• Directories
    • Business Directory
    • Church Directory
    • Organization Directory
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Help
  • Log In

MENUMENU
  • Learning
        • Leader’s Edge
          • Author Interviews
          • Book Summaries
        • Book Reviews
          • Book Look
          • EMQ Book Reviews
        • Publications
          • Anthology
          • Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ)
          • Missiographics
        • Podcasts
          • The Mission Matters
          • Members Only Feed
          • Missions Podcast DirectoryNew
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
          • UkraineNew
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Bible Certificate
    • Church Missions Coaching
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • ImproveNew
    • Mission Jobs
    • Missions DataNew
    • Publish
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission App
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Premier Events
          • Mission Leaders Conference
          • On Mission
        • Upcoming Events

          • Webinar: An Introduction to the Theology and Practice of Cross-Cultural Risk
            Thu May 26 2022, 12:00pm EDT
          • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
            Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
          • From Harlem to the World - the Local Church Mobilized for Global Missions
            Wed Aug 3 2022, 01:00pm EDT
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missions DataNew
          • Missiographics
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • Volunteer
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
          • Our Contribution
          • Meet the Team
          • Board Members
          • History (1917–present)
        • Our Beliefs
          • Statement of Faith
          • Community Standards
        • Awards
        • Partner with Us
          • Advertise
          • Donate
          • Sponsorships
          • Volunteer
        • Help
          • Contact Us
          • Advertising Specs
          • Branding Guidelines
  • Join
        • Learn
        • Learn what you cannot learn anywhere else.

        • Meet
        • Meet people you otherwise won’t meet.

        • Engage
        • Engage in a community like none other.

          • Benefits
          • Benefits for Churches
          • Pricing

Sponsored Content

Upcoming Events

  • Webinar: An Introduction to the Theology and Practice of Cross-Cultural Risk
    Thu May 26 2022, 12:00pm EDT
  • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
    Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • From Harlem to the World - the Local Church Mobilized for Global Missions
    Wed Aug 3 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Innovation Leaders Discussion
    Mon Aug 8 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Peer 2 Peer for Communications and Marketing Staff: Communications and the Mission of God: Aligning organizational communications with God's purposes
    Thu Aug 18 2022, 01:00pm EDT

View all events »

Topics

author interview CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Disciple Making Discipleship Focus Future Innovation Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Member Care Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 MLC2021 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Podcast Presenter Pursuing Partnerships Series Research Risk Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached Weekly Roundup Women Women in Leadership

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Rwanda: Where Was the Church?

Posted on July 1, 1995 by Ted EslerJuly 1, 1995

by Gary Scheer

What influence should the church have had?

C-130 transport plane whisked our family out of the violence-wracked city of Kigali. Relief. A woman across from us cried hysterically—she had seen 15 of her loved ones slaughtered. Deep sadness. As the inferno of violence consumed Rwanda, we asked: “What could the church have done to stop it, or turn it aside, or at least dampen it?”

On Sundays in Rwanda we used to see well-dressed neighbors walking to church on every road. Yet, last year these same neighbors slaughtered each other. I don’t assume that all those people walking to church were all walking in the steps of Christ, the Lord. But the committed minority of the church was significant, 5 percent of the population, and the influence of the church was strong in the lives of another 75 percent of the people.1 Why was there no moderation, no dampening — just hatred and fear, farming tools becoming weapons, neighbors cutting down each other as enemies?

Jesus said evil will grow stronger in influence and activity as the end approaches. Does that mean the church is inherently powerless in the face of evil? Or did weaknesses in the Rwandan church keep it from having the impact it should have had?

What influence should the church have had? We expect Christians to have some kind of positive moral influence, don’t we? Rwandans are very gregarious—in the market, ceaseless chatter; on the bus, spirited debate even about spiritual issues.

One in 20 people at the market, at the work place, in the hillside community is a committed Christian. Should not that one life seed the other 20 with Christian perspectives and truth? This is especially true since 15 of the other 19 people acknowledge Christ as good and the Bible as valid and right.

What’s more, in these latter years, Rwanda opened the doors to multiparty democracy. Hawkers of political pamphlets hit the streets. The colorful banners of a dozen political parties flew on poles. The opportunities for Christians to speak out and act on issues of righteousness were immediately multiplied.

So where was the church? Why did there seem to be no force bumping the nation off its course of hatred, fear,and violence? How did so much hatred and fear spread unchecked throughout Rwanda?

I worked with the Rwandan church for 15 years. Following are some things that could have curtailed the impact of the church on Rwandan society. Could these factors have weakened the church and allowed it to be bowled over by the onslaught of evil?

