Once upon a time, Christianity was institution-challenging; it rattled the establishment and changed the course of history.
Now the Church is the institution and seems preoccupied with maintaining its position in a shifting society rather than seriously challenging itself or anyone else. This kind of complacency renders it blind to its privilege and slow to take charge in changing its culture, and the culture it exists within, for the better.
While we are happy to piously pick up the pieces of a broken society, we shy away from fighting the structures that create it. We talk about renewing our minds but practice silent conformity. At the very best, this exposes the Church to be clueless, out of touch and ineffective. At the worst, it reveals the Church to be steeped in hypocrisy and complacency. Either way, the gospel we proclaim rings hollow.
There is a growing prevalence of churches that are essentially centres for motivational speech, with life coach rhetoric repackaged appropriately. The sermons sound like a life hack article and any failure in achieving your desired outcome is really a reflection of your poor faith.
Consequently, the world is becoming less religious. As the millennial generation moves into adulthood more and more members are displaying less religious fervour. They are sick of the church’s business-as-usual system and find the church to be defined by hypocrisy, moral bankruptcy, spiritual emptiness, and a hub of selfishness and greediness, that turns deaf ears to pressing issues like depression.
New research by Barna found that about 30 percent of people believe they can find God outside of the church, while 20 percent reported feeling that God is missing from the church. Some people who once loved their church are seeing disgruntled and leadership falling into decay despite the elaborate buildings and programs.
Unadulterated, the church is not dying, rather, it’s failing to live up to the model that Jesus Christ intended it to be when he founded it over 2000 years ago.
A story is told about Mkhulu Makhanya, a South African preacher and Christian with suicidal thoughts transitioned to a happy traditional healer after years of fighting depression.
As a staunch Christian who used the gospel to preach life to others, his sermons did not save him as he was in purported denial about his ancestral calling to be a traditional healer.
In primary school, he says he would often predict the weather or days when the school bus would arrive late while sometimes gathering his peers around to tell their fortune. But the Soshanguve healer (Pretoria, Gauteng), now 34, thought it was common to be “in tune” with such abilities.
“My entire life I grew up as a Christian boy in the Methodist church. I joined a confirmation class and started fooling around with preaching, trying to be funny. But it caught fire and I realised I could actually preach.
“As time went on, I realised I was getting good at the ministry thing and I would preach. Apparently, I was an odd teacher as I told stories outside the dogma. Christianity highlights the presence of men in the Bible, but when I looked at it, the first disciples of Jesus were women. Jesus’ best friend was a woman. So, I always focused on such things and I think that’s what made me an interesting preacher.”
Dressed in a red leopard-print cloth tied around his waist and a medallion hanging from his neck, he recalled how his life was chaotic, despite following the word of God. Applying to be a minister at the church came with turmoil, hardships and what seemed like bad luck.
“Application forms would disappear, the person in charge of admitting me suddenly doesn’t like me. On the other hand, school was tough for no reason. I would repeat the course I really enjoyed doing, Electrical Engineering, so many times. Marks would go missing or I would suddenly get sick in the morning of my exam and fail to write. I felt numb, misplaced and had no sense of purpose.”
Feeling depressed, Makhanya contemplated ending his life. He, however, found the desire to live one night when he mysteriously fell asleep while planning his death and dreamt of his late aunt.
“She said the gift of life is to achieve peace.
If you are a peaceful human being, you will be peaceful in your afterlife. I then woke up 10 minutes later and that dream absolutely took away my desire to kill myself. I then decided to go back to my roots and consult a traditional healer.”
During the consultation, Makhanya was told of his calling, which took him by surprise and left him in denial for three years. His denial came from Christianity’s ideas of African spirituality: “It was demonic, dirty and backwards and once you go into it, you go deep into poverty. Plus, Christianity is cool.
“I decided to run away to Switzerland with my Swiss girlfriend. But shortly after I arrived, I broke my leg while snow sliding and was told it would have to be amputated. I decided to pray for it every day and the surgery actually went smooth.
I flew back home and healed.”
Makhanya accepted his calling in 2016 where he went through a five-month initiation process that involved isolation, dreams and visions and learning about muti, herbs and healing.
“I got to appreciate Jesus more after that because I realised the miracles performed by Jesus were spiritual, but not limited to Him.
As healers, we get to experience things that Christians only talk about. Things like turning water into wine is normal for us. We are allowed to bend the laws of nature to manifest what is called miracles. Anyone who is allowed into the school of mysteries can perform such things.”
Source_Citizen.co.za
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