The Sunday Mail
Desire Ncube
THE Independent African Church will celebrate 70 years of existence this month with a number of activities lined up to mark the celebration.
The church will conduct a clean-up campaign and launch a DVD and books that contain their church history.
Mashonaland District Superintendent, Reverend Aaron Tom told The Sunday Mail Religion that the church will also take advantage of the anniversary to re-unite the church following disagreements in the past.
Popularly known as “Mushakata”, The Independent African Church was formed in 1946 in Mbare, Harare, by black Africans who received the call to save humanity by preaching the word of God.
Among those who founded the church is Reverend Machingura who was later honoured by the Government when a street in Mbare was named after him.
Rev Tom expressed the church’s joy.
“We thank God for his provision in allowing us to celebrate this milestone in our church’s history and we hope and trust that He will continue to lead and guide our church into the future.
“As a home-grown church, the celebrations are bringing great value to the indigenous church as they carry a testimony that something good can come out of Africans,” Rev Tom said.
“Our church started at the same time when European missionaries started penetrating Africa with the gospel of God, planting churches. History has it that a lot of negative things concerning the formation of our church were said but God preserved the church up to this day.
“Thus the 70th anniversary celebrations are a reflection of the love of God to everyone black or white,” he added.
Rev Tom said his church has managed to stand the taste of time because it maintained its core values of love, compassion, empathy and commitment.
“Our church has achieved this milestone mainly because it was founded on a firm foundation called love, it started more like a family church but now it has grown into a force to reckon with in the Christian fraternity locally.
“Today, we have assemblies in almost every town in Zimbabwe and we have opened branches in South Africa and Mozambique,” he said.
He added that the celebrations will give the church an opportunity to reflect on the past, the present and the future, thereby re-igniting the spirit of evangelism which was in their forefathers.
“Since those who came before us had the zeal to preach the gospel of salvation to everyone, our aim and objective should remain the same — advancing the kingdom of God.”
Rev Tom’s wife, Theresa chipped it to say that the church has embraced modern technology.
“Long back we used to play African drums and shakers (ngoma nehosho) but now we have introduced modern instruments as well as the public address systems in the church. We did this in order to accommodate many people in the body of Christ,” Mrs Tom said.
The church will conduct a clean-up campaign on June 11 at Machipisa Shopping Centre in Highfield.
