ALEF UNIVERSITY

THE CHALLENGES OF POVERTY REDUCTION AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF

THE CHURCH IN POVERTY REDUCTION TODAY: A CASE STUDY FREE STATE
(SOUTH AFRICA)

Course: History of African Theology

Professor: Dr. Raúl Zaldívar
Student: Lineo Lekhotsa

Lesotho, Maseru,11th, December 2022

 Lekhotsa 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ……………………………………………………………..2

Chapter I: THE MEANING OF POVERTY REDUCTION AND ITS CHALLENGE……....4

A. BIBLICAL CONTENT ON THE MEANING OF

POVERTY…………………….....4

B. THE CHALLENGES OF POVERTY REDUCTION………………………………...7

Chapter II: CHURCH INVOLVEMENT IN REDUCTION, THE NEED FOR HER

INVOLVEMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY…………………………………………………...10

A. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH IN POVERTY

REDUCTION……....10

B. WHY DOES THE CHURCH NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN POVERTY

REDUCTION………………………………………………………………………..16

Conclusion …………………………………………………………….18

Bibliography ………………………………………………………….20
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INTRODUCTION

Poverty is a state of being extremely poor, that is, poverty means being poor without recognition.
We have four basic needs in this world, and they are: food, shelter, clothes and water, and they
are called basic needs simply because one cannot deal or live without them, or we cannot survive
without them, for instance, it is said by scientists that a human cannot survive more than three
days without water, as they would die afterwards. Africa is one of the largest continents in the
world, with it being the second largest out of all the continents, and it also ranks at number 2, as
the poorest continent. This is a problem because it means, 1.216 billion people that make up the
world’s population in Africa are in a crisis of poverty, and this affects the whole world as well.
Africa is so poor that it is dependent on Western countries, as many African countries from time
and again continue to receive aids from other countries, for example, in Lesotho, my country, we
depend on America, England or even China to have any developments like infrastructure, China
has even helped Lesotho in building the Parliament, and right now it is in the middle of building
the biggest hospital in the country.

In alia manu, there is what is called poverty reduction, which simply means, ways in which
people are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. There have been and are still
ongoing measures in Africa that are intended to reduce poverty, the question is, are they
working? South Africa for example, as a government has tried implementing some policies that
benefit their people, especially for the vulnerable ones, like disable people who are not able to
work and provide for themselves are given grants to help them survive, even the mothers are
given child grants, to avoid poverty. However, some would argue that the government has done
more harm than good, and people have become too lazy to do anything because they know that
they have a government that will provide no matter what, South Africans always feel entitled to
everything. This paper is going to look at the challenges faced by South Africa in reducing
poverty, and the responsibility of the church in poverty reduction.

A. AIM OF THE STUDY

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Poverty is a global issue that no country is not affected by, because as much as there are
wealthy countries out there, they are still negatively affected by underdeveloped countries
since we are all connected. This has become an issue to the point that every country does
everything in its power to prevent itself from falling under the traps of poverty, and most
of the time the measures taken by other countries are more beneficial to them, and bad on
other surrounding countries. The aim of the study is therefore to show what South Africa
has done in reducing poverty, and whether or not other organizations such as churches
have taken any responsibilities in reducing poverty.

B. DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT

From the title of the paper itself, there are already two main ideas that the paper is going
to tackle, and they are poverty reduction and the responsibility of the church in poverty
reduction. The main focus is however going to be on poverty reduction, what measures
have been taken, whether or not the measures have become of any help so far, and what
needs to change, if there is something wrong, and then look into how the church has or
can help.

C. RESEARCH SOURCES
For this research to have been conducted thoroughly, there had to be a full use of
scholarly sources such as books and even journals. A bible will also be used as one of the
main sources of the research, as the other part of the paper is about church, and it
originates from the scripture.

D. PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT
The development of the study will be focused on the following two chapters:
CHAPTER I: this is the first chapter, and it will mainly be focused on the meaning of
poverty reduction and its main challenges, by looking at the biblical context on the
meaning of poverty and the challenges of poverty reduction.
CHAPTER II: This is the second chapter, and the main focus will be on the involvement
of the Church in poverty reduction, by looking at its responsibility in poverty reduction
and why it needs to be responsible in the first place.
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CHAPTER 1: THE MEANING OF POVERTY REDUCTION AND ITS CHALLENGES

Poverty was a problem in ancient Israel as it is today, and the prophets of the bible and the key
figures such as Jesus of Nazareth and Paul addressed the issue. The intention of this paper is
therefore to reflect on the theme of poverty in various writings of the bible. Poverty is therefore
not going to be analyzed as a biblical theme, like other biblical themes such as convent and
creation, and because enormous human suffering is caused by poverty, this topic cannot merely
be an objective analysis. It is impossible to cover the theme of poverty in the bible extensively
within the scope of one article, hence this chapter is going to provide a keyhole perspective on
poverty in the bible by discussing the various terms used for poverty, with some examples. The
main focus should be eradication rather than mere alleviation of poverty, then and now.

A. BIBLICAL CONTEXT ON THE MEANING OF POVERTY

In the Hebrew Bible, which is the Old testament, there are several terms that explain
poverty, such as, ani, ebjon,dal, and rasj. It must be noted that as much as these words
may seem different, they are not that different in meaning. For example, ani occurs 75
times in the Old Testament and it means poor, ebjon occurs in the old testament 61 times,
and it means beggars or socially weak, dal occurs 48 times in the bible, and it means low,
helpless, insignificant ican, last but not least is the term rasj which occurs in the bible 21
times, and it means “material poverty. Except in the book of Hebrews, these words can
also be found in the book of Proverbs 15:15, Deuteronomy 15: 9, 11, 15, and many
others. On the other hand, there are also terms for poverty in the New Testament, like
ptochos, which means Poverty, penes which refers to a person who is poor and must live
sparingly as they can merely survive.1

1
Scheffler, E. H. Deuteronomy 15: 1-18 and Poverty in South Africa: A Critical Study of the Pentateuch.
Otto: E & Le Roux, J. H. 2005.Pp84-86
 Lekhotsa 5

From the above statements, it is clear that poverty from the bible with its variety of
meanings can be attached to the term poor, and in ancient Israel, it was not taken into
account that poverty could have a wide range of meanings, from the worst kind of
destitution to any to any kind of misery or suffering, including suffering at a spiritual
level.2 This has brought a lot of confusion to a lot of people, as poverty was valued as a
great thing, especially because it always seemed that God sided with the poor, to a point
that poverty was seen as a virtue that was desired. In the book of Luke for example, it is
written that Jesus said blessed are the poor, however in Matthew 5:3, it is elaborated
more that ‘blessed are the poor in spirit.’

To further the above statement, there are authors that have suggested that poverty should
be separated in types, as the levels are not equal or the same. Sach has suggested three
different types of types; extreme, moderate and relative poverty. He refers to extreme
poverty as absolute poverty, that is, the poverty that kills, where people have less than $1
per day to survive, chronically hungry, deprived of basic shelter, safe drinking water,
sufficient clothing, health care and education. Basically what is meant by the former
mentioned type of poverty is that it is a stage of destruction where people cannot even
afford the basic needs. There is another type called moderate poverty, where people live
between $1 and $2, and their basic needs are barely met, as they are not in danger of
death, but they live to survive physically. Unlike the first stage, in this stage, people are
able to live, as they can afford a minimum of their basic needs, but they are still poor.
The third stage of poverty is when a single household income is below a given proportion
of the national average, and people in this stage are able to survive but fail to enjoy the
things that the middle class takes granted of.3

Etiam, so as to be able to understand poverty in the bible, there should be a study of the
history of Israel itself. The Hebrew bible often refers to poverty in its most basic form,
which is the material destitution, and this maybe because the bible was not written by
extremely poor people, and because the poorest of the poor were concerned with finding

2
Sach, J. D. The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in Our LifeTime. London: Penguin. 2005.
Pp19-24
3
Ibid.
 Lekhotsa 6

food rather than religion, and because they could also not read or write. This is however a
good thing because this means that the elite will remain considerate and supportive to the
poor, as they are called upon to respond to the plight of the poor.4 There are many biblical
texts that emphasize the rich to be kind to the poor, like in Exodus 22:21-24
“Do not mistreat or oppress the foreigner, remember that you were foreigners in
Egypt. Do not mistreat any widow or orphan. If you do, the Lord will answer when
they cry out for help to me, and I will become angry and kill you in war. Your wives
will become widows, and your children will become fatherless.”

