The thriving 7 year old
The 8th of August marked the 7th anniversary of a local Harare church, His Generation Church. His Generation was founded in 2010 by Evan Mawarire and his wife who are popularly known as Pastor E and Pastor Sam. The couple were pastors at Celebration Church for a number of years before they decided, against much opposition, to leave and pursue the dream that God had placed on their hearts; to start their own church.
“The mission is to inspire generations to live out the purposes of God in their time”
While I was researching about the church, I got the chance to interview Pastor E. He explained the mission and vision of the church which as he said ,”is to inspire generations to live out the purposes of God in every sphere of their lives”. According to him, the mandate of God is more important than mere human exploits and that is what the church aims to impress upon the society, all for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Early Challenges
As with all things, the journey to pursue their mission has had its challenges. They had to start out with little resources and no funding at all except for what they were putting in from their own pockets. “It took a lot of dedication and hard work”, he said as he described how he had to play most of the roles himself; as the preacher and the usher among other things.
In as much as they have faced challenges, God has also been gracious with provision. From receiving money from Richard Howard Brown, a great man of God who pastor Evan met when attending one of his conferences, which they used to pay for the venue fees for their first service at the Bronte hotel, to a well wisher donating a brand new drum kit for the band.
A few years later one of the members of the church offered the use his space in the Joina City building to hold their sunday services. They also got support from leaders of other prominent churches such as Bishop Tudor Bismarck and Dr Shingi Munyeza.
Community Work
In line with their mission statement, the church has tasked itself with tackling an issue that most churches shy away from, SEX. For the past couple of years they’ve held an annual conference aptly titled the “Sexposed” conference. At the conference they discuss sex in a manner that is frank and upfront bringing everything under the microscope of the word of God. “We want to help young men and women to understand the truth about sex and how God intends us to do it,” said Pastor E during the interview as he shared his desire to challenge people to live out the purposes of God in relationships and marriage.
Despite being a relatively small church, His Generation has also has a charity arm called His Care. Using donations and funds from the church, the His care team provides for orphans in the community.
Inspiring a generation
Last year His Generation Church became the launch pad for a movement that has rocked the nation; #This Flag. Pastor E, in an effort to inspire our generation to live out God’s purpose in the political sphere, set out to give a voice to the citizens of Zimbabwe. This also brought some challenges with it as Pastor E and his family had to leave the country for security reasons and some members left the church as well. The other pastors and elders had to dig in with determination and overcome the challenges. Pastor E, bravely returned to the country in February of this year, having ensured that his family was secure
When I asked him what the future looked like for His Generation church he said the mission remained the same and that the church would continue to influence culture to further the kingdom of God in all spheres of society. He also articulated that regardless of what his future holds, he would still be an integral part of the church though he will no longer directly oversee the day to day operations.
If you would like to visit or support this growing church, you can visit them at Generations House which is located at 24 Vanpraagh in Milton Park, Harare.
