Journal of Research in Peace, Gender and Development (ISSN: 2251-0036) Vol. 2(9) pp. 185-194, September 2012
Available online@ http://www.interesjournals.org/JRPGD
Copyright ©2012 International Research Journals
Review
An excavation on church governance: the question of
autonomy in the light of the disempowered African
Church Converts in the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe
(COCZ)
1
Gift Masengwe, 2*Francis Machingura and 3Edwin Magwidi
1
Zimbabwe Christian College (ZCC), Hatfield, Harare
*2
University of Zimbabwe, Mt Pleasant, Harare
3
Zimbabwe Christian College (ZCC), Hatfield, Harare
*Corresponding Author E-mail: fmachingura@yahoo.com
Abstract
The article looks at the governing structure of the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (COCZ), which its critics
regard as no longer serving its evangelistic and missionary mandate. The COCZ is a religious institution
th
stemming from the 19 century Restoration Movement. From focus group discussions and interviews with
senior church ministers in the COCZ, it is interesting to note that the COCZ is being accused of losing
direction, relevance and dynamism to achieve its key calling. This study has used literature study as well
as interviews, observations and group discussions to study the governing structures of the COCZ. Many,
however, continue to place the blame of failure on the church’s governing structures that fail to empower
congregations by giving them an autonomous voice and authority to speak on the key beliefs and
objectives of the church (Dhlumbi 2011). Without clear ideological structures, common vision and
congregational coordination, it is very difficult to impress upon sound doctrine, code of conduct and
spiritual vibrancy in the church. The COCZ’s governing theory however, as has been discovered by the
National Pastors’ Fraternal during its February Summits presentations and discussions in 2011 and 12,
has affected the church’s growth potential as well as its expansion and influence in the country, and this
paper thus purposes at excavating ideals and practices that define how the church operates. Here, this
paper critically examines the church’s governing ideology, autonomy, a theory seen from empirical
studies to be consanguineous with authoritarianism. Though autonomy is a theory in the neuter form; its
ideological and separatist tendency does not only divide congregations but it filters down to families of
church ministers, devastating their families and marriages. This paper however argues that, autonomy can
be authentic by drawing from African literature, Biblical Literature, Human Rights debates, Biblical
Theology, African history, African culture, African politics and the experiences of the COCZ practically and
theoretically. The article distinguishes the theoretical role of empowerment by African Church (AC) Elites
against marginalization experienced by African Church (AC) Converts, using the emancipation principle
expected on AC Elites for analysis in the light of missionary assistance.
Keywords: Autonomy, converts, elites, and church.
Abbreviations
AC Converts, African Church Converts; AC Elites, African
Church Elites; COCZ, Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in
Zimbabwe; CSP, Council for the Salvation of the People
186 J. Res. Peace Gend. Dev.
INTRODUCTION
African Church (AC) Elites or the missionary confidantes,
by virtue of their position in church and society were
morally bound to take up a leading role in empowering
African Church (AC) Converts and to meaningfully
transform the African church socially, religiously,
economically and structurally. Unfortunately AC Elites in
the COCZ have been justifiably accused of failing to
empower their African brothers and sisters. Mr Mabona
recited the story of the blind preacher Mr Kurebwa from
Gutu who initiated the starting of Devure mission in Gutu
but later was castigated by the missionaries (Mabona
2012). As a result, the AC Converts have in fact negated
the church’s effort on social and ecclesiastical
transformation in Zimbabwe. It seems like in some
instances the effect is deliberate and on another it is
ignorance and arrogance. AC Elites had privileged
access to church properties such as mission hospitals,
schools and donor support; and in some instances they
have actively fought for church transformation but sadly
for varied personal and selfish but not salvific reasons.
Most of the AC Elites were successfully educated in
missionary schools and thus have become preoccupied
with missionary hangover, without successfully mastering
how to use their privileges for the greater good of the
Church (Chikwanda 201; Mabona 2012). Most AC Elites
became preoccupied with the pull-him-down (PHD)
syndrome that has caused many unnecessary wars and
frustrations in the church today. This paper examines the
issue of church governance particularly the issue of
“congregational autonomy” vis-à-vis “central church
secretariat”, for both ideas contribute towards structuring,
although their differences in cultural origin lead to
different effects on individuals and society (Jiri 1972). It
has become the critical concern of this paper to
contribute towards this debate with the probability of
seeing structures transformed for the purpose of easing
the burden the church experiences today. The COCZ
seems to suffer from colonially derived attitudes of
dominance tailored for disempowering “natives”, thus the
church has perpetuated the improper use of biblical
teachings to disempower AC Converts. Resultantly, AC
Converts were accused of living double-lives, as
Christians by day and as traditionalists by night, because
of the double consciousness (or split-personality) seen in
their Christian practices, reflecting that there is a “split
between mind and body” (Ngugi 1998: 89). This however
is characteristic of most formerly colonized peoples in
Africa.
