Sledgehammer

Rather exhausted I sat down after the last of five two-hour sessions of teaching in two days. It had been rather warm, too. One of the pastors who had courageously attended all of it, stood up to give the customary public response. But when he used the words ‘axe’ and ‘blunt’ in one sentence, he somehow made me sit up a little straighter. I had made some strong statements, but did he really mean I had been using the sledgehammer at them?

The area

This was at the close of our last Logos seminar. We have had a group of 25-30 pastors come for training every other week at the Logos Resource Center in Lilongwe. To enjoy a time of concentrated learning and interaction, we invited them to a conference center out of town, beautifully situated at the foot of the mountains. I have learned that this location is key to the success of the conference: there is hardly any cell-phone network, which means that the pastors are honestly out of reach and free to study! 

Breakfast

Not only is the seminar conducive for study, but also for bonding - not in the last place between us who teach. One afternoon, my colleague at Logos, Rev. Chisauka, invited me to join him for a sundown walk across the fields. He is from the area, and could almost point at his home village where his mother still stays. The stories he shared really make us understand the entire context so much better. About his mother who hardly wants to look him in the eyes when she greets her son as a ‘Reverend’. Quite unlike what she told him when he expressed his desire for ministry. “Don’t you know that you will always be a beggar if you become a pastor!” By now, she has come to respect his dedication to the Lord and is more than happy to offer ‘the beggar’ a meal from her scarce resources. But also about the fields, and the pride a man takes in preparing the land for the sowing season. When the black soil is turned up and rows are straightened, one knows he is a man who is ready to do what he can to provide for his family. “Although with job at Logos I am able to buy corn, it still doesn’t feel right. For a big man like me to just collect it from the shop…” 

Rev. Chisauka teaching

Back at the conference we all enjoyed the meal together. Several participants shared with me the challenges they face in the ministry. For some it is the coming rain; the church’s grass roof had decayed from years of rain and hot sunshine. “Where do I shelter my people?” Some serve in congregations where no member holds a job that generates some cash income. “All I get in the offering is some food, even at special fundraising events, the most we collect is five dollars.” 

 

The group of Logos students with lecturers Rev. Chisauka and Rev. Cees

But across the field, all the pastors talk about one thing, whether they serve in remote villages or in Lilongwe town: “We are desperate for more training. In the city, most pastors have attended a hundred and one seminars and workshops, but that does not mold them for ministry.” More and more people in town hold degrees. They look down at the pastor who has nothing to show for any training. In the villages, men become elders simply because they can read the Bible and own one for themselves, and are respected in the community. “Why can’t you start to offer degrees, part-time programs, for us pastors from various churches.” Or: “Please come to our church and train our elders to preach.”

With those urgent pleas in mind I had entered the last day of the conference. I perceived them as positive indications that the training that was conducted by the colleagues and myself was well received. Therefore, the blunt axe took me my surprise. 

Taking a break!

But I shouldn’t have worried. As usual, the words were used quite differently. “You have given us an axe. When we buy a new axe, it is hard to use at first. It is still a little blunt. But this teaching provides us with a tool, and the tool will get even more useful as we set out to work. Often we see the job before us, but feel as those without the means to face it. But brothers, we shouldn’t excuse ourselves any longer. We’ve got this blunt axe – let’s go on and use it.”

And with that, I relaxed. Everyone felt like he had hit the nail right on the head. John Calvin asked for wood to carve more ‘arrows’ in the Lord’s army. Here we are asking for more axes – even if they are blunt! They will sharpen as they are put to work! And of work there is no shortage… 

These students come from the South, waiting for the bus