The church of God must promote and acknowledge God’s invitation for God’s people to participate in the governance of life according to God’s will in the world.
“Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you” (Deuteronomy 1:13).
The lesson we draw from this scripture reading is that electing leaders should be a deliberate process based on wisdom, understanding and respect.
Prayer sessions for elections and the preparations therefore are very important in ensuring divine intervention in choosing the ethical leadership.
The church remains committed in ensuring that the people of God govern themselves through credible, God fearing and patriotic leaders.
The right to choose those whom we want to govern is not just a constitutional right, but a sacred responsibility and God-given mandate.
Church leaders and the congregations should be encouraged to educate people of God how and why to participate in elections.
Authentic voter education must be promoted in churches empowering people on how to register for elections, how to vote, where to find out where to vote, how to handle a ballot paper and critically the vote must remain a secret of each and every voter.
Our churches must be encouraged to share a nonpartisan voting guide to the congregants and community members.
Leaders must be the reflection of the people they lead. Members of the church, as members of the community, should play a role in influencing the political establishment without being partisan.
The context of the reality of the coming municipal election calls on us to stand up and encourage people through church leaders to participate as guided by God.
The church of God exists as a witness for God’s justice, working for just governance in service delivery.
One of the responsibilities given to human beings like us is that of being co-responsible with God in making the world a better place to be and promote the will of God. “May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
This part of the prayer allows us to offer ourselves as doers of God’s will, asking God to guide, lead and give us the means to accomplish his purposes.
It is clear that from the beginning God showed willingness to work through us to accomplish God’s mission on earth, as recoded in the book of Genesis saying God said “let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over the wild animals of the earth, and over the creeping things that creeps upon the earth” (Gen 1:26).
Churches should take note of the fact that it is not advisable for them to invite and allow a political candidate to speak during worship services.
Not only would this violate the church’s tax-exemption status, but it would also shift the focus away from worshiping God into electioneering
Church leaders should not endorse political candidates on behalf of their congregations.
We should speak more about moral and ethical leaders God wants in our communities and society.
Failure to put God at the centre of our preparations for elections, could easily lead us to corruption, non-service delivery and moral decay.
The role of the church must not be confused when it comes to the issue of elections in our communities.
Leadership or governance must always be viewed as shared responsibility, orderly organised to serve the people of God.
- Bishop Dr William Leleki, chair of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Nelson Mandela Bay
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