First, the colonial church leader taught early African
Christians that they (Christians) cannot disagree with
written down doctrines, as if such doctrines were cast on
stone. In turn, AC Converts in COCZ found it extremely
difficult to determine which aspects were open for
contestation, and also those aspects which were non-
contestable, in line with the adage, “In doctrine, unity; in
opinion, liberty; and in all things, love” (Mpofu 2011).
Many AC Converts became insulated from proactive
participation in discourses that defined elements for
ecclesiastical transformation such as appropriate church
structures (Jiri, 1972). It is unfortunate that even white
missionaries failed to positively influence the future
growth and expansion of the church by instituting
appropriate foundations for viable church structures. AC
Elites unable to refuse the dominance of western
ideologies in the COCZ doctrines have been instrumental
in disempowering AC Converts (Mabona, 2012). They
created a closed discursive space to undermine radical
church transformation citing the 1804 Last Will and
Testament of Springfield Presbyteryby Barton W Stone
and the 1809 Declaration and Address of the Christian
Association of Washington by Thomas Campbell as key
to their practice of church autonomy (Mpofu, 2011).
The COCZ was founded upon the 200-year old
declarations of the Stone-Campbell movement, which
were unfortunately meant for an association rather than a
church (Makado, 2011). Further these declarations were
never stripped of their American ideologies meant for a
particular people, a culture and a situation such as
individualism, capitalism and liberalism. Thus these
declarations need interpretation and sound ethical
application. The COCZ has suffered from intersecting
ideologies of Africa, one, as a ‘mission field’ for the
western church, two, arbitrary democratization in a
communitarian society through the autonomy adage, and
three, the preoccupation of AC Elites with American
support. This American support regarded as the
“American Church Breast” (Mabika 2010) came at the
expense of local church growth and transformation. In
this paper we will reflect on three important issues: a) the
African traits of disempowerment and the theology
question, b) the adoption, or rather, imposition of the
Messiah model to dis-empower African Christians, and c)
the autonomy approach to church governance in the
COCZ. The question is: How do we understand the roles
played by AC Elites in the struggle for making the gospel
relevant to Africans in the COCZ? How have these AC
Elites played their role in the empowering struggle of poor
AC Converts to grow towards spiritual maturity?
It is evident from the passing generation of AC Elites
that a closed theological space was created to subvert
the COCZ from adopting a radical theological
engagement that militated against missionary theology
and opened up all closed dialogical spaces. Thus AC
Elites simultaneously engaged in empowering and
marginalizing AC Converts.
The use of the term,
“autonomy” was itself authoritarian and usurped the
autonomy of AC Converts, with ideologies and policies
created for the interest of AC Elites, missionaries and
Masengwe et al. 187
western churches; taking dominance over and above
active engagement of AC Converts with the Bible. AC
Elites failed to stand against excessively dominant
missionary theologies, for they too were victims of
marginalization, and survivors in the ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’
society (Mkandawire 1997). These theologies were
meant at actively disempowering many not conversant
with the history and theology of the COCZ, and its
engagement with the Bible on the said subjects
(Mamdani 1994: 248). The COCZ missionaries from the
Restoration Movement influenced by the American 2nd
Great Awakening also adopted colonially crafted
theological ideologies (Chikwanda 2011); forming an
arrogant and separatist biblical scholarship for the African
church (Ngugi 1998). The pedagogical theology of the
colonial church (COCZ) was carried over into postcolonial
frames of theological education and can be criticized and/
or dismissed on the basis of characterizing indigenous
ideologies as primitive, native and backward (Mafeje
1994: 61). In this paper we seek to further the
empowerment debate and order as structures of the
COCZ and its corresponding marginalization, taking this
from the basis of AC Elites’ uncritical observance of
American Christian theology and church structuring.
