When asked to define community development most Africans I have met will start talking about things like clean water, health care, schools, electricity or roads. If they've already been to some kind of development training, however, they may use words like "process, capacity building, working together" to describe development. But if they are really honest, they may admit they hold Europe and America as their standard and that they want to see people prospering in their businesses. In effect, everyone gaining more money and possessions is their ideal of development. Clean water, health care, enough money to pay for clothing and housing, etc., are needed, even absolutely essential, in poor communities. But to look at those things as the defining points of community development is a materialistic view of development.
True development, Biblically, is seeing God's intentions for us as human beings lived out in our society—physically, YES, but also spiritually, socially, and intellectually. This Biblical concept of seeing God's purposes expressed in our communities can be explained through gaining a broader understanding of the Hebrew word "shalom."
Today shalom is the word that is used in Israel to say "hello" or "goodbye". It literally means "peace" but the original understanding of the word is much more than a greeting or the lack of strife. It implies a sense of wholeness and health in our relationships with one another, with God and with creation around us. It means living righteously and experiencing justice in our communities, having harmonious and enjoyable relationships with God, ourselves, others and creation. Indeed, it means experiencing the shalom that Jesus brings: peace that passes all understanding.
I am writing this now in December when we routinely sing songs about the "Prince of Peace". Picture this, if you will, a Prince of Peace that opened the way for us today to experience a shalom wholeness in our families, in our communities, in our nation. It is left with us to arise and live it out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we can see shalom come in our sphere of influence.
What would this look like in Africa? It could mean people having enough healthy food to eat, clean water to drink, adequate health care, clothing, security, schooling for their children, jobs that allow for personal dignity and provision of necessities, peaceful relationships with neighbors, a vibrant, growing relationship with God, joyful family relationships, the ability to transport goods without breaking the backs of women and children, fair trade, justice in the courts. . . Doesn't God intend this for us? I believe so.
When sin came into the world, the entire world was stained by it. Nothing was left untouched. All relationships, all of creation were affected by sin. The Good News is that when Jesus came, he came to bring the solution to this total problem we found ourselves in. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." When I learned these verses years ago as a child, we were taught to understand this Scripture to mean "For God so loved all the people in the world that he gave. . ." But the word "world" in this scripture has been translated from the Greek word cosmos which is a much bigger word than just all the people in the world. It means ALL of creation. . . the stars, the moon, the earth, the people, the animals, down to the ecological system around us. So a more accurate way to read this Scripture would be to read it like this: "For God so loved all of creation that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into all of creation to condemn all of creation, but to save all of creation through him." Again in Romans 8:19-22 the Bible tells us that all of creation is looking forward to the time when we will be released from sin, so it may also be free. Jesus came to bring a total solution to a total problem.
To live that solution out here and now is a challenge, but this is the challenge that Jesus gave us in his example of taking the Good News of the Kingdom to all the villages and towns in Galilee. Remember when John's disciples asked Jesus if he was the one, he answered by saying, "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matt. 11:4-5) If we look at the Sermon on the Mount, we can see what this good news is: how to live in harmony and justice with one another—shalom. This is true community development!
If we can impart to people a vision of what God intends for our communities, then we can begin to move toward it. If our focus is only on the negative things around us, it is depressing and not motivating for people. They easily lose interest when the struggle gets too much for them.
Recently, I used an exercise described in Bryant Myers' book, "Walking With The Poor" to help people look at things from a more positive perspective. (Appreciative Inquiry, pages 174-179) Granted, Appreciative Inquiry is a humanistic tool, but we can use it as a tool to help people identify the good things God is already doing in their community, instead of focusing only on the problems around them. Again, I was in Congo and I asked the group to split into twos and partner with someone who did not know their particular community. Then they were told to ask one another the following questions:
1. Thinking back the last 100 years, what has happened that you are proud of, that makes you feel you have been successful?
2. What in your geographical area and in your local political and economic systems has helped you do things of which you are proud?
3. What skills or resources have enabled you to do things your children will remember you for having done?
4. How have your relationships, both within and without the community, worked for you and helped you do things that you believe were good for the community?
(These are just a few of the questions given by Myers, p. 179)
One of the pastors complained, "Can I talk about my church, instead of the community? There's so many problems we need to work on and I don't know the community." I answered, "Nope! Your church is sitting in the middle of a community so don't tell me you don't know it. Talk about the neighborhood you live in."
I really didn't know what was going to happen because I had never before tried this exercise. . . but an hour later we had a tough time dragging everyone away from their discussions, to bring them back into the classroom. I asked them, "What happened in your conversations?" The pastor who had initially complained was one of the most excited in the room. He had gained a vision for what God wanted to do in his community, by identifying what God had already done in the past and was doing today. The buzz of excitement in the room was contagious as person after person reported similar experiences. They had discovered many good things about Congo. . . causing these people who lived in the midst of poverty and war-inflicted destruction to dare to hope for what God really intended for them.
Empowered people are those who have gained an understanding that wholistic development—shalom—is God's intention, His desire, will and purpose for them. If this is then coupled with an awareness of the good things God has placed in their community and what He is already doing, they are able to hope, believe and work for development. They will be much more likely to persevere in faith and work to see it come to reality.
Copyright © 2009 Renee Schudel
Copyright © 2009 Renee Schudel
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