The Importance of Marketplace Apostle Training in the Fight against Poverty, Corruption and Unemployment

Brian Kazungu, 16/06/2023

Marketplace Apostleship training is a critical resource in the development of communities because Bible based Leadership, Management and Entrepreneurship initiatives are key drivers in the fight against poverty, corruption and unemployment.

A research paper, Herv. teol. stud. vol.70 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2014 titled The Effect of Religion on Poverty by Professor Jaco Beyers from The University of Pretoria’s Department of Science of Religion and Missiology helps to show how religion can be incorporated in the fight against poverty.

Professor Beyers states that: “Religion can influence the response to poverty by having an ethical impact when principles benefiting all in society are applied within economic systems. Religion can also influence the response to poverty by fostering an attitude of willingness to practise generosity.

Religion can educate communities in order for human dignity of all in society to be restored. Thirdly, religion can be part of the system actively encouraging and participating in alleviating poverty.”

Based on Professor Beyers’ reasoning highlighted above, we can see that it is expedient to look at how the Bible helps in designing effective entrepreneurial, management and leadership mechanisms for the efficient running of institutions across the world.

Knowledge gained from such kinds of research helps in extracting Bible-centric entrepreneurship, management and leadership information that can be turned into training manuals for church leaders and congregants towards the development of economies.

It is disturbing to note that, most Christians, both leaders and congregants are not spared by poverty, and yet, the Bible is a tried and tested invaluable source of wisdom on life transforming socio-economic principles.

An article by the research institute Gallup, titled, Religiosity Highest in World’s Poorest Nations https://bit.ly/3bztSgq shows that there is a correlation between being very religious and being very poor.

Such a correlation can be attributed to the lack of relevant leadership, management and entrepreneurship training among the religious folk even though deep within their religion is found treasures of economically empowering information as is the case with Christianity.

For example, the Bible covers a broad range of principles and examples which demonstrate how to make the best of decisions on commercial and governance issues towards personal, corporate and community development.

As such, the main objective of Marketplace Apostleship training is to positively transform people’s lives through effective scripture inspired PRACTICAL leadership, management and entrepreneurship solutions that promote personal, corporate and community development.

Marketplace Apostle training acts as a catalyst to empower Christians to be active participants in economic development, job creation and poverty eradication.

This is done through mind-set transformation, encouraging commercial participation and promoting strategic partnerships among Christians rather than having them as mere onlookers and powerless recipients of charitable donations especially from non-believers.

It enables the Christian community to ethically, effectively and efficiently meet its social and economic needs in a manner that will inspire the aspirations and wellbeing of people across the world.

According to the United Nations, Ending Poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the same context, the World Bank https://bit.ly/351qMyY” also estimates that by 2030 up to two-thirds of the global extreme poor may be living in fragile and conflict-affected economies, making it evident that without intensified action, the global poverty goals will not be met.

The narratives above are a clear testimony of the fact that poverty is a serious global challenge that needs to be collectively addressed especially through entrepreneurship projects initiated and managed by those with an ethical and caring generational mind-set.

Employment creation and poverty eradication now calls for the active participation by religious movements in order to economically empower their followers especially in line with their own core belief system as a way of collectively tackling global challenges.

As such, Christianity, being one of the world’s biggest religions with at least two (2) billion people can be a considerable driver in poverty eradication when those who subscribe to it receive Bible aligned leadership, management and economic empowerment training.

This is because church leaders and their congregants can play a significant role in promoting socio-economic development when they themselves are active participants in entrepreneurship promotion and leadership training activities in their communities.

In her 2015 blog post titled ‘What Does the Bible Say about Poverty and Hunger’, American historian, Karah Hawkinson says “Like most comfortable middle-class Americans, I squirm when faced with the reality of a poor and starving world.

I’ll admit that I sometimes play dumb and ignore my responsibilities to my fellow man”.

She goes on to add that “We have made ignoring what the Bible teaches about poverty into an art form. We pick and choose, brushing aside the directives and attacking the poor with verses that condemn laziness and drunkenness.

If we can pass the blame for poverty, our guilt is appeased and we can go back to enjoying our favourite TV show”.

From Karah’s words, we can see that in this world, there are still some people who are concerned about poverty and many other social ills which are affecting humanity. Such people are always trying to find ways on how best to help in solving community problems.

Therefore, as a way of complementing Karah’s efforts in creating a consciousness on poverty, it’s important to highlight that it is possible to encourage and promote entrepreneurship, sound management and good leadership based on the Bible.

Such an initiative helps towards economic empowerment and community development.

1Thessalonians 4vs.11-12 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you: 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

It is therefore imperative that Bible based entrepreneurship, management and leadership principles must be taught to the Christian community so that believers can become active participants in the social and economic development of their communities.

Adapted from The Marketplace Apostle Handbook written by Brian Kazungu

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