the Prosperity Gospel’s perversion of Christianity is one of the worst. It was born and nurtured in America during a time of economic prosperity, so it was easy for millions of American Christians to swallow it down along with the American Dream. And now….it’s here? In a country that is one of the poorest in the world, with a life expectancy of 60? Yet this “gospel” continues to tell people that if they just have enough faith, God will take away their poverty. And if that doesn’t happen, well, then obviously they deserve it. It’s nothing but a cruel joke from a God who obviously loves rich people more than them.

I once wrote that we joined Reach Tanzania because of Benny Hinn. From our very first term in Tanzania in 2001, we realized that American televangelists are the primary source of influence on Tanzanian Christians, including many pastors. Recently, I read the book Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler.

It helped me understand American Christianity a whole lot better. It helped me understand Tanzanian Christianity a whole lot better. And it turned my stomach to realize that so many of the struggles in the Tanzanian church came directly from America.

On the back of a Tanzanian city bus: “Jesus is the winner”

Seen in a Tanzanian supermarket: entire rack of books by Robert Schuller and Napoleon Hills

It’s time, Americans.

It’s time for this lie to end. It’s time for all of us to remember that God does not owe us the American dream. It’s time for us to apply all of Scripture, including the parts that guarantee persecution and trouble on this side of heaven. Including the parts where God does not always give us what we ask for. Including the parts where He is a God who allows (even creates!) prosperity and disaster (Is. 45:7), where both can be a part of His will, and where He intentionally, in wisdom and grace, uses suffering in the lives of His people. That God can heal, but sometimes He chooses not to. That God wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be healthy. That God wants us to love Him more than we love His gifts. That knowing Him, and being known by Him, is the greatest treasure in the universe.

For the American church, I am praying that this decent into chaos will knock some sense into its delusions of what God owes them. For Tanzania, I am praying for an African Martin Luther. A man (or many of them) of godly strength and humility who has the courage and the position to lead his people away from the lies that America sent them. May God help us all.

American Christians, You Might Need to Start Living Like Missionaries

By Amy Medina

On May 5, 2016

In How Americans Think, Living Like a Missionary, Thoughts on Missions

“I’m moving to Canada.”

Personally, Canada would be way too cold for me, but I get the sentiment. However, instead of fleeing for the hills, maybe it’s time for American Christians to start living like missionaries in their own country.

Before you get offended, let me assure you that I am in no way belittling the millions of American Christians who are already living out gospel-centered lives in their communities. As you learned in Sunday School when you were five, we all are missionaries.

But I’m not talking about living as a proclaimer of the gospel, I’m talking about living as if America is not your country. As outsiders. Exiles. As if you are living in a country that is not your own.

This is my life.

I live in a country that is not mine. But I am living in Tanzania as a long-term resident, so I care about what happens here. I prayed during the election. I follow the news. I rejoice with their successes and hurt for their losses. But this is not my country. I don’t expect that my political opinion matters much. I am not surprised if I experience animosity. I don’t expect to have many rights. I do expect to feel like an outsider.

It means that if I see things happening in Tanzania that I don’t like, I’m not going to be angry that my rights have been violated. This country has never existed for my sake. I might be sad, or frustrated, or I might be angry at the injustice others are experiencing. But this country doesn’t owe me anything.

This means that I am here as a learner. It doesn’t mean that I am going to agree with everything I see in this culture, but it does mean that I am going to do everything I can do understand it. I want to understand the worldview. I’m going to filter what I see in this culture through the lens of Scripture. I’m not going to assume that my way of doing things, or my way of thinking about something, is the best. If something bothers me, I will wait to make a judgment until I have considered what the Bible says about it.

I’m not going to hole up in a little community that believes everything the same way I do. I don’t sequester my children from people with different values or religions. My children might end up exposed to things that distress me, but I must trust God’s sovereignty with that. The alternative is to lose our ability to be light in our community.

I’m not looking for what I can get out of this country; I am looking for what I can give. I don’t expect businesses and government agencies to value the same things I do. I might be limited in the kind of work I can do here because my values are different. But that’s okay, because my goal isn’t to get rich, or to be safe, or to build my career. My goal is to further the gospel.

I expect that I am not going to be comfortable all the time. I will have to make sacrifices of comfort and convenience for the sake of God’s work. I realize that I will never be able to own a house here, and I know that there’s always a possibility that I will have to leave with the shirt on my back. I try hard to loosen my grip on my possessions, knowing that my stay here is temporary.