It should be noted that these laws are not recognized globally, but are recognized and
followed by the Israelites themselves as it is believed that is how a family should be.
In the book of Deuteronomy however, poverty is addressed as a correction to the failures
that Israel made before, as the book is more about correcting Israel on the adoption of a
positive attitude towards the poor.5 This means that for Deuteronomy history, the poor are
the poor because God has chosen them to be that way, and not because it was a disaster, it
was all God’s choice, this is why everyone is bound to be treated the same way, whether
or not they are rich or poor. In the 1 Samuel 2: 1-10 Hannah sings a song where she
makes it clear that the Lord is capable of giving people who are poor all the riches, and
those that have everything God can just easily take everything away from them, and so
everyone must remain faithful to him despite their status quo, so that he will forever
protect them.

In alia manu, in some books like the book of Proverbs, it is true that the poor are to be
treated with a charitable attitude, however, the poor are also blamed that they are the way
they are because they are lazy and end up depending on the situation of being supported
by the rich.6 In books such as Amos and Micah, the rich are the ones that are heavily
criticized, as they are accused of exploiting and not caring for the poor, especially the
political and the religious leaders. It can therefore be concluded that the poverty in the old

4
Scheffler, E. H. Deuteronomy 15: 1-18 and Poverty in South Africa,Pp84-87
5
Bosman, H. L. et al. Plutocrats and Paupers: Wealth and Poverty in the Old Testament. Pretoria: Van
Schaik. 1991.pp 40-60
6
Weinfeld, M. Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1972. Pp 34-
37
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testament was either treated as a virtue or a curse, as some believe that it was by God’s
choice that there be the poor and the rich, but some condemn the poor by actually
blaming them on their laziness. However, at the end of the day, the Lord is capable of
doing anything, he can easily take from just as he easily gives, so it is very important for
the rich to remain humble before the Lord humbles them himself.
Ibi quoque est poverty in the new testament is on the emphasis that can be traced back to
the historical Jesus who, according to the oldest witnesses was poor himself, but he
pronounced the poor blessed, preached for them, cared for them through miracles such as
the multiplication of bread and also gave his disciples the responsibility of caring for
them.7 In the book of Luke 6: 20-21 it is written
“Jesus looked at his disciples and said happy are you poor, for the kingdom of God
is yours! Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled; happy are you who
weep now; you will laugh.”

Paul was a great apostle of God, and during his time off in the ministry, he was a
tentmaker, and the money he collected from making the tents he would give to the poor,
and he was also involved in organizing the collection of money among the Asian
churches for the poor Church in Jerusalem. In the book of James also, in order to
emphasize the correct ethical behavior as a result of genuine faith, supported the poor by
punishing the rich members of the congregation who were discriminating against the
poor.

B. THE CHALLENGES OF POVERTY REDUCTION

Poverty is a global issue, which remains a concern to many countries, both developed and
under developed, as we are all connected. This means that it should be a priority to each
and every country, as no country wants to starve its citizens to death, this also means that
it is better for country to put in some preventive and protective measures against poverty
before it becomes a problem, but sometimes the countries due to unforeseen and
uncalculated circumstances, fails to protect their people. This will then call for strategies
7
Joubert, S. Paul as Benefactor: Reciprocity, Strategy and Theological Reflection in Paul’s collection.
Tubingen: Mohr. 2000.pp300-332
 Lekhotsa 8

that will help the country cope or even eradicate poverty, even though most of the
strategies never seem to be working. This section is going to look into those challenges
that the countries face in the process of eradicating poverty.
It has been reported by the Global Monitoring Report that poverty is expected to fall into
single digits for the first time in 2015 at 9.6 percent, but this does not mean there are no
challenges to the upcoming development. The first major challenge is the depth of
remaining poverty. It is true that the decline in poverty has been impressive, it somehow
still remains unacceptably high and deep, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and there
remains 900 million people around the world who are extremely poor according to the
last surveys that were made back in 2012, and it was projected that in 2015 there would
be 700 million people in extreme poverty.8 Over the last decades, the countries that were
mostly focused on were East Asia, pacific South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, and there
has been a huge decline in the first two mentioned regions with only Sub Saharan Africa
having a steady increase and is now called the most of the global poor.

