What is our Vehicle for Ministry?

That, it seems, is the question. As Christians, we are called to comply with state authorities. JOHN AMALRAJ K

The Role of Law in Society

There was once a man who was walking on the road swinging his umbrella all around him and saying that he is a free man. In the process, he was hitting others who were passing by on the road. The other pedestrians took him to court. The ‘free man’ argued that since he is living in a free country, he is free to swing his umbrella on the road. The judge in the end concluded, “A man’s freedom ends where the other man’s nose tip is”.

Man is free but freedom without boundaries is not true freedom. Imagine a society without any laws! Man’s fallen nature actually demands that law is needed to bring order into the society. God himself recognises this and gave the Mosaic law which sets limits to the freedom and gave order to the growth of the Hebrew nation. Most of the concepts of law and justice in the world today are derived from the Mosaic and the Roman laws. One of the most important legal maxims is “Ignorance of Law is never an excuse”. As citizens, it is our responsibility to gain knowledge of the laws applicable to us.

The Christian’s Attitude to Law and Nation Building

Right from the beginning, the Jews and Christians were always thought to be rebellious by the rulers because of the nature of our faith. The fact that we owe allegiance to our Creator and refuse to worship any idols or the ruler of the day becomes the greatest controversy. After the birth of Christianity, the hope of the second coming of Jesus, the various interpretations of the end times, and the call to live as heavenly citizens has created a sense of indifference to the present life and world order. Therefore, our attitude to nation building is wanting in many respects. We have a very negative attitude to politics and those who are in politics. The Indian Christian contributions to the Independence movement and various other national crises have not been given its due significance in history either by the Church or other national leaders, for so long. Many assume that since we are serving the King of Kings, we are not subject to earthly rulers. Others also assume that since Christians under the communist regime smuggled Bibles and worshipped underground, we have the right to be above the law.

The Background of the Indian Constitution and Laws

The Indian Constitution owes its existence basically to the constitutions of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Both constitutions have strong Biblical foundations enshrined into their system. This is reflected in several parts of our constitution. Majority of the laws in force today was passed during the British rule and some were a direct result of the evangelical impact on the British Parliament during the time of William Carey and William Wilberforce. This gives us sufficient reason for highly respecting our Indian Constitution and laws. If we the Christians do not respect our laws, then who else will?

Scriptural Basis for Compliance to State Authority

Peter while addressing the early Jewish believers, who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire, exhorts them to submit to every human authority – whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  He further challenges these early believers to live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse them of doing wrong, they may see their good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. We must remember that this exhortation was to the early believers who were under severe persecution by the emperor and his officials. Peter goes on to say that it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. If we suffer for doing good and endure it, it is commendable before God. This is a calling to follow Christ’s example of suffering (cf I Pet 2:11-25).

It is strange that many times as followers of Christ, in our enthusiasm in obeying the great commission of Christ, we somehow have embraced the wrong theology that we are free to disobey human authority. We often quote Peter and John, out of context, who boldly replied to the chief priests and the Sanhedrin when they were commanded not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. They said “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him (Jesus)? (cf Acts 4:13-20). Later on, when Peter and the other apostles were again brought before the religious rulers and were threatened, they responded, We must obey God rather than human beings! (5:29). Peter and John’s defiance was, to their own religious authorities preventing them from witnessing to Christ’s resurrection and, not necessarily to the Roman authority. It was in this tradition that even the great reformers of the reformation movement stood up to the Pope and the Christian Emperors to bring freedom to the Christian masses who were under spiritual oppression.

There is another strand to this whole idea of opposing the powerful state authority. Daniel and his friends in exile who defied the authority of the emperor to pray and not to bow down in emperor worship, exhibited their defiance to the state authority to limit one’s freedom to practice the faith one has chosen. This is the root of the universal human right recognised by most nations in the world as the ‘freedom of conscience’ to practice and propagate one’s faith, in other words commonly called as “Freedom of Religion”. This freedom is enshrined in our Indian Constitution as one of the fundamental rights. This is where we seem to gain our rights and privileges to practice our faith and beliefs. The cry for freedom from any form of oppression by the State is a human right. This was also the background to the Non-violence Movement started by Mahatma Gandhi to defy the British rule and the Civil Disobedience Movement started by Martin Luther King to oppose segregation by skin colour in America, and many other national movements around the world.