Traits of disempowered church communities in the
COCZ
The COCZ’s governing ideology was derived from the
western churches that developed during the 2nd Great
Awakening of the Restoration Movement. This section is
going to discuss how these ideologies have led to
disempowerment, theologically and ideologically. The
role of AC Elites in empowering and marginalizing AC
Converts suggests that the COCZ’s autonomy to
empower its AC Converts in Zimbabwe was usurped by
missionary ideologies and AC Elites survival struggles.
On the political front, Africans struggled, firstly, militarily
against colonialists; secondly, economically against
imperialists; and thirdly, civilly against domestic
authoritarian rule. There is a commonality in terms of all
these struggles against marginalization which by
inference were done in the church as well. Similarly, the
COCZ went through the same struggles, with AC
Converts attempting to open closed spaces, which
unfortunately AC Elites regarded as perversions from
normality in ways that left them tainted, and with little help
towards emancipation (Chikwanda 2011). In fact, the
natural replacement of white missionaries by the
oppressive black clergy and eldership has been criticised
for despotism from within, increasing the fundamental
need for structured church leadership in the country
(Madei 2012). The AC Elites are removed and detached
from their “followers” teachings, thought processes and
perceptions of Christian mission and ministry.
Furthermore, the struggle for church control and
unification in recent years was an attempt at creating
space for the church to compete with globalization and
liberalization that are threatening states and churches.
The struggle rather, may fail to give due attention to the
excessively elitist and authoritarian character of church
politics in the empowerment and marginalization efforts
(Rathbone 2000). Autonomy in the COCZ however, has
degenerated into multi-tyrannical church entities of
individuals electing their own factional leadership without
giving due attention to the processes altering the
majorities’ ability to contribute towards transforming the
church’s religious and theological histories. The perverted
versions of AC Converts’ struggles have further
disempowered communities in which these AC Converts
lived (Ake 1996). Thus we ask: What roles have AC
Elites played in the on-going struggles for theological
empowerment in the COCZ?
Plot setting: the theology question in the COCZ
AC Elites can be portrayed as ‘ruthless behemoths’ intent
on taking away the freedoms that AC Converts need to
enjoy (Sall 2001). With an increasing number of African
church scholars in the COCZ today, their struggle is
exacerbated by growing western liberalization and the
struggling domestic economic and political institutions.
The struggle by African church scholars against AC Elites
represents a breach in church-familial character, minding
that scholars have a tendency to demand change and
they want it now as an obvious threat of a revolution.
Unfortunately, a revolutionary movement will fail to
achieve positive results, resulting in authoritarian and
elitist approaches to church politics, which may further
usurp the power of the majorities as new AC Elites
assume power in the church. The result is that, overly
restrictive definitions of freedom may dance along with
liberalization, or debates may be closed as the church
attends to critical and pressing needs (Mkandawire 1997:
18). In the current scenario, AC Elites have attempted to
play big brother on smaller congregations, giving them
doctrinal lectures inconsistent with the realities people
are living as well as their on-going reading of Scripture.
The carrot of western assistance and the big stick of
doctrinal coercion have been used as ensuring means to
control AC Converts (Sall 2001), yet many pastors have
countered these infringements by subversive doctrinal
insults in their congregations which manifests through
direct confrontation by forming and running independent
ministries, and public presentations at conferences and
declarations for religious freedom.
The young generation of leaders, especially pastors,
elders, deacons and other church leaders have been
aware of the exploitative nature of globalization in Africa.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Marxist Socialism directly
188 J. Res. Peace Gend. Dev.
criticized these tendencies (Ake, 1992). In the 1990s, the
changing economic sphere failed to criticize them like
other African scholars (Mkandawire and Slubo, 2003).
Unfortunately AC Elites have traditionally depended on
American missionaries for the production of church
doctrines and theology. In fact since the times of early
works of missionaries, anthropologists and colonialists,
non-Africans have dominated in the production of
knowledge, and on the study of Africa (Mkandawire 1997:
26). Knowledge rather contributes in representing, having
and producing social realities (Zeleza 1997).
Marginalized AC Converts who did not contribute to
knowledge
production
became
theologically,
economically and politically marginalized in the national
system of their own countries.
First, AC Converts’ lives were perceived and
determined by non-Africans; often deliberately painting
overly negative pictures of AC Converts (Ki-Zerbo, 1994:
2).
Second, negative representations have been
detrimental to the church’s growth and expansion. Third,
marginalization in knowledge production, since its “an
industry for creating and harnessing economic and
political resources” (Onoma, 2004: 5) meant AC Converts
in the COCZ could not access the needed economic
resources and political agency to impact the church
theologically and otherwise (Mkandawire, 1997: 26-34).
