Armed with another 60 days on our visitor’s visa, it was time to get serious about doing something! We had traveled thousands of miles, dealt with seemingly endless anxiety concerning our visas, been both welcomed and dismissed by other ministries in Zimbabwe,--it was time to make hay while the visa sun still shined.
First the Taylors had welcomed us, making a place for us in their guest room and at their dinner table. Now, we were staying with Alistair and Sylvia Forbes, the second of the three deacons overseeing the Chisipite Baptist Church. The third deacon, Allen West, actually lent us a car to drive for several months. Talk about Christian hospitality!
The Chisipite congregation was regularly inviting us to lead Sunday worship and speak. They were still “considering” their options for a permanent pastor, but were giving me all the ministry opportunities I desired. I began alternating responsibilities with John B for the Sunday morning services. That left me free every other Sunday to visit other congregations.
I began working on a regular basis with the African pastor and his congregation. [John B wasn’t the least bit interested in African ministry.] The African congregation was composed primarily of the domestic servants of the white congregation and a handful of domestic servants from the surrounding Chisipite suburb.
The pastor, Morgan, was working under the old Rhodesian paradigm. He was paid about the same as the domestic servants in the congregation, around Z$30/month. He made his home in a small cottage on the church grounds. This, at least, was nicer than the quarters provided to domestic servants. Of course, Morgan was chronically short of cash. African pastors must be able to feed the constant stream of visitors who come to them for counsel as well as meet the needs of his own family.
I intervened on two fronts. First, I sought to negotiate a raise in his salary from the white congregation. I also hoped to encourage the congregation to begin making donations to the church for his support. In the Rhodesian paradigm, Africans would typically place one cent in the offering each week. Although I didn’t accept the teaching of tithing, (one tenth of income for the support of Israel’s Levitical priesthood), for Christians, I did believe in giving from the heart. One cent was what a parent might give to a child to drop in the offering. Treating Africans as little more than children was part of the old Rhodesia. In Zimbabwe, each adult should behave as a fully enfranchised citizen. It was time to start supporting their pastor as adults. That meant giving from their hearts--more than just a ceremonial penny.
Stuck in the pay scale of Rhodesia, Morgan’s income was not sufficient. As a consequence, he had resorted to all kinds of schemes to supplement his income, including selling goods to and borrowing money from his congregation. Consequently, the 15-20 people who attended on Sundays viewed him with suspicion. There was no way they were motivated to give him anything more than a few cents.
The leaders of the white congregation balked at the idea of increasing Morgan’s pay because he really did little more than speak on Sunday afternoons in his role as pastor. I understood their concern and had witnessed Morgan’s inactivity. Well, let’s give him more to do by increasing the size of the congregation! It was time to organize an evangelistic effort on behalf of the African church.
In consultation with Felix, who by this time had resigned from Family of God in order to be a full-time evangelist, we began planning a Saturday afternoon outdoor rally on the grounds of the church. Pegi and I would assist Felix in leading the Shona choruses. I had my guitar and we had both learned a number of Christian choruses in Shona. Felix would be the speaker. He would speak in English with simultaneous interpretation into English by Alex, one of the members of the Chisipite African congregation. Felix explained that urban Africans preferred to be spoken to in English at a public event. Since English was the white man’s language, it still carried a certain authority. The Shona interpretation would be key however. Without the interpretation, most of the crowd would not understand the finer points of the message.
The “crusade” as we called it, based on Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades, was a month away. [This was long before I had my Ph.D. in World Religions. I was totally ignorant of the pejorative meaning of the word “crusade,” especially for those of the Muslim faith. Oy, there was so much of which I was ignorant! If you ever write your own memoirs you will know what I mean.]
To carry this off, it would require a lot of ground work. It wouldn’t do just to set up a PA and start preaching! We would need to spread the word in the Chisipite suburb. One of the members of the congregation who owned a printing company donated multicolor posters which could be placed on trees and in windows of shops. In addition, he printed up 1000 handbills for distribution to advertise the event. After a number of abortive attempts, we finally secured a PA system from Africa Enterprises that was sufficient for our needs. We had to borrow a couple of microphones from Rhema and another borrowed PA was just not powerful enough to use outdoors.
You would think that a single meeting on the grounds of an insignificant Baptist church located in an insignificant suburb of Harare would attract neither attention nor opposition. We had very low expectations for this event. After all, it was our maiden attempt at evangelistic ministry. And, the small white congregation of 50 was hidden in a suburb that was a good 20 minutes’ drive from downtown Harare. There was no nearby African township. The only Africans in the area were domestic servants. We really had no hopes of more than a couple of dozen people showing up.
This was not going to be a significant event in the history of the kingdom of God. It was really just a trial run for us. As a consequence, we had no idea of the troubles that would plague us, the opposition to the event that would be mounted and the resistance we would face, not from unbelievers or “the Devil”, but from members of the Chisipite congregation.
Next: Overturning the Rhodesian Paradigm in a Church
No comments:
Post a Comment