Chapter One

The Foundation of the Apostolic Faith Mission into Zimbabwe

1.1. Introduction

This chapter serves to give an outline of the Historical background of the Apostolic Faith Mission and

also the coming of the Apostolic Faith Mission from South Africa into Zimbabwe back from its first

appearance in Southern Africa until its eventual spread into Zimbabwe. This chapter also answers the

questions of who came with the Apostolic Faith Mission into Zimbabwe addressing both the formal and

informal ways by which the church eventually came into Zimbabwe. A discussion of how the Apostolic

Faith Mission came into existence will also be tackled on a global context. Therefore such discussions

will be addressed and dealt with as subtopics of the Chapter.

1.2. Historical Background

The Apostolic Faith Mission also known as AFM traces its ancestries to the Pentecostal revival

that took place at Bethel Bible School, Topeka, Kansas. It is in 1897 that Charles Parham

developed a severe heart disease. It is said that while he was praying for a sick man being a

Christian believer, he got the persuasion that a physician must heal himself as it is a sign of the

Faith he had in his belief. Charles Parham is said to have started to pray for his own healing

completely relying on the Faith he had to heal his sickness. It is argued that when he recovered

from his deteriorating health Charles Parham threw away all his prescribed medicines, stopped

consulting doctors pertaining to his health he even went as far as to cancel his medical insurance
policy. Charles Parham received free publicity in the local newspaper when he had prayed for a

wife of a popular lawyer in Huston who received healing after being prayed for by him.

This understanding and conviction led him to base his ministry on divine healing. Charles

Parham with the rise of his popularity and publicity opened the Bethel Healing Home in Topeka,

from the end of 1898, which served as a multipurpose home acting as a rest home and a

theological school where people were allowed to join on the basis of the Christian value of faith.

Every member who was admitted into the home was therefore required to be a “believer” by

trusting God for all their desires.

Parham came to fame in the year 1903 when he held a three month revival which earned national

recognition to his ministry. He was nicknamed ‘the divine healer’.

From Bethel Bible School arose a man by the name William J. Seymour, a pastor of a local

Black Holiness Congregation who was particularly captivated by the doctrine of Spirit baptism.

When Parham opened a short-term theological school in Huston, Texas, it is here that William J.

Seymour was admitted into the theological School. Parham edged laws and local customs and

permitted Seymour to be admitted into the Huston Theological School .Because of the

discrimination laws and customs Seymour could only attend lessons using an adjoining room

where through an open door he was able to listen to lectures (Hyatt 1996: 153).

Charles Parham also elevated Lucy F. Farrow a black woman minister to minister at his Huston

camp meeting (Hyatt 1996). It is argued that F. Farrow was equipped with an astonishing power

of laying hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit (Hoel 1964:37). Hence the revival was
characterized by multicultural interaction. This name AFM clearly originated with Charles

Parham's revivalist movement which he called "Apostolic Faith Movement" (it was also

sometimes called Apostolic Faith "Mission"). While the newspaper that he distributed was called

“The Apostolic Faith”. When in the midst of the Asuza street revival the "Asuza mission" was

called "'Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission', a name that was painted in crude letters across the side

of the building 11173. Most of the time it was just plainly called "Apostolic Faith Mission".

Because the biggest part of the early Pentecostal Movement had directly or indirectly close

contact with Parham, Seymour and the Asuza revival, the names "Apostolic Faith

Mission/Movement" and "Pentecostal, were almost synonyms in this early period

Seymour departed Huston before finalizing his course because he had accepted a call to minister

in Los Angeles. When he received the call, Seymour discussed the invitation with Parham, who

tried to no avail, to convince Seymour to remain in Huston until he was baptized in the Holy

Spirit. Parham then laid hands on Seymour and prayed with him. Unknowingly Parham was

ordaining and passing on the leadership of the movement to Seymour. Seymour probably arrived

in Los Angeles in February, 1906 (Anderson 1979: 61)