Thus there is need for greater space for Africans to
produce knowledge on the church in Africa (Zeleza,
1997). This salutary narrative of the location of AC Elites
in the COCZ may fail to have an emancipator role,
although some AC Elites have been painted as valiant
strugglers (Mamdani, 1994: 6). Some AC Elites though
resorted to quietist tendencies while others colluded with
authoritarians (Mkandawire 1997: 22). Both positions did
not help the AC Converts. The AC Elites have on one
hand been willingly ignoring authoritarian tendencies
wherein they were not restricted directly in their personalacademic and economic pursuits Mamdani 1994: 248;
Hagan, 1994: 44). Choices of autonomy over central
church secretariat in the COCZ demonstrate the profound
undemocratic orientation among post-independent
Zimbabwe AC Elites (Mamdani 1994: 253; Ki-Zerbo
1994). To simplify this argument, such AC Elites have
been critical of emerging church theologians delving into
new endeavours such as setting up new colleges and
church councils that target AC Converts, condemning
such innovations as divisive in the church and
undermining our inherited church gospel. The AC Elites
feel that, if AC Converts are theologically empowered in
great numbers that would expose their leadership
lifestyle. Yet the poverty of this take on African
uniqueness has seen restrictiveness in the conception of
Africanness in the church. This has theologically left out
the possibility of expressing our uniquely different African
experiences among our African churches such as the use
of maheu and sadza during church rituals instead of the
normal bread and wine. It may be that western
conceptions that have been widely used in the COCZ
may have become localized, tending to locate our
Africanness outside our lived experiences for many
generations and choosing to imprison this identity in a
slice of the Restoration Movement history (Nyamnjoh
2001).
Many COCZ members have become theologically
conversant with the imported interpretations of
Christianity, making them think that missionary imposed
Christianity can be equated to an acculturated African
Christian gospel. Yes for many years, AC Elites, including
church ministers and institution officials have been able
to operate and be effective in the church using these
theological ideologies to understand their own unique
challenges, and to facilitate theological debate among
various African Christian churches. However, it will be
foolhardy to suggest that the narrow following of western
theologies would be sufficient for Africans who have their
own social realities. Yet these may lead to spiritual,
social, political and economic costs on the local church.
The narrowing of this thinking has been made along with
cavalier attitudes that the African church has been
growing faster in Africa than in some western churches
(Mpofu 2011). This constriction excluded the less fluent
Africans or their contributions (especially the AC
Converts) were trivialized, similar to “the self-illusion of
democracy thereby excommunicating sections of the
population from the category of the people” (Ngugi 1998:
92). Majorities (AC Converts) were thus silenced and
became non-existent-making the practice of Christianity
by these people a closed discursive space controlled by
missionaries, AC Elites and their employees. This writing
thus is preoccupied with the dominance of white
missionaries and their handpicked lieutenants in the
name of autonomy. The structural policy of the church
thus was neither democratically nor autonomously
devised. Thus the autonomy question became an
inaccessible church ideology for the rest of the people
(Mamdani 1994: 248). The ways in which the adoption of
missionary imposed theologies and doctrines delimits the
empowering effects of church democracies in Zimbabwe
cannot be underestimated.
The African church’s struggle to dislodge colonially
derived theological chains
The African church, COCZ attended by the black
majority, struggled since its inception to deal with western
ideologies resulting in changed approaches to worship,
theological form and content among others. Thus the
church succumbed to some chains and has adopted the
messiah-ship of Americans for their problems. What
modes of disempowerment did white missionaries use?
