In war, the most important news and updates concern the conflict. The great reality beyond all others in Africa is the spiritual war where gazing angels are dazzled by the grace they see when true believers meet (Eph. 3:10). When the 2 Tsonga believers meet in the little village of Tiyani, there is more eternal profit than the earthly pomp at the meeting of the African Union.
So, as one foot soldier in the trenches on the Tsonga and Venda front, I report today on five marks that I have seen over and over in churches that use an African language. If you are able to hold a conversation with a Tsonga church goer, my experience says you will see these five marks emerge.
Arbitrary
When I say arbitrary, I mean a standard not resting on a solid rock. That definition is itself contradictory—something cannot be a standard if it is changeable, but that is the kind of standards that I have seen over and over.
- Mhana Kulani in Basani is not allowed to listen to street preaching anymore because her husband died and both her church and culture forbid her to set foot outside her yard.
- Johanna came to our churchplant while she was pregnant because the ZCC where she had been worshipping refused to alllow “ugly women” (Tsonga idiom for a pregnant woman, “u bihile”) to attend until months after the birth.
- Pathutshedzo and a group of others was required to pay a fee before being baptized in the river in Valdezia.
- At the recent conference celebrating the 150 year anniversary of the Presbyterian missionaries among the Tsongas, I held an interview with one of the leading pastors. He told me that women can be pastors in the churches even though long ago they were not allowed. I asked if men could marry men, which he vehemently denied. But then, “What about when times change, like with women preachers?” Laughing, he said we will see in time.
- Worse, speaking with another pastor from the village where I built my home, he agreed with me that there are many false pastors. When I asked him how he could know who was false, and who was true, he replied that no one could know if a man was a false pastor. To which, I offered a string of examples, “The ZCC? Jehovah’s Witnesses? Islamic mosques?” To each of these he answered, “We cannot judge.” A man who attended this pastor’s church had been listening to me preach on the streets in order to receive a free Bible. After my interview with the pastor, his member never returned to the street preaching.
- Another pastor wearing his church uniform told me that neither he nor anyone in his church read the Bible because that was something only for their leading bishop. Since the deception is usually more hidden than this, I was stunned. But he agreed to my request to video him with this “anti-Bible” testimony.
- A woman that I baptized came out from a shack church where she testified that the pastor offered to give her a discount on her tithe if she would grant him conjugal benefits whenever he passed by.
- Another pastor showed me video of his church while standing with his wife. “How long have you been married,” I asked. “Oh, we’ve been living together for a few years, but we hope to get married in the future.”
The will of the pastor, or the custom of the people, or the fickle mood of the age: these hold authority, and so the church is arbitrary. Of course, this stands against Sola Scriptura as the mere “commandments and doctrines of men.”
Eudaemonic
I first read this word in a hundred-year-old book describing Tsonga culture by one of the first Presbyterian missionaries. He said the Tsonga religion “is purely eudaemonistic, the religious ceremonies having as their sole aim material benefits connected with the terrestrial life, e. g. abundance, health, peace, and good sleep!” (Junod, vol. 2, p. 428, emphasis added) The word pertains to comfort and happiness in this life.
After having preached the gospel repeatedly on a street, I will ask the 10-20 people from Revelation 20:15, “Is your name in the book of life? ‘Yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘I don’t know’?” Then on the whiteboard, I will record their answers in those 3 categories in front of everyone. Most people say, “I don’t know.” Commonly I will have 12 or more marks on that line, and only 1 or 2 on the other lines.
Then after pleading with them to turn to Christ, look to Jesus, see His blood and His love, cast themselves on Him, give themselves to be His servant and even His slave, I ask in closing, How can I pray for you? Commonly, I hear answers like, “Pray that my child would pass in school,” or “I need a job.” It is a mark that the message is striking home when some ask for prayer to be written in the book of life, or to have new hearts.
The prosperity gospel has soared to popularity only because it brings no new affections. They previously loved comfort, and this message speaks much about what they had already loved. Now churches can keep what they always wanted, and also sound modern and Western by using terms like Bible, accept Jesus, and church.
Every Christian knows that to love the world or the things in the world is to prove that the love of the Father is not in you. What then should our verdict be regarding a class of churches that clearly loves the world and its things?
Fearful
Most Tsongas fear witchcraft the way Americans fear the government: Get away as much as possible, and when you do get near me, you frighten me.
- Mr. Maleti told me that at his previous church, the pastor warned all the people that if they stepped out from his “umbrella of protection” very bad things would happen to them.
- The majority of people surveyed at the ZCC testified that they attended that church out of fear of disease and hope that the church could provide a kind of spiritual medical scheme for them.
- Today as I evangelized in Basani, I met a 50 year old pastor who said openly that he fears witchcraft.
- On my “bad theology” shelf, sits the title Dealing with Gangsterism In Your Life by a Tsonga pastor. The volume is occupied with protecting church members from earthly problems.
- A famous woman pastor an hour away from my house claimed that at her church, women would not get AIDS even if they committed fornication.
- Another book I have offers hundreds of short prayers to keep you safe from curses, witchcraft, and the spirit of sickness.
Since poverty is the constant fear of the majority of attenders, the churches treat those fears as their “competitive advantage” to staying home or choosing other religions.
Oral
To this point, I have never met a pastor who has admitted to having read even the entire New Testament. Many Bibles go to church, but few are used at church or home. This may be the most difficult aspect of coming to one of our churchplants: You are expected to read the Bible consistently.
In most churches, traditions are passed down, but not written down. Songs spring from media and public artists, but rarely from men who work through a text and try to arrange the words beautifully. Because of this there are many variations of the Venda song, “Kha Vha Rendwe” (Let Him be praised) which runs for more than 5 minutes with only 11 words. And since Venda’s pronouns are neuter, it does not even communicate the masculine glory of the Father.
Rhetoric, the art of using language persuasively, takes on a special life when it is not bound to specific texts. I have heard the word “Fire” shouted dozens of times in succession at a crusade. Or another man raise his voice to announce, “I’m not going to talk about Hell because we all just want to be happy.” Of course, if the men in these examples were not offering impromptu demonstrations of what they had seen on TV, but actual expositions of passages one after another, they could not use words this way.
Legalistic
Paul wrote Galatians to a group of churches that had been infiltrated by men who taught justification by works. This is the default position of nearly all churches that I have found. When my wife and I moved into Makhongele village in 2006, our neighbors, the Khosa family, 3 houses away asked us why we had come. When we told them we wanted to teach about the new birth, the wife replied, “Oh, like baptism?” “No, Ma’am, we mean depending on the work of Christ, not a good work that men can do.”
Could Amy or I ever forget how Mr. Khosa shook his head saying, “These people will never get details like that”? Of course, we know that these people can get details like that when the gospel comes to them in power.
One of the famous songs that nearly everyone knows says, “It does not take money, but good works to get to Heaven.” Churches sing this song on Sundays and at funerals. The link shows a video of 6 minutes repeating these words, while crosses are on the walls and the signs on the stage say, “The year of grace … To win souls of people”. Would Paul the apostle call this another gospel? Would he support this as singing spiritual songs (Col. 3:16)?
Conclusion
After many years of work in Tsonga and Venda, speaking to normal church members and pastors, five marks have emerged over and over so as to stain the religion in this area the way the Catholic Mass marks Italy. Until the nature of non-English churches is firmly understood by English-speaking churches in Africa, we will probably go on assuming these people groups actually have a significant number of true Christians and churches, and thus we will not send workers.
