Content uploaded by Tongam Sihol Nababan
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Tongam Sihol Nababan on Apr 19, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
113
Increasing Economic Welfare of Church Congregation:
A Concept of Empowerment
Tongam Sihol Nababan
Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics
University of HKBP Nommensen
Email: ts_nababan@yahoo.com, tsnababan@gmail.com
Abstract
In our community, many structural problems unresolved well, especially in
social and economic life. Seeing this reality, the Church needs to have a
sensitivity and a strong commitment to encourage cooperation of some
parties to empower people, especially its congregation. Congregation of the
Church, especially the poor need to be raised and empowered to pursue their
own welfare through economic business. One manifestation of the Church's
task is to empower the community-based and to revitalize its role more
focused on optimizing the institution of community economy. For that, it is
important to use the Model of Empowerment of Congregation-Based
Community Economic in form of business partnership. The success of
congregation economic empowerment lies in the motivation and orientation
of the actors themselves, where the Church is expected to seriously fight.
Keywords: Church, Congregation, Community-Based Economic, Business
Partnership, Empowerment.
INTRODUCTION
God blesses the world with the amazing natural resources. Nonetheless,
we continue seeing that the social welfare is still far from expectation. There are
several socio-economic indicators to be concerned, i.e: poverty, corruption, and
low human development, etc. There are some structural issues which unresolved,
especially income inequality among communities, gaps of development among
regions, high unemployment, culture of permissive law violations, corruption, and
varieties of other social disorder. Facing this reality, some efforts have been made
by the government and private institution to address these problems. But those
efforts have not shown optimal results because it is constrained by a number of
factors, such as the application of market mechanism which is not pro-people,
public policy not in favor of small communities, globalization, and cultural gap.
Amid this unfavorable life, the government should keep on ensuring that
the common welfare remains a primary goal of national life and fought through
public policies. The Public policy should be the main device of the government to
pursue the prosperity. However, the reality shows that many people prefer to take
advantage of public policy positions as well as to enrich themselves or groups.
Not a few among the board of legislative, executive, and judicial continue to deny
the mandate received from the people to fight for the common welfare. They
prefer the struggle for salary increases and benefits for private life rather than the
interests of the people represented.
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
114
Seeing the social-economic reality, the other institution outside the
government, such as non-government organizations (NGOs), churches, non-profit
organizations, etc can involve and participate to overcome these problems. These
parties are expected to assist the government in reducing the so called problems
by empowering their potentiality among the communities. One of the parties is an
institution of Church. It is expected that a church should be able to show its role
among its community or congregation.
Church needs to have a sensitivity and a strong commitment to
encouraging cooperation among the elements of the government, market forces,
and community institutions to empower people, especially the small and
marginalized communities. Supposedly, the Church is called to involve actively in
the process of socio-economic empowerment of society with the vision of
building a self-supporting Church. The self-supporting congregation is a Church
community who is able to think, plan and realize the dreams, hopes, and ideals of
the next life with effort and strength of their own for the sake of a better life and
more equitable. The negligence of Church during this time to address the above
matters cannot be continued in a preoccupation. It is time for the Church with its
congregation to realize the need for reform in mentality, work ethic, ethical and
moral economy which should be required to optimize the role of the church as an
institution and a personal of Christian.
In this paper, I wish to describe and to stress how an institution of Church
should take a part, empower it to help its community or congregation to gain the
welfare. I also offer a model of Empowerment of Congregation-Based
Community Economics as a conceptual framework which can be applied to
achieve it through the programs of the Church.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Economic Welfare In Perspective Of Church
Many people question: Should the Church help to think about the
economic problems faced by the congregation? Does not Church only focus on
matters of faith?
In the context of the Church role in society, Fernandez (2005) as cited by
Wilhelmus (2010) confirmed that the concept of the Churches as the people of
God always encourage us to more actively integrate ourselves with the life
experience of mankind and more open to matters of political, economic, health,
education, housing, social justice, welfare and people's living environment. Thus
when people covered by situations of injustice, human rights violations, and
oppression, the Church needs to be performed to help and to educate the society in
order to define themselves as agents of a reformer who able to free themselves
from the situation faced by their own power. Refinding the human freedom is the
duty of the Church means the Church in various fields of human life must be
active to liberate and to bring the human being into a prosperous life
(Lumbantobing, 2007).
