DELIVERANCE CHURCH UGANDA

Communication Strategies for the Church in Uganda Today
By Dorothy Kisaka

I had a preaching engagement at Luzira prison recently. After a lot of heart searching I was inspired to preach on the ‘Importance of Forgiveness’. How appropriate for Luzira prison, or so I thought. It was a great message delivered with gusto, passion and demonstrations. My audience hang on to every word that gushed out of me like their whole life depended on it.  I had taken my thirteen year old along. When I asked her for some feedback after the sermon, she gave a short abrupt comment. In fact, it was a question: “Why were you shouting?” She said. “Excuse me?” I almost toppled over! “Yes Mum, no one wants anybody to shout at them. You could have said the same things without shouting.” Ouch!

Preach the gospel and if need be, use words. These are Famous words by St. Augustine. But today‘s preacher has another approach.  Shout yourself hoarse and if need be, let your actions preach too. A sweeping statement? Perhaps, yet it may not be too far from the truth if the stories we hear over the grape vine about preachers are to go by. The words while on stage have become more important than actions of the preacher; sexual scandals, power struggles and money misappropriations are not exempt from the preacher fraternity.

Is anyone listening? Yes! Deafening applause erupts from the captive audiences as they listen to the glamorously dressed preachers. But that’s because of the message, its interesting. It scratches where the listener is itching. It’s blasted on the car radio in the commuters for the 3-7km ride within the city. What with television displaying preachers advertising their product complete with demonstrations of which venue has most gymnastics in the art of casting out the demons? The billboards have not been left out, they used to be places for the most popular pop singers in town but now, they comfortably host the church product, how to get rid of poverty. What more, you can get inspirational messages on your phone at the press of a button, for an inspirational message, press 101, and bang! You are connected to God. It’s even fashionable to declare yourself ‘saved’ at an interview for a job. It’s a license for a juicy vacancy.