‘Its an art of influence’

08 Nov, 2015 - 00:11 0 Views
‘Its an art of influence’

The Sunday Mail

Fatima Bulla
Religious Affairs Editor
As we witness constant changes in the way in which the world’s largest religion – Chiristianity – is being conducted, different dynamics have come into play with prophets and their prophetesses taking center stage.

0511-2-1-PROPHETS
Of particular interest is how the crop of religious leaders have become influential in the lives of many Zimbabweans.
The recently released findings of the Socio-Economic and Political survey which was conducted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute revealed that religious leaders are rated as the most trusted with a 71 percent backing from Zimbabweans.
Then for the forth year running, Gorindemabwe Frontier released a top 100 most influential list with Prophetic, Healing and Deliverance Ministries leader, Prophet Walter Magaya retaining pole position as the most influential individual under the age of 40 for the second year running.
United Family International Church leader, Emmanuel Makandiwa who was polled third this year has maintained a top five rating since the list’s debut release in 2011.
Prophet Makandiwa was in pole position in 2012 while Spirit Embassy Ministries founder Uebert Angel took the reigns in 2013.
The 2014 list featured Passion Java Ministries founder, Prophet Passion Java.
Apostles Batsirai Java of Tabernacles Grace Ministries and Heartfelt International Ministries’ Tavonga Vutabwashe have also featured consistently on the lists.
While the list has been received with mixed feelings every year with some people questioning the criteria used, what cannot be disputed is that the prophets have become influential to many people.
Even though the contribution of religious leaders cannot be undermined, the prophets have been the ones hogging most of the limelight.
Harare based sociologist, Mr Walter Kasirowori said a public display of affluence by prophets has drawn the hearts of many.
“It’s not about salvation, that’s why people are moving from the biggest hit to the other. One thing to note is that they (people) don’t have a belonging anymore, they are being given promises. Some people are no longer thriving to go through the processes of attaining success such as working and earning a living, they are looking for a get rich quick solution.
“It is something that has been going on in the past but the display of affluence has made people want to be like the prophets. But it’s a wrong value that is being instilled in the people by the prophets,” Mr Kasiriwori said.
While salvation has become secondary, Mr Kasiriwori said issues of money and a need to be defined as successful in the public eye had taken centre stage.
“Most of them (religious leaders) are very powerful fly-by-night personalities. They take people to the next level and after that they migrate to another country, leaving people in despair.
“It’s a personality cult that means everything hinges around a person, whereas they are supposed to propagate a belief. Everything is centralised around them because decentralising will mean money becomes a problem.”
Mr Kasiriwori however acknowledged the role that has been played by the religious leaders to motivate individuals in despair.
“They have done a good job in motivating the downtrodden who had lost faith in achieving something. Some messages are good but by and large there is a counterfeit,” he added.
Pastor Cynthia Hakutangwi, an expert in communications, strategy, training and leadership development with Wholeness Incorporated said the need for a role model plays a part in making religious leaders influential.
“They (religious leaders) command a larger crowd numerically, that’s how they are seen as influential. Their influence comes because they have been role models as youths look for role models. That is what the youths are defining as success.
“However, you also need to look at whether the individual’s impact is sustainable. Ask whether the impact can be measured with time.
“Do they have the capacity to change people’s lives? How is their character and Christian influence? These are Christ like attributes which is what is supposed to build the same followership.
“Christ managed to pull crowds with his influence but it shouldn’t be limited to numbers. It has to be transformational – are there truths that we can see through generations and is it sustainable for the 20 years to come,” Pastor Hakutangwi implored. Godly Women Without Borders founder, Pastor Lucy Kawenda said the truth is that Jesus is coming back and everyone wants to be prepared for that moment and that is the reason why masses are flocking to church.
“People are looking for salvation and what can give them peace. The church is the only place you get that peace. Because people have different problems. One receives a letter of termination from work with no one to help.
“The good thing is to fellowship. When you fellowship you can access business ideas or get a job so people are feeling comfortable in the church because that’s where solutions are,” Pastor Kawenda said.Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe general secretary, Reverend Lindani Dube said as long as the influence was premised on short term unsustainable hope building it would be counter-productive in the long run as people will be focusing on ‘men’ rather than God.
“As long as the spiritual leaders’ influence is premised on a sound biblical framework and the spiritual leaders’ model the character of Christ and point people to Christ, this virtue will be important in the spread of the gospel. And this will help transform communities through discipling them in the ways of the Lord.
Rev Dube said the gospel must go beyond miracles as was in the time of Jesus Christ.
“It’s not every blind person who was healed even during Jesus’ time yet the gospel was a message of eternal salvation to all whether blind, crippled and so forth.
“The gospel must transcend miracles into a life of faith in Jesus Christ to affirm what Paul says . . . What can separate me from the love of Christ.
“In our time, influence seems to be measured against a ‘perceived personal gift’ or social influence as opposed to the supreme agenda of leading people to Christ through disciplining them.
“So the reason why these surveys seem to prefer spiritual leaders, particularly prophets as the most influential personalities in the country has to do with the generality of the people’s perception of influence.
“When influence is perceived in light of a given phenomenon at a particular time – judgement and preference is confined to that given time and season.
“Spiritual leaders’ influence must transcend their charisma and people’s expectation of possible socio-economic solutions as these are not sustainable and transferable. It’s clear therefore that perceived expectations of influence, other than the ideal, biblically motivated influence is driving this trend.
“The challenge in this era is that we have a people who want to believe because they have seen something (contrary to John 20:26-28) yet this faith goes beyond just seeing (Hebrews 11:1) “we live by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7),” Rev Dube added.
Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe president, Rev Edison Tsvakai weighed in saying that church leaders who are making it to the top of the surveys are after money and fame.
“What we do and what they do is very different so it is difficult for me to comment. However, these church leaders who always top surveys are after money and fame. Personally, I don’t understand them and I am sure even those who follow them sometimes also fail to understand them.
“The prophesies, the word and even the miracles raise more questions than answers. I think they do all these things only to grab attention,” Rev Tsvakai said.
University of Zimbabwe Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy, Tabona Shoko said there is a close connection between people’s hardships and mushrooming of new influential religions because people are in a quest for health and well-being.
“What has made these leaders very much attractive is that Pentecostal and African initiated churches propagate a gospel of renewal and by so doing they actually influence the youngsters who regard themselves as the most active group.
Prof Shoko said innocent people are being exploited unknowingly.
“Most of them are busy at school and at work within the most productive age. So they take up things which are also vibrant and follow their leaders.
“They are also in pursuit of jobs, in pursuit of luxuries and wealth so they listen to anybody who promises them wealth. The message is: “lf you are unemployed or if you don’t have a boyfriend, you will get one or employment overnight. If you have no money, you get money, you get rich.
“People are attracted to these leaders who have houses in affluent suburbs and so they tend to emulate their leaders and wish to be like them,” Prof Shoko said.
He added that constant appearance in the media also contributes to the level of influence among today’s prophets.
“They are populists who want publicity and will go on air to showcase their works, that’s why some are called televangelists. They feel that appearing on television makes them more appealing to the whole world,” he said.
Prof Shoko said when PHD ministries lured well-known pole dancer Beverly Sibanda, that was an extreme case of trying to outdo other “competitors” in the ministry.