One element of making Church congregation be prosperous is an
economic activity, such as to create a business or enterprise involving the
congregation. But the economic context of the church is rarely raised as an
interesting topic for discussion in among the congregation. It is more interesting
to discuss other topics, such as culture, law, politics, and so forth. Whereas there
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
115
are so many economic values that can be learned and developed in the service
programs. Sometimes talking about the profit, the interest of money, the project
tender, wealth and other matters concerning the economic and business are
abstinence. The Church could not do business, should not be the pursuit of profit.
Why is that? During this time, there is an incorrect understanding of the principle
of economic or business that is inherent in the minds of the people that "with the
smallest sacrifices (capital) will gain maximum profit" so that if this
understanding is applied in the environment of the Church to be something wrong,
contrary to Christian faith, because the principle can allow or justify all of the
ways to obtain the maximum profit.
The understanding of the economic principle (business) is incorrect and
allegedly misinterpreted or understood as incomplete model from "freedom of
competion" popularized by Adam Smith in his book An Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) (1) (always called as The Wealth of
Nations) as a trigger for the emergence of "capitalism". In a review of The Wealth
of Nations performed by Skousen (2005) stated that, indeed, the ideal society
aspired by Adam Smith is a society filled by the value of kindness, generosity,
and civil laws prohibiting the practice of economic (business) to be fraudulent and
unfair. Smith wanted to integrate the economy with the moral behavior (2). More
pointedly, Smith stated that one of the functions of the most economical and
significant of religious belief is to provide a strong incentive to retain its moral
which can assist and support civil society, namely: honesty, virtue, refrain from
violence and greed, and so forth (Nath, 2007).
But long before it, The Bible has been providing some educational and
economic principles for us, such as found in the scriptures: Proverbs 3: 9-10;
Proverbs 11: 25; Matthew 25: 14-30; 2 Corinthians 9: 6-8; Philippians 4: 19. Even
in the Bible, there are more than 2,350 verses on how to manage money and assets
(Dayton, 2005).
The social-economic decay that we are suffering today is the result of
those who patterned think to act and to rebel against the Lord in the business and
economic life. If the Christians and the Church want to contribute significantly to
the economic reforms that are oriented correctly, then we must start thinking
biblically, such as:
(1) Assume that the economic wealth is not his or her own, but belongs to
God deposited.
(2) Do not be egoistic to save economic wealth for yourself, but God wanted it
also to be a blessing to others.
(3) Do not make economic wealth as the mainstay of life and wealth does not
preclude a relationship with God.
(4) In an effort to accumulate economic wealth does not make a person
deviate from the faith.
Indeed, the Church must confess frankly that economic issues can not be
separated from the failures of Church, theologians, and Christians in obeying the
truth of God's word. Church has failed to give a clear and true teaching of the
implications of biblical truth into the world of economy. Church has failed to
maintain the principles of business ethic and moral of economy, both to its
congregation and talk to outside as an insight and attitude of Christians about the
economy around the world.
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
116
__________
(1) In the original script of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776),
reprinted in 1976 (p. 687) says: "Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left
perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into
competition with those of any other man, or order of men "(West, 1990).
(2) The aim of Adam Smith to write The Wealth of Nations (1776) was to break the conventional view
held by the mercantilism, which dominated the trade and political power at the time. He wanted to replace
it with a system that generates wealth and real growth to bring the United Kingdom and the whole world
towards the improvement of the of ordinary people.
According to Hidayat (2006), just the opposite, the Church itself tends to
make a fatal mistake to understand the message of salvation from God in
monetary symbols. Many people think that “the advanced or modern Church” is
simply a vibrant church in service by utilizing the techniques, methods and
advanced tools as developed in the marketing techniques. Most theories about
progress and church growth use the quantitative measures and not the behavior of
repentance to all aspects of economic life. Therefore, as suggested by Mangeloja
(2003), the Church also may focus on particular institutions that can realize and
improve the economic performance of the congregation, not only on the
conviction and faith.
The Role of Christians and the Church
The social-economic decay that we are suffering today is the result of
those who patterned think to act and to rebel against the Lord in the business and
economic life. If the Christians and the Church want to contribute significantly to
the economic reforms that are oriented correctly, then we must start thinking
biblically, such as:
(1) Assume that the economic wealth is not his or her own, but belongs to
God deposited.
(2) Do not be egoistic to save economic wealth for yourself, but God wanted it
also to be a blessing to others.
(3) Do not make economic wealth as the mainstay of life and wealth does not
preclude a relationship with God.
(4) In an effort to accumulate economic wealth does not make a person
deviate from the faith.
