SUNDAY REFLECTION : A COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO STUMBLE BECAUSE OF ME- Dr Nevers Mumba

By Dr Nevers Mumba

SUNDAY REFLECTION : A COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO STUMBLE BECAUSE OF ME

[A response inspired by an article by my brother, Kellys Kaunda which a shared earlier ]

I read with gratitude the recent article by my dear young brother Kellys Kaunda titled Why Does Dr. Nevers Mumba Attract So Much Debate and Controversy. Gratitude because it is honest, generous, and self-disclosing. His article reveals a deeper wound within our Christian culture that goes far beyond my name, my choices, or my politics.

Mr. Kaunda writes not as an enemy but as one who listened, learned, admired, and was shaped by our Zambia Shall Be Saved ministry and service to God. He speaks for many when he admits that even while opposing my entry into politics, he still voted for me. He reminds the nation that before all the controversy and before all the debates, there was a simple preacher, who obeyed the calling of God that was placed upon his life, and  who fed a spiritual hunger of an entite generation,  and helped shape the faith of a nation.

Kellys also identifies the heart of the matter. He writes that there are many who today feel abandoned. Many who believe a key source of spiritual nourishment was withdrawn too soon. Many who have never forgiven what they interpret as my departure from the pulpit to a vocation they consider very toxic. This observation requires honesty and a biblical response.

Scripture tells us that John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ and the one who declared “Behold the Lamb of God”, later on found himself abandoned, discouraged, confused,even imprisoned, and with a thousand questions in his mind. In that momment, John sent out a message to the Lord Jesus,  from prison, asking:  Are you the One who is to come? or should we look for another. John’s problem was not unbelief. It was the fact that his expectations and his reality did not match.

In his response, Jesus did not answer John by defending Himself or by explaining His calling. He simply pointed to the evidence of his obedience and concluded with words that still confront us today.

“BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO DOES NOT STUMBLE BECAUSE OF ME.”

That statement has followed me for many years and it is just as true for me today.

Sometimes believers stumble not because Christ has changed but because they choose to depend on their own human understanding and their own preferred version of how God should work, whom He should use, or where obedience to God starts and ends and where that obedience should or should never lead.

Mr. Kaunda is right. Some of the anger directed at me is not political. It is emotional and spiritual. It is the pain of people who had grown comfortable with a particular expression of my ministry and felt destabilized when God moved the servant into another assignment. They must not worry. I was destabilised to, if not more. Imagine moving from a place where it’s all Hallelujah and praise God, and God sends you into politics where even your best intentions are twisted, rejected, attacked, insulted, betrayed, stolen, sometimes and all this, at great personal cost to you and to your family.

But Scripture prepares us for this.

Joseph did not abandon his family. He obeyed God. Yet it was his own brothers who stripped him, mocked his calling, and sold him. They believed they were justified. Years later Joseph would say You meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Calling does not always look like faithfulness to those watching from the outside.

David did not rebel against his father’s house. He obeyed God. Yet when he stepped onto the battlefield his own brothers accused him of pride and told him to go back to the sheep as though obedience to yesterday’s assignment disqualified him from today’s calling.

Even Jesus Himself faced this contradiction. In Nazareth those who knew Him best stumbled the most. Is this not the carpenter’s son they asked. Scripture tells us He could do few miracles there not because of unbelief from outsiders but because of familiarity that refused to accept God at work in a new way.

So I must ask gently but honestly are we being sincere as believers.?

How and when did we become so comfortable attacking our own while quoting Scripture instead of holding their hands, especially when they anre already in a role which is extremely challenging?. Since when did disappointment become a license or a passport to give someone  sustained hostility? When did disagreement turn into an excuse to treat someone with bitterness or hatred?

Some say I abandoned them. But Scripture teaches that a servant does not belong to the audience. He belongs to the Master. Paul planted the seed of the gospel. Apollos watered the same seed. God gave them the increase. If your faith collapses simply because one preacher obeyed a different call, then perhaps your  faith had become attached to a vessel rather than anchored in Jesus Christ.

The pulpit is HOLY. But serving the Public is also God given.

“For, for this cause ye pay tribute also; for they are ministers of God’s service, attending continually upon this very thing.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭6‬ ‭ASV‬‬

Joseph played a role in governance. Daniel also played a role in governance. Esther played her role in governance. And yet none were accused by heaven of abandoning God. In fact, they are revered in the scriptures. Daniel was used mightily as both a Politician and a Prophet who continued to receive visions and wrote the Book of Daniel into his late years. The Bible has no record of the children calling him names like a “Mushanina Bwali” simply because he obeyed a very difficult call.

Mr. Kaunda recounts moments in my political life that became defining controversies. He also acknowledges that there is more to the story including my own account now available for those willing to read it. History is always more layered than memory allows.

I understand disagreement. I understand disappointment. I even understand grief over change. But bitterness especially when clothed in religious language should trouble us deeply.

Jesus’ words still stand. Blessed is the one who does not stumble because of Me.

Sometimes the stumbling block is not the will of God. Sometimes, It is our failure to accept that which is his will due to our own perceptions of believers that accept the burden of serving beyond our comfort zones.

I remain a servant of God. I remain accountable to Him. And I remain at peace because Scripture and history agree on this truth. Calling is often clarified through controversy not applause.

May we choose to be sincere more than we choose to throw stones at our own. May we apply spiritual Discernment over emotional outrage. And Christ over comfort.

Grace and peace.