Seymour became very popular to such an extent that his venues where he conducted his services

became smaller and smaller Seymour and his followers were eventually forced to seek bigger

venues at 312 Azusa Street. On the 14th of April, 1906, they held their first service. Seymour

also propelled a paper called ‘The Apostolic Faith’. At Azusa street revival, the concept of

gender and racial equality was advocated. The Azusa board of directors comprised of two black

women and one man out of a total of ten members (Hyatt 1996: 158). Blacks and whites

mingled freely.
“High on the agenda was prayer for revival and expectation that God was about to move in their

midst.”(Burger 1987:32). The Azusa Street ministry arguably attained its first major drive from

the San Francisco earthquake of 18 April 1906 which stimulated widespread religious concern

throughout the US. Earth tremors were felt in Los Angeles and the Southern California. This

obliged many to open their hearts according to Bartleman. As Azusa grew bigger and more

popular the mission was organized as the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission. The name was

painted in crude letters across the side of the building. A committee was chosen to oversee the

businesses of the mission. (Anderson 1979: 70). The mission caught the attention of many

Christian believers, one such member was John G. Lake.

1.2.1 The Coming of the Apostolic Faith Mission into Southern Africa

John G. Lake a Canadian born man became associated with Charles Parham and W.J. Seymour

and had a familiarity of the Azusa street revival which caught his attention. It is through these

revivals that Seymour made a life changing impression on John G. Lake (Burger 1987: 7). The

two became very good friends such that they shared their experiences with each other. Lake felt

the need to persevere in prayer for nine months in a bid to attain the Pentecostal blessing. Lake

through this conviction was determined to venture into the ministry. After months of praying and

deep soul searching John G. Lake received the baptism” (Pinkesterboodskapper 1998: 18).

John G. Lake travelled to South Africa. It is through this man that the Apostolic Faith Mission of

South Africa was founded. The first organized meeting by John G. Lake was conducted in

Johannesburg on the 25th of May, 1908. These meetings with time later established themselves
into local Apostolic Faith Mission congregations. Opposition from the mainline churches gave it

publicity as the way the church conducted its self during its services deferred from what the

mainline churches believed in. A regular service was conducted once a week in AFM assemblies

attracting many with its services of what they called divine healing.

The name AFM was brought into South Africa by missionaries from America who had been

drawn to the Azusa Street revivals. It is Charles Parham who was the birth father of the name as

he called his movement AFM and his Newsletter ‘The Apostolic Faith’. W. Seymour borrowed

the idea and called his Azusa Street Mission ‘The Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission’, more often

simply the ‘AFM’. When John G. Lake came into South Africa he called the Congregation the

Apostolic Faith Mission or simply the AFM. It is argued that by using word ‘mission’ they

wanted to show that the congregation was a church of action, an outgoing church dedicated to

move around spreading the word of God to those who had not received it just like the revivals at

Azusa street, a mission oriented church.

The congregation also had some anti-denominational ideas. The AFM up until the year 1913,

had no legal status and so had no property rights hence it wasn’t officially recognized by the

South African government. It is not until the same year 1913 that AFM eventually got registered

as an unlimited company in South Africa. The reason why the AFM was registered as a company

and not as a church is not clear. Other scholars also argue that they could not register under

Church Law due to the protest of the mainline churches. They declared the new movement to be

sectarian. It is also argued that was due to the fact that the pioneers had no intentions to start a
new church. Although the first constitution was adopted in October, 1911, at the first general

conference, registration was only effected in 1913. In 1917, AFM published what they dubbed

‘WHAT WE STAND FOR’ in their magazine the Comforter and Messenger of Hope and in

pamphlets (NAZ file S 1542 M 8 B 1). Sections ‘c’ to ‘e’ which are of interest are recorded here:

c. Sanctification

The AFM believed that God’s standard for all his children is sanctification, where not only the

guilt of sin has been removed, but where the power of sin has been broken. Sanctification is the

inward experience of dominion over sin and of a closer walk with God. It means death to the life

of self in all its manifestations; Christ becomes all in all, and the love of God rules supreme

hence it believed in life after death where the “sinners” would go into the pits of hell as the

“saved” would find their place in heaven.

