Epilogue
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden
of His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island
Special
–1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split
of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
Now the time has come to end these reflections on the Assemblies of God with a comment on where we have come to and where we should go from here. While we were encapsulated in our own affairs as a church surely terrible things had been afoot all about us. Nazi atrocities, the Berlin Wall, killing fields in Uganda and elsewhere, the Cold War, happenings in Mozambique, the insidious deceit and manipulation of Apartheid, to name some of the most obvious. Our past as well as Society's past imposes on us the dilemma of choosing irrelevance or significance in what is truly a new South Africa; of opting for existence in a ghetto or a dynamic role in the Kingdom of God.
Our constitutional development
has been an "ad hoc" thing shaped largely by instinctive responses
to circumstances which pressurized us. It has made us one movement indeed,
with one General Constitution and served by one General Executive, but
yet a movement of groups with the dynamics of leadership functioning
autonomously within the Groups but in symbiosis between the three sections.
If we did not have Assemblies co-operating in groups we would have a
Constitution and an Executive as we have now, but there would be about
two thousand autonomous churches, each having its own constitution, leadership
and programme. Then no doubt, observers would pronounce that we were
one church united as one body, even though we had two thousand bodies
and two thousand constitutions.
But we do operate with three groups and critics, ruled by an obsessive
regard for political correctness, see fit to declare that we are three
separate churches in one movement. Again I repeat were we two thousand
separate churches in one movement we would be thought of as united. Ironic!
But ironic or not, it does matter for we must live in a new South Africa
where popular perceptions are important.
~
Not long ago a few of us discussed our problem with two professors, Doctors
of Divinity in Missiology. They understand the structures of the Assemblies
of God. What they said intrigued me. They told us that every single church
body in South Africa, including the Roman Catholic Church, had similar
problems to ours, exacerbated by the expectations born in 1994 with the
demise of apartheid – problems unique because of the unique racial
mix and social dynamics of the land we minister in.
They also volunteered that until recently the Assemblies of God had been
(as they expressed it) "streets ahead" of any other Protestant
or Pentecostal denomination in South Africa. Now, they said, we no longer
were "streets ahead", for other bodies were catching up, but
we were still well ahead of the entire Protestant and Pentecostal field.
Their assurance, made in 1999, amazed and comforted me, for it came from
experts informed at the level of township gossip as well as from their
academic observations. But the good men, wise as they are, could not advise
us how to solve our problems over night. I can only trust that the Holy
Spirit who has led us thus far will lead the rest of the way. From the
human side there is a need for leaders who are perceptive, visionary and
aware both sociologically and in theology. Attitudes must be adjusted in
differing respects in the different groups. Sociological factors are so
important it is unlikely that adjustments will come from outside the South
African situation. We have to understand and solve our problems ourselves
as South Africans.
The White churches must accept that they are part of Africa, have a feeling
for Africa and be dedicated to renewal in Africa. One prays for young leaders
to rise wise enough to learn what they can from Australia, America and
Britain, but sound enough in their foundations not to try to clone what
has been raised up in totally foreign soil. White leaders can no longer
hope to lead in Africa, but they can still have a considerable influence.
As the late Nicholas Bhengu realised, a great need in Africa is for a dedicated,
educated Christian African elite to become active. The White churches should
seek ways to help in that regard.
A significant phenomenon is occuring in White Assemblies of God churches.
Educated Blacks are beginning to move into hitherto White suburbs and are
attending White Assemblies. Out of this is bound to come an intertwining
of cultures and a shared vision for the church to reach into Africa with
teaching and the exportation of church structures and worship that could
be very influential in the church in Africa.
The challenge is for White churches to be flexible and welcoming and to
be conscious of what are their true strengths. I consider our greatest
strength to have been our emphasis on Bible teaching and the freedom in
vocal worship and prayer, the use of the gifts of tongues, interpretation
and prophecy and the other charismatic gifts that characterised our Assemblies
up to the 1970s. Having attended churches in England, Brazil, Peru, Argentina,
Sweden, Australia, America and elsewhere I am forced to admit that there
has been a decline generally, a wide spread loss of Pentecostal distinctives
in most places. South Africa is no exception. Where are the Assemblies
of God preachers who will minister the Holy Spirit as did Paul Lange, heal
the sick like Nicholas Bhengu and Fred Mullan and pray and worship with
the robust faith and tears of Jim Mullan? I ask these questions not negatively
but as a challenge, for I am convinced that were preachers to stir up faith
to have these things as we once had them God would respond by restoring
them in a new surge of the Holy Spirit's moving.
