MISSION OF THE CHURCH IN OVERCOMING POVERTY IN AFRICA

Poverty makes people to lack certain amount of material possessions necessary to meet their basic human needs: food, shelter and clothing. In Africa poverty is as a result of economic inequality influenced by poor leadership and underutilization of the available resources. This paper mainly focuses on the mission of the church in overcoming poverty in Africa. It is rightly argued that as the society’s conscious voice, the church’s role should be to advocate for leadership that seeks to emancipate Africans. The paper analyses the poor in the Christian perspective arguing that as Jesus Christ provided for the poor and the oppressed, the church should equip the poor with skills to bring them out of their poverty situations. The paper illuminates the five signs of poverty in Africa; hunger, inadequate income, dehumanization, injustice and diseases. These phenomena in Africa are clear indicators of leadership which fails to address the social, economic, political and physical needs of the people. The poverty situations of the people as the paper concludes demands intervention of the church in two ways: providing leadership which addresses the people’s needs and raising the voice of the poor to the leaders in government positions. Data were collected from African scholars conversant with religion and political matters of Africa. Further analysis of articles in journals and books on poverty situations in Africa was done to supplement the primary data. The paper shows that poverty can be overcome through the church’s participation in providing competent leadership and partnering with the government in empowering the poor in Africa with skill to utilize available resources.