We need to desist from the tendency of thinking that AC
Masengwe et al. 189
Elites in the COCZ are immanently imbued with
leadership responsibilities on the church because of the
possibility of the non-organic nature of such theologies
(Mafeje 1994; Shivji 1993). Missionaries like colonialists
introduced the “scout and guide” prescription of roles for
indigenous AC Elites. AC Elites therefore are criticised
for failing to be organic guides for AC Converts. With this
view, there is a mode of disempowerment effected by the
missionary reading of the Bible and doctrines, imposed
on AC Elites, making them unable to guide and lead
(Diouf 1994). This resulted in what Ngugi viewed AC
Elites as heads refusing to link up with bodies (AC
Converts), creating a church of “bodiless heads and
headless bodies” (Ngugi 1998: 95). In other words, there
is no connection between “leaders” and “followers” either
by design or by historical accident. According to the
leadership training guru Maxwell, ‘if a leader has no one
following, the leader is just taking a walk’, and this hove
feels is what most of our churches are suffering from
(Hove 2012). This thinking expropriates leadership to AC
Elites, but however, AC Elites failed to play (were
prevented from playing) this role by their adoption of
missionary theologies. However, their refusal to offer
leadership is a breach of contract that contributed to
usurpation of autonomy from AC Converts, wherein AC
Elites had to offer magisterial services to such church AC
Converts (Ki-Zerbo 1994: 34-35). Elitist approaches to
church transformation were at play here, as AC Elites still
fail to see transformation outside western support and
being incapable of playing significant church
transformation in Zimbabwe.
Participation is a key issue, notably with the increasing
influences of democratic principles today (Ngugi 1994:
92). AC Elites in the COCZ thus minimized the
participation of AC Converts in two ways. One, AC Elites
usurped AC Converts’ rights to participate in doctrinal
discussions by determining what aspects of church
theology were debatable and what were non-debatable.
AC Elites thus have collaborated in disempowering AC
Converts by controlling the discourse to mere
“narathemes that structure, package and control
discussion” (Said 2003: 5) like place of prayer, women
involvement and church structuring, among others
(Tembo 2012). To understand how these modes of
disempowerment operate today, one needs to
understand the broader ecclesiastical and political
context within which the COCZ operates in Zimbabwe. In
the 1800s, autonomy was introduced to deal with overly
autocratic church institutions, yet today it is being
practiced by the same in syndicated forms of church
property ownership and traditional tenancy systems.
Individuals thus shamefully claim titles to land and
properties belonging to churches, church schools, health
centres, colleges, orphanages, offices and vehicles,
among others. Unfortunately the practice of autonomy is
delimited by the tendency for dependence, prior to
autonomous thinking. Autonomy though follows the
narrow understanding of democratic governance where
elections are used in decision making, to choose leaders
and to adopt or reject policies (Zakaria 1997; Ake 1994).
It is noteworthy to state that autonomy ontologically and
chronologically structure practices in the COCZ to
depend on the American church charity. This has
established what can be dealt with autonomously and
what cannot be subjected to popular contestation.
Unfortunately autonomy should have allowed free
participation of AC Converts in decision making in regard
to theology, institutional challenges and their social
realities through free consultation, discussion, consensus
building and doctrinal integrity. Instead, it seems as if it
gives individual leaders an “advantage” to perpetuate
their selfish leadership interests to amass wealth in the
name of the church. Autonomy thus seems not to benefit
the majority but the usual privileged AC Elites.
In cash-strapped COCZ churches, the mother
churches in America have successfully campaigned to
make some doctrines unquestionable such as: use of
instruments in worship in some churches, women
involvement, church organizational structures and proper
ways of ritual performances. Tembo feels that women
can be able to do what men are doing in church today
(Tembo 2012). Unfortunately such campaigns have
yielded little effect to taming urban churches mainly in
Harare, Masvingo, Mutare and others. Insulating some
doctrines from popular theological contestation has seen
AC Elites as agents of the mother churches in America
who are only there to prevent what has been seen as
“irresponsible publics” from making contributions to
doctrinal revisions (Jiri 1972). Thus decision making on
such theological issues are portrayed as the privy of Bible
technocrats better equipped for making hard choices on
spiritual things. Thus AC Elites in the COCZ struggle to
impose biblically questionable doctrines which the
majority of their followers denounce. One such thinking is
the insistence on the consanguinity of institutions
providing vital services with the name COCZ. Further,
some subjects are eternally condemned such as women
involvement and novelty in ritual practices, criticised as
non-biblical doctrines reminiscent of new AC Converts
who criss-crossed denominations before they joined the
COCZ (Tembo 2012). Unfortunately the majority of AC
Converts cannot decide on the doctrinal teachings of the
church while at the same time no clear parameters can
be defined. It is also unfortunate that those who make
decisions may not have been properly ordained to do so,
for instance, some have inherited positions and others
are gospreneurs who started church ministries to engage
in economic investments. However, even with donors, as
Madei learned in the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in
Zimbabwe, most gospreneurs are engaged in question-
190 J. Res. Peace Gend. Dev.
able ministerial practices Madei 2012). There is no
accountability and as a result the church’s name is at risk
of being tainted or associated with evil practices.
