A Relevant Church

Dr Asangba Tzudir

The entire Christendom invoke God’s Kingdom in pronouncing the Lord’s Prayer and which is the meeting point of the believers of Christ in the quest for building God’s kingdom. The challenging question being, ‘in Heaven and on Earth’ and the coming together of communities as believers without ‘borders.’  

Currently, division and fragmentation on various lines, threaten the harmony and well-being of the society, the intensity of which compels the Church to take a more pro-active role in invoking God’s Kingdom in ‘Heaven and on Earth.’ This calls for how the Church can forge unity and harmony among the members as well as the Churches. Else, the Church will become a meaningless entity and the believers as merely illusory beings if it does not go beyond the boundaries of the Church. 

Looking at the Churches in Nagaland, besides the tribe’s Church, a good number of independent Churches coming with a mix of communities provides a different spectrum and meaning of worship. But there seems to be a struggle especially within the tribal Churches where it finds scheduled within various ‘routine’ activities running through the calendar year like a ritual. Being enmeshed in its routine activities makes it more of a ‘statistically competitive’ Church than one that is driven by purpose and vision within the fold of building God’s Kingdom ‘in Heaven and on Earth’ and to bring members and Churches spiritually as well as socially together in ‘fellow-ship.’ 

However, it is important for the Church to engage in a self-reflection where the ‘Heaven on Earth’ seems to have taken a U-turn towards material provincialism. Consequently, religious resources and sermons on love, peace, unity, harmony and togetherness in building a cohesive society have failed to generate meaning and its desired outcome. 

How then should the Churches communicate with the members and also with the Churches? The word communication itself finds intricately woven in many meanings, making it difficult to function especially where different kinds of people gather with different thirsts, wants, desires and longings. It is also made more pronounced by the various forms of perception in relation to the Church so also the existing realities that has created division.

For a church to effectively and holistically communicate, first it should formulate a clear vision beyond materialism and concretize the same if it wants to engage in positing itself as a ‘meaningful’ purpose driven Church, and one that calls for a spiritual awakening among the members and also the Churches within the fold of love and unity. Today, the Church needs to reorient on the objectives for which it exists and then communicate by going beyond the boundaries of the Church. The way forward lies in re-mapping the perspectives to generate meaning and also for the Church to stay relevant. 
 
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)