A CROSS section of pastors on the Copperbelt have joined the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) in calling on the state to abandon its planned regulatory framework to ‘standardize’ the operations of churches in the country.
Last week, EFZ held a consultative meeting with mostly Lusaka based pastors to discuss the proposed framework. But the pastors rejected proposals by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and National Guidance to regulate churches.
EFZ Executive Director Rev Phukuta Mwanza told The Church Newspaper that pastors feel that self-regulation is the way to go and not state regulation.
“You see, government must not try to delve into an area it does not have expertise. The state function is political and the church function is spiritual. The government will not have a mechanism to determine what is false teaching and what is true doctrine,” he said.
And in separate interviews, pastors from major towns on the Copperbelt also rejected the proposed regulatory framework.
Bishop Joseph Kazhila (in picture) who is the General Overseer of Life Gospel Fellowship Ministries in Chingola strongly opposed the government’s regulatory framework.
“It is God himself who can regulate the church. If the church is doing anything wrong, the church is answerable to Christ and God corrects us by His spirit. So, I would want to advise our government…they should not go the path that can attract the wrath of God.
“If there is anything the church is doing wrong, the church can regulate itself, not the government. The state should concentrate on the provision of social welfares, you know economic direction, policies. They should not go into spiritual matters that they don’t understand. So, if they have seen a lot of wrong things being committed by the pastors, they should call for a general council for the body of Christ and discuss this thing so that we regulate ourselves as the church,” he said.
He explained that since time in memorial, attempts to regulate the church have been unsuccessful.
“If we go in the book of Acts, you will find that some council wanted to regulate the early church. They were prescribing how they should preach. And Gamariah, one of the Pharisees came out to settle the matter. He said ‘these people if what they are doing is not of God. It shall come to an end.’ You see, if something is from God, there is no way you can stop the finger of God. Through the centuries, regimes and government have tried to regulate the church and it has not worked. See how they tried to stop the Apostle but now the gospel has reached all over the world,” he said.
On government’s proposal that one needs to undergo formal Bible training to be able to pastor a church, Bishop Kazhila noted that the proposal lacked merit.
“God calls human beings, he doesn’t call education. We go to school just to add knowledge. The Bible schools do not qualify our calling. Look at people in the Bible…unlearned people who never went to school like Peter, John and James but God called them. He anointed them and gifted them and released them to go. So those degrees are secular things and shouldn’t be a qualification for one to be a pastor,” noted Bishop Kazhila.
Bishop Kazhila was also against the idea of the state attaching certain conditions for foreign pastors entering Zambia for evangelism purposes.
“The Bible says ‘Go therefore into all the nations’, that is the will of God. If you want to stop them from coming into the nation, you maybe stopping the will of God. So, we have to be very careful because at the end of the day, if we do anything as a Christian nation, we may attract the wrath and judgment of God. Whoever is passing these regulations, they should not be secular. They need to seek the guidance of God which comes through the church. The problem we have in Zambia is that the church is fighting itself. It’s attacking itself. It’s standing against itself. And at the end of the day, a house divided against itself cannot stand,” said Bishop Kazhila.
And speaking on behalf of Kitwe based pastors, Bishop Raddy Lewila who is the Chairperson of the Kitwe Pastors’ Fellowship revealed that clerics there were also opposed to the government regulatory framework.
“The official position of all pastors on the Copperbelt and Kitwe in particular is that we are opposed to the idea. Our submission is that the churches themselves have got sufficient laws or constitutions which govern and regulate how churches are managed. So, there is enough regulations in place,” said Bishop Lewila in an interview.
He went on: “So, in our view as church leaders we don’t think its proper for government to regulate the church. Secondly, on the foreign clergy clearance, again our view is that there is enough government procedural standards of VISA applications and verifications. But where the government see that there is need for more information on a pastor coming into the country, whoever is hosting that foreign minister needs to be contacted.”
And Ndola Pastors’ Fellowship Chairman Rev Chilekwa Mulenga urged the government to consult widely on the proposed regulatory framework because they will make a lot of mistakes if they rush.
According to Rev Mulenga, self-regulation was the way to go.
“We support self-regulation because the church is a spiritual entity and the church has a head who is Jesus Christ. So, they have to be that separation between church and state. Of course the relationship in a way remains,” he said.
Rev Mulenga went on to say that although they support formal Bible training for pastors, Bible training should not be made a qualification for one to pastor a church.
“We are not in support of the proposal that for somebody to pastor a church, they must go into a formal Bible school. I want you to get me very clearly. We are not against Bible schools. We are actually encouraging all our pastors to study the Bible. The Bible says study to show yourself sound. So, the issue of training is something that we welcome but what we are saying is that the call of God is something spiritual. We have a lot of people especially in the rural areas who have not been to Rhema Bible School, for example, and yet because of the call of God on their lives, they have done so well with a clear testimony. So, we need balance around this issue,” he said.
On clearance of foreign pastors coming into Zambia, Rev Mulenga said that government was within its rights to be concerned about who gets into the country but he submitted that the state should not be selective when deciding who should be allowed into Zambia.