Autonomy delimited what can be considered legitimate
doctrine in the COCZ’s decision making processes. The
very methods determine what to be considered
legitimate, and for bringing up issues for theological
contestation; how decisions should be reached and how
the COCZ congregations should relate to each other and
to other denominations (Makado 2011). What then are
the proper ways of talking about issues of autonomy?
What extents are there for decision making in autonomy?
Can violent retribution by AC Elites holding the ‘stick’ of
discipline, and the persistent eruptions of insults to their
restrictive laws by minor congregations be regarded as
questioning of the methodology of autonomy being
applied? In this way can we ask then: what jurisdiction
does an autonomous church have over other churches or
what authority do ministers with other congregations have
over ministers with their own congregations? For
instance, is it possible to have an autonomous town
church, autonomous provincial church, a national
autonomous church, or is it narrowly and strictly
congregational? In the early church, all major decisions
were made by the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15), why?
Further, Asia Minor received a letter from the Apostle
John, “to the seven churches” (Revelations 3). Can Asia
have only 7 congregations? It is in autonomy that such
questions can be asked because even the most practiced
demonstrations for church transformation such as
improving current levels of theological education have
been attacked vehemently in public platforms. It needs to
be understood that violent suppression of ideas will not
live forever because issues built out of determination and
truth have an immortal lifespan. A French philosopher
and writer, Victor Hugo once stated, “No one can stop an
idea whose time has come” of age.
Is autonomy for ‘the good of COCZ or ordinary AC
Converts’ or ‘Elites’?
This study cannot go on further without identifying AC
Converts. To do this, we are going to outline, historically
and from a political angle how different authors and
leaders have described this class of people in a way that
has impacted their future. The following ideas help to
discuss this description. In a history class, doing the
French revolution, we were asked, “Who were the
people”? Our answer was, “The sans-cluttes,
storekeepers, the small traders, the peasants and the
unemployed”. The late Dambudzo Marechera’s poem,
Thrones and Bayonets, mocks; “The people, the people
as a whole must come first”, and Thomas Sankara,
Burkinabe leader and Prime minister of the Council for
the Salvation of the People (CSP) in March 1983 gives
an idealistic explanation of what ‘coming first’ means,
The people love liberty and democracy, and will thus
combat all enemies of liberty and democracy. But who
are the enemies of the people? The enemies of the
people here inside the country are those who have
illicitly taken advantage of their social position and their
place in the bureaucracy to enrich themselves … Who
are the enemies of the people? They are the men in
politics who travel through the country side exclusively
at election time. Those politicians are convinced that
only they can make our country work”.
In our discussion here, who are the AC Elites, and
who are the enemies of church growth and expansion?
Are they not those who take rage verbally in podiums and
intent on private name-killing, who are not acting
progressively towards church stability? In fact, AC Elites
are increasing by day, and proactive approaches to
doctrine as well as insults to less biblically sound
teachings are being made regularly. Incessant
delegitimizing of such developments by AC Elites is a
denial of the demand for autonomy vis-à-vis the
protection of privileges, security and stability (Chikwanda,
2011). The instrumental rationality behind this missionary
ideology, keeps AC Elites safe from public scrutiny,
allowing them to operate in a safe environment, without
however safeguarding AC Converts from violent
predations by selfish individuals. The autonomy debate is
one example of such predation in the hands of AC Elites.
It is possible to talk about the localization of western
theological debates for easier implementation of church
programs. Like the government in Zimbabwe that
legitimized local languages for business after
independence, it is unfortunate that they were accepted
so as to communicate existing national policies. Similarly
elitist and exclusivist orientations were at play in
localizing existing theological debates in the church that
had the same effect on theology in an African society. To
generally effect ecclesiastical transformation from an
elitist perspective was an unrealistic populist radicalism
(Menang, 2001).
