'Churches have become businesses'

LAST Sunday, Glad Tidings Fellowship celebrated its 34th anniversary and officially unveiled its High Glen Assembly Auditorium.

Pastor Richmond Chiundiza started the ministry by forming a five-member group called Disciples in Action, with a vision anchored on 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. The rest of the founding fathers are Prs Durajid Simba, George Kaseke, Andrew Gore and Langton Gatsi.

We reproduce here Pr Chiundiza's words in an interview with The Sunday Mail Religious Affairs Editor Fatima Bula in Harare last week.

***
Our vision has not been fulfilled because new things keep coming.

Personally looking at the Church as a whole, I can see that there is a lot we need to sort so the Church can claim its proper place.

After we started the movement, there is a time it went down. If we study Church history, we hear of Reformation – meaning the Church had gone into descent.

After Reformation you see things still happening; influence from Europe, the thinking of the circular world and some of the business systems are now being taken into church. The way church is being done is not the proper way.

Jesus said I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

First all of Jesus says "I will", which shows his commitment to build the Church. If you study most of these things happening, you find that the Church is no longer a Jesus Christ Church but someone's.

Yes, we talk about Jesus but they have become like business entities. So when churches become like business entities, people – without even knowing – close themselves in and they remain there.

When someone eventually sees there is something wrong they come out of that church. Sometimes they start their own and another one starts their own and the church remains divided.

When we started church in 1982 I envisioned that we should start planting churches.

Prior to that I used to work inter-denominationally but there was a time I felt no the way to build churches is not doing it through para-church organisations.

Again that is unbiblical, every Christian belongs to the Church. But again what we have seen is that yes the Church belongs to Christ but they start their own (personal) church.

And this started in the early times.

When the church started in Jerusalem it was mostly Jews and when it was spreading they thought when we involved those who are not Jews, they must be circumcised and do things the Jewish way.

But Paul corrected that.

When Paul was converted God gave him a vision that was to include Gentiles in the Church. Although Peter preached to Gentiles in Jerusalem and people came to Christ he almost refused to go to Cornelius.

God showed him a vision a sheet of creatures inside and said to him kill and eat. Peter said I have never eaten something unclean. God was trying to say what you think about Gentiles, that they are unclean, is wrong. God had already spoken to Cornelius and he was ready.

So when Peter went he gave his life to Jesus but even then it was still difficult for Jews to accept Gentiles. So one day Paul confronted Peter and said to him, "Why are you behaving the way you are behaving – you are separating us from the Gentiles? It's not how to do things."

That challenge was very important to bring unity between Jewish Christians and Gentiles. The Bible emphasises unity in the Church.

Jesus says a new commandment I have given you that you love one another even as I have loved you. Christ doesn't separate Jews and Gentiles. You must love another, have unity.

So we have had these problems in Zimbabwe and other countries, South Africa with apartheid system.

For Christ to become man He had to lower Himself to save us and we as Christians should not allow our attitude to separate us from each other. Yet this has been happening all over the world where you have racist churches, Christians fighting over doctrines; that's why we have Pentecostal or Holiness churches.

If we don't understand each other doctrinally we sit down together, study the Word of God and come to an understanding.

But what has happened, churches are divided over structures, doctrine, nationalistic or tribal lines with some leaders wanting their own thinking. We allowed some systems in the world to come in the church.

The Apostles preached Jesus. I don't have to say come and hear a man of God, Richard Chiundiza. Did Peter advertise? God advertised Peter!

Yet we have man of God advertising themselves as doctor, prophet, all to market themselves.