1. An entrenched, self-protective church leadership. In Rwanda a young man who wants to “climb,” to get ahead, will go to Bible school. Pastors have prestige and influence. They gain access to foreign money and government officials. Even those who don’t start out as climbers get caught up in the personal benefits of the office. Many slowly shift from shepherding to climbing. Climbing demands snuggling up to power sources, not criticizing them.

2. A church dependent on the government for its existence. Churches could not legally function in Rwanda without government licensing. Until recently licensing demanded that the churches play the government’s game: “You build hospitals, schools, development projects. We allow you to do your spiritual work on the side.” Staying on the good side of the local mayor became as important as staying on the good side of God (sometimes more so). As the Rwandans put it, you don’t throw stones at the milk bottle.

3. A perspective that said, “Politics is a crude and corrupt game unfitting for Christians.” Even as church leaders nurtured their relationships with the politicians, party politics was seen as too dirty for Christian hands. Political parties were legalized in 1991. They’ve operated without any significant evangelical influence. Rather than denouncing party platforms or methods, the Christian community denounced political parties in general.

4. Fear that political parties could divide the church. Loyalties in Rwandan culture were personal, not ideological. People wore their party colors out of loyalty to tribe, clan, or region. Many followed the charisma and power of the leader. Ideology meant little. Those allied with a given party saw themselves as part of a brotherhood, rather than a diversity of people sharing a common ideology. Parties were more like gangs. They divided the church.

5. Truncated concept of spiritual life. Rwandan spiritual development rarely progressed much past the initial point of conversion. The saved were called to be saved Sunday after Sunday. Preachers attacked the big three: drinking, smoking, and adultery. Enthusiasm covered up the failure to get serious about sin and the lack of spiritual discipline.

6. Failure to get rid of the demonic baggage of their pagan past. Initiation rites, charms, spells, healing by sorcery—most Rwandans have passed through experiences that put them in contact with demons or demonic forces. The presence or influence of the demonic does not necessarily leave a person because he or she becomes a Christian. Christians must deal with the demonic residue of their pagan past—personally, consciously, and authoritatively. This was rarely done—mostly in the cases of known mediums or witches. This put many Rwandan Christians within easy touch and influence of demonic forces.

7. Christians tainted by tribalism. Most Christians did not escape being touched by tribalism. Most Hutu Christians fellowshiped warmly with Tutsi brothers and sisters, but they were afraid of the Tutsis as a people. Likewise, most Tutsi Christians shared the basic premise of the rebel cause—Hutus were not as fit to govern as Tutsis.

The churches in Rwanda are the children of the mission organizations. Most churches were still under their “parents” during the Rwandan crisis. How many of the above characteristics did the parents pass on to their children? Which of these characteristics helped, which harmed the children?

The pope is the spiritual father, or shepherd, of the Catholic Church in Rwanda. He had the boldness and honesty to declare that the fighting involves “a real and true genocide for which, unfortunately, even Catholics are responsible.’2 We Protestants also established churches in Rwanda, nurtured them, taught them, trained their leaders, showed them what the Christian life was all about. Are we, too, responsible?

A young woman in Rwanda told me, “You must visit the churches here and see how they use them.” She spoke with scorn mixed with pain. I knew what she meant. I didn’t want to see it with my own eyes—churches knee deep in bodies, blood spattering the ceilings.

Scorn and pain—that is how many thinking, feeling Rwandans now view our churches in Rwanda. Do we have answers, or just excuses? I’m not sure what should have been done differently, but my list of church characteristics is a place to start. We have to question, meditate, examine, struggle, and wrestle with the church and what happened in Rwanda. It is our church, and its weaknesses are ours. It is Christ’s bride, and his deep love makes her disgrace bite more deeply into his heart.

Endnotes
1. David Barrett in the World Christian Encyclopedia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982) p. 588; Patrick Johnstone in Operation World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993) p. 472); and the 1991 Rwanda census all report about 80 percent affiliated Christians. The 5 percent figure is a rough estimate based on the above three sources, plus my knowledge of the church situation in Rwanda.
2. National Catholic Reporter, May 27, 1994, p. 9.

—–

Copyright © 1995 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

GoToOlder PostNewer PostAll PostsArticlesEMQSectionVolume 31 - Issue 3

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Home
  • Directories
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Join

  • Join
  • Benefits
  • Learn
  • Meet
  • Engage

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

About Us

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources
Missio Nexus Logo

© Missio Nexus. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate Missio Nexus earns from qualifying purchases.


PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

Annual Sponsors

ECFA Logo Brotherhood Mutual Logo

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks