The Sunday Mail
In this second and final instalment of Tendai Manzvanzvike’s (TM) interview with Apostle Rushworthy Ngondonga (RN), founder of Acts Revival Ministries (ARM), the latter talks about the church’s relevance today and its relationship with culture.
TM: There are claims that new churches are not leading people to Christ. Do we have recycled believers who move from church to church? Are the new churches bringing people to Christ since some never do altar calls for those who want to receive the Lord?
RM: Yes many people are being born again but being born again is not an altar call event, but it’s a transformation of the whole being by the Spirit of God (John 3). The idea of recycled believers is non-existent. It’s a view held by certain groups of Christians who strongly feel that there is no more evangelism but in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
People will always flock to places where there is a move of God and where there is God then their problems are addressed. Jesus was followed by crowds and the early church began with 3 000 converts on a single day, the reason being that Jesus and the early church addressed people’s problems.
When a church ignores the people’s problems it actually ignores the pillars of its very existence. New churches are bringing more people to Christ because it’s mainly them who present a powerful God who is able to meet practical needs of daily living. The secret of crowds in our churches is just in preaching a caring God who addresses real problems.
Remember the word “gospel” means good news, and what makes it good is its capacity to meet our needs. Jesus our role model never encouraged people to accept suffering, sickness and affliction as God’s will. He in fact healed the sick, delivered the oppressed and commissioned the church to go and do the same.
TM: You are based in Chitungwiza, which has many challenges: socio-economic, cultural and others. As a church, how do you deal with these and remain relevant to the community?
RN: We have paid school fees for some of the children and when we get clothes and other goodies from well-wishers we distribute to the needy. We first of all distribute among the needy in the church before we go out into the community. However, what affects us is that we don’t have money to do things at a large scale. We give as much as possible, but what the nation wants is substance that transforms their minds. They require a radical change in their way of thinking and the way they see things. The set-up of high-density suburbs is a source of pain for me.
You see that the way “ghettoes” were structured is such that they don’t give residents any hope to make it in life. Thus people in Chitungwiza or any other ghetto are affected by value issues. Sometimes they don’t even feel that they have value. If a person gets one room to rent, they feel contented.
There was a time when we assisted someone who wanted to be an entrepreneur. We asked him how much capital he needed, and he said US$50. It troubled me, but we gave him and he set himself up. When it looked like he was succeeding, something happened, and the business collapsed. To me, this was a mindset problem.
Even if you were to give them one million dollars, don’t be surprised to see them in debt because they have never been taught to think big. So in all ghettoes, people live from hand-to-mouth. Unless that mindset is corrected, it’s a problem. As a church we have major challenges in addressing these issues.
TM: How does the word of God correct that mindset?
RN: Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If the Bible says as the man thinketh and you have a low self-esteem of yourself, then you are a very low person indeed. If you think of yourself as a successful person, you will actually be successful.
There are situations when a child fails in school, he will call himself dull. Then there might be a child who fails, but tells you that he will put more effort next time. These are two different children with different mindsets on ability.
One will admit that he is dull because he has never been good at anything.
So, these are some of the challenges we encounter with some adults who grew up under this system. They were never praised when they did well. They lived lives of abuse. So, the issue of corrupted mindsets, which is a result of the environment one is brought up, is something in-built, and when they try to live a respectable life, it will be difficult.
TM: How does the church get them out of that mindset?
RN: Using the Word, what we do is that we look at how God raised Abraham. The Bible tells us that while Abraham was among his own people God told him to get out of that environment, and move to another dimension where he was going to bless him.
So, the gospel today must put people on a platform which they never thought they would reach. That’s why the gospel says Jesus died so that we might be partakers of that same promise that was given to Abraham. You can only be an heir to that promise when you come and stand in line with the word of God.
We tell people that whatever negative effects we come across is a result of our background, and also the result of the spirit realm that affects us. When you articulate these things very well, people will have their minds opened and they begin to see what’s going on in their lives.
TM: Then culture and the bible?
RN: These two don’t mix at all.
TM: The Jewish culture is very dominant in the Bible – from Genesis to Revelation. Why can’t other cultures be the same?
RN: World cultures are built around fear. Some are built around evil influences. So culture and the Bible don’t meet at all because the gospel is a culture of love and liberty. If you read the gospels, you will note that many times, Jesus clashed with custodians of the Jewish culture – the Pharisees. So Jesus Christ who started the church also stood outside culture.
Events calendar
Event: Pastors and Prayer Leaders’ Summit – Intercessors for Zimbabwe
Dates: September 4 to 6
Venue: Assemblies of God, Gwabalanda, Bulawayo
Theme: Building prayer altars for our cities (Acts 6:4)
Time: 8:30am to 9pm; 8:30am to 1pm
Speakers/Facilitators: Rev John Chimbambo, Pastor Ian Joule, Bishop G Mkwananzi; Prof DD Rafael Monnakgotsi (Botswana)
Contact: 0773786295; 0772319325
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Event: Charismatic Conference 4 – AFM Zimbabwe Springvale Assembly
Dates: September 15 to 21
Venue: Prophetic Arena Grounds (near Ruwa Supermarket)
Time: 6pm to 9pm
Guest speakers: Pastor E Chirombe (SA), Bishop B Manjoro
Host: Rev Oliver Makomo
Contact: [email protected]
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Event: Today’s Woman Conference / Interdenominational Today’s Female Pastors Conference
Dates: November 20 to 23
Venue: Johannesburg, South Africa
Hosts: Prophetess Eunor and Apostle Ezekiel Guti
Contact: +263 772 933 110/ 782 032 794/772 886 355
Please email forthcoming events to [email protected] by mid-day Tuesday.