The main challenge here is that the poorest of the poor countries are not focused on, and
the only way to tackle it is especially in Sub Saharan Africa where poverty is most
persistent. There is a poverty headcount rate which provides information on the number
of people living under the poverty line. The information is not enough as it fails to inform
us about the critical differences among the extremely poor with respect to the depth of
poverty.9 This means that the information received from the headcount is not enough, as
it does not provide a clear picture of how many people are extremely poor, and this
hinders the process of eradicating poverty. For example, two different countries can
record the same poverty headcount rate, where in one country poverty is shallow and in
the other poverty is very deep.

The second challenge is that there has been a stark unevenness in shared prosperity, as
boosting shared prosperity is taken to promote the income growth of the bottom 40

8
Asian Development Bank. Key indicators 2008: Comparing Poverty Across Countries. Manila.
2008.pp290-293
9
Bhagwati, et.al. Trade and poverty countries: The American Economic Review. Vol. 92. No. 2. 2002. Pp
34-40
 Lekhotsa 9

percent of the income distribution of each country10. The shared prosperity does not only
help in eradication of poverty, but also has key institutional objectives for the World
Bank, and the characteristics of the below 40 may differ from country to country. In some
countries, all of the B40 are extremely poor, while in other countries that are richer the
B40 includes moderately poor and those vulnerable to falling back into poverty, and it
does not matter how the B40 is measured, whether relatively or absolute terms, the B40
mainly focus on the poorer segments of societies. It has become difficult to assess the
world’s performance on shared prosperity because of delayed availability of household
survey data, and this is because most countries by 2007 to 2012 had registered relatively
healthy income growth for their B40 populations.

The third challenge is that there are persistent disparities in the non-income dimensions
of development between the poor and non-poor and between the B40 and the rest of the
population. Poverty and prosperity are both multidimensional concepts, with income
deprivations that restrict an individual’s ability to consume certain basic goods such as
lack of access to education, health, housing, employment and many more. 11 As much as
the world has made significant progress in many of these non-income dimensions, there
still remains a very important work to be done. There is a number of children close to one
fifth children that remain undernourished, and some 860 million people continue to live
in slums, there is also access to primary school education and literacy rates have
improved, but the education received remains a main concern, as it is not good in quality,
and as much as health services have somehow improved, there is still high number of
preventable diseases. Globalization is a global sensation as the opening up of goods,
labor, capital and services markets to world trade is the dominant fixture in the
development paradigm of the 1990s, and because of it the economy of East Asia has been
boosted over the years.12 However, at the same time, it has aroused fear and suspicion
that it is increasing inequality, as the more developed countries always seem to be more

10
Dupriez, O. Building a Household Consumption Database for the Calculation of Poverty PPPs.
Technical Note: World Bank. 2007.pp100-122
11
Gord, L. et al. The Global Economic Crisis: Assessing Vulnerability With a Poverty Lens. World Bank.
2009.pp30-31
12
Blanchard, O. et al. Global Imbalance: In Midstream. International Islamic University: Malysia.
2009.pp14-20
 Lekhotsa 10

benefiting from it and the less developed countries seem to be more and more in poverty,
it is as though exploitation is happening and globalization is the main reason for it.
Globalization was put in place as a way of helping developing countries find their own
feet, and actually grow economically, however, in reality it seems to be more beneficial
to the developed countries than the developing ones.

CHAPTER 2: CHURCH INVOLVEMENT IN POVERTY REDUCTION, THE NEED

FOR HER INVOLVEMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY

Church is a pillar of strength not only to the congregation, but to the community as a whole, and
so it is expected for a church to be involved with a problem such as poverty, especially since the
bible clearly states that we must love each other just as we love ourselves, and helping people in
need is one of the good efforts of showing love. In South Africa, the activities of Christian
organizations in response to HIV and poverty have been evident enough to know that they are
being tackled each and every day. This Chapter is therefore going to look into the responsibility
of the church in poverty reduction, and the main reason why the church needs to be involved in
poverty reduction.

A. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH IN POVERTY REDUCTION

There are many ways in which a church responds to poverty, and one of them is
theologically, as over the years, theology has influenced and shaped the beliefs of the
church. The bible is replete with instances of where the church mobilized its resources to
address questions of oppression and neglect, hunger and poverty, and this has been made
possible because the church’s teachings on such issues is very clear. From the Old
 Lekhotsa 11

Testament to the New Testament, the bible has been clear on the issues of what should be
the community beliefs and practices in relation to such matters, as the church was not
only a spiritual organization but also recognized its temporal significance in ministering
to the nourishment of the physical body.13 In the book of Acts, it is written that after other
believers complained that their widows were neglected in the administration, there was a
special arm created in administration which was made mainly to focus on helping them
by feeding the members, this was led by a holy apostle named Stephen.
Autem, the above mentioned practice is based on the belief that all members of the human
race are of one origin and equal before God, hence it was important for the rich to help
the poor until equality was reached. Issues of poverty have engaged the interest of the
church for many countries, especially the Catholic, as each Pope for the Catholic church
has published an Encyclical which outlined the social agenda of the church under that
Pope. For instance, in 1891, Pope Leo XIII, published in his Rerum Novarum, and stated
that: “If the worker is compelled to accept harsher terms, or is induced to do so by fear of
worse hardships, and these have to be accepted because they are imposed by a master or
employer, this is submission to force and therefore repugnant to Justice.” 14 This then
should come as no surprise as two centuries after the encyclical, workers seem to be
facing situations that are very close to that described by the Pope. It should be noted that
the concerns about people’s wages did not end with Pope Leo, as other Popes like Pope
Pius XI in Quadragesimo in 1931 also published in 1931, Pope Jean XXIII published in
1961, and many others.

Etiam, the church also recognized its responsibility to the worse off in the society, as it
especially holds the rich people responsible for the well being of the poor. John Paul II
Laborem Exercens 1981 specifically placed the blame for the woes of the poor countries
at the doorsteps of the rich developed countries and their economic agencies, the
multinational corporations. He declared thus:
“The highly industrialized countries, and even more the businesses that direct on a
large scale the means of industrial production, fix the highest possible prices for
their products, while trying at the same time to fix the lowest prices for raw
13
Bettenson, H. Documents of the Christian Church. London: Oxford. 1967. Pp 276. 1967
14
Marist Brothers. The Social Teaching OF THE Church. South Africa: Order of Preachers. 1986.pp45
 Lekhotsa 12

materials or semi-manufactured goods. This is one of the causes of an ever

increasing disposition between national incomes.”

The above views have proven that the church is not only concerned with the spiritual
being of the people, but also the social, political and the economic well being, and this
shift reflects the spirit of era in developing countries, especially in Latin America, where
the more dignified and ceremonial theologies of the Encyclicals gave away to a more
radical theology of liberation.15
Ibi quoque est liberation theology, which in Latin America is a conscious revolutionary
attempt to challenge conditions of poverty, powerlessness, domination and total cultural,
economic, political and psychological dependence upon the developed nations of North
America and Europe.16 It should be noted that Roman Catholicism is the founder of
liberation theology with some notable Protestant liberation theologians, and the Roman
Catholic theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Segundo Galilea, Juan Luis Segundo and
many more were all associated with liberation theology. It should also be noted that the
central goal of liberation theology has been to make religion and the church relevant by
making them catalyst of change, and this theology arose out of the crisis of popular
revolution in the 1960s against untenable poverty, exploitation and alienation which
characterized the lives of greater proportions of the people of Latin America.17

Moving on to the church in South Africa, and one major cause of poverty in South Africa
was apartheid policy, which was sanctioned with the bible and so the solution of poverty
is going to have to come from the bible also. It has been suggested for the church to
eradicate poverty that it must: Provide a Christian perspective to poverty, Promoting
economic justice, conducting research on the nature of poverty in South Africa,
developing mechanisms of engaging public policy makers to influence policy towards
prioritizing poverty eradication, and facilitating the development of actions and projects

15
Dwane, S. Issues in the South African Theological Debate: Essays and Addresses in Honour of the late
James Matta Dwane. Cape Town: Blackshaws. 1989. Pp 19
16
Germond, P. A. Liberation Theology: Theology in the Service of Justice. Villa: Vicencio.1987. Pp 215-
232
17
Ibid.
 Lekhotsa 13

by the churches and local congregations to eradicate poverty. 18 It is believed that there is
so much that a church in South Africa can do to eradicate poverty by furthering the
struggle for cultural change and social justice. The church in South Africa is responsible
for channeling the voices of the poor towards appropriate public policy formulation and
implementation and also it should be involved in effective implementation of the poverty
eradication program.

