Allow me to share an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of the modern church in Botswana. Up until last month, most people never thought there was any relationship between the church in Botswana and the Water Utilities Corporation, now we all know that during trying moments the church is there for all of us. In Botswana many people centre their lives on the Church, at birth we take our children to be blessed at church, when we get married we feel complete when the priest solemnises the marriage this is regardless of the fact that one would have gone through the traditional patlo, and the office of the DC.
At parliament the proceedings are started with a prayer, at most official functions including the annual opening of the legal year, a representative of the church is given chance to take care of the prayer. Recently when the Gaborone City was celebrating 25 years the church had a lion’s share of the programme, during president’s day and Independence Day celebrations the church takes centre stage. Currently almost all our members of parliament, and other designated officers voluntarily swear on the Holy Bible, the importance of the church and the relationship with the state and the nation as a whole is therefore indispensable.
Before getting into the dynamics of the modern church, perhaps one needs to explain the different types of churches we have in Botswana as well as the various groupings. Loosely speaking there are five types of churches in Botswana. We have churches registered as societies, we also have churches which were registered as trusts, we also have churches which by law are exempted from registration, we have unregistered churches and finally we have secret churches. All these five different churches are churches because they have members and they influence the lives of many people on a daily basis. One has to admit that for purposes of control it is difficult to control the secret churches and the unregistered churches for obvious reasons. The irony of it all is that generally it is those churches which are registered lawfully that often experience cruel and unfair treatment, harassment and outright persecution and even closure. Such a phenomenon is very sad and unfortunate because it breeds perceptions of killing a mocking bird, targeting innocent and harmless people whose only sin is their conviction to worship in the manner they deem appropriate as provided for in the constitution.
The above classification is not exhaustive because there are other groupings, for example there are churches which subscribe to the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, these are mainly traditional Pentecostal churches, reformed Pentecostal churches, charismatic churches and evangelical churches. One must be quick to explain that membership of the Evangelical Fellowship Of Botswana is not compulsory. You also have the African Traditional Churches most which practice Christianity with a blend of African practices, the use of water(whether or not it is holy water I don’t know), the use of African drums, clapping of hands, African dance, you also have what are termed the mainline churches e.g. THE UCCSA, The Roman Catholic and other big churches.
Generally the mainline churches and the traditional Pentecostal churches are run as institutions as opposed to charismatic and Pentecostal Ministries and Fellowships whose administration is generally unocentric (emphasis mine), in other words controlled by the founder as opposed to a central committee, senate, board or governing council. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, for example the success and life of a mainline church and traditional Pentecostal/evangelical church is not dependant on one person, it is an institution, there are structures, traditions, protocols, customs, a lot of red tape, procedures, these enhance the governance of the organisation and minimises temptation by increasing transparency and checks and balances, it also shifts power from one individual to well established structures thus benefitting from a pool of ideas , wisdom, experience, exposure, diversity and pluralism. The biggest disadvantage of such organisations is delay, red tape and resistance to change.
This explains why currently especially the younger generation is migrating from mainline churches and traditional Pentecostal/evangelical churches to the Ministries where there is dynamite, vibe, flexibility, fire, fewer rules and regulations and plenty of flexibility and speed, more miracles, things happen very quickly and swiftly, unfortunately in a few instances even the money can disappear very quickly. The biggest weakness of ministries is concentration of power in one person or very few hands and lack of transparency and governance structures, and financial epilepsy.
Mr Editor, unless people fully understand the dynamics of the modern church in Botswana, they will continue to harbour negative perceptions, hatred, persecution mentalities and even a desire to destroy, dismantle and destabilise the church of God. Be that as it may, one has to caution that because the church belongs to God, history has shown that an attack on the church of God is an attack on God and there are severe consequences for doing so. History has also shown that God has always used fallible people, prone to mistakes and errors. For example our grandfather Adam and Eve they ignored Gods clear commandment and listened to the snake, look where we are now. Moses was a murderer but God used him as a liberator. King David was a womaniser, his son King Solomon was worse, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines AKA small houses, but we still read his words of wisdom up till now and we are inspired.
This should teach us to keep away from harassing and persecuting and fighting the Church under the pretext of trying to purge the church. God is able to run his church without our interference and help. Granted some leaders have taken short cuts, stolen money, abused members and other mistakes, but such cannot be a licence for a well structured annihilation strategy meant to weaken and destabilize the church. This move is dangerous because when God gets angry because of the cruel and unfair treatment of his agents who are full of errors mistakes and magic, we will all suffer. The usual consequences are curses, economic downfall, drought, earthquakes, flooding, and other natural phenomenon’s which we can blame on anybody except nature.
Mr editor, I genuinely believe that if we in Botswana, we can understand the dynamics of the modern church and respect the church of God, the servants of God, the men and women of God, keep away from harassing the church and making life for the church difficult, God will visit us with good weather, prosperity, healing, peace, tranquillity, joy, divine health, deliverance, divine protection, favour and long life.
Mr Editor we must beware of pointing A FINGER AT God’s church, interfering in internal issues of churches, distabilising the church and fighting the church because doing so will bring us too much bad luck and calamity. Nobody can fight God’s church and survive.
