–– Paul Schlehlein

Audio version of this article available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been in the international news recently. On Thursday, 28 March 2024, a small town in Limpopo South Africa was the scene of a horrific bus crash that took the lives of at least forty-five people. The bus was travelling from Botswana on the way to an Easter gathering as part of the annual ZCC festivities. 

The driver lost control and the bus careened off a bridge and fell 50 meters below where it burst into flames. Everyone on board was killed, except for an 8-year-old child who remains in serious but stable condition. 

The Easter trip to Zion City Moria is part of the spectacular pilgrimage that over a million ZCC members make each year. This Easter run is similar to the hajj Muslims take to Mecca, as ZCC leaders expect their people to take at least one journey to Moria in their lifetime. It is believed that Zion City Moria has special powers and thus hordes of pilgrims return there each year for healing and renewal. 

Engenas Lekganyane founded the ZCC in 1924. At the time of his death in 1948, there were over 50,000 members. Today there are well over 12 million members, making it the largest African-initiated church in southern Africa. Zion gets its name from the city of Jerusalem in the Old Testament, which is also adjacent to Mount Moriah where Solomon built his temple. 

Is the Zion Christian Church Christian? Recently, some have criticized liberal news stations for calling ZCC members “Easter worshippers” instead of Christians. But the question remains, “Is the ZCC a Christian denomination?” 

The Zion Christian Church is “Christian” in the same sense that Jehovah’s Witnesses are “Christian” in that they follow certain aspects of Christianity and the Bible. To be exact, the ZCC is a Christian cult because it deviates from Christian orthodoxy and follows the interpretation of an individual rather than the Bible. The ZCC is a Christian cult because of the following six reasons.   

First is syncretism. Syncretism is the mixture of different religions and beliefs. The ZCC is wildly popular in southern Africa because it combines African traditional religion, which is pagan, with Protestant Christian beliefs. For example, it encourages ancestral veneration, which allows them to pray to their dead ancestors for protection, guidance and counsel. 

Second is “Big Man” theology. ZCC members venerate the founder of the ZCC and his successors. Visit a ZCC member’s home and most likely you will see a black-and-white portrait of Barnabas Lekganyane on the wall. The ZCC sometimes prays to or through Lekganyane, seeing him as God-like, a Messiah figure, members often assigning him messianic titles such as Healer, Comforter, Mopholosi (Savior) or even Modimo (God).

The fruit from the Lekganyane family is rotten. Engenas had two formally acknowledged wives and had several illegitimate children. He succumbed to drunkenness later in life. His son and successor, Edward, had dozens of mistresses and many children, His ministry was known for in-fighting, disputes, and manoeuvring for power. Repeated tension led to a lifetime of separation from his colleagues, including the Mahlangu brothers and Edward Motaung Lion. 

Lekganyane was head of the church in the way a tribal chief is head of his village. In 1952, Mr. J. Leseka in Naledi ya Batswana said this about the founder of the ZCC: “We are not afraid to call Lekganyane our God because he takes care of all our worries—he prays for our illnesses, our fertility, and rain.” 

Third is signs, wonders, and healing. The source that most influenced Lekganyane’s theology was The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), a denomination of which he was a member between roughly 1910-1916. Pentecostal American missionaries, led by the infamous John G. Lake, established the AFM in South Africa in the early 1900s. The AFM brought a profusion of emotion to their church services, including healing ceremonies, speaking in tongues, and pervasive promises of wealth that appealed to an audience made up mostly of migrants battling poverty. Incidentally, the ZCC has become a money-making machine, bringing in enormous funds through required tithes and the sale of pre-blessed church uniforms. 

A central way the ZCC wins converts is through healing. Barry Morton, in his book Engenas Lekganyane and the Early ZCC, states: “[John G] Lake maintained that Africans were not capable of conceiving of God unless he was seen acting in the material world, and hence needed to be converted through faith healing. This line of thinking was adopted wholeheartedly by the early ZCC” (p. 93). 

Some say three-quarters of ZCC members were converted through faith healing. It is common to hear a ZCC member say they could never leave their church because this institution healed them. If they left, the sickness would return. 

The ZCC teaches that since sickness and disease are usually caused by the devil, the solution is healing through the church. Engenas Lekganyane claims he was cured of an eye disease after receiving a triple immersion baptism. Faith healers often claim to have been healed of sickness themselves in order to create a bond with their audience. 

Fourth is secrecy. The ZCC has no creed, no sacred writings, no written sermons and very few written pronouncements. The ZCC’s beliefs are almost completely oral in nature. 

Fifth is prophecy. The ZCC does not embrace the Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura but believes God speaks today through visions and prophecies. ZCC members carry Bibles and speak of Jesus, but neither is emphasized. When the Bible is taught, the sermon usually comes from the Old Testament, equating ZCC leaders with the prophets. Even the Easter Pilgrimage to Zion City Moria says little of the Resurrection. Instead, the ZCC focuses on healing and singing the “mpoho”, a method of standing in a circle, clapping, jumping in the air and dancing. 

Sixth is legalism. The ZCC embraces a host of bizarre beliefs. They hold a form of baptismal regeneration, immersing their followers three times. Members drink special blessed tea and have water splashed on their faces and back upon entering the service. They may not eat pork and are required to wear a badge to increase church solidarity. 

To protect themselves from witchcraft, many ZCC members place copper wires at the gates of their homes and tie a thin cloth belt around the waist of their children. Historically, they are anti-vaccination. Barnabas, the oldest son of the founder, died of smallpox, a victim of their anti-vax position. Ironically, the ZCC became some of the strongest proponents of the COVID-19 vaccination and continue to wear masks and sterilize long after the world has moved on. 

Beware of the ZCC cult and take heed of Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7:15. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”