In the African Assemblies the greatest need would seem to lie in the pastoral
sphere. Evangelistically the Back-to-God crusade is outstanding. Powerfully
endowed ministries operate. Ministries such as that of Brother Philip Msisa.
After a few weeks crusade with Brother Msisa at Alexandra, the Assembly
doubled to a membership of nearly a thousand.
My impression is that the apparent problems in the African work lie with
the pastoral ministry where some ministers and elders seem to be bound
by a stifling conservatism.
Part of the reason for this could be that the African ministers do not
belong to a pension fund. Thus they cling to their pastorates as long as
possible, not making way for younger more thrustful men. Some of the young
men who are eager to go to Bible school to prepare for ministry, feel that
the older pastors in the District Councils make it difficult for them to
get the necessary blessing of the church at large. If that is indeed true
one has reason to fear that it could bring stagnation at the very time
when the youth of South Africa seethes with desire for enterprising leadership.
Another reason could stem from the powerful grip the late Nicholas Bhengu
had on his work during his lifetime. His influence lives on in a way that
I am sure he would deprecate were he still with us. All the pastors that
knew him well remember his pronouncements, relying on them to such an extent
that they have well-nigh fossilised into a tradition. For them a quotation
from Nicholas Bhengu brings an end to all debate, forbidding all possible
discussion and thought. Yet Nicholas Bhengu was one who kept abreast of
the times and was attuned to the needs of a changing world. It is inconceivable
that in every single detail of church life he would be saying exactly the
same now as he said twenty years ago.
I believe that were he with us today young men and women would be going
out into the ministry like Samson's foxes to set ablaze the fields of the
Philistines. The Nicholas Bhengu Theological College would be thronged
with students and the conference ground at Henley-on-Klip would be a show
piece for the movement.
As an Executive member, one often feels frustrated that it is difficult
at Executive Level to inspire the churches with a more visionary cast of
thought that would break any stagnation where it might exist. But I have
come to realise that the dynamics of leadership in our Black work do not
lie entirely with the Black members of the Executive. There are seventeen
District Councils directing the affairs of the rank and file in the Assemblies
of the various regions. They are influential; as influential or more so
than the Executive. If they don't agree or are not sufficiently consulted
nothing can be done.
Moreover before he passed away, Nicholas Bhengu set in place a body of
itinerating teachers to move about instructing and organising the Assemblies.
They are very influential in the Assemblies they minister to.
The White and Coloured members of the General Executive have no contact
at all with the District Councils or the Teaching teams. Our contact is
limited to the members of the General Executive. In Executive sessions
we often discuss at length the structures and needs of the Assemblies of
God, but because of the intricate pattern of leadership I have described
the effect of our discussions never reaches to the grass roots level. It
is essential that the General Executive as a body should have direct communication
with the District Councils and the Teaching teams. The unifying effect
of that would be imponderable but vast.
No doubt the Black Executive holds the Coloured and White members of the
General Executive at arms length from the rank and file of the African
Assemblies, bearing in mind Nicholas Bhengu's rejection of any White interference
in his work. But they have carried Bhengu's legitimate principles further
than he ever did. It is possible as well that the accession of a Black
government and the understandable euphoria in the Black community have
affected our Black brethren to some extent, making them reluctant to dialogue
outside of their own ranks.
From the earliest days the Assemblies of God have been structured as a
non-racial movement existing together in symbiosis. But now we need help,
advice and wisdom if we are not to drift apart in the tides that are flowing
about us.
I am sure our Coloured and Indian constituency could give some of that
help by being a bridge between Black and White. Culturally there is very
little to hinder a growing co-operation and perhaps even an ultimate amalgamation
between them and the White group.
