YeKengalé

There was real talk during the last Papal conclave that it was time again for an African pope. Note also that the African Anglican Bishops had real power to cripple the global Anglican communion in their threatened split over the homosexual marriage issue. But for their stand, the US Episcopal church would have had full sway internationally. Now instead, they are being treated as apostate.

Statistics are static sticks. They are not able to keep up with this dynamic flow of the Spirit in Africa, (and certainly not in China where the church, very much like  the Chinese bamboo, whose roots grow deeply underground with no visible growth of the shoot for 5 years, and then suddenly it shoots up 80 feet into the air in just 6 weeks; Chinese church growth has been pretty much underground for the last 5 decades. Amazing growth also in India.)

Tent crusades attended by over a million people on one common ground in one night have not been unknown in Africa. We here in the islands can scarcely imagine half the island turning up for one event. The power and audio- visual logistics alone would  max out our largest light and sound companies. We have no idea, unless we attend such gatherings, the stupendous preparations made sometimes years in advance…. nor the economies of scale that have been released into the African church.

Now that the TB Joshuas et. al. are beginning to reach their Global Outreach stages, we now are experiencing what prosperity gospel really looks like. When TB moves throughout Latin America and the Philippines, he finances his massive crusades mostly himself. He takes nothing from the offerings received, preferring to seed all collections to participating local churches. (That’s raising things a notch. America’s mega ministries may have liked to do this, but they could not afford to – from Graham to Hinn.)

Uebert Angel, just beginning to associate with US congregations told the Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant’s congregation, Empowerment Temple, (he has since moved on to New Birth Baptist) point blank – when he flies over from Zimbabwe to the US, he comes to bless, not beg. He pays his way, receives no gifts, (apparently they take the *Didache seriously) and what a blessing to see not only the Word of Knowledge accurately single out people from the audience with financial needs, but then have them met there on the spot, often from the fully loaded pockets of the African prophets, (sometimes from the ministration of angels – ‘miracle money’, a practice I know the prophets have received legal warnings about).

Yes these African tele-prophets also fly their private jets*, and live in mansions and penthouses like their tele-evangelist counterparts from the West. But with a huge difference. These oil and natural resource – rich Bishops live large like princes, with Government officials paying homage for fear of the people (who all are in church on Sundays) if not for fear of God; but by and large, without  the accusation of being sheep fleecers so often heard in the west.  In a Myles Munroe mould, these are men of business, property and cunning. They grow their ministries with their wealth….not vice versa. The blessings of God on their backs, the riches of the earth have streamed into the church of Africa in a relatively short period of time.

And these ministries get huge! Quickly! * I remember just the other day Shepherd Bushiri started out with a handful of people in a rented out hall. Last year, his birthday was celebrated in a sports stadium!….jam packed with congregants. He arrived in his helicopter with state troopers for body guards and with an entourage of stretch limousines with his international celebrity guests to celebrate God’s goodness. I have no problem saying Hallelujah.

And I have serious problems with those that do, but have never made one public whisper in protest of the ostentation of the British Queen, inheritor-in-chief of the profits and proceeds of the  Royal Africa Company, world’s largest investor in chattel slavery; nor the Pope, inheritor of the legacy of the butchery of the African continent to feed  Europe’s rapacious appetite for land and mineral wealth; and the unsurpassed pomp and circumstance of the church with the world’s most corrupt financial institution – The Institute for the Works of Religion or more popularly called Vatican Bank  …. The Catholic church can afford to blow well over US $1 Billion in court cases worldwide defending pedophile priests without a sneeze and still not consider to radically change church policy. Clearly their deep pockets obviously have not been hurt enough yet. These two white church heads are entitled I suppose to their Black blood-money wealth.

But let an Alph Lukau with his own money buy a private jet, personal mansion, Bentley or two and worse, publish pictures on his facebook page and these same  people go berserk. [Uebert Angel’s suggestion to all the senders of hate-mail suggesting that he sell his Bentley and donate the proceeds to feed the poor, was that they should set the example by selling their laptops used to send him trash mail and give the proceeds  to the poor. At least one problem would be solved….and it wouldn’t be world poverty.]

You will never see the queen opening the blind eyes of Africa’s sick and needy, nor the Pope causing her crippled to walk. Africa’s poor and needy are not the ones complaining about the wealth of their anointed liberators. But these whining modern-day Judases clearly have a problem.  All Jesus has to do to be despised and crucified once more is to appear on earth wearing black skin. Elizabeth and Francis may be deserving after all of  the worship (what else can you call this blind deference?) of these hypocrites. False worship befits false gods.

But I digress. For the most part, a rigid system of Spiritual fatherhood keeps the really big African ministries (50,000 +) in check. Fatherhood and sonship protocols test the bonds of loyalty as, generally speaking, it is the sons who have the large flocks, but they still honor and submit to the much less exposed rods and staffs of their fathers. The Derek Prince / Don Basham years of modeling this modality of discipleship bear fruit; in spite of all the accusations of excesses real or imagined.

I was delighted to see Apostle John Chi at Shepherd Bushiri’s church recently. The Paul and Barnabas apostolic show downs have largely been kept out of the news and behind closed doors…. the Unity of the Spirit defended with relative maturity in comparison with the now customary cantankerous, schismatic and very public scandals of the west.

No movement is perfect. And certainly with regards to maturity of handling this unprecedented open display of power through the gifts of the Spirit, (even neophyte evangelists carry a mantle comparable to the William Branham years and the miracles are indeed spectacular: everything from resurrections, creative miracles, translations (teleportation) …in front of television cameras and all….truly a taste of the glory to come.) the indigenous prophets are often justly criticized for excessive theater and in very few cases, other even more grievous charismatic excesses and abuses.

Foreign missionaries such as Heidi Baker in Mozambique have modeled a more circumspect demonstration of the holiness of the anointing. Nevertheless, in a land where belief systems allow for a much thinner veil, the demonstrative purpose of spiritual gifts, even with the sometimes distracting theatrical hype, in pulling throngs of crowds to Jesus, ministering to the marginalized,* changing the shape of both the lost cities and the rural hinterlands, and revealing the glory of God in a place saddled with the insulting misnomer – the ‘dark’ continent, the light has indeed come and that cannot be gainsaid.

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