Valour or Valiance

I attended a scintillating men's conference over the weekend. As one may expect, issues revolved around men's position in society and his default role as a leader. The conference was to be a religious one - organised by a church and outsourced to another church leader. It was themed: Men of Valour, taken form the biblical character of Gideon who after being confronted by the angel of God, rose from the dungeon of triviality and routed the armies of the enemy. The enemy in the context of the conference was more political than religious - emulating the Gideon saga. The enemy was named as the leadership vacuum in our country. The conference was therefore well positioned to rouse men, particularly Christian men, into filling that vacuum. That vacuum was said to be showing itself through corrupt practices, presumably in the government, and education that needed an overhaul, among other things. The conference was relatively well attended, with delegates coming from different parts of KZN. Notwithstanding, attendees consisted of 95% white men aged 55 on average. In that respect, the organisers and the leader of the conference would come from that sector. The first session was entitled: The Call. This set the foundation and the direction of the entire conference. This session started with supper: pizza, that men struggled to finish - perhaps those who served it were over-generous! This was followed by a time of worship - singing lead by one of the local worship leaders. After brief introductions, the leader of the conference took the podium. There were a couple of prophetic words directed firstly to the leader of the host church, then to the leader of the visiting church and lastly to another fellow who is probably a church leader as well. The prophetic words spoken to these leaders respectively were about the foundation from where many ministries would sprout, the mentoring 'anointing', and the pioneering spirit. A brief moment of kneeling followed as directed by the leader of the conference who also led in prayer. His presentation was punctuated by bursts of video clips that were meant to rouse machismo spirit. There were constant references to the deteriorating situation in the country stemming from leadership vacuum. 1998 was mentioned as representative the golden era where the country was making strides economically, due to franchises that were opening from the international community. It must be remembered that in that year, the incumbent was Nelson Mandela who had taken leadership from Frederik De Klerk. The leader of the conference referred to De Klerk as typifying the character of biblical Moses, and Mandela, Joshua who succeeded him. The main agenda of the conference therefore, was to forge a powerful body of men, who would bind themselves with an oath to act valiantly in rescuing the country from the present turmoil and perhaps from plunging into the apocalyptic future. By way, perhaps, of accentuating the situation, a discursive between the conference leader and one pretty wealthy freedom fighter who also rubbed shoulders with Nelson Mandela was quoted as follows: "I'm so afraid of the present situation in our country. It was better during apartheid because at least there was hope." It must be mentioned that the conference leader must be pretty wealthy himself - having owed two or three Debonairs Pizza franchises at some stage, and in addition to running a multi-satellite congregation with video-streaming at present, has the guy who spread the Wimpy brand throughout the world sitting in his board. This has given me a lot of food for thought - perhaps it has roused me to sharpen my own sword and must warn the reader of the slicing effects. Whilst the observations about the state of country may not be far from true, the direction from which they arise and the manner of presentation is nothing but suspicious. Here is the group of predominantly white men (95%), who are discontent about the leadership of the country which is predominantly black. One obviously may perceive this as missing the point, but it's difficult not to look at it in that way because it's a political narration and therefore must be unmasked through political interrogation. In that respect, one may also want to ask whether there were any such conferences in the past that were meant to dismantle the apartheid apparatus through Christian men. The cry to return to 'Christian' principles through which our country was supposedly governed in the past invoke a lot of questions. In fact, the subtle reference to the better 'apartheid days' is enough to instill a lot of fear to those who suffered under that brutal regime. It is also easy to interpret this as an economic concern or hunger for control. When the reins were on the white men, there was very little if any movement towards fighting the brutalities of inequalities. In fact, one may easily infer that because they were largely economically favoured, the suffering of the other was of little or no concern. It was also through 'Christian' narratology that the oppression of the black man was cemented. Starting from the colonial powers who used religion as means of subjugating the natives, arguing that they were barbaric and in need of civilisation which could only be achieved when they ditch their sense of self and embrace the self of the other (the white in the guise of a missionary) through such things as