When It’s Time to Leave: The Charambas Defends Leaving AFM to Form Own Church Amid Divisions

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Great church planting leaders are mobilising teams to help their communities be changed forever by the good news of Jesus Christ and we are thrilled to celebrate gospel music couple, Pastor Charles and Mai Olivia Charamba who are launching their new church, Rooted in Christ Ministries, this weekend.

The couple, who have been associate pastors at Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe (AFM) parishes in Borrowdale and Hatcliffe North since 2008 after they renounced full-time pastoral duties to concentrate more on their music, told a local medium, Herald, that the inaugural service on will bring to life an idea that was mooted over two years ago.

“We have officially left the AFM after several considerations that followed a call to mission that I received from God more than two years ago. The idea has been in the pipeline as we prayed and let God’s call come to fruition according to His time,” said Pastor Charamba.

He said they were holding mid-week services with friends and family members at their Borrowdale house over the past months to prepare for the launch of the new ministry.

“Until last Sunday, we were attending the AFM church services as usual. We had notified our leaders about our intention and we were doing the groundwork at home during mid-week services.

We thank God that we have finally fulfilled his call. We are starting as a small ministry and we believe the church will grow with time.”

Pastor Charamba was also quick to shut down the hypothesis that the underway power tussles in AFM might have contributed, significantly, to them jilting the church and starting their own. The cleric who joined AFM in 1988 and enrolled for a Diploma in Theology in 1998, said they are only responding to God’s call.

“We have always listened to God’s voice. We did so as musicians and preachers. We call our mission ‘Pashoko Pangoma’, as we emphasised on our album with that name. We are called to ministry through singing and preaching. We are continuing with the music and the Word,” he said.

Rooted in Christ Ministries will be officially launched at the Zimbabwe College of Music this Sunday, November 3. The service will be held in the Large Lecture Room.


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