Indeed, the Church must confess frankly that economic issues can not be
separated from the failures of Church, theologians, and Christians in obeying the
truth of God's word. Church has failed to give a clear and true teaching of the
implications of biblical truth into the world of economy. Church has failed to
maintain the principles of business ethic and moral of economy, both to its
congregation and talk to outside as an insight and attitude of Christians about the
economy around the world. According to Hidayat (2006), just the opposite, the
Church itself tends to make a fatal mistake to understand the message of salvation
from God in monetary symbols. Many people think that “the advanced or modern
Church” is simply a vibrant churche in service by utilizing the techniques,
methods and advanced tools as developed in the marketing techniques. Most
theories about progress and church growth use the quantitative measures and not
the behavior of repentance to all aspects of economic life. Therefore, as suggested
by Mangeloja (2003), the Church also may focus on particular institutions that can
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
117
realize and improve the economic performance of the congregation, not only on
the conviction and faith.
Wayan Mastra as cited by Veen (2009) emphasized the importance of
developing the economy of the congregation with the concept of "Stomach
Theology" which states that an empty stomach has no ears. It means, if the
congregations still struggle for the needs of everyday life, it will be difficult for
them to have the Word of God. Mastra believes that Christians should not live in
poverty but live as "capitalist" in the sense of always doubling of capital and
ability as parables of Jesus about the multiplication of talent (Matthew 25: 14 -
30). Mastra responded that the business activities of the church are spiritual.
Because all thoughts of business activities of the Church are the spiritual thoughts
and then all the business activities of the Church is based on the attempt of
surrendering ourselves and to establish a good relationship with God. A good
relationship with God will cause a person's life to be awarded various forms of
blessing.
In practice, many efforts undertaken by the church community to create
economic welfare of its congregation. Some churches in the world operate a
business and they consider no longer as a mere economic activity but as an
evangelical mission to help the congregation. Mulford (2009) suggested that
economic activity or business carried out by the Church must be a
"transformation engine" in the form of a "channel of blessing" for those who
believe and who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Even in operations, activities of
businesses owned by the Church in the United States of America has become a
"holding company", as practiced by the First Assembly of God Church,
LifeBridge Christian Church, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and the
Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU) California. They fund and operate
private schools, shelters, food services (catering), credit cards, loans for small
businesses, housing, shops and offices, commercial aviation business, and sports
arenas. There are also many Catholic and Protestant churches that have set up
cooperatives People, schools and colleges, printing, and so forth, all of which are
dedicated to the welfare of their congregation. But is it managed as holding
company? (3) For future development, it is also possible that in order to boost
economic missions of the Church to improve the life of the congregation, a model
of Incorporated (4) will be required. This model can act and operate as a mediator,
facilitator, and consolidate the potency and economic resources of the Church.
But, like any form of management, all forms of economic activities of the Church
should be geared towards the efforts to improve the life of the congregation.
METHOD
This paper is written based on a literature review and conceptual analysis.
Here, the literature review and conceptual analysis are intended to identify key
aspects in building a model of empowerment of church congregation.
DISCUSSION
The Role Of Church To Achieve Economic Welfare Of Congregation
The welfare of congregation is one of the most important principles in a
way of thinking and acting of the Church. Knowingly and intentionally, the
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
118
church must seek the implementation of the principle, because the Church is
convinced that the welfare cannot be released to an automatic process as to which
occur in the market mechanism. Thus, the Church considers that the economic life
which only depends on the will of the large-scale employers or businessmen and
government initiatives is not a wise way to achieve the welfare.
The congregation of the Church, especially the poor need to be raised and
empowered to seek their welfare by generating small scale business based on
community, also called “community-based economics or community economics”
(5). The support of large-scale businesses and government is certainly needed.
However, with or without the support of the poor and the weak must still rise to
empower themselves. For that the Church can perform two-way movement to
guide the way.
____________
(3) A holding company is a company that owns other companies' outstanding stock. The term usually refers
to a company that does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other
companies to form a corporate group. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can
allow the ownership and control of a number of different companies.
(4) An Incorporated is the umbrella of management to strengthen the network both vertical and horizontal.
In the concept of incorporated, small and medium businesses scale which have a comparative advantage,
united in a holding, which is to be a catalyst to build networking of production, distribution, and marketing on
a global level.
(5) Community-based economics or community economics is an economic system that encourages local
substitution. It is most similar to the lifeways of those practicing voluntary simplicity, including traditional
and modern eco-village communities. It is also a subject in urban economics, related to moral purchasing and
local purchasing.
forward, namely:
(1) The effort of empowering the potency and energy of the poor and weak
with the involvement of intellectuals to search the governance of economic
life which really realize the common welfare.