dress code and naming, a South African black person is still largely viewed suspiciously by a white man even when they are both professing the same faith - unfortunately many a black man is still in pains to gain the favour of a white man by such things as adopting their language or emulating their culture which they pin to economic cache. Because there is nothing that God cannot do, the very apparatus that were meant to obfuscate the African man became the source of salvation - God using at times many missionaries who were either genuine or simply out for an adventure. Through this civilising cum colonising agenda, the supremacy of white men has largely remained untainted - or when challenged has been quickly indexed as racially charged. What then is the central problem in our country? Or to ask this differently, what ought to concern Christian men? It is my proposition that our country and the world generally has barely moved from the supremacy of one over the other. Churches remain largely racialised. Instead of pursuing one new man in Christ whose label does not lean to a particular racial group per se, but strives to form the likeness of God in all, churching has rather been franchised into a monetary commodity. You hear comments about how a particular church struggles, and you will hear alongside how less money they generate. The more successful ones are measured is monetary terms represented by the number of congregants which is indirectly pinned to the amount of revenue generated. The enemy has therefore shifted from being spiritual to economical. There are less worries if any about the wide open gates of hell where multitudes are entering (even staunch members of congregations and even leaders). Instead of being concerned about the dying multitudes, the concern is about criminal elements that are jeopardising our country's economic standing. Even the many alliances that are formed by different congregations, seem to bolster their economic strength which get shared by a few. One thing therefore that the Christian men must rise to is to dismantle the demon of segregation which is so rife in the South African Church. The government and societal scourges are symptomatic of the spiritual decay in many heretic congregations. In fact, the issues that are confronting congregations in general would make the government look like a saint. The superiority complex of the white man even within Christendom has not been interrogated; the same can be said about the inferiority complex of the black man especially in South Africa. One white man's visitation into a black congregation immediately conjures language interpretation so as not to be left out. I would not want to suggest this as inferiority, because the same is done for a non-white visitor who does not speak the local language. Africans are generally accommodating and hospitable. But when you visit a white congregation, all congregants are assumed to be speaking the language of the dominant group, be it English or Afrikaans, without any thought of linguistically accommodating others. In fact, there is no slightest attempt to accommodate; visitors must do the accommodation or leave. At the end of the day, one wonders whether we are still propagating the biblical culture or it's simply the whiteness culture. The other thing that Christian men need to rise up to is the capitalisation of God's mandate. Church has become a huge enterprise. More and more you hear of connections, friendships, partnerships and so forth. Whilst there is generally nothing wrong with that, you gather however that such friendships and connections work as a financial support base for those who are members. Narratives such as being financially sustained by such partnerships during a 'wilderness experience' is becoming all too common. The advancement of the Kingdom of God is simply reduced to the number of partnerships that one can forge. There is an endemic favour of the global at the expense of the local. Being local is either regarded as backward or limiting, alas, to the total neglect of the common. Paul was correct in asserting that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who believe, is the power of God unto salvation. The message of Jesus Christ still remain a no go area. Many strategies are being forged and discussed that will make Christians not appear foolish in presenting the Good News. They argue that if you are to minister to Kings and Presidents, then you need to have some influence, either politically or financially. They say, you can't simple pitch up on foot and think you can say something life-changing to a King. One thing they forget is that Paul was promised by God that he will stand before Kings and Emperors as a witness for Christ, and he did that in chains. For the foolishness of God is stronger than the wisdom of men. There is an outcry to return to the basics of the unadulterated gospel of the Lord Jesus. Today, there is very little preaching if any on repentance; instead people talk of adjustments! No wonder, salvation seems to have lost its power and people continue in bondage of sin whilst professing to be saved. When the throes of pain seem to awaken them into repentance, they are lulled into believing that they are being attacked by the demon of guilt - they are then assured that whatever state they may be in, heaven is their home. These are the issues that must concern Christian men.