Churches & Manipulation

By Zvakwana Nomore Sweto

As an investigative journalist myself, l find no boundaries when it comes to news or disseminating information. This article is however, one of those where l call a spade a spade, leaving no stones unturned. Forget about your church as you read this, be subjective, I’m just a watchdog.

I have seen and noticed a number of times with growing concern, the recurring defensiveness in the leadership of many churches when asked about their mistakes. They tend to protect, cover-up and preach to you the gospel that makes you feel guilty of the truth at hand.

Most would agree that Christians should be upright, authentic, and be filled with integrity. Yet, sometimes we find churches using tactics that are deceitful or manipulative.

Let me give you a realistic example; The “man of God” effect, or “Papa / Daddy” or “Mummy / Mama” effect, it’s similar to the indoctrination that gets soldiers to follow orders in a battle. If you have an authority figure, like a commander, they instruct you to do exactly what they say, over and over, eventually you’ll be conditioned to do it without thinking.

For the past decades, I’ve realized that churches that follow the word-faith-prosperity movement are mostly filled with people that are struggling. Struggling in their finances, health, relationships, etc. It’s not that struggling is unique to these types of churches but the leaders’ manipulative approach.

In these types of churches, the poor are called followers / children yet the rich are called partners or spiritual sons & daughters. Partners are likely to get top positions whereas followers are mainly into positions like ushering.

There has been an increase in what can be termed ‘unhealthy churches’, where the pastor actually begins to take the place of Jesus Christ in people’s lives. It is a known fact that many pastors measure their success through church attendance, and if they are insecure, they may actually develop a doctrine in order to stop people from leaving. They will for instance, start preaching about unconditional loyalty, using the biblical stories of Elisha and Elijah and so on.

In some denominations, all questions that are considered threats to the pastor’s / prophet’s authority are usually swept under the carpet. Originators of such are put under what they call disciplinary committee. Members who do dare to question their leaders or who do not follow their directives often are confronted with severe consequences.

In a quest to make these work to their favour some have introduced paid sessions where church members are supposed to pay to speak directly with their leaders. These programs, which some call ‘One on one sessions’ also come with different pricing and usually benefits the rich and they have capacity to pay the high prices.

The majority congregants will pay the standard price and chances are they will have to be patient before they could see the leader (prophet).

There is a flagrant manipulation which these leaders use like “the lord told me…” syndrome. “The Lord told me there are only 23 people in here tonight who are going to give $2000 each. There’s a special anointing, one of a special kind, for breakthrough the Lord wants to release into your life today, if you step out in faith. If that’s you and you feel the Lord speaking to your heart, please stand up and the usher will hand you an envelope or you can directly transfer the money into our account.”

Let me be open to every reader here, “The older and more independent I grew, the more I realized that much of what I thought was church was simply shameless and outrageous manipulation at worst. I have come to understand that true Christianity is a simple relationship and profound faith in Jesus Christ.” And there is no need to sugar-coat this.

A lot is happening in these churches there are several ways that they use to manipulate people so that their congregations grow. As l was preparing this article l had to post on social media the same question on how churches manipulate people to grow, and the comments from the already angry followers and critiques, gave me these pointers:

• Play to people’s fears – they emphasize hell, fire, and brimstone when in reality, there is more to the Gospel message they need to hear.
• Bribe people to attend
• Coax them to come by giving them a free meal or free gift.
• Free transport to and from church
• Fake miracles
• Prosperity gospel

It’s easy for the manipulative church leaders to deceive others because they are often delightful, polite, and enchanting in public or in their sermons.

Regardless of the pastor / prophet or leader, their commands are often the same. The leadership is secretive, controlling, and manipulating. They retaliate against anyone opposed to them! There is a culture of fear among the followers and the pastor has a lot of ‘yes’ men surrounding him or her.

Believe it or not, the above, coupled with the need of money has led to fights in most churches. There are many examples aligned to this, but l have selected this as it is still an ongoing fight and which we are accustomed to, now.

Recently, the leader of an Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) faction, Cossam Chiyangwa lost a case against church rival Amon Madawo in a protracted power wrangle within the religious institution.

The best way to avoid manipulative churches is to have leaders who recognize and understand they are in place to serve others, not the other way around. Leaders who understand that to be an ordained man of God is a CALLING not a PROFESSION. Having a degree, Masters or even PHD does not necessarily mean you are eligible or able to lead a congregation.

In October 2020, the late Mugodhi Apostolic Faith Church founder Tadewu Mugodhi’s son was dragged to court again for allegedly clinging on to the throne against the church’s constitution. He was being accused of imposing himself as the bishop of the church also against a court order.

Another case is a 2015 leadership wrangle that threatened in the Evangelical Church of Zimbabwe (ECZ) which was heard in the courts. The High Court issued an order barring leader Bishop Benson Makachi from calling for any church meetings or interfering with the election of a new bishop in line with the church’s constitution.

These fights have continued to be an order 0f the day in most churches, and surprisingly all the fights are centralized on these 3 common pointers; Money, Power (Control) and Fame.

Having said this, let’s also take note that not all fallen pastors are wolves, false teachers, or unbelievers; some have been overcome by sin. All they need is to be lovingly confronted and lovingly encouraged.

In conclusion, let’s believe in one and only God. Let us not fall prey to these shenanigans purporting to be sent by the living God. Meanwhile, I enjoyed working on this article as l was listening to the Soul Jah Love’s song titled, “Hameni.”