Rather on a sad note, the church discourse on
governance has been timeously and exclusively carried
out in English which deliberately excluded the ordinary
from the AC Elites because majorities of AC Converts
then lacked fluency in English and could not seriously
converse in theological debates. The debate thus has
better suited mother churches in America, who have
sought, through missionaries and those they supported to
disproportionately influence decision making in
Zimbabwe even after independence in 1980. Only on
instances when AC Elites played marginal roles, they
denounced missionary ideologies in debates
Masengwe et al. 191
(Mkandawire, 1997). However, it is difficult to appreciate
the marginalization of AC Converts by AC Elites because
autonomy has been discussed at levels ordinary AC
Converts could not comprehend. However, AC Converts
carried out vibrant parallel discourses on their everyday
experiences, and most voted with their feet by joining
other churches under protest. These infrequent
discourses with AC Elites have been looked at with
disdain, especially those denigrated and dismissed as
having ‘uneducated’ opinions (Yankah, 1996). Further, it
is unfortunate that the missionaries collaborated with
colonizers, and AC Elites collaborated with missionaries
in disempowering their own people. This usurpation of
autonomy from AC Converts affected the way in which
ordinary Christians entered debates about their own faith.
AC Elites did not contest the delimiting aspects of the
kind of autonomy the church was using, thus no doctrinal
nor theological issues be presented for popular debate.
Thus has resulted in collusion between AC Elites and
missionaries in depriving AC Converts the ability to
meaningfully participate in discussions that affect their
Christian lives. It is true that AC Elites found it not easy to
break the written law in pursuit of authentic Christian
engagement, was because the mother church made any
other thinking extremely impracticable. The American
church support controlled the AC Elites’ commercial
interests, and thus determined knowledge production in
the African church in Zimbabwe (Jiri 1972). Rather the
use of English resulted in the majority of indigenous
Christians acting like parrots as most could not
consensually understand or interpret the English terms. It
is true even today that no consensus can be reached
given the different interests of AC Elites who are out
rightly hostile to church transformation (Mphalele 1963: 78; Zakaria 1997). For most, it is the bearable cost of the
visibility from other countries to identify with the
Zimbabwean church that matters (Mabika 2010; Mabona
2012); but it’s also a fait accompli (Menang 2001). Those
who questioned the missionary systems like Enoch Jirrie,
Nyekete, etc, tended to be portrayed as radical and
unrealistic native tendencies (Achebe 1988: 61; Mafeje
1994: 63; Menang 2001). But as we are witnessing today,
condemnation of early insights by some AC Elites was
unrealistic, and we cannot certainly ground it in native
denigrations.
In Zimbabwe, many churches have transformed their
imported structures, namely, the British Methodists and
Dutch Reformed Church just to mention a few. Church
transformation does not imply discarding the good things
the church came with, but allowing the church to
indigenously root itself into the ground (Chikwanda 2012).
For instance, it needs to be known that the soil was there
before the tree started to grow; so we cannot just talk
about the tree without considering what the ground offers
for the tree, otherwise we are practising bad agriculture.
The role of culture in imported Christianity been reduced,
and new innovations could thus have been made in the
administration of the church, and in knowledge
generation. While this sounds marvellous, at the time, the
financial and political costs of these pursuits could have
made the endeavour unachievable because COCZ has
always been perpetually cash-strapped to spend money
on administration. Also given the greediness among AC
Elites, a creation of an administrative body for purposes
of functionality and accountability could potentially have
created strife and disorder in the church. While these are
both serious concerns, it needs to be known that money
follows vision, and that vision can appropriately be
executed through minimum administrative structures
(Dhlumbi, 2011). Strife and disorder cannot negatively
outweigh the purposes for which the church existed, but
rather increases competition between existing AC Elites
and AC Converts. In fact with increased strife, there is
increased evangelism, outreach and expansion. Even
church splits do not mark a loss for the church because
the more the AC Converts increase the more the
kingdom is being built. In other words, administrative
costs and power struggles are used as marks to object to
aggressive advocacy for church growth and expansion.
For some, church transformation is tantamount to cliquesuicide Mamdani 1994: 249). Thus AC Elites shielded
away from any efforts that undermined their privileged
positions in the church. It is also this collaboration
between some AC Elites and missionaries that still give
them the vital position as effective interlocutors between
the African church and the American mother bodies. It
needs to be admitted that some of these AC Elites were
popularly elected by their followers because of their
viable relationships with missionaries, which is a
prerequisite for African church autonomy and democratic
representation. As such, they were responsible for their
people. Unfortunately the structures they used were
paternalistic, making us revert to the same question of
their authenticity as representatives of the people. KiZerbo remarks that,
The most important duty of the African intelligentsia is
not to play a vanguard role, but to make sure that the
largest possible numbers of persons have the ability
and information to assess critically and intelligently the
on-going processes involving them. The intellectual’s
social vacation is not really the magisterial one of
teachers educating pupils; it is more accurately, the
ministerial one of facilitating the free flow of ideas by
stripping problems of their mystifying disguises and
creating fresh, functional and coherent patterns of
perception and conception (Ki-Zerbo 1994: 34-35).
