Dr Asangba Tzudir
For any Church to thrive, trust is of paramount importance, and a thriving church is one that delivers hope, comfort, healing, peace and unity to their congregation. But humans are fragile and erring beings, and because of which this trust can be easily broken. Once it is broken, it will be difficult to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of the congregation. While Church signifies the coming together of believers, first and foremost, it calls for trust amongst their full time workers and other staffs, and the larger congregation, and between the church and its community. This brings us to the question of how the leaders of the church can work to build trust.
Beginning with the pastors who have been called to love, serve, shepherd the Church and the community at large have a pivotal role to play in the entire process of trust building and which stems from serving the Lord and the people whole-heartedly with a sense of purpose, duty and integrity. The spirit of purpose, duty and integrity also needs to be imbibed amongst each co-worker who comes with different personalities, characters, strengths and understanding. The greatest challenge in trust building is to create the alignment, the meeting point within the larger purpose and call of the Church.
This alignment of the ‘call to mission’ of the Church needs to be extended to the larger congregation and the community at large, for a church cannot run like the rail tracks that run parallel without having a meeting point. The extension to the larger congregation and community can happen only when there is an element of transparency in all their acts within and outside the church so that there is a feeling of trust. Shifting personalities within and outside will very easily derail the trust building process. In a world of troubled materialism, having the NOTW (Not Of This World) attitude is necessary for giving the focus on the larger purpose and mission of the Church. Otherwise, one can be easily whirl-pooled in the river of shifting personalities.
Only when a strong upright character is exhibited with a sense of purpose focusing on the larger mission and goals, trust grows. While a Church thrives by listening and following the will of God, a strong character is integral to understanding God’s will and also in doing the right thing. The frailty of humans and the ‘weakness of the will’ makes one choose the easy way out while diverting from what is right and also the right thing to do. A strong character should be founded on the principle of Biblical integrity. A strong character founded on Biblical integrity still needs commitment in delivering the larger mission objectives without diverting away, and this is also the best way to build trust.
Temptations are bound to happen but having a strong commitment will act as an impetus from giving into temptations or choosing the easy way out. Within such a strong premise, a trusting relationship will grow amongst within and outside the Church. But above all, in the building of trust, we as erring beings also need to acknowledge and submit our weaknesses before God and man as witnesses.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