(2) Critical encouragement to the government and large-scale economic actors
to engage more actively in realizing the common welfare, with special
attention to those who are poor and weak, without making them even more
dependent on others.
In addition to the above movement, active efforts of the Church should be
focused on empowering the potency and energy of social-economic of the poor
and the weak themselves. Some fields that can be empowered such as
microfinance institution, cooperative, home industry, service, etc. They need to be
expanded and fully supported. Of course, this empowerment requires other
movements to urge the various of public policies in the field of economy,
increasingly put the poor and the weak to be the main actors in the economic life
of their own country. Therefore, the Church must really give primary attention to
the little people through the real operational programs and capable of inducing the
productive economic activities at the level of the Church congregation and at the
same time able to foster the entrepreneurial spirit.
One manifestation of the Church task to empower community-based
economic is to revitalize its role which more focused on optimizing the economic
institution, particularly in terms of financing. Several empirical studies conducted
by Asy'arie (2001) showed that the common problems faced by the actors of
community economic (for example, small and medium enterprises and
cooperatives) are the lack of access to sources of financing and capital, limited to
mastery of technology and information, limited to market access, and limited to
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
119
Figure 1. Model of Empowerment of Congregation-Based Community Economic
Potency of Church and
Congregation :
•Human Resources
•Entrepreneurship
Role of Higher
Education :
Research &
Development
Potency of Environment :
•Culture
•Infrastucture
•Economic Business
Business Parnertship
Business of
Congregation :
•Service
•Production
•Distribution
Credit Institution :
•Banks
•Non Banks National
Church’s
Cooperatives :
•Credit Union,
•Consumption, etc
Government Agency :
(Policy and Guidance
Management)
•Local Government
Entrepreneurs :
•National
•Local
Target :
Increasing of life quality and Welfare of
Church and Congregation
Redesign and
Reorientation
of
Organization
Product
And Service
Money
Money
Product
Service
Service
organization and management. The Church is expected to play a role here. With
the capability of this community economic institutions, the economic enterprises
of congregation can access sources of financing from private and government
organizations, even the sources of financing from overseas.
Model of Empowerment
According to Syahza (2001), one of the effective ways to achieve the role
of good economic institutional is to build business partnership. Based on
observations in community, found several factors which can support the
empowerment of the congregation-based community economic, i.e: (1) the role of
higher education (university or college), (2) the businessmen, (3) credit
institutions, (4) economic business of congregation (farmers, entrepreneurs), (5)
the government agencies, (6) Church-owned cooperatives. These factors can be
operated in a series of work which show the interaction of business partnership as
presented in Figure 1.
The model of empowerment in Figure 1 can be explained as follows:
Higher Education (universities or college) plays a role through a research and
development institute, or research center. The role of Higher Education has three
of dimensional strengths, namely: (1) to explore the potency of the Church and the
congregation, (2) to understand the potency of community environment, and (3) to
give the formulation of recommendation from a blend of first and second
dimension to the group of business partnership. As an independent institute,
Higher Education also acts as supervisory institute to economic activities of the
Church.
In the box of business partnership there are five groups that mutually
interact and as an integral unity in the economic activities of the Church. To
develop the economic activities of the Church, it needs to form the cooperatives
operated by the Church. In this case, the cooperatives also act as instruments of
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
120
market information concerning with market opportunities, price conditions, and
the purchasing power of the market. The business units of congregation conduct
the business activities based on the agreement with the Church’s cooperatives.
Their business activities will be accompanied by a team of the expert appointed
by the cooperatives.
The involvement of government agencies in the model of economic
empowerment of congregation is limited to policy makers and guidance
management. The policy is regarding the rules and regulations of mutual benefit.
While the guidance management can be given to cooperatives and business of
congregation. The government agencies may be to provide guidance management
to these groups by using professionals from outside, either from universities or
from other professional institutions. In this empowerment model, credit
institutions only deal directly with cooperatives and entrepreneurs. The credit is
distributed through the Church’s cooperative to the business of the congregation.
The cooperatives propose loans for working capital which will be used by
business of congregation and for the cooperatives themselves. While credit to
entrepreneurs could be in the form of business development (supermarkets, shops,
export, technology, etc). Here, the entrepreneurs refer to the owner of capital and
as traders (brokers, distributors, retailers). As the owners of capital, they establish
cooperation with the Church’s cooperatives in the provision of production
infrastructures. The entrepreneurs can also provide market information through
cooperatives, whether regarding the purchasing power of the market, market
opportunities, and so forth.
