Friday, 27 February 2009

• Preachers from Poor Countries

  A friend of mine asked me "why don't we hear talented and anointed preachers and speakers from poor countries?"  The question came in the context of listening to Ravi Zacharias.  Of course my precious friend did not know that Mr. Zacharias "was" an Indian.  Yes, coming from the Indian subcontinent, I am proud to listen to men like Zacharias, Mangalwadi and D'Souza.  But my pride goes so far only when I realize that they are also basically the product of western connection and particularly indebted for their immigration to the west.  Of course we can not take away anything from the powerful and penetrating voice of Zacharias filled with the gems of truth as he takes us vividly from the pages of history, philosophy and science into the pages of Scripture.  We can not add to the depth of the knowledge and the philosophical clarity of Mr. Mangalwadi.  One will sit and wonder at the genius of Dinesh D'Souza when he debates the toughest atheistic philosophers of our age (rumor has it that Richard Dawkins does not want to face Mr. D'Souza). Men like these are a rarity not only in the east but the world as a whole. 

  But that thought provoking question from the friend makes me wonder whether we would still be talking about these three men if they did not have the privilege of building their lives and pursuing their dreams in the west?  Had they stayed in India (Vishal does live in India) and attempted to do what they have achieved without first going to the west, I wonder where they would be today.  Why is it so hard to see many others like them?  Certainly there is no shortage of individuals who posses great knowledge, conviction, and they have the intelligence that is required to achieve success in the academia.  There are great pastors with thousands of members in their congregations.  There are mission leaders who command large followings.  Some of them have produced great literary works as well.  Yet, when it comes to speaking in large conferences of international nature, why is it that we do not see speakers and preachers from the poorer nations?  The question is not limited to the large conferences of international nature only; it goes even deeper than that.  A small congregation in the wealthy nation feels hesitant to give the pulpit to a pastor who might be very successful in his nation, but comes from a poor country.  Now, the hesitation from the part of that congregation might be related to race, but not all the time.  Also, this hesitation is not a sudden change of attitude because the preacher comes from the poor country, but it is due the cumulative effects of decades and if not centuries of interactions between the rich and poor.  

  With few exceptions (if there are), when a preacher from a poorer nation travels for the purpose of ministry or preaching to the affluent part of the world, the aim of the preacher is than not the preaching of the Word, but it is sharing of the suffering and the lack of needs in his native land and particularly in his own personal life and ministry.  The sufferings and the needs in his native land are real, but when he presents these realities; the aim is to somehow generate pity in the listeners so that he or his agents (who invited him) will receive good offerings.  A pastor I know in my country lives in more than half of a million dollar villa and rides a Japanese Pajero, was speaking in a church in the United States of America (I happened to listen via Internet).  My ears could not believe what I was hearing!  That man told that congregation that he suffers even for food at times!  What a pity!  If I was in that congregation, I would have emptied my wallet for this poor little man who was somehow trying to help God to evangelize Nepal.  Not a word of knowledge or wisdom or faith was given to that congregation, and if another Nepali preacher comes to their town, they will make sure that the poor country preacher must be given the time to share his suffering, but surely not the entire time of the preaching of the word (sermon).

  A church in South Korea still talks about a Nepali preacher who once asked for ten minutes to share about his ministry and took an entire hour and the pastor nearly lost his job.  Once in a southern state of America, two Nepali pastors happened to visit the same church on the same day and did not know what to speak because all they had prepared to say would be said by the other as well!

  There is no doubt that there is great poverty in nations like ours and the needs are too many.  Lack of finance impedes our success and progress in life and in ministry.  Dreams and hopes are dashed due to the lack of resources and life gets old very quickly.  Against this backdrop, materialism invites us with both arms wide opened and the American Dream becomes our ambition.  Whatever the talents and the ability God had gifted us with; we use them, not for his glory but for our ambitions of achieving financial success.  In order to achieve financial success, we dramatize, exaggerate and even fabricate all kinds of reports of our ministry and the sufferings.  Whenever we get chance to preach in the affluent nations, we beg.  Soon, such preachers lose all sense of the Call of God in their lives and their tormented conscience drives them away from knowledge and nobility.  Some keep on visiting the west in order to gain more (still faking as ministers) and others, after accumulating enough, fall in the sensual pleasures of this world and soon they disappear from the scene.  So many gifted and talented men and women of God have squandered their influence and future just like the prodigal son.

  Therefore, to answer my precious friend's question, first; it is hard to invite a preacher from poorer nation because no one knows whether he will preach or beg.  Second; when given the chance, the preachers from poor countries fail to see this as a ministry unto God and begin to think that it is a ministry unto them; provided by God to raise much needed support.  Third; very few of them believe that they can minister to the affluent because the poverty has damaged the mind and the spirit in such a way that they accept their inferior place as God given.

  But, then, what about Zacharias, Mangalwadi, and D'Souza?  Well, I have only met Malgalwadi and he is not into the ministry in the way we mostly understand.  He began as a social reformer and he did very well in my opinion.  As most philosophers, I think he recognized the futility of material gains alone.  Zacharias?  He immigrated to the west while he was still young.  He probably did not suffer the same financial hardship of an Indian pastor or a preacher.  And, D'Souza is too wealthy to fall into the kind of temptations I have mentioned above.  His one lecture or a debate can fetch him a life time of salary of an India pastor.  And of course this he is able to do because he too abandoned Indian nationality for a better one.

  Will we ever be able to hear a preacher from a poor nation proclaiming the powerful words of life?

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