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The Gorindemabwe Frontier explanation

Walter Chimene
As The Gorindemabwe Frontier, our definition of influence is defined using what we call ‘thought leadership’.
Globally, there are three types of definitions for the term that are generally accepted. The first one is power based. It is used by what is called the foreign policy list. The second definition is used by Time Magazine which looks at who has got the financial muscle.
The third one as used by the Huffington Post looks at influence. This is the one we use.
We look at the kind of ideas that the person is pushing and how it eventually affect people’s thinking in their society or beyond in the medium to long term.
So there are three dimensions to that. The first one is what they call prudent visionary leadership where essentially some ideas may go ahead of their time. So you are kind of ahead of your time in terms of what you are doing and people might understand it, disregard or criticise it. But from the medium to long term, they will slowly realise you were right after all.
The second one is the entrepreneurship acumen where in some way you have managed to convert your talents, abilities, skills and potential into some kind of benefit, not only for yourself but for other people.
So it can be financial conversion or ecosystem conversion were you build an agenda that people in power and are in the circles begin to like you and want to be associated with you. But the bottom line is that you managed to convert whatever talent you have to benefit not just you but your agenda.
The third dimension is commitment to contribution where in one way or the other you begin to give back to people outside your circle. It maybe people that are vulnerable or in need. But you are using your time and financial resources to assist those who are in a fix.
Part of what then guides those dimensions is visibility so you find some people who are a bit more visible either in the media or certain social spaces tend to become more influential. Then those who are less loud or less visible will be less in how they are rated.
We have developed an algorithm (rating system where people use different dimensions and there is a scoring), like what is done by the Huffington Post which then does the ranking because I think part of the debate in Zimbabwe is how we put people in different sectors on one platform.But this is how people in the world are beginning to redefine influence in the sense that there are in some countries where even athletes are more influential than politicians. So it’s part of what we want to begin to do in Zimbabwe. Our belief is that the transformational journey for this country will be done by that generation (under 40 years). And part of the reason why we put people of different spaces together is that we want people to rethink the issue of influence.
The same model is used in statistics but it’s an opinion poll, not an instruction.
OUR working year begins in October when we release the list for that year and ends in October of the following year.
Walter Chimene is a coordinator with The Gorindemabwe Frontier, an organisation that has been releasing a list of Zimbabwe’s top 100 influential individuals under the age of 40. Over the four years, their list has been dominated by church leaders. The ratings consider personalities from religion, media, arts, entertainment, sport and business.

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