I have just returned to my hotel room in a city in Central India after several hours of driving and an arduous trek up a hill and back.\u00a0 The purpose was to visit a group of new Believers and see the progress of the ministry in a primitive and remote tribal village called Chuli. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This day has been\u00a0grueling\u00a0and physically draining , but the overall experience has left my spirit soaring within.\u00a0 It is always encouraging and inspiring to observe the transforming power of the Gospel at work. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the trip, I have also been reflecting much on my reading of Max Weber\u2019s book\u00a0The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0The evidence to substantiate this theory is right there before me often in my ministry and in that sense, today was a very special day. As I begin to grasp the significance of Weber\u2019s assertion that the spirit of Capitalism is a result of Protestant Ethic, I realize the tremendous responsibility that is placed on my shoulder as a Christian leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chuli is an ancient village with a population of about 500 people. \u00a0\u00a0They have lived off the land clearing away the forests surrounding their village on the mountainside. They have been eking out a living from\u00a0meager\u00a0agriculture and cattle farming for ages without any modern amenity. \u00a0The monsoons always controlled and determined their destiny.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Access to drinking water lies beyond a three Km trek over a hill. \u00a0\u00a0The nearest school is 7 kms away to which a few children walk each day.\u00a0 Health care by way of a tiny clinic is at a 12 Kilometers distance.\u00a0 For someone sick and in need of care it is totally inaccessible. \u00a0\u00a0Until four years ago the people of Chuli had never heard the Gospel.<\/p>\n My long journey to Chuli was to gain a first hand experience of the steady and noticeable transformation that the village was going through.\u00a0 It started the day an itinerant pastor stepped into the village and several people responded to a call to commit their lives to Christ. \u00a0On entering the village, I saw a group of men at work, digging a well for the use of the community.\u00a0\u00a0 Sixty of them, I was told, had organized themselves to take on the task of providing drinking water. \u00a0They had decided that the village had suffered without water long enough and would do something about it.\u00a0 \u00a0Dividing themselves into three groups \u00a0of\u00a0 20 each they were taking turns to work on this project with obvious excitement and enthusiasm. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Earlier a community center (church building) had been completed and they had contributed their mite to that in similar fashion.<\/p>\n Watching them work, I began to wonder, why they\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0done it earlier \u2013 perhaps something that could have been easily accomplished many years ago.\u00a0 It would have saved their women 5 kilometer treks up a hill for water to drink. \u00a0What was it that opened their eyes to the possibilities now that they had never seen all these years?\u00a0 What was it that set them free from a spirit of fatalism and decide to do something to change their \u2018fate\u2019? \u00a0What was it that was motivating and driving them to organize themselves for the common good of the entire community?\u00a0 What was it that was making them more hard working than they were before? \u00a0This is attributed to the change in their religious belief.<\/p>\n I could not agree more with David Landes the economic historian.\u00a0 Even though an unbeliever himself, he posits that it was mainly factors related to strong religious beliefs that resulted in the economic pursuits and achievements of the West. His list of factors that include the following is not a mere coincidence to Protestant ethics:<\/p>\n This process has started in Chuli village with the inroads that the Christian Faith has made among its people.\u00a0 There is absolutely no doubt that more changes will take place as this Faith shapes their world view, values and value systems.\u00a0\u00a0 Progress will come along with education, health care and training in added skills that will provide alternate employment. This in turn will create opportunities for work, trade and industry. Additional resources will be generated that will enhance their living conditions. \u00a0\u00a0Capitalistic opportunities that naturally unfold will be a critical piece in the process. \u00a0\u00a0What happens in Chuli falls into a pattern that has been witnessed repeatedly in the past. It is happening again.<\/p>\n I agree with Weber that the spirit of capitalism is indeed the result of a vibrant protestant ethic. \u00a0The search for the seeds of capitalism takes us back to the Garden of Eden and God\u2019s mandate to Adam to\u00a0 multiply and become a care taker of the rest of creation\u00a0 (Gen 1:28).\u00a0 We find the seeds again in the covenant made with Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed (Gen 12:2,3). Capitalism finds its seeds in the \u2018Misseo Dei\u2019 the mission of God (Luke 4:18,19). \u00a0Capitalism is essential for Development. Capitalism provides a strong self image and leads to self worth and self dignity, whether in an individual or a community when it provides opportunities to create, invest, multiply and share.\u00a0 Capitalism helps break dependency and provides freedom and liberating opportunities.\u00a0 Free enterprise is Biblical and God ordained. Capitalistic opportunities seen through the lens of Biblical teaching and truths, embraced on the basis of \u00a0Biblical principles with a view to further God\u2019s reign is indeed an essential cog in lifting the world\u2019s poor out of their poverty.<\/p>\n If the above is true, the Church must take measures to educate its people and enable them to bring out the positive and best results of capitalism in the world. If according to Weber it was the protestant ethic that paved the way for Capitalism, then it is the Church once again that can bring back right values and right perspectives to capitalism and guide it in the right direction.\u00a0 I conclude by saying that \u2018capitalism is God ordained and is indeed one of God\u2019s gift to humanity.\u00a0 \u00a0This gift must be perceived and received in the right spirit.\u00a0 It must be built on the foundation of Biblical values, and pursued selflessly with the right motives and with restraint as the Bible teaches.\u00a0 The fruit and benefits of capitalism are to be shared sacrificially and multiplied for greater advancement of the reign of God.<\/p>\n My parting encouragement to the Believers in Chuli was based on Ephesians 2:10 \u201cFor we are God\u2019s masterpiece (greek: poiema), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do\u201d\u00a0 Eph 2:10 NIV.<\/p>\n\n