President Yoweri Museveni has challenged religious leaders to encourage believers to aspire and work towards achieving decent and improved standards of living.
“A relevant Christian Ministry must encourage the believers to work towards achieving decent standards of living. In the process of working for heaven, some of the faithful become negligent about their earthly responsibilities and thereby end up perpetuating poverty in their homes. If we have spiritually seen the light, then we must do the same economically. We cannot see the spiritual light yet stay in economic darkness,” Museveni noted.
The president said Jesus Christ should serve as an example to all the religious leaders and their followers.
“He earned his living by working alongside his father, Joseph as a carpenter. He worked for both the spiritual and socio-economic uplift of his family and society. This is what all Christians must emulate,” he said.
He commended the religious leaders, in Uganda, for spearheading developmental and social uplift projects that are geared towards improving the believers’ wellbeing.
“Man has both spiritual and physical needs. The Church caters for people’s spiritual needs. There are also physical needs for food, water, shelter, medicine, hospitals, schools, clothes, transport, jobs. In a modern economy, you cannot obtain the goods and services, which are necessary to sustain life without money,” Museveni explained.
He further informed Christians that moneylessness can be eliminated by undertaking a profitable enterprise in one of the four sectors of: commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT emphasizing that it’s from the four sectors where you can create jobs and wealth.
The president’s message was delivered by the Vice President Jessica Alupo during prayers organized by the leadership of Generation Pastors Network, to dedicate the Country, the East African region and the entire African continent, to God. The prayers attracted Christians from 64 districts across the country, Kenyans, Rwandans and East Africa as a whole.
Museveni thanked Apostle Gift Mugisha for mobilising the pastors and the believers to assemble at Kololo Independence Grounds, to pray for continued stability and accelerated growth and development, within our borders and the whole of Africa.
He said the Christian faith has two revolutionary ideas, which can help to unlock the potential of Uganda and the other African countries.
“The first idea is Jesus’ parable of the good samaritan. In that parable, Jesus taught that neighborliness transcends the narrow confines of tribe, religion, race, gender, class. It is all embracing; it does not discriminate against anyone. This is also the ideological stand of the NRM, because within Uganda, we promote patriotism. We advocate for East African and African cooperation and integration, as a strategy for guaranteeing greater prosperity and security. Therefore, Christianity fosters unity and tolerance for one another, which are the precursors for development,” the president said.
The second idea he said is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28, where God commanded man to: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
He explained that in Africa, people have tried to obey the commandment on multiplying and filling the earth; however, they are lagging behind on the second commandment on taming and establishing dominion over nature.
“This why we still have the problems of poverty, hunger, disease. Previously, people all over the world lived in poverty and backwardness, because of a lack of the means to tame nature to the advantage of mankind. All the big inventions that have liberated man from poverty, backwardness and want are relatively recent,” he said.
Hellen Seku, the Commissioner of the National Secretariat for Patriotism Corps at State House Uganda praised president Museveni for reaffirming Uganda’s unwavering commitment to religious freedom, national unity, and ideological clarity as key pillars for sustainable development,
“ I want to appreciate the government under the able leadership of President Museveni for consistently guaranteeing and championing constitutional freedom of worship,” she said.
Seku urged the leadership of GPN to promote empowerment and Mentorship; by building strong support systems, sharing ministry insights, and cultivating cooperative leadership among current and emerging church leaders.
In his summon Apostle Mugisha noted that time has come for born again pastors to come out of poverty and thanked God that today’s prayers will make a way for all our people.
The Generation Pastors Network (GPN), also referred to as the Generational Pastors Network is a faith-based organization which unites church leaders across generations to foster spiritual growth, combat poverty through economic empowerment, and support national development.
He further said the prayer day has been crucial as Christians prayed for Uganda to position it in being a flag bearer of spiritual revival for East Africa and as well as being born again Christians broke the loins of poverty from the church.
“These prayers have positioned Uganda in its spiritual position of taking charge to take revival to the rest of the African continent especially East Africa. Our mission right now is to break the spirit of poverty which has perturbed the Pentecostal church in Uganda for a while. It’s time for the born-again Christians to come out of poverty” he said.
Mugisha disclosed that they are also targeting to establish the first born again, (Balokole) commercial bank in Uganda and would grow it from SACCOs and from a union. He asked president Museveni to inject money in their new Sacco.
