One of the problems of past Fiji governments was the poor getting poorer and marginalized. In my experience as a church member to being a church pastor and then being a church member again, I have seen that most churches in Fiji are like civil Government, they come up with all sorts of program especially imported ones that were designed for Individualistic societies especially Developed world and incorporate it into communal based societies and it does not work. I have been in the Youth Department and have seen a lot of program coming in the boat and we are all in the same boat as other churches with a lot of money wasted especially the poor members who have paid their seminars and camps. The other factor is that I see that we SDA church are no better than Methodist churches for we take the tithe, offering and then we encourage camps now and then, combines and only the poor members and farmers and casuals suffer in that they have to meet their obligations in the family, church, the Vanua. And most of the time the Vanua or tribe/village/kinship obligation is not done. That is the reason we are not successful in our outreach in the villages. We need to do church differently. Most members that come from village setting go back because the Vanua/Tribe still meet their daily needs when in trouble and members cannot meet them. I hope there will be a paradigm shift in how we do church in the islands and stop importing programs that was meant for the developed and individualistic societies. When my friends at the Prime Ministers Private Investigation Team were investigating new churches in Fiji especially the CMF or Every Home church and the Ratabacaca church, i found out when they took me out to their residences, I saw that they were dwelling in mansions in Fiji whereas the members were very poor and who would draw out their superannuation / retirement funds to build their churches while their pastors lived in luxury with allowance. I had to ask serious questions on how we SDA are different and saw that we are no better than them. The Methodist were far more morally better than us Christian denominations who take Tithe, Offering and burden our members in other collections for whatever apparent reasons. Most of us live like CEO of big companies while our members live in poverty and struggle and are obligated to meet every almost every month for a combine in a zone, district or whenever the Pastors from the HQ want to have a combine. I come to realize that pastors and church administrator should read Jesus Christs warning in Matthew 23 in which it states the burdensome the church leaders of his days were burdening its members while they do not lift a finger to their so called program. I hope church pastors and leaders think hard on these, if not we will be loosing members very soon with the rate of our programs being given to our members to attend when we have qualified pastors to do that program when he/she visits his designated church. Times are hard and we should ever put the life, care and interest of our members top priority and not ours who live in luxury with wages and traveling allowances and some housing allowances. I believe if Jesus was here on Earth he would take the members welfare as utmost priority then the church centralized strategy. He did that when on earth, he went out to the people and did not burden the people but was supported by the rich women and faithful few men to fund his mission as stated in the book of Luke. Paul did that and maybe this could be a challenge to our churches that are earning more to fund and help our poor churches around Fiji. Hope in the future the Prime Ministers Private Investigation Team will not be reactivated to investigate our Church treatment of financially burdening our members. I hope that our members will not renounce us like the people of Fiji have done away with the racial/kinship allegiance ot scrupulous, rich, aristocratic chiefs who have hoodwinked the I Taukei people in the past century of putting the blame on the other races for our plight and misfortunes. I would like us to remember Abraham Lincolns advice; YOU CAN FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME, YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME, BUT YOU CANNOT FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIMES. Its time that our church leaders do away with racial intolerance and bias. May God bless our members who struggle daily to meet their obligations to their family, children, and church and the Vanua and may church leaders help them in carrying them out, Dear Heavenly Father. May you help them in their daily struggle to be at peace so that they do not have any reluctance in their membership of your church. May you help our church leaders to view and treat their flock with care and freedom with peace.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 23:55:15 +0000
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