d. Baptism in the Holy Ghost with Sign Following

This experience differs from ‘being born of the Spirit’ and from sanctification, which means the

cleansing of the temple and one’s own spirit entering into sweet communion with God. It is the

mighty endowment of power from on high; the equipment of service: entering in, in His fullness,

of God the Holy Ghost into the cleansed temple. It can therefore be noted that the church

believed in the new age of Christianity as they did not rebuke the Old Testament which contains

the Mosaic Law but rather followed in the footsteps of Jesus. He reveals his presence by

speaking in tongues and glorifying God, as in Acts 2v4, 10v46, 19v6. This should be the normal
experience of every child of God, making us bold in His service. This is the Pentecostal

experience, we call upon every child of God to seek this enduement.

e. Divine Healing

A demonstration of the power of the gospel. Christ ministered healing for both soul and body.

He commissioned the twelve to do the same, then seventy others, and finally all believers.

Healing is in the atonement of Christ… There is healing for every child of God through faith in

the Lord Jesus Christ (Comforter 1917, vol. 11, no. 3).

1.3 The Coming of the Apostolic Faith Mission into Zimbabwe

The AFM was not the only church to introduce Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe. Maxwell (1999)

mentions the American and South African Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal Assemblies of

Canada as some of the Pentecostals that existed early in Zimbabwe alongside AFM. As the AFM

church came in to Zimbabwe it had a primary goal of attaining recognition from the Rhodesian

government though this eventually came it came with many difficulties. The church decided to

establish and publish what would stand in place as its interim doctrine that would work hand in

glove with its doctrine in the running of the church affairs. This was done in response to show

the formalities of their church proceedings and in order to educate the audience at large as to

what the church stood for There is very little that has been recorded on the history of the AFM

due to a number of reasons. First, for a long time after its appearance in Rhodesia the today

Zimbabwe, the church was not recognized by the government, for this reason and unlike the

recognized churches that government sources recorded, nothing much was recorded on the
Apostolic Faith Mission. Second, it give the impression that the church was led by people who

were not adequately educated and therefore they did not preserve appropriate histories, as was

the case with mainline churches like the Catholic Church. The little that was written about the

church is probably kept in record in Johannesburg where the church functioned from until in the

1940s. Third, the church did not participate in societal services like education and medical health

and therefore did not draw much public attention. For this reason an attempt to write the history

of this church faces problems of sources. Be that as it may, attempts have been made using

archival sources in the form of government records and oral tradition told by old members of this

church. The Apostolic Faith Mission came into Zimbabwe in two forms formally and informally

meaning to say that the introduction of the Church into Zimbabwe came informally through

migrant workers who had experienced the crusades by John G Lake while working in South

Africa. They carried their experiences as they came back home for their holidays informally

started to share their experiences. The Zimbabwe Mission started with Zacharias Manamela’s

unofficial visit to Gwanda which was not fully integrated with the plans of Dugmore and AFM

although AFM recognized it and assigned Rev. G.J. Booysen in Louis Trichardt to get

recognition from the colonial authorities (NAZ file N3/5/1/3. Mr Kgobe succeeded Manamela

and he also was working under Booysen. Kgobe was used by God in divine healing. The church

continued soldiering on with the work. In those early 1919s they even bought a farm in

Gobatema, south of Gwanda. This farm would soon become the base from which the church

operated.
In the meantime Bosman’s priority was to consolidate work on and around Gobatema Farm. In

1925, David Bosman left Johannesburg and devoted himself to secure recognition for AFM in

Matabeleland (NAZ file S 1542 M 8 B 1). Problems arose because AFM was viewed negatively.

Both local chiefs and Native Commissioners were annoyed by such odd spiritual features of the

church as glossolalia and faith healing of which they saw parallels with traditional spirit

possession and witchcraft eradication. Bosman returned from Gobatema Farm without any

formal acceptance of AFM.

A decision was made to make Southern Rhodesia a mission field in its own right with L. Kruger

as the overseer, and Salisbury as the new centre, while Gwanda and Kadoma were related

districts. Kruger was stationed in Salisbury while Harris, and Isaac Chiumbu his co-worker were

doing good work in Kadoma Township and neighboring chiefdoms. In the east, a railway

employee in Mutare, Holtzhausen, brought AFM to the city. From there Pentecostalism spread

to Rusape and Wedza.