Above all else, I am going to do my best to love the people around me. That doesn’t mean that I unconditionally accept, or approve of, everything they are doing. Love and acceptance are not always synonymous. However, love is patient, kind, humble, generous, and long-suffering. I can love people in the way I spend my time, in the way I spend my money, in the way I engage discussion, and in the attitude I take towards culture. Even if people disagree with what I think, I want my reputation to always be as someone who loves.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth…..Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11)

The Dreaded Christian F Word

By Amy Medina

On July 26, 2015

In Other

Want to know the best way to make sure no one comes to your church meeting?

Tell them it’s about Fundraising.

Want to know a way the pastor could make that meeting really, really interesting? At the end of his pitch, he calls up the elders and deacons, hands them the microphone, and asks them to announce how much they plan to contribute.

Sound like a meeting that you would want to go to? Maybe if you’re not an elder or deacon.

Here’s what living in Tanzania has taught us about that Dreaded F Word. You might be surprised.

————————————————————————–

The church leader stood up front at the end of the service.

“Okay, everybody, our church’s 15th Anniversary Celebration is coming up! We are expecting about 300 people to be here, so it will be a big party! We need everyone to contribute. This is what we will need:

Seven crates of soda for $7 each

25 kilos of meat for $5 a kilo

2 kilo of carrots for $2 a kilo

40 kilos of rice for $1.50 a kilo…..”

And he continued on with the list. When he was done, he asked, “Now, who wants to contribute?”

A middle-aged man stood up. “I’ll contribute $7 for a case of soda!” he said enthusiastically.

Everyone clapped and cheered. An older teenage girl raised her hand. “I’ll contribute $2 for carrots,” she announced. Again, applause filled the room.

Then they really got going. The enthusiasm was infectious, and hands rose across the room. The church leader quickly wrote down each donor’s name in his book.

A sophisticated man in a business suit spoke up. “I’ll donate the money for 40 kilos of rice,” he called out.

This was a major contribution, and it produced a huge reaction from the crowd. The ladies brought out their joy cry, a high pitched undulating sound found only in Africa. The church leader up front laughed and nodded. “When you come to church wearing a suit, then you need to make big donation,” he joked. Everyone joined in the laughter.

After about 20 minutes, all the food was spoken for. A couple weeks later, the event went on without a hitch.

Mbezi Chapel’s 15 Year Anniversary Celebration

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A few months later, we were at a big open-air anniversary celebration for (the equivalent of) Inter-Varsity in Tanzania. There were a few hundred people in attendance, and many of them had come from other parts of the country or even other African countries.

There were speeches; there was singing; there was a celebration of God’s goodness over the years. Towards the end, one leader got up and started talking about the need for fundraising. He gave his appeal, and then grandly announced, “And I will start right now by donating $500!”

The speaker then invited the 20 or so other leaders to stand up and join him. Giving the mic to the first person in line, he asked for each leader to announce his or her donation. The bar was set high at $500, so most of the others agreed to the same amount or more.

Passing the mic down the line….

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offering boxes, right up front

Giving is public in Tanzania. The scenarios above are normal. Every Sunday, the offering basket is placed in the front of the church, and when it’s time in the service to give, everyone walks up (or dances!) and contributes.

As you can imagine, this has taken some getting used to for us Americans. We come from a church culture that is almost fanatically quiet about money. Pastors are terrified to preach on the subject. It’s taboo to talk about money, it’s shameful to ask for it, and monetary giving is just about the most secretive subject.

So who gets it right? The church culture which publicly announces its donations? Or the church culture which treats the information like FBI secrets?

Let me get one thing straight: The Tanzanian Church doesn’t always get it right. There are lots of abuses of money in certain churches here, like when elders are chosen based on their financial status or when churches seat the rich people up front in the comfortable seats and leave the poor to the benches in the back. But both the church and the ministry in my above examples are solid in their integrity and their commitment to God’s Word. Do we have something to learn from them?

In American church culture, we fixate on Jesus’ words in Matthew 6: Giving should be a secret. But what about the context? Jesus is teaching that we shouldn’t give in order to gain the praise of men. Directly after he talks about giving, he teaches that praying should also be in secret. Yet does that mean that we are never to pray in public? Of course not. It’s a heart issue.

Think about the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They were patterning their giving after Barnabus, who must have publicly made a donation to the Church (how else would they know about it?). God struck them dead not because they were making a public donation, but because they sought recognition that they did not deserve.

In II Corinthians 8, Paul uses the example of the Macedonian’s generosity to spur on the Corinthians to also give sacrificially. In fact, he even says,

I am not commanding you [to give generously], but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. What?!? It’s okay to encourage people to give more by comparing?

