The Sunday Mail
Pastor Prime Kufa —
The Bible says, “Money answereth all things” (Ecclesiastics 10v19) but many people have questioned why churches call for offerings and sacrifices.
Firstly, the church does not operate in a vacuum and has monetary obligations like rentals, hires, fuels, salaries among other things, like any other business.
Our modern day Pentecostal churches do not have overseas donors like the churches of old who would have their every need taken care of by donors from the church’s country of origin.
Even though these overseas donations would just ‘come to the church’s doorstep’, I believe they would have been raised pretty much the same way we do in UFIC. The only difference being the venue of the offering (in this case London, Rome or Amsterdam as opposed to Harare).
The most dangerous thing to do nowadays is to be a member of a church that does not collect offerings, how does such a church survive? (Unless it is sponsored by proceeds from drug dealings or something like that) Any church leader who does not take offerings is insinuating that he knows that he is not sent by God and therefore not mandated to collect offerings on His behalf.
From the Old Testament Priests to the New Testament Apostles, offerings and sacrifices were collected and the Bible records that.
Men of God should stop being hypocritical and come out in the open and admit that they are mandated by Heaven to collect offerings.
Which kingdom does not receive taxes from its citizenry? And why should the kingdom of God be an exception? It would seem that most people are of the misconception that such offerings collected are for the local man of God, which could be no further from the truth.
God’s idea of the church is probably the origin of our ‘Zunde Ramambo’ idea.
The church is a pool of resources (Malachi 3:10) to support communities and a quick look at the community development projects undertaken by UFIC in the last few years should erase all questions pertaining to how church monies are spent.
Our organisation has been synonymous with unparalleled support for widows and orphans since 2009 under the Agape Family Care banner. In the last year alone, no less than four communities have been equipped with a minimum of four boreholes each.
Schools have been built, some renovated, some equipped, communities fed and that surely should be a pointer of how UFIC has put its tithes and offerings to good use.
Some of the critics’ parents are drinking from boreholes sunk, some have their rentals paid by the very same prophet they are questioning.
It has to be put on record that the prophet’s lifestyle should not mislead any objective eye.
The man is a successful businessman from more than a decade ago when he was still in the AFM.
I remember he was the only pastor driving a Lexus in the entire AFM whilst he was heading an 80-member sub-assembly at How Mine, if he could afford that when he was just starting in business, how about now when he has vast business interests across the globe?
It may also need to be mentioned that UFIC has had their books inspected by Zimra in the last four years and not only did we receive a clean bill of health on each occasion but the level of financial prudence led to some of the officers commenting that they had never seen such financial transparency in a religious organisation.
The question should never be on whether or not to collect offerings but rather how they are put to use. And it has to be categorically stated that no one should try and lead the church into apologising for taking offerings, it is mandated to.