Beyond ministering to AC Converts, AC Elites can
play the emancipator role by relinquishing their gatekeeping roles and adopting the information and ideasgiving roles to facilitate religious and spiritual liberation in
192 J. Res. Peace Gend. Dev.
the lives of others. In this, AC Elites need to push as
much as possible the involvement of others and through
training to increase the number of informed AC Elites as
well as to obviate the growth and expansion of the
church, and thus increase in church ministry (Chikwanda
2011; Tembo 2012).
One of the radical objections to church transformation
in the COCZ is lack of resources. Unfortunately a fewer
of the fortunate gate-keepers are using money from
mother churches to build themselves palatial mansions
and lodges in low density suburbs and drive fleets of
luxurious cars, travel extensively across the world and
use huge budgets for their own up-keeps. The issue we
can further criticize is poor theological engagement.
There is a deliberate disregard of proper biblical
interpretation to exhume some of the hidden truths in the
Bible. Paul said ‘“For it is the God who said, “Let light
shine out of darkness”, who has shone in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ’” (2 Corinthians 4:6). All people must be
allowed to participate in the welfare of the church
especially getting feedback on how their resources are
used. These and others are the legal ways in which
mother churches’ resources and theologies are
embraced. May be a broadening of leaders’ thinking on
existing resources could have helped in church
transformation, corporate investment, increasing the
welfare of ministers through insurances and other
benefits, as well as allow AC Converts to participate in
the governing processes of the church (Mpofu 2011;
hlumbi 2011).
Some argue that for connection with churches from
other countries, church transformation separates COCZ
from others. However, even today, many Churches of
Christ do not fellowship together, and for some, have
created their own conferences such as non-instrumental
churches and the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe
(UCCZ), yet internationally have the same convention
currently chaired by the ZCC board chairperson, Mr. and
elder BJ Mpofu of Makokoba Church of Christ in
Zimbabwe, Bulawayo. This is a denial of the people to
exercise their God-given right to deal with problems; it is
a denial of the capital location, knowledge creation,
administrative capacities, innovative and lucrative
abilities. Unfortunately, a scenario has been created
where COCZ continue to wait for missionaries or AC
Elites to tell them where to: put a new church, how to run
it, how to conduct Bible study, when to apply for a church
stand, when to have a full time minister and how to
arrange their services (Mpofu 2011). It is true that all the
important decisions cause jostling among young AC
Converts, yet even among AC Elites, the same has been
done with horse-trading, consultation and sometimes
coercion. It needs to be understood that some AC Elites
have benefitted their regions outrageously and
unjustifiably without provoking leadership strife and
financial problems in the church, which thus indicates the
need for central administration for creating an enabling
environment for the COCZ, and for facilitating true church
administration using the autonomy adage. If some these
AC Elites involved AC Converts, progress would be
realised for the betterment of the COCZ.
CONCLUSION
The marginalization of AC Converts by the autonomy
debate of AC Elites less talked about has provoked fierce
resistance by a new breed of AC Elites at the domestic
front. Autonomy thus is being interpreted as a form of
authoritarianism to exclude the majority of AC Converts
from meaningfully participating in church transformation.
It needs to be accepted that “Natives do know, and know
a lot about their conditions” (Mkandawire 1997: 30) which
should not be circumscribed in knowing autonomy as the
ideal church structure. New generations of AC Elites and
leaders have a task of facing up to, and giving serious
thought to these disempowering effects on AC Converts.
Besides blaming missionaries, there is need to examine
how leaders have infringed the subject-hood of their
members. AC Elites too should be able to choose the
form of autonomy to use in their knowledge generation,
without
preventing
others
from
reflecting
on
disempowering consequences of each choice. Further,
postmodernist analyses should assist contemporary
biblical scholars, church historians in recognizing the
disempowering effects of missionary-led churches in
Zimbabwe.
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Questionnaire for students
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)
7.)
What is your understanding of church governance and/ or law making?
What type of governance does your church fall under?
What advantages can be claimed from use of your governing ideologies and structures?
What problems have commonly been associated with your governing structures?
How are these structures managed? Who is in charge?
What effect does your form of government have on the ordinary Christians?
What suggestions can you make to improve on governance in the COCZ?