The church in Mozambique – a mile wide but an inch deep?

By Dr Christopher Peppler

In late February of this year I went to Maputo as part of a four-man ministry team. A
bishop of a group of non-denominationally aligned local churches had asked us to help
him establish a school of church leadership. The idea was to present a two day preaching
workshop, followed by a further two days servant leadership conference. About fifty
pastors from sixteen different churches attended all four days. On the fifth day another
120 or so leaders joined the group for a recap of the material.

I am not sure who learned more, the pastors who attended or the team who presented.
Here are some of the things that impacted us.

One often hears the term ‘African time’ worked into some or other criticism. However, I
learned on this trip that African time is not necessarily a bad thing. On the Friday before
we left, my wrist watch fell off my arm. I was on route to have the strap repaired when
the Holy Spirit arrested me with the thought, “Don’t wear a watch for the trip. My time is
not always your idea of time.” There are two Greek words in the New testament
translated as ‘time’. One is Chronos which signifies chronological time. The other is
Kairois which signifies a moment when things come together. As a typical Eurocentric
South African I am obsessed with chronological time, but God seems more concerned
with Kairios time. In general I would describe ‘African time’ as more Kairios than
Chronos and that means that perhaps ‘African time’ is closer to God’s idea than we think.

The first day started thirty minutes late as delegates straggled in from their long taxi rides
from all over Maputo. Then the hosting Bishop made his ten minute opening address last
for thirty minutes! But hey, who was watch-watching? Certainly not me, because I wasn’t
wearing one! So, we eventually began the workshop an hour later than planned and
started off by asking the delegates to be in the building before nine each day. The next
day most of them were there by eight thirty and we started the session at nine. Every day
they arrived a little early so that we could begin on Chronos time. However, during the
sessions we had to stretch the allocations for group work so that they could explore each
issue more conversationally. I felt that together we found a harmony between two
different approaches - no, African time is not a bad thing.

We also assumed that people would not want to talk on cell phones during the sessions.
Most of the pastors who attended were very poor yet almost all of them had a cell phone.
In preparation for the conference one of our team had phoned a member of the hosting
organisation. “Why are you whispering?” he asked, and the pastor replied, “because I am
busy preaching.” We asked them to switch off their cells phones before the start of each
session. But the problem with this is that we made no allowance for local transport
conditions. What about the delegate standing waiting for a taxi and just calling to say
“Please send someone to pick me up. I don’t want to miss any of the teaching”?
Actually, we assumed many things. For instance, we had no idea that small group work is
not common in the local environment. Most of their instruction is of the ‘chalk and talk’
variety. Throughout the four days of instruction we had them sit at tables of four to
discuss and then work through exercises. At first they just looked and us, and then at each
other, and then they went for it with gusto. Ten minute exercises took twenty minutes,
and it was hard to get them to stop ‘sharing’, but we were relaxed and allowed the
discussions to continue until the kairios time was right.

We assumed that the delegates would know how to respond to session evaluation
questionnaires, but they didn’t understand the concept. They perceived the ‘teacher’ to be
an authority figure and didn’t understand why we would want them to presume to
comment on his material or presentation. We assumed that they would understand our
westernised illustrations and applications, but of course in many cases they didn’t - our
fault, not theirs. We assumed that the organisers would know what we would expect them
to arrange for the conference, but they didn’t. Tables and chairs? What for? Remember
that small group work was a foreign concept. Tea breaks? (or should I say ‘cell phone
breaks’) Great idea, but you mean we need to actually provide tea? Not as strange as it
seems because they are a poor people and usually just have a drink of local water at the
breaks.

If there is one thing that I really learned from the trip, it is that it is no coincidence that
the word assumption begins with ‘ass’.

Another lesson for me was the reminder that different doesn’t mean wrong or inferior.
Many of the pastors who attended had little formal education and did not process
information in a logical reductionist fashion. They learned more from stories and role
plays and group discussions than they did from numbered notes on a printed page.
Actually, these Mozambiquen Pastors seemed typically ‘post-modern’ in the way they
processed information.

The preaching workshop included a steady build up to a five minute sermon presentation.
The small group work centred on helping each other with each stage of the preparation.
Because there were so many delegates and we had limited time, we decided that we
would only ask seven of them to present their sermons. The first one up was a dignified
looking man in his late fifties who had been preaching for forty years. He read his text
and then proceeded to preach on everything except what the text contained. My heart
sank! A major point of the workshop was to teach expository, not topical, preaching. He
concluded happily and I asked the other pastors to comment. To my joy they picked up on
everything they had learned from our time together and pointed out the poor man’s
shortcomings. “I know” he confided later, “I had planned to preach as I had been taught,
but when I stood up it all just disappeared, and I found myself doing what I had been
doing each Sunday for forty years.”

These Pastors generally operate as ‘one man bands’ and see themselves as doing the work
of the ministry, instead of preparing God’s people for works of service (Ephesians 4:9). In
fact, many of them see ‘works of service’ as the people serving them. We taught on
servant leadership and used Jesus’ foot washing as an example. At lunch times some of
the women took basins, jugs of water, and towels which they held so that the ‘pastors’
could wash their hands before eating. On the day we taught on servant leadership, we
took over that menial role. The next day we asked the four Bishops present to perform
that service, which they happily did. I noticed that the senior Bishop liked to wait inside
the hall for his food to be brought to him, but my spirit soured when I saw him with a
basin in his hands. On the last day of the conference I spotted him standing in line like all
the rest!

I must confess that this ministry trip has given me a lot to think about. I am convinced
that biblical principles far outweigh cultural considerations. So I am comfortable teaching
the concept of expository rather than topical preaching. But I wonder if it is not
presumptuous to teach that a sermon must have a clear purpose, a proposition, a short
introduction and a content appropriate conclusion? Is this really the best way to preach in
a typically African cultural setting? Good governance is a biblical principle, but do they
really need to have a formal church membership? Stewardship is certainly taught in the
Bible, but is a finance committee necessary in a small indigenous church?

How would I pastor a church if I were in their circumstances? They have so little, and
even their language does not lend itself to philosophical or spiritual concepts. Yet they
appear hungry for truth, and they seem to want to be faithful pastors of God’s people.
And oh how they love to sing and to pray – if only I could import that spirit of
spontaneous boldness! Perhaps the ‘inch deep’ aspect of African Christianity is more a
matter of definition than of fact!

I hope that we left a lasting legacy of truth and praxis. I trust God that some mindsets
shifted. However, I know that I have been changed in some ways by the Pastors of
Maputo, and I bless them for this. I wonder if at least one of them said, “aiysh, those
peoples’ ideas are a mile deep but only an inch wide!”