So what does this mean? Is it possible that the Tanzanian Church has it right in making the ministry of giving a public event?

How can that be a good thing? We American Christians protest! Won’t it encourage people to give for the wrong reasons? Won’t it make them puffed up and prideful?

Consider this: In Romans 12, giving is listed as a spiritual gift. Do you know anyone with the spiritual gift of giving? I do.

We value each and every member of our support team, but there are some who stand out as having the gift of giving. Since people are pretty tight-lipped about this sort of thing in our culture, I don’t know exactly how much they give in total. But by looking at their lifestyles, considering what they donate to us, and a few other clues, it’s obvious they have this gift.

One retired couple on our support team lives a comfortable life, but certainly not ostentatious. Yet they give away thousands (yes, you read that right) of dollars every month to missions and ministry.

Another retired couple has lived in the same middle-class tract house for 35 years. They give away 40% of their income every month to missions and ministry.

One family on our support team lives on one income and homeschools their large number of children. They live in a very modest tract house. Yet they give away probably at least $1000 a month to ministry and missions, most likely in addition to their tithe.

These people have the gift of giving. They are very intentionally living far below their income for the sake of the kingdom of God. Many of my readers know them personally. Yet, it’s not acceptable in our culture for me to give you their names.

Why is this?

In Romans 12, the spiritual gift of giving is listed right alongside of the gifts of leading, encouragement, and service. So why is it okay to have a “Pastor’s Appreciation Sunday” and a “Youth Ministry Worker’s Lunch,” but never show public appreciation for the givers? Doesn’t the pastor have just as much temptation to take that glory for himself? Won’t that put youth workers at risk for doing ministry with the wrong motives?

No matter what recognition we receive for any of our spiritual gifts, isn’t it our responsibility to make sure our hearts are right before God?

So what would be the benefit of publicly honoring those with the gift of giving? Well, for exactly the same reasons why we honor anyone’s gifts! Because it spurs us on to know that God is using us. Because it spurs others on to see how God is using them.

I’m playing the devil’s advocate today. Do I intend on publicly announcing our donors? Of course not. Am I even certain that the Tanzanian Church has got it right on this issue? No, I don’t. But it’s worth considering. It’s always worth taking a look at another country’s church culture and challenging our own, because we don’t always have it right.

What do you think?

Witchdoctors, Football, and Understanding Africa

By Amy Medina

On March 24, 2015

In How Africans Think

Recently an electrician (who is also our good friend) was working on our fuse box.

I was in the next room, and suddenly I heard him cry out in pain. Thinking he had shocked himself, I quickly asked him what was wrong.

He chuckled a bit. He held out both his hands for me to see. One was dramatically more swollen than the other.

Our friend is a leader in his church. He’s in his late 30’s, and he’s a strong guy. “Well, in church on Sunday, there was this woman with a lot of problems,” he explained. “She had a demon. Before I knew it, she pushed back my hand so hard that it swelled up like this.” He casually added, “It took 5 men to hold her down.” Three days later, his hand was still swollen.

Just an ordinary Sunday in a Tanzanian church. Our friend isn’t even Pentecostal.

A couple of weeks ago, Gil went to a football game at the national stadium with one of our former students. The game was between two rival club teams, and almost all of the 60,000 seats were filled. Tension was high. This game was a very big deal.

The buzz was that a lot of witchcraft had been performed before this game. And, apparently, during the game. This is not a team mascot or an over-zealous fan. This is a witchdoctor.

The teams took this very seriously. One team was so nervous about this that they made a large banner for protection–their own talisman. The goal keeper tried to hang it in his goal until the officials made him take it down.

So what do we do with this notion that there are supernatural spirits out there who can influence a person’s health, a person’s safety, or even the outcome of a football game? That these spirits can inhabit a person’s body and make her stronger than 5 grown men?

For those of us from the western world, fully indoctrinated in empiricism and rationalism, we simply don’t know what to make of this. I’m from the “non-charismatic” side of Christianity. I also am, by nature, an extremely skeptical person. So….are we going to claim that it’s all in their heads? That this is all a joke? That they just need to be educated?

Spend a few years in Africa, and even the most rational among you may be convinced otherwise.

Meet our friends Mark and Alyssa, who had 17 snakes appear in their house, out of nowhere. Or spend some time at an African mission hospital, where they have “prayer doctors” for those patients who are ill with sicknesses that defy modern medicine. Or talk to our friend “Mary,” who lost two sons at exactly 9 months old for unknown reasons, until she renounced her witchdoctor mother and turned to Jesus. Or meet a Tanzanian albino, who daily fears for his life because (wealthy, educated) people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for his body parts.

