- Author:gospel
- Category:Sermons
Introduction
In
the Gospel of God Church, pastors play a wide variety of roles. There can be no
congregation or branch however small without a pastor. An entire country may
not have an Evangelist but the pastors will step in, and if necessary, they
will invite an Evangelist from elsewhere. They carry out many tasks related to
administration and service – including looking after the well-being of members
and addressing their needs – especially but not limited to spiritual needs.
Most problems and challenges affecting believers are reported to pastors first.
Where other cadres such as prophets or teachers are required, it is normally
the pastor who communicates and involves them. Pastors mobilize and manage
funds; they keep records and present reports to the various councils. They
convene meetings and call prayers. Obviously, they preach and carry out many
tasks - even those that may not look like works of clergy elsewhere. This post discusses some of the senior pastors
(at times called head pastor elsewhere)
Enoch
Gawaza
One
of the senior pastors in Nairobi for a long time was Enoch Gawaza. He served
from the 1970s. Pastor Gawaza was one of those appointed by the founder, Baba
Johane as a writer. He recorded a lot of occurrences, communication, and
prophecies. He also monitored the mass media – whether radio or print media –
which were the dominant mass media available especially in the early days. What
he did was like media monitoring that some communication experts do. He was one
of the writers of Church literature.
Edward
Manogara
Without
giving dates which may follow in other writeups, Gawaza was succeeded by Edward
Manogara who held the same position into the mid-1990s. Together with
Evangelist Muregerera and Prophet Chinyanga they carried out a recce tour for
the pilgrimages and outreaches that were to follow starting 1998 into the next
millennium. During this journey they witnessed and confirmed some historical
facts that they had been told about in the earlier years
Marufu
Murwira
From
the mid-1990s onwards the senior pastor was Marufu Murwira. Like some of his
earlier comrades he was in fact older than the Church and older than Baba
Johane would have been had he been physically present beyond 1973. His
testimonies were as follows: In 1914 when Baba Johane was born, I was a
teenager working in a shop. I rode a bike and delivered supplies to some clients.
Salisbury (Harare) was built as I watched (“Salisbury ilijengwa nikiona”). When
strange phenomena took place across Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), one of the
places I supplied was a convent. There were girls (or women) being housed there
and I used to wonder aloud: “Why are these women being kept here?” I was told
that they were being kept because the Messiah would return and they would give
birth to him. Bizarre as this story would sound, it is not very different from
other testimonies from those who were working at Gatoma (now called Kadoma)
gold mines in 1914 – who were told by their European boss: “A man of God has
been born in this land and he will bring back the Church known as the last Zion”.
As
a person one of the things Marufu is remembered for is being strict with time.
Such that whenever people are mismanaging time, one may be heard saying: “Had
Marufu been here some of these things would not happen”. The 'time' being referenced here
includes start time and ending time for prayers and gatherings such as the
Sabbath Service.
An
example is during the service on the Sabbath, a prophet who receives a message
to convey to the gathering has a way of drawing the attention of the presiding
pastors that there is a message to be shared (e.g. by show of hands) – just
like in the New Testament times (1 Corinthians 14:30). For even in those days a
revelation could come to a prophet seated and they would be given time to
speak. What one had to be careful about in the days of Pastor Marufu was time.
If one had a message to convey and time for the service was over, postponement
was expected. This is not to say that other pastors are not time conscious but
it was typical of Marufu.
Sihlwa
Chuma
The
next senior pastor was Sihlwa Chuma. He was a soft-spoken person who served and
exited the stage after a fairly short stint as some of us perceive. In those
years global pilgrimages and outreaches were at their peak.
Noel
Muungani
Pastor
Muungani was the immediate former senior pastor. He was part of Dare Pitros for
a while – including the years Mafufu was the senior pastor. The Dare usually
tasked him with reporting especially after outreaches and pilgrimages. His
presentations were memorable – he took good notes, and they were accompanied by
video where possible – which was a good way of sharing information. That was a
milestone for the Evangelical Council.
Hopefully,
something has been learned about pastors and the Dare of Elders.
P/S:
The
next post will be about prophets including Samuel Chinyanga (most pronounced it
as Shinyanga) who served for a long time and without doubt the most remembered prophet
in this Church. Hopefully a reader will learn something about prophets and the
gift of prophecy