The case with the African churches is different. They are so strong, their
procedures so entrenched, and their mores so rigid that they could never
amalgamate either with the Coloured constituency or the White. We do ourselves
a disservice if we have fixations about amalgamation. Unity and unification
are not the same. Unity is a spiritual thing which can not be legislated.
In our situation in the Assemblies of God unity must be sought along a
different path from any attempted amalgamation. A good pointer for the
way forward could be found in the Filadelfia churches of Sweden. In Sweden
every Filadelfia congregation is so autonomous it is as separate as an
altogether different denomination. Yet a spiritual unity is brought about
in the Swedish churches by a close communication and exchange of ideas
in conferences. Also powerful and efficient co-operative efforts are shared
in by the Swedish churches through foundations like PMU* and projects for
social upliftment and adult education. Such bring about a high degree of
unity in the Swedish churches, a unity which is not in any way dependent
on their being united by a constitution or amalgamated organisationaly.
Similarly the three groups in the Assemblies of God could join forces in
various combined undertakings, foundations and programmes. There comes
to mind the possibility of sharing in a vision for theological training,
missionary outreach and social endeavours such as children's homes, or
a hospice for AIDS sufferers and other like projects.
There could also be a team of spiritual men who could have access to all
Assemblies without regard to group connections. They would be available
for Bible teaching and spiritual council where needed. They would not operate
with the authority of an Executive body. Their authority would be solely
because of their senior status and proven ministries. It would be spiritual,
not from an office.
Unity thus achieved would depend on the spiritual qualities of transparency
and trust. One might say it could exist only in the gracious atmosphere
of brotherly love encouraged by the late Nicholas Bhengu when he was among
us. The prevailing climate in South Africa is not conducive to such an
atmosphere. Often one feels that the new found emancipation experienced
in the new South Africa brings pressures that test the spiritual calibre
of leaders from an erstwhile disadvantaged background. Even spiritual men
could fall prey to a tendency to isolate themselves, standing aloof from
co-operation, rejecting the proffered hand of fellowship and help when
it is offered from across the colour line.Many years ago at a conference
a vision was given of an ox refusing to draw the work forward on an ox
wagon. I have mentioned this vision on Page 161. After prayer Brother Fred
Mullan interpreted the ox as being the Assemblies of God who were different
from other church bodies. The ox wagon represented worldly ways of conducting
God's work, for the ark of God in the Bible had to be carried on the shoulders
of the priests, not on an ox cart as the Philistines did.
Nicholas Bhengu took up the theme as only he could. With explosive eloquence
he brought the conference to its feet in a storm of praise and consecration.
He pictured the ark being carried shoulder high by the people present at
the conference, each a believer priest. He spoke of hands carrying the
ark, in a united effort, here a White hand, there a Black hand, and there
a Brown hand.
In those times Black and Brown were very open to sharing the task with
their White brethren for the government of the day was White. Now there
is a Black government in place. Conceivably Black and White are no longer
bound in a union as they felt they had to be in those days. Now sentiment
might be more for political correctness than biblical principles.
But the vision still applies today just as much as when the government
was White. Political correctness can put a strain on our unity as a church,
but God transcends politically correct concepts. We are “Bound in
Fellowship By the Spirit”.
In the Assemblies of God Black, White and Coloured and Indian elements
are joined together in an indissoluble marriage. Political events and social
pressures might strain the union but in God's destiny they will not break
it. When Nicholas Bhengu, Gideon Buthelezi and Alfred Gumede protested
in 1945 in a conference against White missionaries having their own separate
meetings from the Blacks, they invoked a principle that shaped the character
of the Assemblies of God in the ensuing generations. They were not asking
for an amalgamation of Black and White churches but for a shared vision
of leadership and spiritual fellowship. Most of the struggles I have recounted
in these reflections have been to uphold that principle in our constitutional
development. Reading what I have written some might wonder how closely
we have adhered to it. My prayer is that the closing years of my life might
witness the development and reinforcement of that principle in policies
and decisions that transcend all worldly ambitions, prejudices and actions
of the human instruments God is raising up to lead our denomination in
the years to come.