Q&A: Zimbabwe bishop confronts shortages in
staffing, money
Feb. 28, 2006
A UMNS Report
By Hendrik R. Pieterse*
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, episcopal leader of the United Methodist Church’s
Zimbabwe Area, sat down in Harare for a question-and-answer session about the
challenges and opportunities facing the 150,000 members of the United Methodist
Church in Zimbabwe.
Q: How is the rapid urbanization of Zimbabwe affecting the ministry of the
church?
A: (Rural) pastors often serve multiple-point charges covering large
geographic areas but don’t have access to a vehicle. Thus, they resort to
walking from church to church, to the extent that is possible.
Another reality is that rural areas are often the first to experience poverty
and the economic and social hardship it brings. Unlike well-staffed and
well-resourced churches in urban areas, rural churches have very little
financial and even human (leadership) resources.
Q: How is the current political and economic situation affecting the ministry
of the church?
A: Many rural congregations are embarrassed by the fact that they are unable
to pay their pastor’s salary. In many cases, pastors go for months without
receiving a salary. Rural churches often are also unable to pay their
apportionments. Naturally, this negatively affects the ability of the district
and the annual conference to provide resources and services.
Q: Describe the challenges the church faces in recruiting candidates for
ministry.
A: The Zimbabwe Annual Conference has numerous candidates for ministry but
no money to send them for formal training at Africa University or the ecumenical
theological college in Harare. Many of these candidates are local pastors.
Q: What impact does the political, economic and social situation in Zimbabwe
have on recruitment, training and deployment of leaders?
A: The church is both a divine and a social institution. In its social
expression, the church needs money to operate and offer programs. Money comes
from the people. However, the people struggle to survive and are often unable to
contribute financially. Thus, a vicious cycle erupts.
The situation was greatly exacerbated by the inflation and the devaluation of
the Zimbabwe dollar. Almost overnight, the cost of seminary or university
education shot up tenfold. The conference was forced to focus its apportionment
money on providing theological training, with the result that other annual
conference programs ground to a virtual standstill.
Q: What do you see as the major challenge for training and educating leaders
for the church in Zimbabwe?
A: Perhaps the biggest need in Zimbabwe is to make the Book of Discipline
accessible to pastors and other church leaders. ... The Discipline is
expensive, even in the United States. In Zimbabwe, it is practically
unaffordable for most pastors and other church leaders.
Yet, I believe there are ways in which people can have access to excerpts from
the Discipline. The introduction to the Discipline says that the
book should be in the hands of every United Methodist pastor. The case in
Zimbabwe is very far from this. Bishops have copies of the Discipline,
provided to them by the general church. But district superintendents don’t have
copies, let alone the pastors.
Q: What do you consider to be the greatest literature needs the church in
Zimbabwe faces?
A: The fact is, the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe has ample resources
of gifted, creative leaders, including at Africa University, who can write
curriculum and other literature for resourcing the church’s basic theological
and educational needs. What they need is encouragement and the financial and
logistical resources for creating and distributing the literature.
For example, the Zimbabwe church has created an excellent United Methodist
curriculum that would be of tremendous benefit to the congregations. However, it
languishes in manuscript form because there simply isn’t the money to get it
printed and distributed.
Q: What is the greatest strength of the church in Zimbabwe for making
disciples of Jesus Christ?
A: Let me be clear: The church’s greatest resource is its people. The church
is filled with people who are very committed to the church and its programs and
who are willing to sacrifice to take Christ to the next person. Many pastors are
making huge sacrifices to minister in some very challenging and difficult
circumstances, and they do marvelous work. They often travel great distances on
foot to visit people and hold revivals.
Q: What is the greatest challenge the church in Zimbabwe faces in the future
in making disciples of Jesus Christ?
A: The greatest challenge, which will continue, is to obtain adequate
monetary resources for carrying out the church’s ministry. The church and its
programs are continually expanding, but the monetary resources are not matching
the church’s growth — to the point that the cabinet is forced to stop circuits
from being created because the annual conference has nothing in the coffers to
support them. Thus, the bishop and cabinet are in the unenviable position of
having to actually restrict the development of the church because of lack of
monetary resources.
The people may be ready and willing to start a new circuit. They are worshipping
under a tree, often in great numbers, but they lack the financial resources to
provide a salary and parsonage for the pastor or to build a church building.
On average, there are 15 new churches being formed in the districts but with no
money to support their sustainability and growth.
How do we communicate this need to the global church? For me, the first step is
for the global church to come and see. That is, people literally need to visit
the church in Zimbabwe to see and experience for themselves the actual
circumstances in which their brothers and sisters seek to minister. A second
step is to establish partnerships with the church in Zimbabwe to support the
fledgling church here.
Some annual conferences in the United States have already taken up the
challenge. For example, the Baltimore-Washington Conference, after a visit by
Bishop (John R.) Schol, sent a team of clergy and laity to Zimbabwe in June 2005
to conduct a pastors’ school. The Baltimore-Washington Conference has covenanted
to do this every other year. However, we desperately need more initiatives like
this.
In Zimbabwe, the harvest is ripe and the laborers are many, but the resources
are few. I pray that God would lay it upon the hearts of fellow United
Methodists — individuals, annual conferences, institutions — to support their
brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe in building a vibrant church that would help
transform the African continent for the sake of Christ.
*Pieterse is director of scholarly research and book editor at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Articles
New Zimbabwean bishop offers vision for church
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Resources
General Board of Higher Education and Ministry
Africa University
Country Profile: Zimbabwe
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