Another attempt can be done is to empower organizations through re-
design and re-orientation of the organization (Kasali, 2007). The most suitable re-
design of organization for the Church is organic design or dynamic re-design, not
mechanistic design or moving like a machine. Because the Church lives
dynamically and grows in line with social changes around them. Besides, this
organic re-design can provide an opportunity for creativity and innovation in the
Church. Re-orientation is intended to foster positive attitudes in the renewal of
such openness to new things, to foster values of discipline and work ethic and
creativity. To achieve this, it is good for the Church and the congregation learns
from the experience of Muhammadiyah. In an effort to optimize the service to its
communities, Muhammadiyah forms some assemblies in various fields (e.g:
assembly of tarjih and tajdid, assemblies of sermons and preaching, assemblies of
endowment and infaq sadhoqah, the panel of primary and secondary education,
the board of health and welfare, the assembly of economic and entrepreneurship,
assemblies of community empowerment, and assemblies of cadre education).
CONCLUSION
The empowerment of congregation through the ministry of the Church to
improve performance, productivity, and quality of the congregation can only be
realized through a change. In that effort, the principle of the welfare of the
congregation needs to be used as an approximation. That is, the principle of the
welfare of congregation can be used as a principle to set the agenda in planning,
implementing, and evaluating programs to empower the economic potency of the
congregation. We are all willing to get involved to make changes to the process
that had led to the symptoms of inequality of economic welfare of the
JESP-Vol. 9, No 1, March 2017
ISSN (P) 2086-1575 E-ISSN 2502-7115
121
congregation. For that, economic empowerment of congregation should take
priority in the program of the Church, so that the economic business of the
Church. Using the model of business partnership, the economic empowerment of
the congregation should be able to cope and reduce the constraints and obstacles
faced during this time. Therefore, the success of congregation economic
empowerment lies in the motivation and orientation of the actors themselves.
Finally, we are expected to develop a way of thinking and a new way of acting
with sensitivity and concern for others, so that the common life and the welfare
can be achieved.
REFERENCES
Asy’arie, M. (2001). Keluar dari Krisis Multi Dimensi. Yogyakarta: Lembaga
Studi Filsafat Islam.
Dayton, H. (2005). Pelajaran Keuangan Menurut Alkitab. Jakarta: Crown
Financial Ministries Indonesia. Retrieved from http://www.crown.or.id/
produk.htm.
Hidayat, P. (2006). Perspektif Kristen Tentang Ekonomi, Edisi 075/VI/2006/.
Retrieved from http://www.sabda.org/e-reformed/
Kasali, R. (2007). Re-code Your change DNA: Membebaskan Belenggu-
Belenggu Untuk Meraih Keberanian dan Keberhasilan Dalam
Pembaharuan. Jakarta: Penerbit Gramedia.
Lumbantobing, Darwin. (2007). Teologi di Pasar Bebas. Pematang Siantar:
Penerbit L-SAPA (Lembaga Studi Agama, Pembangunan dan Budaya).
Mangeloja, E. (2003). Application of Economic Concepts on Religious Behavior,
School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Finland,
P.O.Box 35, FIN-40014. Retrieved from http://129.3.20.41/eps/othr
/papers/0310/0310003.pdf
Mulford, J. E. (2009). The Church and Business: Working together in God's plan
of Redemption, VOICE for All Nations. Retrieved from
http://kingdomentrepreneur.blogspot.com/2009/05/
Nath, S. (2007). Religion & Economic Growth and Development. Indira Gandhi
Institute of Development Research, MPRA Paper No. 8181. Retrieved
from http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/8181/)
Skousen, M. (2005). The Making of Modern Economics, The lives and Ideas of
the Great Thinkers Terjemahan Indonesia: “Sang Maestro Teori-teori
Ekonomi Modern”, Alih Bahasa T. W. B. Santoso. Jakarta: Penerbit
Prenada Media.
Syahza, A. (2001). Studi Sosial Ekonomi dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat di
Propinsi Riau. PPKPEM Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru.
Veen, M. G. M. (2009). Teologi Kewirausahaan, Konsep dan Praktik Bisnis
Gereja Kristen Protestan di Bali. Salatiga: Taman Pustaka Kristen dan
Centre for Business Ethics and Profesionalism ,Universitas Kristen Duta
Wacana.
West, E. G. (1990). Adam Smith and Modern Economics, From Market
Behaviour to Public Choice. Vermont, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Wilhelmus, O. R. (2010). Pemberdayaan Sosial Ekonomi Sebagai Suatu Model
Evangelisasi Dalam Konteks Indonesia. STKIP Widya Yuwana Madiun
(Seminar Paper).
