Emmanuel University trains faith leaders in church management, entrepreneurship
Emmanuel University (EMUNI) has started training faith leaders of various churches and ministries in church management and entrepreneurship in a drive to wean them from overreliance on offerings and donations.
Some of the participants to the seminar pay attention to the presentation
Speaking at the start of the seminar in Lilongwe on Monday, EMUNI vice chancellor Reverend Dr. Chatha Msangaambe observed that churches and ministries have been struggling financially because they do not invest in income generating activities.
He said time had come for faith leaders to start exploring opportunities in entrepreneurship to raise resources for the operations of their churches and ministries.
“Entrepreneurship offers an opportunity for Christians to use their skills, talents, and resources in service to God by creating a business that positively impacts society. As Emmanuel University, we feel we are an arm of the church. And we know the churches are growing in Malawi. But we have detected that there are some gaps that the church requires to take care of. One of the reasons why we’re organizing these workshops is a question of providing mindset change. Many are the times in our history as a church that we have been thinking that entrepreneurship is meant for the secular world. But the church should take a lead,” he said.
Msangaambe added that the seminars are complementary to the Malawi 2063 (MW2063) development agenda, which seeks citizens’ commitment to change their mindset as an enabler for attaining the country’s development aspirations.
He warned that churches run the risk of being perpetual beggars if they do not engage in some entrepreneurial activities.
Msangaambe likened the church to an organism, which needs to feed itself if it is to survive for a long time.
“Even a tree searches where its roots should go in the soil for it to survive. Even if it is an animal, it also always looks for ways it can get a good feed, and so on and so forth. That’s the same thing as a church. When a church is not having proper methods of mobilizing resources. Then it weakens; it gets weaker and weaker to the extent of being a beggar when we know that the church is supposed to be one of the richest institutions,” he said.
He said the seminar will help faith leaders to hone skills in church management and resource mobilization.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, Pastor Benson Saikonde of the Presbyterian Church in Malawi (PCM) described the seminar as timely, stressing that time had come when churches needed to generate resources on its own instead of relying on Sunday collections and pledges from its members.
Saikonde observed that the majority of the churches have been struggling financially because of overdependence on donations from well-wishers and members.
“But I’ve seen that we have human resources in a church who can go out to run their own businesses. Some are employed here in town or in other sectors, but we don’t see that the very same people are the ones who come to church and pray with us. Yet the church is the arranger of money. So, we are seeing that, if the church can venture into business or entrepreneurship, surely we can make progress in churches,” he said.
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