A Lesson from Burkina Faso for American Evangelicals

John H. Armstrong December 31st, 2007

I am an adjunct professor of evangelism at Wheaton College Graduate School. Because of this role I am allowed to teach two or three courses each academic year and this year has allowed me the great privilege of teaching students from all over the world. I sometimes feel as if I am paid to learn from my students. They are bright, eager and very passionate for the gospel of the kingdom. Why else would someone take a master's degree in evangelism if they were not?

In an intensive class, taught January 2-6, on interpersonal and spiritual development I had students who have ministered in China, Latin America and Africa. They represented the Assembly of God, the Salvation Army and Wycliffe Bible Translators. One of these students, Chris Ladish, a Wycliffe missionary to Burkina Faso, introduced us as a class to an African concept that I believe might help many of my readers think more clearly about modern Christian thought.

The concept is based upon the word "barkey," spelled phonetically as "bark." The word comes from the Koromba, a people who live in northern Burkina Faso, in West Africa. Chris informed us that in the Koromba culture the word could be translated into English as prosperity, favor or even blessing. In the early stages of translation the word was the only one seriously considered by the Wycliffe workers for the biblical word blessing. Here the story gets very interesting.

Chris says the translation team sought to get at the primary sense or meaning of the word "barkey" as they dealt with both the language itself and the people who spoke it. This led to visits with the village men to gain a sense of their understanding of the term. As Chris, and his devoted team of linguists/translators, listened to the village men they came to understand that this term to be roughly equivalent with the idea of prosperity in our modern English use. The people told him that when you see two trees and one has lots of fruit on it, that productive tree had God's "barkey" or Gods favor upon it. Or, to use another illustration from the tribal culture, if you are the owner of a small shop, and people patronize your shop making it grow and prosper, then you, the owner, are the recipient of "barkey."

Chris observed that these contexts all showed the word "barkey" did carry the idea of blessing, or favor. The more work the missionaries did on this subject the more they were astounded by what they came to understand. They discovered that a much broader understanding of "barkey" made using the term for the biblical concept of blessing very problematic. Hidden in the use of this term, among the Koromba people, was the idea that those who experienced "barkey" (or God's favor or prosperity) had arrived, they were leading a charmed life and everything they did was a result of their "barkey."

What makes this extremely problematic, for faithful translators and Christian missionaries, is the close association of this idea to Muslim thought, which is also penetrating African thought and religion. In Islam one works for salvation and thus hopes for Allah's blessing, or for the Koromba people, God's "barkey." Consequently, if a person earns God's favor, or blessing, they have his favor in every way. To have "barkey" in one area of your life is to have "barkey" in every area.

In Christian thought a blessing is, in short hand, a "benediction." It is used 71 times in the Old Testament, particularly in Genesis (the first use occurs in Genesis 12:2) and Deuteronomy, where it refers to God's favor shown through his grace. It is a way to invoke, or invite, divine favor, often through gestures and/or words (Psalm 129:8) and the Lord is said to set before his people both blessing and cursing (Deuteronomy 11:26-29). The prophet Ezekiel evens speaks of the blessing of God as revival mercies, or "showers of blessing" (Ezekiel 34:26). Such blessing is a gift of grace and is never to infer that it makes the blessed one beyond question or future failure. When the word is used by humans in regard to other humans it connotes the idea of a wish, or a prayer, which goes back to the comment about giving or receiving benediction, as stated above.

Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament says that "One's status before God (being "blessed") is not always expressed in terms of the individual or social conditions that bring what moderns normally consider to be "happiness." So although it is appropriate to render [the Hebrew word for blessed or happy] as "Blessed." The rendering of "happiness" does not always convey its emphasis to modern readers.

This brings me back to the concept of "barkey" among the Koromba. Rooted in a culture already influenced by Muslim teaching and practice they associate blessing with being completely favored by God in everything a person is and does. This, you see, was the problem for the translators.

