Blog
Holistic Gospel Impact on Prosperity Gospel
Author: Jim Harries
Date: 02.06.2010
Category: Poverty & Wealth, Prosperity Gospel, Partnership
Translations
One characteristic of different cultures is that they can understand terms differently. I certainly consider the above terms (prosperity and holistic gospel) as a case in point. In my limited time in sub-Saharan Africa, I have found that to talk of prosperity gospel is to talk of a wonderful thing – as surely prosperity can be nothing but good? Is there anyone who would not like to prosper or for others to prosper? Yet despite this, to many Western theologians (for various good reasons) the ‘prosperity gospel’ is a problem.
The holistic gospel, I have found, means to Westerners that good deeds and material help should go with preaching and church planting. To some in Africa it means that God is not only concerned with providing you with a place in heaven, but he also wants to provide healing and a ‘good life’ on earth. Hence more and more African churches emphasise healing and ’the good life’.
Those who take offence at the prosperity Gospel should take cognizance of the fact that in much of the poor world people follow the prosperity gospel because, in some way, it works. One reason that it ‘works’ is exactly because some Christian mission is done in what we call a ‘holistic’ way. You cannot have your cake and eat it. If the Western mission enterprise continues to practice ‘holistic mission’ and provide ‘other help’ alongside the gospel, surely the poor world will continue to have justification in believing the prosperity gospel?
This is not to say that the task of a missionary is only ever to ‘talk’. Not at all. Being ‘holistic’ is very appropriate as a lifestyle. How that is to be expressed must depend in part on the ‘culture’ of the people being reached. For example, in my home community in Africa, love is expressed by attending funerals. The danger, I suggest, arises when the means of expressing ‘love’ practiced by a foreign missionary is dependent on access to or distribution of outside resources. Then what the foreigner does locals cannot easily imitate, can appear to be of ‘divine origin’, and propagates unhealthy one-way dependency etc.
A worldview difference here needs to be recognised. Dualistic western worldviews easily put ‘holistic gospel’ into a separate compartment to ‘prosperity gospel’. That is, holistic gospel people (I think I would be right in saying?) are not claiming that what they offer in addition to the gospel is ‘direct from God’. Rather they are offering something in order to express their Christian love for others. Holistic people have trouble making such distinctions, and can give God the credit for whatever side-benefits come from mission efforts - e.g. build a house for a widow, provision of a scholarship, free clothes or food etc. etc. This results in a causative link between the presence of Westerners in the poor world, and the prosperity gospel.
In some parts of Africa, visitors are given a great deal of respect. People will go to great ends to make sure visitors are well looked after. This applies, in my experience, even more to visitors from the West. One reason for this is because of the anticipation that the ‘Westerner’ will provide some money or help. This can also result in competition for visitors, and at times jealous struggles between local communities. In some African languages a visitor who provides things that people want can be referred to as ‘god’. Churches can be oriented to pleasing Westerners in a sense that seems to border on idolatry.
Missionaries sent with a lot of ‘support’ who can subsidise the ministries in which they engage set up avenues of ministry that the ‘poor’ cannot imitate. This can frustrate the ‘poor’, disenfranchise them, and convince local pastors that the only way to ‘compete’ is to make a lot of money. This orients them towards the prosperity gospel. “We wanted to run our church only with local resources” an African pastor told me recently, “but we found that as a result people would go to other churches in order to get help. So we have joined the search for Western donors. Now if people come to our church we can give them money for their problems, and more people come” he added.
Unfortunately ‘holistic gospel’ (as practiced from the West) helps to generate prosperity Gospel (as understood in some poorer parts of the world). The above and other things make me bring the suggestion, that a new ‘branch’ of mission is required, that sidesteps some of the above issues. That is – that there is a need for some (foreign) missionaries who concentrate on spiritual ministry, and who avoid ministries that are dependent on their personal involvement in any provision of outside resources.
I have covered this concern in more detail in the article below, published in ERT (Evangelical Review of Theology. Volume 32. No. 3. July 2008. 257-270).
http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/critique-of-integral-mission.pdf
Keywords: prosperity gospel, Africa, holistic gospel, healing, partnership development, resources, showing love
- Building Humility and Penetration into Ministry - Vulnerable Mission
- The Effectiveness of Short-term Mission to Africa
- The Necessity of the use of Indigenous Languages for purposes of Sustainability
- Understanding and Responding to the Prosperity Gospel in Africa
- Issues with Strings in donated Mission Money
- Vulnerable Mission - a biblical approach
- Is Secularism a Mystical Religion? Questions of Translation in Relation to Millennium Goals and Mission in Africa
- Have Missionaries Lost their Chariots of Fire?
