Dr. Asangba Tzüdir
The word communication finds itself woven in many meanings and thereby the difficulty of communication. On the facet of communication in relation to the church, the church today finds itself in a more pronounced predicament arising out of what to communicate and how to communicate. Within two fold objectives, communication becomes paramount - mapping the objectives, purpose and vision of the church; and identifying the component of the church within an all-inclusive praxis.
Many churches today finds itself engaged in activities all year round but often fail to connect with its members. Being enmeshed in its routine activities makes it more of a statistical church than one that is driven by purpose and vision.
This happens because the church fails to clearly envision the objectives and how it should communicate to its members and the society. More precisely, the church should be very clear about its broad objectives and what it wants to communicate. So long as there is no dialogue and communication among the church members, it will be very difficult for the church even to work out its vision and objectives. The various activities may keep the church engaged but somehow neglect the wishes, desires and needs of the church members.
Again it is very important to be aware of the component of the church members. There are good people in the church; there are bad people in the church; there maybe even thieves in the church; there maybe drinkers in the church; there maybe members in the church who are just there to criticize; then there are members who hardly come to church and there are a whole lot of different kinds of people who comes to the church with different kinds of thirsts, wants, desires and longings. Nonetheless, they are the sheep of the church and each sheep should be treated as an equal and as important as the other is. This is where the church needs to be inclusive while at the same time communicating effectively by way of understanding differences in a way that it truly connects with the members giving them a sense of security, hope and the real purpose of being a Christian as a living body of Christ.
Today, many churches are scared to communicate because there is hardly any culture of dialogue and thereby the danger of further fragmentation. Sadly, the culture of dialogue that would provide the impetus towards the process of church building (God’s kingdom) and its associated envisioning has found itself in a virgin territory. Further, the church is looked upon to communicate the ‘truth’ especially at a time when corruption has reached astounding proportions. What should be the voice of the church? Is the church willing to communicate the truth and say that the church has no place for corruption? A certain pastor of a church once remarked that the church will not accept corrupt money. Such communication of the objective of truth in itself gives a sense of direction to the members.
For a church to effectively and holistically communicate, first it should formulate a clear vision and concretize the roles it wants to engage in positing itself as a ‘meaningful’ purpose driven church. This calls the need for dialogue, to listen and to share.
Today, the church needs to reorient on the objectives for which it exists and then communicate so as to douse off the ‘silent war’ that is going on in churches causing injury to the members as well as to the kingdom of God. Finally, the church should be able to deliver the message about what it wants to convey to the congregation and to the world.
(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir is Editor with Heritage Publishing House. He writes a weekly guest editorial for the Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