But this idea of blessing, especially upon certain people, is a huge problem in the West as well. Think about this for a moment. Christians tend to look at a man, or ministry, and conclude that it is blessed by God. The work prospers and grows. The spokesman is powerful and attractive. The teaching is sound and helpful. Simply put, the mission is thriving and many people are being reached. Who can doubt the blessing of God upon such a person or work?

There can be no serious question that this kind of thinking carries over to virtually everything the favored, or highly honored, teacher or leader says or does. To suggest this teacher might be wrong is seen as treasonous, a denial of God's gifting. And such prominent teachers tend to believe their press in many such cases. The combination is both dangerous and toxic.

We even have a text, often cited in my lifetime among evangelicals, to support this kind of thinking. I refer, of course, to 1 Samuel 26:11 where David, in reference to his desire to not harm King Saul, says, "The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed." And when David finally hears of Saul's death, at the hands of an Amalekite who thought he was doing David a great service, he responds by having that man put to death for striking down the Lord's anointed (cf. 2 Samuel 1:11-16). What else do you need to fuel the fires of "barkey" type thinking among ordinary Christians? A work is blessed, the servant is above question, the ministry should get a free pass. And the more orthodox the teaching is, and the stronger the ministry seems in the face of evil and compromise, the less likely we are to question anything.

Am I suggesting that we should be suspicious of ministries and movements? Not at all. I am suggesting, however, that we realize the blessing of God upon a person at one point most definitely does not translate into the evidence of God's blessing at all other points. Some of the greatest human instruments of good have been very flawed. And multitudes of good and generous people have been taken in by a kind of "barkey" thinking that is common in conservative circles where a high degree of respect for the Lord's blessing is desired.

Look, I want people to respect me, I really do. I also desire that my friends and supporters love me, trust me and really listen to me. But I also have no desire, or emotional need, to convince people that I am always right. I do not need followers who think that I have permanent and unalterable "barkey" on my life. When I speak, write or teach, I assure you that there is no evidence that I always have the mind of the Lord in every word I share. My teaching and person is to be received by searching the Scriptures and thinking very carefully about what I have uttered and what I am (Acts 17:11).

I am no longer amazed at how Christians seek a "role model" (often a person who is doctrinally strong and quite opinionated) who builds a movement they can join in some way. It is the nature of how our culture works. We want to believe in someone who can lead us, teach us, and even protect us. But in the end the only man you can fully trust, and should trust because he alone has the full blessing of God at all times, is the man Christ Jesus. You should only listen to me if my words and my actions point you to him. And even then you should never assume that because I have been blessed by God, and there can be no doubt to my mind that I have been, you can believe everything I do is touched by that blessing.

All of this challenges a major problem in our churches–the cult of personality. I have discovered, over the years, that you can draw crowds for Christian meetings if you secure the right speaker. If you get an excellent person, with a deep and clear message from God, it is simply not enough. You need the "hot" person, the guy everyone wants to hear. I suppose this is not new, since the Corinthian Church was rebuked for the very same problem (1 Corinthians 1-3). We have not come that far from the very problems faced by Paul in one of the more problematic churches in the first century.

By the way, the translators in Burkina Faso decided that "barkey" was the word they would use for blessing, even with its negative consequences. They decided this for two reasons. First, the other choices available in the local language seemed too weak. Second, the small church pastors would need to fill the word in with appropriate meaning. That is exactly my point. Understanding the meaning of words in one's own context and culture is always the work of faithful teachers of the Word. I just wish more evangelical stars would admit this and resolve to help people see the real dangers. I suppose I wish for too much, but I plan to keep on hoping we can change the way we who teach and lead care for those who actually hear us and appreciate our ministries.

John H. Armstrong is founder and president of ACT 3, a ministry for the advancement of the Christian Tradition in the third millennium. He is a former pastor and church-planter, of more than twenty years, the author/editor of eight books, and the author of hundreds of magazine, journal, and Web based articles. John has served as the editor-in-chief of ACT 3 Review: A Journal for Faith, Church and Culture since its origin in 1992. But most importantly, he is our go-to professional religionist.

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