You cannot understand Africa until you understand this worldview. You cannot understand African politics, African poverty, African culture, and even the African Church until you understand animism.

In the same way, you can’t understand American culture until you understand that we are equally locked in empiricism and rationalism. Seeing is believing. Nothing is fact unless it can be proved by “science.” Anything else is shoved up in the category of “values” and is therefore personal, irrational, and undependable. This is the very philosophy that seeks to destroy Christianity in America. But haven’t we, as Christians, even allowed it to seep into our own thinking? Sure, Satan is real. Demons are real. But they aren’t actually going to manifest themselves, right?

I understand that there needs to be balance. I’m not saying that everyone with problems needs to be exorcised, or that there’s a demon in the sound system when it doesn’t work. The African Church needs to root out the superstition and Prosperity Gospel that seeks to permeate it; the American Church needs to root out it’s unequivocal trust in science and medicine.

Let us learn from one another. And remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Our Struggle Is Not Against Flesh and Blood: The Plight of Tanzania’s Albinos

By Amy Medina

On January 21, 2015

In How Africans Think

(witchdoctor advertisement in Dar es Salaam)

In Tanzania, albinos are regularly kidnapped, murdered, and their body parts used in witchcraft rituals.

It sounds like the plot to a horror movie. But it’s real.

Albinism is rare worldwide, occurring about 1 in 20,000. However, in Tanzania, for some unknown reason, it occurs much more often–1 in 1400 or maybe even more. And as you can imagine, in Africa, a person who lacks any skin or hair pigmentation sticks out a whole lot more than in light-skinned countries.

Sticking out is only one of their hardships. They also struggle with eye problems and a prevalence of skin cancer. But most horrifying of all, somewhere along the way, some people got an idea from the pit of hell that albino body parts can make you rich or successful or irresistible.

And the West gasps in horror and comes in with its answers.

Education!

Awareness!

We need to tell those poor ignorant Africans that albinos are people too!

Except then you find out that albino body parts sell for hundreds of dollars, and corpses are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Consider that the average income of Tanzanians is less than $1000 a year. Consider that traditionally, albino murders go up during election years. So who’s paying for these atrocities? Kind of flies in the face of the “poor ignorant African who just needs to be educated” theory.

In the West, we are all about rationality and science and education, aren’t we? And we think that’s the answer to cure All The Problems In the World. People just need to listen to logic, right?

Maybe instead what we need to do is educate ourselves about worldview in the majority world. It’s true that many Africans aren’t educated. But the reality is, many of them are, and they really don’t care about the western version of rationality and science.

They know that animistic spirituality has power. And they want it. In America, we decorate with ghosts on Halloween and watch freaky supernatural movies and laugh because it’s all just pretend. After all, isn’t that what science has taught us? Or can we consider the possibility of what Africans have long known…that there actually is power in witchcraft?

A couple of weeks ago, a four-year-old albino girl was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night. Enough anger went up that the Tanzanian government decided to solve the problem by banning all witchdoctors. A literal “witch hunt” will begin next week.

This law will probably have the success of U.S. Prohibition in the 20’s. Or of the New York City ban on soft drinks. Has a law of a nation ever succeeded in changing the heart of man?

I once saw a video of an organization in Africa who is trying to help communities with the problem of jiggers (bugs that lay eggs in people’s feet). “People think jiggers come through witchcraft,” the spokesperson said. “But we are educating them.” Yeah. Good luck with that.

Why do you think Ebola spread so fast? Because west Africans believe that if they don’t prepare dead bodies properly, their spirits will come back and haunt them. You can “educate” about germs and clean hands until you are blue in the face, but it’s hard to argue against ghosts.

I mean, just think about it. If somebody came to you and earnestly said, “Your seasonal allergies are caused by evil spirits,” would you give them the time of day? Of course not. Because in the West, we believe everything is Always About Science. Just as we won’t be convinced by their animism, they won’t be convinced by our science.

Because they know better. They are not stupid. It’s not all their imagination.

Yeah, there’s germs and genetics. But Evil is real too. It has power.

Have we forgotten?

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Education isn’t what is going to protect the lives of albinos. Nor is banning witchdoctors. Instead, Africans need to be transformed by the One who has crushed Evil’s head, and allow His Reality to change their Reality. Because that’s where the real power comes from, and with it, hope, courage, and love for others, which are all things witchdoctors can never offer.

And maybe, for us Westerners on the other end of the spectrum, who are always convinced that it’s just about science and education, we need to open our eyes to the Reality that there’s Something More out there than our eyes can see.