Government has never been short of ideas or policies about how to solve public
problems, but more often, they lack the will to carry through such policies, for example,
the RDP were build in order to create labor absorbing economy as well as creating jobs
that would ultimately lead to full employment, while all together reducing poverty
through redistribution and meeting of the basic needs.19 It should be noted that the RDP
takes the view that neither economic growth by itself or redistribution on its own will
resolve the serious crisis facing South Africa, hence the government needs to adopt an
approach to reconstruction and development.

In continuatione, ArchBishop Ndungane has re-echoed the position of Pope Paul II that
the profit mechanism alone cannot put food in the bellies of millions of mothers, fathers,
children, grandparents, workers, the millions who hunger and starve, here on the African
continent, Latin America and Asia.20 His emphasis was on the idea that as much as the
materialistic things matter in life, poverty also requires a holistic approach, and many
churches have development desks and have a vision that goes beyond relief work to
address the root causes of poverty. The Bishop emphasizes that there is a need for long
term view which will inextricably bind human development with economic growth with
sharing of resources, and continues to argue that the feeding schemes and emergency aid
are not the solutions to the problem, but they are mere temporary fixers that will sustain
people as they are awaiting the long term results.

18
Sheena, D. Building a new community: Tasks Confronting the Church. Nash. 1984.Pp 65-73
19
Field, F. Poverty and Politics: The Inside Story of the CPAG Campaigns in the 1970s . London:
Heinemann. 1982.pp20-22
20
Ndungane, K. A World with a Human Face: A Voice from Africa Cape Town: David Phillip. 2003.pp3-12
 Lekhotsa 14

Autem, the church is capable and able to do so much more in poverty reduction, as it has
a minority of people who are very rich. The problem with the church members is that
they go to the same church, get taught the same message and believe in the same God,
but do not treat each other as expected by the word of God, as the rich always believe that
it is the poor’s fault because of their laziness to be in a state that they are, and the rich on
the other hand belief that it is the fault of the rich for their exploitation that they are in the
state of poverty. What should happen is that people in church should put aside their
economic and political values and focus on the word of God, follow it and do what
Christians should do.21 Christians should separate their worship and confession of Christ
from the concern for political and economic justice, because they are two different issues
as one is religious and the other is secular.

Etiam, the church of South Africa has come up with strategies to tackle the problem of
poverty since 1994, and this is why in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the churches are
coming together to address a number of social political and economic problems, and one
of the partnerships is between the Diakonia Council of Churches headquartered in
Durban. It is believed that this council will contribute in solving these problems, and this
will be pursued through prayer, consultation, facilitation, training, networking, providing
resources and models, animating church groups and individuals to be active in their own
communities as well as regionally. 22 In order to make a huge impact, the council works
with the church’s formal leadership like the church women, youth leaders, key influential
people in Christian organizations and independent with indigenous leaders.

The council focuses on cross-cutting issues such as human rights, gender, racism and
xenophobia and environmental injustice, and a particular attention has been given to the
root causes of social injustice, building local, national and international church links,
establishing church based community resource centers, and linking churches with civil
society organizations among others.23 Priority issues tackled include economic justice

21
Kristner, W. The Church and the Poor in Biblical Perspective. Durban: South Africa. 1984.Pp 41-49
22
Nash, M. Rural Poverty Challenges the Church: Workshop and Background Materials. 1984. Pp 56-64
23
Babbie, E. and Mouton, J. The Practice OF Social Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2001. Pp
5-19
 Lekhotsa 15

where the center assists member churches and organizations to become emotionally
literate, to learn how to influence economic policy and to lobby for a more fair economic
system for everyone. The council also pursues economic empowerment by promoting
efforts to help unemployed people find jobs or create work by assisting churches to
develop model projects in selected communities and helping churches in other areas to
develop a response to the needs of the poor.

