Just the other week, a young man ambushed me as I was strolling from Makerere University.
His pitch was simple and direct, he wanted me to immediately join him for a Bible study and if not, leave him with my phone contact.
Curious, I asked him which church he went to, a curiosity he responded to so casually as I also expressed my reluctance to participate in yet another spiritual endeavor outside a local church, in this case, a certain Korean NGO.
Unbeknownst to him, he had approached me the same aggressive way weeks before with the same pitch to join this Bible study.
In that first encounter, he’d even challenged me that if I was indeed content with the sufficient bible knowledge I claimed. I needed to give him an answer to the “spiritual meaning of a tree”, to which I almost sarcastically asked back, “well, what’s the spiritual meaning of leaves?”
But that was not the saddest part, the saddest part was my reflection of how many zealous believers in this country are too mobile to settle down, commit and remain faithful to a congregation. Know others and be known too.
Unlike in the early church, most modern Christian pilgrimage (literally speaking) is not compelled by persecution but by a consumer attitude (and often unmet spiritual hunger)
But since there is also a lot of spiritual merchandising in Uganda too lately, Church events that promise to meet the most ‘felt’ needs often earn our next presence.
Unable to endure under any spiritual accountability or authority, we move from congregation to congregation long enough to say hi and short enough to close off any curiosity as to whether we may be sleeping with the boyfriend, or girlfriend.
As a result, the church’s pivotal role in discipleship and evangelism is defeated by believers often on the go, ironically.
According to 2 Tim 4:3, The search for the next spiritual high is characteristic of a people with itching ears. As Paul explains to Timothy, it’s often when we can’t endure sound doctrine that we also continue to accumulate “teachers to suit our desires.”
Nowhere does the entire New Testament model mobile believers (except for church planters and the persecuted), in fact, ordinances like holy communion and baptism, even church discipline are not partaken in transit.
The rise of a massive self-styled Christian enterprise in Uganda (run by equally eccentric entrepreneurs) means spiritual nomads will always be among us.
But if the church is the only institution God has given his word to build (Matt 16:18) then we better stop the spiritual loitering, settle, find a church and be part of what God is doing.
Or shall we?
