Q&A: Zimbabwe bishop confronts shortages in staffing, money
Feb. 28, 2006
NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.
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.
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