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Our country needs faith to move forward
Church in the Community - Media Release in the Herald: 17th October 2022
Source: TCN / Patrick Douglas-Henry
Date Added: 2022-10-18
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration, Issues - Politics,
Date Added: 2022-10-18
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration, Issues - Politics,
We are told that faith and the secular world are incompatible.
That Faith involves a leap in the dark, a risk moving into unknown places while the more rational factually based world depends on hard evidence.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The entire business, and political and social world runs on faith.
The Business Confidence Index is a tool that governs the value and trend of our economy. It measures how much Faith the business investors and operators have in the future of the economy.
We all know businesses that failed due to the loss of vision of the management.
Vision has often been defined as a having a clear picture of a positive outcome in a given context. It starts with having faith in your leadership and the advice you have been given.
It is often hard to have faith.
It becomes difficult when all the information around us, our situation tells us things are getting worse, not better.
Faith happens when we have certainty that something will have a positive outcome.
Sometimes that certainty cannot be based measurable tangibles.
Faith is transitive. It needs an object to make sense.
One must believe in “something” to complete the sentence.
Faith in God completes the sentence, or having faith in one’s spouse or a friend, or in a process can do it.
The biggest breakdown in South Africa is not loadshedding, drought, or even the endemic corruption.
It is lack of faith.
Countries always fail and move backwards due to a lack of faith.
It is our greatest weakness.
I learned this as a pastor and a church leader: believe in your people, they will almost always rise to the expectation.
Nelson Mandela showed faith in the Springbok rugby team in 1995.
He knew that if he believed in them, they would not only play well enough to be able to win the World Cup in ’95, but they would “get” his vision of a Rainbow Nation, of a non-racial and inclusive national rugby team.
There were many who harboured real pain from past racial injustices.
He had the vision to expect more from everyone, and to this day, our national rugby team has by and large been a place where we can see real unity and racial integration.
This took great leadership and faith.
Apartheid failed that test.
We have failed that test wherever we have imposed quotas and BEE and cadre deployment.
We try to “social-engineer” change by forced expropriation.
The message is out there that “we expect the worst from you, and we will try to force control on you”.
Without fail, that always backfires.
It means that, in pursuing the letter of the law, the outcome is always the least desirable.
This will not lead to our best future.
We must have faith that we can “make the cake bigger” for all to “get a slice”.
There will always be some who don’t get the vision of the bigger and better together picture.
You can see faith in action in the Free State and in the Eastern Cape, where a number of new black farmers have grown commercially successful businesses.
We have seen without fail that the white farmers in the area have celebrated, mentored, and been so proud of their fellow farmers achievements – they had faith in the ability of the black farmers.
Not in a condescending patronising way, but something deeper. For the common love of the land.
Having Faith in God is amazing. We have often seen Him change broken lives and communities when we, as believers, have faith and trust in Him to intervene.
It is why we can approach broken situations, expecting a change.
Our faith is rewarded.
In the same way, God expects us to have love for, and faith in others, to take that risk of failure, because He believes in us, as His Children, to walk with him too.
That is what makes the difference.
In Jesus’ name we go beyond mere faith. We access the very presence of God.
When we put our faith in each other, we can be more.
It’s a step of courage because we know there will be those who may fail us.
Faith helps us to take that risk.
As leaders, I would encourage every politician, business owner, church leader to motivate everyone they know to believe in the possibilities that are inherent in each of us.
We know that people fail, but the love of Jesus enables us to see people beyond today’s faults, to believe that, through faith in God and His divine purpose, we can be more!
Patrick Douglas-Henry
Pastor at Crossroads Christian Fellowship
That Faith involves a leap in the dark, a risk moving into unknown places while the more rational factually based world depends on hard evidence.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The entire business, and political and social world runs on faith.
The Business Confidence Index is a tool that governs the value and trend of our economy. It measures how much Faith the business investors and operators have in the future of the economy.
We all know businesses that failed due to the loss of vision of the management.
Vision has often been defined as a having a clear picture of a positive outcome in a given context. It starts with having faith in your leadership and the advice you have been given.
It is often hard to have faith.
It becomes difficult when all the information around us, our situation tells us things are getting worse, not better.
Faith happens when we have certainty that something will have a positive outcome.
Sometimes that certainty cannot be based measurable tangibles.
Faith is transitive. It needs an object to make sense.
One must believe in “something” to complete the sentence.
Faith in God completes the sentence, or having faith in one’s spouse or a friend, or in a process can do it.
The biggest breakdown in South Africa is not loadshedding, drought, or even the endemic corruption.
It is lack of faith.
Countries always fail and move backwards due to a lack of faith.
It is our greatest weakness.
I learned this as a pastor and a church leader: believe in your people, they will almost always rise to the expectation.
Nelson Mandela showed faith in the Springbok rugby team in 1995.
He knew that if he believed in them, they would not only play well enough to be able to win the World Cup in ’95, but they would “get” his vision of a Rainbow Nation, of a non-racial and inclusive national rugby team.
There were many who harboured real pain from past racial injustices.
He had the vision to expect more from everyone, and to this day, our national rugby team has by and large been a place where we can see real unity and racial integration.
This took great leadership and faith.
Apartheid failed that test.
We have failed that test wherever we have imposed quotas and BEE and cadre deployment.
We try to “social-engineer” change by forced expropriation.
The message is out there that “we expect the worst from you, and we will try to force control on you”.
Without fail, that always backfires.
It means that, in pursuing the letter of the law, the outcome is always the least desirable.
This will not lead to our best future.
We must have faith that we can “make the cake bigger” for all to “get a slice”.
There will always be some who don’t get the vision of the bigger and better together picture.
You can see faith in action in the Free State and in the Eastern Cape, where a number of new black farmers have grown commercially successful businesses.
We have seen without fail that the white farmers in the area have celebrated, mentored, and been so proud of their fellow farmers achievements – they had faith in the ability of the black farmers.
Not in a condescending patronising way, but something deeper. For the common love of the land.
Having Faith in God is amazing. We have often seen Him change broken lives and communities when we, as believers, have faith and trust in Him to intervene.
It is why we can approach broken situations, expecting a change.
Our faith is rewarded.
In the same way, God expects us to have love for, and faith in others, to take that risk of failure, because He believes in us, as His Children, to walk with him too.
That is what makes the difference.
In Jesus’ name we go beyond mere faith. We access the very presence of God.
When we put our faith in each other, we can be more.
It’s a step of courage because we know there will be those who may fail us.
Faith helps us to take that risk.
As leaders, I would encourage every politician, business owner, church leader to motivate everyone they know to believe in the possibilities that are inherent in each of us.
We know that people fail, but the love of Jesus enables us to see people beyond today’s faults, to believe that, through faith in God and His divine purpose, we can be more!
Patrick Douglas-Henry
Pastor at Crossroads Christian Fellowship
Source: TCN / Patrick Douglas-Henry
Date Added: 2022-10-18
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration, Issues - Politics,
Back to News IndexDate Added: 2022-10-18
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General, Issues - Moral Regeneration, Issues - Politics,
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