Understanding the Church’s Annual Misinale Festival from a Biblical Perspective

Understanding the Church’s Annual Misinale Festival from a Biblical Perspective
Rev Dr Ma’afu Palu
November 2007

It is towards the end of another year, the time during which most local churches in Tonga and abroad belonging to the Methodist tradition (i.e. Free Wesleyan; Free Church of Tonga, Church of Tonga, Constitutional Church of Tonga, Tokaikolo Fellowship) are preoccupied once again with the annual fundraising festival for the church or the “katoanga misinale”. I wish to offer some brief reflections on how best to understand this annual festival from a biblical perspective since it seems to me that it has been invested with much confusion and misunderstandings. Much of the confusion lies in what people think the katoanga misinale is, so let me tell you what it is not.

Firstly, we must not thoroughly spiritualize this annual festival by designating it with terms that connote “sacrifice”, “offering of life” or languages which effectively masked what it really stands for, namely, an annual donation of funds for the maintenance of church services during the year. It is not “sacrifice” since the church’s once-for-all time sacrifice has been offered by Jesus Christ upon the cross. It is not the “offering” of one’s personal life to God either since God demands from us more than our money. Rather, as it really is, the annual misinale is the “offering” of money to the church.

Secondly, we must not understand it as giving to God because such a conviction essentially reduces God to an entity whose sustenance heavily relies on the size of our wallet rather than who he really is as the Creator of all there is in the universe. Money is something God in his gracious providence has given us for our use. How then can we be fooled into thinking that he is in need of the money he has provided richly for our sustenance? God is not in need of money. Rather, it is the church that is in desperate need of it.

Thirdly, we must not listen to the lies propagated by some amongst the ministerial ranks in saying that special blessings may come from God as a result of donating more money to the church. This is absolutely nonsensical since one finds no promise in the Scriptures to that effect. At best, if such blessings are evident in people, they are more likely to be material rather than heavenly blessings. Those material blessings can even be achieved by industrious atheistic people. In other words, such blessings can come entirely as the result of the implementation of God’s law of nature.

Fourthly, we must not expect any special blessings from God for giving money to the church because the way in which most annual misinale festival is conducted in church is against the clear teaching of Jesus. Jesus clearly taught that if you sound a trumpet to make a show of your giving so that you can be thanked for it, then you have received all your blessings (Matthew 6:2-4). There is therefore to be expected absolutely no special blessings from God. Since, most annual misinale festival in Tonga involves the public announcement before the congregation of the amount one donates, the applause one receives in response is, according to Jesus, all the blessings one should expect to have. Absolutely nothing is to be expected from God.

Fifthly, we should not expect to enter eternal life on the basis of what we give to the church whether it is our money, our time or our work. Without downplaying the importance of giving in itself, it ought to be said that nowhere in the Bible is there any promise of salvation through giving money to the church. Nonetheless, there is a great deal in the Bible about financial giving and how it ought to be done (e.g. Matthew 6; 2 Corinthians 8-9). In actual fact, salvation comes as a free gift of God for those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). No amount of money or good works devoted to the church or to anyone else may guarantee our salvation and eternal life if our boasting is not firmly rooted on the cross of Jesus Christ and what God has therein graciously accomplished for us, namely, the forgiveness of our sins.

In conclusion, I set forth these reflections with much prayer and love for my Tongan kinsfolk in the flesh who belong to local churches affiliated with the Methodist tradition even though I am almost certain that not many of my colleagues especially amongst the clerical class will agree with me on most if not all of the points just mentioned. Nevertheless, it will be good to disagree on these matters on the basis of Scriptural teachings rather than on merely trying to impose church traditions regarding the misinale as infallible upon the poor Tongan people who cannot do without joining a church.

We must remember that in reality church traditions are human inventions opened to be routinely corrected by the word of God, the Scriptures. Moreover, we must remind ourselves that if God’s church in the Old Testament (i.e. Israel) underwent two reformations throughout its history during which its “church” rituals were renewed and restored in accordance with God’s word (i.e. during King Josiah’s time and again during Nehemiah’s time), then even the post-New Testament church is all the more worthy of reformation at any given point in time so that the word of God may once again dwell richly amongst its ranks. Soli Deo gloria.