Work in the early Church

In the Roman Empire, the emperor and his men used work as a means of punishing Christians. They were forced to work in mines, to construct roads etc. In mines, Christian lives were in danger due to extreme heat, dirt and accidents. Hence the Roman Emperors had a negative attitude towards work.

The Monks and nuns in the early Church.

Some men and women (monks and nuns) decided to follow Jesus' example to work and pray. They left their relatives and established' their homes in the desert. Their homes were referred to as monasteries.

They worked very hard and did not despise any work. As a result, they became self-reliant and had surplus foodstuffs. They worked hard as their master Jesus did.

They decided to serve others as Jesus had done. Hence they gave food to the hungry strangers and traders who were crossing the desert. This was free of charge.

They took care of the sick, the very old ones and the children in a manner Jesus had done.

They provided storage facilities to the merchants who used to move with heavy merchandise. This was done free of charge.

They taught the art of reading and writing to whoever was willing to learn, free of charge.

They preached the gospel and converted some people to Christianity.

They taught the skills of handcraft to the disabled; hence teaching them to earn a living.

They balanced work and prayer. They never forgot to set aside some time for prayer.

To serve others as Jesus did, each monk and nun made three vows:

To remain as poor as Jesus was the vows to poverty.

To remain unmarried so as to serve Jesus without family disturbances it e vow or chastity.

To be obedient to their leaders as Jesus was (the vows of obedience)

Their hard work produced great wealth for them. Added to this were the donations they received. This made them extremely rich and they changed their original attitude towards work.

Becoming rich itself was against the vow of poverty.

They stopped serving their fellowmen as they originally did.

They stopped doing the manual labour and employed other people to do it for them so started despising some work.

They became too much materialistic. They started acquiring property.

They failed to balance work and leisure. They spent most of their time in prayer. For example, they started praying nine times a day, saying mass from time to time etc. Hence they claimed that they had no time to work.

To wonder why the reformers criticised the monks and nuns and called for reform.

In towns, workers formed joint organisations known as craft guilds. Each of these groups of workers was headed by a leader known as a chaplain. Advantages of craft Guilds:

In the craft guilds, each member was taught the skills of certain work e.g. shoe making, making pots etc.

Each craft guild emphasised hard work and discouraged laziness. Hence members were taught the value of hard work.

Working together enabled members of the craft guilds to produce in large quantities.

Also, encouraging specialisation developed each member's talents and skills.

Members also enjoyed the advantage of marketing their products too-ether charging a uniform price for their products and sharing profits together. .

Each guild had rules for its members examples:

Each guild was to have a chaplain who was a Church leader.

Each guild had to make donations to the Church and poor people

Each guild member had to fear, love God and pray.

Theft wasn't tolerated.

Each member had to charge a uniform price for the same commodities.

Customer service - i.e. the customer was a king.

Work during the Industrial age.

The machine age made work easier and more prosperous. Marty businessmen (including Christians) became rich and despised the poor. To the rich, poverty was a result of laziness and a curse from God.

Although factory owners were becoming rich, the situation of the poor people was becoming worse. They were used as labourers in factories and faced several problems.

The machines were too noisy.

Some machines replaced human labour, making people unemployed

People suffered long hours of work. i.e. 16 hours a day. Even little children were over worked e.g. children of 10 years were working in mines.

Labourers were exploited e.g. they were given very little pay.

No leisure time for workers. Hence no time with family members.

The bosses were very harsh and rude.

 Missionaries to Africa.

They introduced new types of work and improved on the existing ones.

Examples:

White settlers and forced labour in Kenya.

During the colonial days especially after the first World War    whites settled in Kenya in large numbers. They set up vast farms and wanted African labour but Africans were not willing to stay away from their homes and work for foreigners.

They therefore forced Africans to work for them freely on their plantations.

Surprisingly even some missionaries supported this evil act of settlers. However some missionaries fought against it. Note the following:

Forced labour is against God's will "Go and co-create."

It is against the;' purpose of work because it doesn't bring .about good relationship with fellow men and God.

Forced labour-is oppressive and exploitative.

Forced labour is an expression of selfishness, individualism and indifference.

There is no love, joy, co-operation and kindness where forced labour is applied, yet work is supposed to foster all these.

The Church and work today.