- Ducking Missionary Conflict – in Africa and beyond
- A Proposed Foundation for Partnership
- South to North; language, power, gospel.
- sera za lugha zinazotakikana kanisani, Afrika.
- ‘Giving’ or ‘Listening’ - in mission in Africa
- Biblical Giving, Holding Donors Accountable
- Importance of Using Indigenous Languages in Africa
- Language Choice in Theological Education: Africa
- Prosperity Gospel: Blessed Charity or Corruption?
- The Deception of Language and African Theology
- An Enchanted World in Africa (& Prosperity Gospel)
- About African belief in ‘Spirits’
- Jealousy and Witchcraft: Africa and the World
- Getting Alongside
Reach Map and Statistics
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Nigeria
Jim, Thanks for your helpful comments about the link between holistic gospel and prosperity gospel. I think we must interpret the focus on prosperity against the context in which it is given which not only creates the interest in prosperity but, in some ways, helps to define the meaning of prosperity, especially in an African context. Poverty creates a natural desire for escape and prosperity is obviously the path of escape. Therefore, the prosperity gospel to a poor person is simply a synonym for a better life, not necessarily an affluent life.
I think we must also hear the word "prosperity" here in Africa against the context of the "bargaining" society. The asking price is seldom the selling price. Therefore, many people who are preaching or listening to prosperity preaching are preaching and hearing about affluence but would gladly settle for simply a more comfortable life. Therefore, "prosperity" is simply a description of an escape from poverty.
I am concerned about the crass greed that I hear in much prosperity preaching. However, over the last six or eight years, I have tried to listen better to what I hear prosperity preachers saying and I think that I have detected a subtle shift in the emphasis on prosperity, at least in some circles in Nigeria, where I have lived for the past 22 years. There seems to be a shift from an emphasis on prosperity as a divine right to an emphasis on prosperity as a result of hard work, better services and more careful living. In other words, as the impact of the gospel changes society, it has a positive effect on individuals, not only in their spiritual lives but in every other part of the society as well. This was illustrated in the Wesleyan Revival and I suspect is a somewhat natural result of the gospel. If this is the meaning or even the new direction of the prosperity gospel, I think many of us would breathe much easier.
Thanks for your good words.
Danny McCain
09.09.2010
Kenya
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for your comments from Brazil.
Re. ’better practices’, what I (we) are advocating is ’vulnerable mission’. That is, that some Western missionaries minister using local languages and resources. For details see www.vulnerablemission.com I think that is a very achievable and visible way forward that will bring the kind of issues mentioned in this conversation to light, so that they can in due course be resolved. I believe there are very many good reasons for having some Western missionaries operate using local languages and resources.
Jim
08.06.2010
Brazil
@ Jim_Harries:
Hi Jim,
I appreciate your comments and the link to vulnerablemission.com. I scanned part of your site and the list of contributors, and recognize that an intense discussion has been going for some time.
The issue of foreign funding and staffing of projects is a difficult one. I have used Ralph Goodenough’s "Cooperation and Change," (a bit of a classic!) in relation to the development of leadership resources in church-planting. I believe his principles, of course, have much broader application, and he develops various other principles in terms of the communication process.
"Using local language and local resources" is a good start. Goodenough would probably say that allowing competing resources basically undermines the whole process of local development. In our context, allowing foreign money into Brazil to facilitate church-planting and development, I believe, basically helps keep the Brazilian church and evangelical population in a mind-set and state of dependency.
Perhaps the church here is at a different juncture economically than that of Kenya! I cannot think of many areas where the Brazilian church would be greatly benefited by foreign finances. But perhaps I am not seeing the whole picture!
I will look further on your site for help on establishing a policy toward incoming foreign aid. Thanks!
08.06.2010
Brazil
Thanks for the perspective!
We find a very similar phenomenon in this country. I believe what you are describing overlaps with the terminology "rice Christians" of several decades ago...something that greatly complicates conversion, discipleship and leadership development (as well as artificially swelling church growth stats).
As Brazil has strong African roots, I believe your experience may translate well! Have you developed any "better practices", or have you seen any such resource that would serve as a guide for relief and development work in a developing country such as ours?
By the way, we are watching S. Africa with interest this month, not only the football, but also the social and economic issues, aware that such a massive event cannot but create both turmoil and development opportunites. (Brazil--Rio--will be facing some of the same issues and dynamics in 2014.)
06.06.2010
United States
Interesting and insightful food for thought. Now my curiosity is piqued, I shall have to read more to get a better grasp of understanding this perspective.
04.06.2010
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