The Escalated Level of Government Scrutiny

Governments around the world have become wary of organised charitable activities that are often perceived as competing with government programmes or sometimes opposing government developmental activities. In recent years, charitable activities initiated by religious groups have borne the brunt of government scrutiny because of the suspicion that these vehicles established for charitable activities, community development, relief and rehabilitation, educational and healthcare services and advocacy are used by terrorist organisations or foreign governments for their own agendas. It is also assumed that religious activities somehow encourage the common people to defy the authority of the government.  Another accusation is that foreign religious activities oppose the local culture and attempt to change the loyalty of people. Therefore, many governments have attempted to bring in various restrictions to the practice of religion in various forms. Even though the seeds of democracy spread across the globe seem to have given hope for religious freedom, yet it is the misuse of that freedom that has also given the opportunity for bringing in restrictions and scrutiny. This is the background to the increased level of government scrutiny against non-profit organisations (NPOs).  Just because there is an escalated level of government scrutiny, does not mean that we should attempt to escape such scrutiny.  It is an opportunity for bearing witness to Christ.  This is possible only if we pay attention to the changing compliance requirements and submit to the government authorities.  Excellence in compliance by an organization or a business creates credibility to our faith and witness.

The Origin of Organisations and Institutions

In India, one of the common vehicles used by Christians to render service to the people in obedience to the great commission is to form a registered trust or society. The origin of trust and societies is from the British rule. Even during the days of the British rule, there was a strong political opposition to any organised mission activity by those outside the church structures. Most mission activities were through para-church agencies like Church Missionary Society (CMS), Indian Society for Propagation of the Christian Knowledge (ISPCK), Baptist Mission Society, and others, who were agencies founded by denominational churches like the Church of England, Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists and others. When Hudson Taylor founded Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) to send gospel workers to China, it was one of the first inter-denominational agencies. Later, many other inter-denominational agencies were founded in United Kingdom to send workers into the British colonies for ‘the propagation of the teachings of Jesus Christ’. Many of them faced opposition from the local British government authorities on the mission field. Some of the mission workers were accused of acting against the interests of the British Empire in the colonies as they encouraged freedom fighters and social reformers.

After Independence, the most preferred vehicle of organised mission activity in India was through registering a society or a trust under the provisions of the existing laws. There are a few denominational church organisations that were registered under the Companies Act, but specifically for charitable purposes. The purpose of registering any legal entity is because we raise public funds and use them to accomplish certain laid down objectives. This provides relief from payment of income tax and a legal organisational identity for our activities.

Not much has changed since and we have now come to a season where we face enormous challenges as government scrutiny and the requirements for multiple compliances have increased. In the last few years the laws have become stricter in scrutinising financial transactions of non-profit organisations (NPOs) not just in India but in many other countries. This is only going to increase further. We now have to spend more hours working to comply with all the legal requirements of filing monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual returns. Any oversight in fulfilling these compliance requirements will take our organisation into a cycle of scrutiny, enquiry and penalty that affects our Christian witness and ministry. The priority given to ministry can be undermined by even an unintentional lapse by careless staff. So how do we then go about doing our educational, healthcare, community development and other mission activities if the government is attempting to restrict our well-intentioned activities?

Are there Alternative Vehicles?

Business

The recent successes of Business as Mission (BAM) movements seem to garner the interest of quite a few. However, what we do not realise is that the business trend shows that almost 70-80% of business start-ups fail. We only hear of success stories of businesses and somehow have a fanciful idea that we can replicate this model. The governments are also beginning to scrutinise ‘shell companies’ – businesses that exist to evade tax by incurring continuous losses or to create multiple channels for financial transactions to hide funds in secure tax-free zones. There are businesses that exist to operate illegal trade. Any Christian group or church that desires to use a business organisation as a vehicle must have entrepreneurs who are envisioned missionally and who have the skill and the authority to take business decisions. Often those who have served many years in a church or a mission organisation do not have the business sense to succeed in a business. Therefore, we should never start a business to avoid tax or to cover up any activity that does not have legal sanction.

A business is a business and its main objective is profit making. A successful business venture run by a group of Christians can be a great Christian witness and influence in a community. A successful business owned by Christians can support mission activities, initiate developmental projects as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) activities and provide platforms for various Christian initiatives. Social entrepreneurs may have community empowerment as an objective and use the business platform for such ventures – however, this social entrepreneurship activity has no charitable tax benefits and is also subject to government scrutiny. A successful business venture whether started for profit-making or social development can provide a platform for positive influence in the society. However, a business organisation is not necessarily an alternative vehicle.