In continuance, the community members were trained in the hope that they would find
jobs, there was a shift of emphasis later to giving skills to people so that they can avail
themselves of the economic opportunities in their communities and begin their own
business.24 The church members were therefore trained in baking, gardening, poultry
keeping and fence making, there were also economic rallies that were organized where
participants from different projects network with and learn from one another. During
those rallies, people were taught how to make business cards and pamphlets, and the most
common project in the church has turned out to be vegetable gardening which can be
found in many communities. These resource centers have also helped the elderly to be
able to access their grants and pensions from stations nearer to their homes.
Ad hoc quod supra, there is a scheme called the HOPE Empowerment Scheme (The Help
Our People Everywhere), and this foundation was founded by Pastor Fred Robert, who
was also the founder of the Durban Christian Centre Church. 25 This scheme was
established on some biblical principles that the church is important in making changes in
the community, and as children of God need to be seen helping people wherever they
need help, and this help was based on the belief that as an institution born out of love, the
church should follow the example shown in the bible and manifest love to the benefit of
all mankind. It was based on the fact that God gave up his own son to die for our sins,
undeservedly so, and that was an act of love, and the fact that even during the ministry of
Jesus Christ he also did not feed people spiritually, but also provided them with food,
whenever people needed it. It should be noted that this scheme, as much as it was
independent on its own, was still a branch of a church as it operated under it.

24
Nash, M. Rural Poverty Challenges the Church,Pp 56-64
25
Brink, H. Fundamentals of Research Methodology for health care professionals. Kenwyn: Juta. 1996. Pp
30-40
 Lekhotsa 16

The main reason for the development of this scheme is because the church realized that
its members were not all equal economically, so what it did was to try and support those
members. As the church was busy trying to fight this by helping its members as much as
it could, it came to a realization that more people needed more help, and so that was
when the empowerment scheme began. The scheme drew from government as well as the
business sector in a symbiotic relationship based on the church’s reputation as a place to
find trustworthy people, and so job opportunities were brought to the knowledge of the
scheme, which in turn sent people from the church to fill those positions. 26 The pool of
CVs was floating by the church, of the unemployed church members, and as soon as
there were positions and opportunities available, and in order for the opportunities to be
there, there was a prayer meeting of the unemployed was held every Thursday during
which they were encouraged spiritually and given some skills in job hunting.

B. WHY DOES THE CHURCH NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN POVERTY

REDUCTION
Like it was mentioned before, the church is the pillar of the community and some would
even say the world. There are many ways why we need church, as it is the temple of God,
and it is in church that we find peace of our minds and joy from. No matter how much a
person prays, or claims to love God, without church the person is incomplete, hence a
church should really turn into our day to day must go. We have so many problems in this
world, and just like there is every problem in the bible, from theft, adultery, killing,
incurable diseases, and issues such as poverty, the bible also comes with solutions. This
is why the church is so important, it has a solution to every problem as it revolves around
what the bible says. This section is going to focus on why the church needs to participate
in poverty reduction.
The church is very essential as it represents what God, and Jesus Christ stand for here in
the world, and God is love, hence it makes no sense that the church would not be
involved in issues such as poverty. At church we can develop caring relationships with
26
Bill, J. Paupers: The Making of the New Claiming Class. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.1986.pp23-
25
 Lekhotsa 17

others, help each other get through tough times as we lead, guide and walk besides each
other.27 The bible also says that we should demonstrate our love for each other by not just
our comforting words, but by also our actions. For example, when our fellow brother or
sister says they have nothing to eat, instead of saying “God will Provide” it is better to
give the person food to eat. This is why the church needs to be involved in poverty
reduction, because it needs to demonstrate its love for God’s children in action and not by
words. It should be noted that the spiritual part of the church is also essential, as people
who go through poverty battle a lot of emotions to a point that they may feel neglected by
God, and so they need the church to constantly remind them that God loves them just as
much.

