We’ve read reports of ‘strange’ things happening in African churches lately. These range from people behaving like animals to eating ‘strange’ things.
These have all been done in the name of demonstrating “the power of God”. People have found the acts strange, different organisations have tried to intervene and one pastor has been arrested for such an act. However, congregants who receive such instructions never seem to complain. Here is a list of ‘strange’ things that have happened in churches:
1. Pastor kisses women congregants’ buttocks
Churches encourage congregants to get married for many reasons and one of them “is fleeing temptations”. “If you cannot control yourself from sexual temptations, it’s better to get married”. But, what happens if a pastor has a number of unmarried women and would like to see them married?
According to a report, to attract marriage, the pastor takes his female congregants to a beach, orders them to strip naked and kisses their behinds.
2.Pastor bans women congregants from wearing underwear
In the same light as pastors ordering female congregants to strip naked, a pastor in Kenya made headlines for banning his female congregants from wearing underwear to church, telling them to avoid wearing the garments “in order to be closer to God”.
The pastor, described only as the Rev. Njohi, reportedly asked his female congregants at the Lord’s Propeller Redemption Church in Dandora to arrive at Sunday’s service without underwear or bras. According to the pastor, undergarments are “ungodl”y and people need to “be free in body and spirit to receive Christ”. But then, we wonder why only women were ordered to do so.
3. Pastor makes congregants strip
Still celebrating nakedness in the church, in another report, a young Pretoria pastor made his congregation strip during a weeknight service. After stripping, he sat on top of them and prayed for them.
It was reported that the congregation began undressing as they felt too hot.
Then ‘food’ was introduced:
4. Pastor makes congregation drink petrol, eat grass, flowers and fire.
Pretoria pastor Lesego Daniel made his congregation drink petrol. The petrol was apparently turned into pineapple juice. The reason for drinking petrol was to “take their faith to another level to connect to God”.
Pastor Lesego said: “If I say, the fire is ice, the fire listens to me, [and] what will come out will be ice. The fire must obey and listen.”
He said this to the congregants during the weekly Tuesday Service at Rabboni Centre Ministries.
The woman in the picture apparently confirmed that a flaming match stick indeed felt like ice after it was put in her mouth.
The congregant then explained that when the match got into her mouth, it felt like she was eating ice. She said she was not scared when the man of God started the demonstration because the night before the service, she had a dream “where God came in a form of a person wearing red top” and asked if she believes in Miracles.
According to the post, she did not sustain any injuries after the flaming match stick was put in her mouth.
5. Pastor makes congregation eat snakes and hair.
Recent reports have it that Penuel Mnguni, 24, the leader of End Times Disciples Ministries church in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, allegedly declared a snake a bar of chocolate (Chomp) for the congregation to eat.