Institutions

Many successful Christian initiatives in the area of education and health care now stand as influential nation building institutions not just in India, but in many other countries. However, equally, there are many such institutions that have lost the vision and have become just a monument or an employment agency for the local community or prime real estate for inheritance of individuals and families. In India, most institutions are registered under the Society or Trust Acts and claim various tax benefits and other privileges. The recent changes in the laws no longer guarantee such privileges to be continued. The government has empowered bureaucrats to use discretionary powers to withdraw tax benefits and privileges. Therefore, some entrepreneurs have initiated business ventures to administer educational and health care institutions at the risk of losing the vision to serve the poor and marginalised communities. Any venture with a profit motive has an inherent risk of not fulfilling the original vision of the founders to serve the poor and marginalised.

Jesus Movement

It is very interesting that when Jesus Christ came into this world, He did not come to start an organisation, institution or a social enterprise. He operated outside the existing Jewish religious structure in the footsteps of the Old Testament prophets. He disappointed His disciples, who were expecting Him to overthrow the Roman rule and usher in the Kingdom of God, to the extent that one of them betrayed Him and others deserted Him. Jesus told Pilate that His Kingdom was not of this world (cf Jn 18:36).

God is not primarily concerned about structures and organisations even though He initiated structures like nationhood, kingship and Temple worship. He even gave the land of Canaan as the Promised Land to His chosen people. The Old Testament history showcases that God allowed such structures to be taken away when the chosen ones were disobedient. Even the temple was allowed to be destroyed several times. Structures are not always God’s plan. The promise of a new heaven and a new earth helps us to diminish our concerns for creating and maintaining existing institutions and organisations.

Do we still need Institutions and Organisations?

There is a multiplicity of institutions and organisations in India. One of the purposes for many mission initiatives that are founded is that the founder’s vision can be passed on to the next generation. Therefore, a legal structure and identity that is recognised by the government is needed. Many times, new organisations and institutions are founded when existing structures do not give space for innovative ministries or new ideas and methodologies. Leaders who are frustrated with existing structures, existing leadership and existing values start something new. Unfortunately, they too get lost in the organisational structures and legal compliances that limit the ministry that they were called to do.

There are quite a few institutions and organisations that have withstood these challenges and have thrived into the next generation as they learned to adapt, contextualise and change. But we have often seen that some organisations and institutions that were founded with noble purposes have lost the vision of their founders, failed to contextualise and resisted change. There is no guarantee that what we so painstakingly give birth to and the institutions we build, will continue to exist and flourish in the following generations. The danger of creating monuments instead of movements is real. Human structures are prone to be corrupted due to our fallen nature.

Jesus also desired that His vision must be carried on after He returned to heaven. He invested His time in teaching and mentoring His disciples. It was not an organisation or an institution that carried on the ministry of Jesus Christ – it was a movement of disciples – not just the chosen twelve – but a few hundred that grew to be thousands after His ascension to heaven. His ministry of proclaiming the good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoner, recovery of sight for the blind, and setting the oppressed free was accomplished without any formal structures (cf Lk 4:18). All our human efforts are limited to this life and to this side of eternity. It is the rule of God that will continue into the other side of eternity, not our institutions and organisations.

It was the Edict of Milan in 313 AD that established religious tolerance for Christianity within the Roman Empire that brought into existence an institutional structure for the Church recognised by the government of the day. We have inherited this legacy through the British rule. However, it is time for us to now envision a new way of doing missions in the evolving global context. Our loyalty should never be to a human structure but to the call of God. A society, trust, institution or a business is not the only way to do charitable, developmental and mission activities. We need to learn to work with existing structures and partner with one another rather than multiply structures. We should not be reluctant to merge our existing structures and organisations or even close down some of them. We need to envision new structures for doing ministry in a globalised context where governmental restrictions and scrutiny is only going to increase. God’s call to serve does not always need structures but it surely needs obedience to God and submission to one another.

If we do have structures it is imperative on us to comply with the legal requirements however burdensome it may seem.  A careless attitude to compliance has landed many organizations and businesses into difficulties that have tarnished their Christian witness. It is important to recruit professionals with skills to handle compliance issues so that the rest of the team can focus on ministry. 

The question remains do we really need a vehicle for ministry? 

How can we make disciples who, when scattered, will go around witnessing to the Gospel wherever they are (Acts 8:4)? How do we equip His people for works of service so that the Body of Christ will be built up (Eph 4:12)? How do we entrust the Gospel to reliable leaders who will also be qualified to teach others (II Tim 2:2)?

Published by Christian Manager, April-May 2018, Vol 17, Issue 6, Chennai