The mushrooming of churches in Zimbabwe in the past five years has given rise to criticism of pastors and prophets by citizens from all walks of life with their followers standing up in defence of their church leaders at any given opportunity

In this article I aim to minister to priests, pastors and prophets since no one ministers to them.
Pastors and prophets sent by God have a mission while pastors and prophets faking to be sent by God have a plan.

In 2012 I was invited to a beautiful primary school koNkosikazi where the Nkosikazi Primary School was celebrating 100 years of educating the local people.

The school was founded by two Christian pastors and named it after the last Ndebele Queen Lozikeyi who in Ndebele was referred to as Nkosikazi.

The Queen’s homestead and grave site is less than a kilometer from the school hence the whole communal area is known as koNkosikazi.

Thousands of villagers from around eMbembesi thronged the school grounds to celebrate this legacy that was presented to this community by these two white Christian pastors who walked with Jesus with a vision to change the community of Mbembesi for the better.

Theirs was to minister the word of God with a mission.

They did not own helicopters, fancy clothes or fat bank accounts. They owned the Word and had a mission.

Thousands of such Christian pastors came to this country with such a mission and left behind a legacy of developmental infrastructure of schools, hospitals, roads, books, dams, clean water, farms and above all educated citizens who sing praises to the Lord.

Their infrastructure is still educating and providing health services to our citizens to this date.

In July of 1934 a woman of God by the name of Grace Todd arrived in this country from New Zealand and found that Sir Godfrey Huggins’s governing United Party was promoting the Native Policy whose foundation was based on separate race development in Southern Rhodesia and did not want African children to be educated but that only white children should access education.

This woman sent by God, Todd set in her little room with an old donated type writer and a paraffin lamp in Dadaya Mission, created and wrote the whole education grade levels from Sub A up to Standard Six plus two year levels of teacher training for this country single handed, writing all education schemes for each grade level for no salary, flashy car, helicopter or expensive designer clothes!

Her Dadaya education schemes became the foundation of the education of all black people in this country and were only revised and changed after independence in 1980. Talk of intellectual property that changed the course of this country.

Today we are proud, free and educated Zimbabweans who were given education light by the work of this woman of God who never got paid for it while everyone else got paid!

She never owned a helicopter or fancy clothes or a fat bank account.

In fact she died owing money to some of our high ranking nationalists who she worked all night to educate!

Today they fly all over the world as great men of wealth and wisdom while some rest at the Heroes Acre as liberation war heroes. This is a woman who was sent by God with nothing but the Word and a mission.

I classify such Christians who come to the people with a mission to change communities for the better.

They don’t focus their work on individuals but focus it on communities and society at large.

Christianity can be used for many purposes and it is up to us citizens to place its uses in the right context and not bundle it up in the same box.

However all Christianity-based activities are separated by one thing; those that have a mission for communities and those that do not have any mission for communities.

They are separated by a spiritual borderline that divides the physical and spiritual worlds that we live in. Those that are chosen and sent by God and have a mission are above the line while those that fake being sent by God and have plans are below the line.

It is a fact that Zimbabwe is today loaded with more of below the line priests, pastors and prophets than some 50 years ago and they are increasing at an alarming rate.

We should however note that we have room in our society for both above the line and below the line pastors and prophets.

All we have to do is choose who we want to follow and the pastors and prophets themselves have a choice to work and administer the Word above or below the line.

All I know is that Jesus had a mission for communities and it is for this one reason that he travelled to different communities across his world of that day and did not even find time to build a fancy home, glamorous church buildings with red carpets and high end décor.

As a result he left the world his legacy of Christianity the religion.

Pastors and prophets who work below the line have no mission but are loaded with plans and focus on themselves, their families and individuals who follow them.

They are professionals who are providing a necessary community and public service to those that need it.

They provide mainly three services; success coaching, therapy healing and entertainment.

Many people find themselves living in very stressful conditions and need some therapy healing. This is very important healing and if someone feels that they feel healed because their pastor has told them to eat grass like a goat let them eat as much grass as they can handle.

Many leave in a very competitive consumer world that they are not mentally and intellectually ready to handle, so if they feel that giving half their earnings to the pastor gives them discipline to compete and succeed as a consumer then let them give to the pastor even more.

Many others live in a very lonely world of their own and feel bored and inferior to their neighbours and age mates.

If they can find entertainment at the pastor’s gatherings or even in his arms and house, let them attend and indulge as much as they can for it heals them.

Pastors and prophets who provide such services to society are meeting a demand and most of them have excellent service delivery records and must get paid for it.

The more people they serve the more income they should earn and the bigger a brand they should become as long as they provide their services to the public within the country’s laws.

I have no problem with a pastor or prophet who buys cars, helicopters or jets and has a fat bank account because they work hard and save a lot of souls.

I however have a serious problem with them boasting about owning these properties as being a measure of success in their lives.

I find that ridiculous and silly because these cars and helicopters are just products created, designed, manufactured, and marketed by sons and daughters of some people from far away who were just some poor peasants some three to four hundred years ago.

It is those industrialists who should boast of the car or helicopter success and not the pastor or prophet.

Some great grandchildren of some peasant in another continent makes a car or helicopter and a respected pastor or prophet parades it as his success among his own people and then claims they were sent to the followers by God!

I don’t understand a pastor who flies to Dubai to buy a $5 000 python leather shoe manufactured from a snake killed from some bushes in their own village and calls that success from God.

A pastor with a mission will guide the local villagers in the process of manufacturing the shoe in their neighbourhood and attract those from far away to buy the python leather shoes at that same prize.

If you study all testimonies broadcast on TV channels owned by some pastors and prophets you will notice that they are all about individualism and selfishness. Everyone in the testimony is just another client and customer.

It is difficult to come across some community testimonies on these channels.

All this is witness to the point that this is a category of pastors and prophets who have no mission with the Word of God but have wonderful plans that help those that follow and believe in them helping themselves in the process.

Travelling from city to city or village to village across Zimbabwe, I notice churches and services everywhere and it is encouraging to see the nation increase its Christian population.

I marvel at those churches that have a clear mission that is even visible from the highway because it is clear that they were founded by people sent by God.

So, dear pastors and prophets don’t show your followers consumer goods and products of this world as a measure of success because they come and go, but show them your everlasting mission.