By Dr MASIMBA MAVAZA
The Seventh Day Adventist church is preparing for elections at Conference level. Unlike other churches the Adventist elect their leadership periodically. At church level leadership is elected yearly and some churches agree to have elections after every two years. The period leading up to the end of 2022 will be marked by some events that have a significant impact on the church in Zimbabwe. Towards the end of this year,local conferences will have their elections of new leaders and workers.
The church now is having problems where there is now a thin line between the worldly election process and the church’s election process. It is a pity that some pastors have engaged in dirty campaigns so that they can be elected to be leaders. The campaign are so dirty full of character defamation turning the whole process satanic and demonic.
What the church must understand is that God knows how to defend his dignity. He does not want people to fight his battles. God fights His battle and your battle.
What every Christian must understand is that the church belongs to God and putting the human effort on spiritual things is inviting trouble.
The church positions are not campaign-able entities.
There is a lot of toxic politics in the church these days. We can try to massage a black Mamba but we will not massage our ego when it comes to God’s work.
We as Christians we must teach by example. We must have people learn the Christian law.
There is a letter being circulated the letter is on a self designed letter head with Adventist Emblem.
This letter was written by a devil himself. It is a letter accusing good pastors, the writer mentions the pastors by name. But to show what a coward he is he does not put his name.
The Adventist policy is that any anonymous letter should not be considered. It should go straight to the bin. It is unfair that you just push an allegation putting names of people and hide yours. A brave truthful person should stand up and say my name is Savanhu I am saying this believing it to be true.
But if one hides his name and drags names of others in the mud then shame on him.
Any man of God who gets a leadership post on the back of other good pastors does not belong to the same God we all believe in.
Church leadership in leadership covered by the blood of Christ. What a shame on those who pen evil putting the name of God in disrepute. God will defend His name. God never used a human being to defend His name. God can only mandate and commission you to spread his word. The moment you spread hate you are the devil in the church.
Such kind of letters only embarrass the church. Embarrassing the church offends God. Whose side are you on.
Leaders do not back bite.
The word ‘leadership’ is about an act of guidance and providing direction to others. Church leadership isn’t any different; but along with providing guidance, it’s also about how the leader behaves, communicates, and manages.
Seeing church leaders as servants has not always been the case, but when Paul spoke to Timothy about his role as leader of the church, he mentioned several qualities one would find in a servant leader.
Here servant leadership is defined as leadership that focuses on others, with the desire to serve first and foremost. This form of leadership was coined in the seventies but had ties that began with the bible and the beginning of the church.
As church leaders, you have been tasked with the role of servant to the church and your parishioners.
Leaders in the Adventist Church are generally elected at a constituency meeting for a limited term. Although it is an election, the rules are different from world political elections which are characterised by campaigning and public contestation resulting in winners and losers. In the church, the constituency meeting appoints committees which are tasked (within a limited time frame, and sometimes even within a few hours) to come up with one name for each leadership position. This is voted either up or down by the general meeting. More often than not, the meeting accepts the names presented. The idea behind all this is the belief that God’s Spirit leads the consultative process to appoint the right people. A contestation for positions is shunned since it is believed to bring with it a spirit of human machinations and manipulations and therefore an inability to listen to God’s guidance in the process.
There are three principles to be followed in the selection of leaders, and these are, pray for the leadership of the Holy Spirit, submit to God as the ultimate chooser and then recognise that we chose leaders to advance God’s purpose.
If your leadership is because someone has campaigned for you in a satanic way then shame on you. God’s mission is No ordinary ministry. Our mission is to be a Christian presence in every community. Read on to explore more of the wide range of opportunities to serve Jesus. If you believe you’re called to public ministry in the Church keep praying often as you discern your vocation.
God calls people to a wide range of ministries, lay and ordained, in our church and in our everyday lives. Youth and children’s ministers, evangelists, missionaries, Readers, pioneers, and community workers are generally lay ministers, though some may be ordained. The Bible recognizes three classes of workers placed in the church: (1) Prophets, chosen by God alone. (2) Apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. All such should be called of God, in cooperation with the church, and sent forth as messengers of the churches. (3) Elders, deacons, and such others as may be necessary to carry the responsibility of leadership in the local church. These are chosen by the church to serve for a period of one year.
How may these church officers be chosen and elected by the church ? First, a nominating committee must be chosen. The methods recommended in the “Church Manual,” page 66, work fairly well. But there is a more representative plan, which removes the possibility of the criticism that the church board brings upon itself by choosing and controlling the members of the nominating committee. Many of our larger churches now use this plan, and prefer it because it is more democratic than any other yet devised.
Church leadership is about serving others in accordance with Christ’s interests so that they can see and accomplish God’s purpose for them in the world. A church leader needs qualities that influence and morally support the congregation, the volunteers, and others within the community. Such qualities include moral trustworthiness, social aptitude, empathy, pastoral care, and more.
The Apostle Paul wrote several letters to Timothy defining his role as the leader of the church. In his teachings, Paul focused on the importance of following the word of God and being above reproach. He expected Timothy to stay faithful to the teachings of God regardless of the opposition that was destined to come. Paul’s teachings remain vital for the health of the church.
So it is not new that you will be opposed and insulted by church members. But look up on Jesus alone.
The church we are part of is a transcendent body, however frail and human it might be. It is not a political institution, it does have elections not to prove democracy, not to convert the body into a perpetual political arena for choosing leaders”.
However it would border on gross naivety to believe there is no political contestation when it comes to church elections. One of the worst kept secrets in the Adventist Church is that as we approach business sessions a lot of campaigning takes place for positions that are up for grabs. But somehow we convene these constituency meetings pretending that delegates arrive there with open minds, without any names that would have already been privately discussed, days, weeks, months or even years before the business session.
Of course the Holy Spirit can put to naught plans devised by human beings prior to the session. The Holy Spirit has sometimes surprised session proceedings by leading the delegates to appoint people no one had thought of before. It is however important that we don’t live in denial about what transpires in the build up to business sessions.
The pre-session campaigning has many detrimental effects on the church, one of which being the huge focus on personalities rather than on the developmental vision and strategy of the church. Rather than first asking “What do we need to do as a church to grow and make an impact in society?” people ask “Who do we want to become the conference president?” Organisations that succeed start by developing a vision, a strategy and a plan to achieve their goals. Only then do they ask “what type of people do we need to drive this strategy?” They do not start by appointing people and then later wonder what to do now with these appointed people.This campaigning has brought toxic politics into the church.
Following God’s word is vital to church leadership and is not only the first role of a steward leader; it is the most important. At the time of Paul and Timothy, there were several versions of God’s teachings, but Paul believed he held the truth. Paul’s teachings to Timothy were meant to help spread God’s word and determine how the church’s leaders should act and live.
Those who were mentioned in a anonymous letter ignore it for God alone will fight your battle and God fights his Owen.
Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
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