Evangelist Zinyongo condemns mock weddings, sell of ‘holy anointing oil’

Lilongwe-based preacher, Evangelist Richard Zinyongo has openly condemned some of the criteria’s that Christian churches use to generate funds including mock weddings, trophies, selling of anointing  materials, prophesies and auctioning of items in prayer houses, saying these have paralyzed the core function of the church and that they are not biblical.

According to Zinyongo, the current church systems has produced thieves and corrupt Christians in the name of prosperity teachings and that many pastors have blessed corrupt money and they love corrupt Christians because they give money more than anybody does in the church.

In an interview with Nysa Times,  Zinyongo said it is a very pathetic that most of the so-called men of God, Pastors, Bishops, Prophets, Apostles and Reverends joined the ministry to enrich themselves not to win lost souls.

“Immorality is so high in churches because of fake Pastors, Bishops, Prophets, Evangelists and Apostles who have not helped the government in perfecting the current generation.

“Most of the churches are just religious social gathering not a place to worship God. There is a need of a quick church reformation,” he said

On his recent Facebook post,  Zinyongo argued that instead of focusing much on preaching the gospel, churches are giving more attention to fundraising, something that doesn’t even benefit the poor but church infrastructures and some pastors who take that as their only source of income.

“Apart from government reformations, we also need to go into the church with reformations, our churches are rotten, people are purifying sins, this is bad and it needs to stop”, he said

The post however steered debate among many people who have conflicting ideas on the matter. Some are in agreement and others are in disagreement.

One David Kawanga wrote “All these fundraising gimmicks in the church symbolize the rottenness of our spirituality it  was not meant to be like this”.

Evangelist Mike Lulanga also concurred with Kawanga saying most churches are focusing much on generating funds from members than teaching the real Gospel.

“The time and attention given to fundraising is more than the time given for worship, this is something that needs to be checked. We are more into finances than worship and the church is slowly turning into a business and fashion center,” he said.

However, Malason Kachipanda said he doesn’t see any problems with mock weddings and trophies describing them as extra-biblical creative way of persuading Christians to give.

“I’d think of these activities as extra-biblical creative way of persuading people to give. Giving in post reformation dispensation has been a hurdle to many Christians all over the world regardless of the contexts. I personally don’t believe a mock wedding or trophy competitions done in good faith is a sin.

“If the church is to avoid this kind of giving then we need more teachings to our congregants on cheerful giving which is not easy. Just my independent thoughts, “he said

Nettie Chibambo Mtsuko also gave a direct shot saying “It’s good that you have recognized this, I personally don’t like this in churches and you have been championing the same at Msonkhamanja. I hope you will bring change now. We need people like you.

Apart from preaching in various secondary schools and colleges, Zinyongo is also known as a musician.

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