27
Jeffrey, R. H. Teaching and Learning in the Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. Pp 90
 Lekhotsa 18

CONCLUSIONS

1. It is true that poverty is a global issue, and remains a threat to both developing and
developed countries as there is no country that would enjoy starving its citizens to death.
It was also gathered that even the Bible itself acknowledges that poverty is a problem, as
it was shown that even Israel itself went through that stage, and so the Bible encouraged
us that we as the Christians should find any means necessary in eradicating poverty.
2. It is true that from the Bible, it is made clear in more than one biblical text that Jesus
loved those who were poor, and declared them blessed, and we are also warned against
treating the poor in a bad manner, as the Bible says Jesus said he would kill those that
harm poor people, and he would even go as far as taking away all their fortune just to
humble them, and give it to the poor. So it should be the priority of Christian’s to care for
the poor like their master.
3. The church should contribute towards the reduction of poverty not to take part in making
those who are in need or poor more poor, especially when some churches collect money
from the poor people saying it is a seed for marriage, importation, and many others. The
money will go to a pastor to buy cars, phones etc. so the church should change that
strategy of talking to those who have nothing.
4. There are challenges that are met in reducing poverty, especially since poverty is no news
to any of us, it has been going on for decades. The challenges include the fact that the
government is able to stipulate the policies, but always fails to implement them. This is a
challenge because the longer the government takes, the more the process of eradication
gets delayed.
5. It can be good if the government takes initiative to be involved with the church and also
other private organizations that are trying and willing to help the countries eradicate
poverty, especially because the governments have their hands full with many of the issues
that happen around them.
6. Rather than having missionaries giving money to the poor people, we think it can be best
to teach them the skills, so that when they leave people can make a living for the skills
 Lekhotsa 19

they have acquired. Poverty increases because of the hand outs, without skills for
tomorrow.
7. The church plays a very important role in eradicating poverty through foundations and
Schemes that it funds, in helping their countries. This means that the church is very
important, and should never be taken for granted, as it truly is the pillar of strength.
8. We believe that it can be good if the church should go as far as being involved in policy
making and having some sort of representation in the parliament, so that it will be
represented, and so its interests, which are at the end of the day the interests of the
people.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

1. Asian Development Bank, (2008). Key indicators 2008: Comparing Poverty Across
Countries. Manila.
2. Babbie, E. and Mouton, J., (2001).The Practice OF Social Research. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
3. Bettenson, H., (1967). Documents of the Christian Church. London: Oxford.
4. Brink, H., (1996). Fundamentals of Research Methodology for health care professionals.
Kenwyn: Juta.
5. Bill, J., (1986). Paupers: The Making of the New Claiming Class. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
6. Blanchard, O. et al., (2009). Global Imbalance: In Midstream. International Islamic
University: Malysia.
7. Bosman, H. L. et al., (1991). Plutocrats and Paupers: Wealth and Poverty in the old
Testament.” Pretoria: Van Schaik.
 Lekhotsa 20

8. Dupriez, O., (2007). Building a Household Consumption Database for the Calculation of
Poverty PPPs. Technical Note: World Bank.
9. Dwane, S., (1989). Issues in the South African Theological Debate: Essays and
Addresses in Honour of the late James Matta Dwane. Cape Town: Blackshaws.
10. Field, F., (1982). Poverty and Politics: The Inside Story of the CPAG Campaigns in the
1970s . London: Heinemann.
11. Germond, P. A., (1987). Liberation Theology: Theology in the Service of Justice. Villa:
Vicencio.
12. Gord, L. et al., (2009). The Global Economic Crisis: Assessing Vulnerability With a
Poverty Lens. World Bank.
13. Jeffrey, R. H., (2009). Teaching and Learning in the Church” Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
14. Joubert, S., (2000). Paul as Benefactor: Reciprocity, Strategy and Theological Reflection
in Paul’s collection. Tubingen: Mohr.
15. Kristner, W., (1984). The Church and the Poor in Biblical Perspective. Durban: South
Africa.
16. Marist Brothers., (1986). The Social Teaching OF THE Church. South Africa: Order of
Preachers.
17. Nash, M., (1984). Rural Poverty Challenges the Church: Workshop and Background
Materials.
18. Ndungane, K., (2003). A World with a Human Face: A Voice from Africa. Cape Town:
David Phillip.
19. Sach, J. D., (2005). The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in Our Life Time.
London: Penguin.
20. Scheffler, E. H., (2005). Deuteronomy 15: 1-18 and Poverty in South Africa: A Critical
Study of the Pentateuch. Otto: E & Le Roux, J. H.
21. Sheena, D., (1984). Building a new community: Tasks Confronting the Church. Nash.
22. Weinfeld, M., (1972). Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
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JOURNALS

1. Bhagwati, et.al., (2002). Trade and poverty countries: The American Economic Review.
Vol. 92. No. 2.

BIBLES
1. The Holy Bible English Standard Version. Corsswy. Wheaton, ILLinois 2001.