Belinda Beresford
What Is … Rhema Church?
The Rhema Church, headed by Pastor Ray McCauley, is becoming one of South Africa’s most fashionable institutions. This week the church received another seal of acceptance from South Africa’s black elite when it was chosen to host the funeral of African National Congress stalwart Alfred Nzo. Last week Rhema announced its involvement in Civil Society, an organisation aiming to change the moral tone of South Africa.
McCauley denies the move is a step on the way to forming a political party. “It is a mechanism to encourage civil society to do something. We need to make democracy real in the eyes of the people now. We can make it better for everybody,” he says. Further details will be released when the Civil Society initiative, which includes journalists and former United Democratic Movement leader Roelf Meyer, has had further strategy meetings.
Fifteen years ago the prospect of Rhema’s congregation being almost two-thirds black must have seemed as likely as Pik Botha talking about joining the ANC.
The Rhema Church is a Pentecostal church. And, in the words of a Rhema representative: “Pentecostsals were seen as very white, conservative politically and if not out and out supporters of apartheid then pretended they were neutral but really supported it.”
This changed in 1990 when Pastor Ray says he had a Damascene experience at the Rustenberg conference of religious leaders. He realised perceptions such as “that the government was a Christian government, that church leaders should not be in politics” were “totally wrong”.
At the conference McCauley confessed and apologised for Rhema’s past. “We confess that our silence in these areas was in fact a sin, and that our failure to act decisively against all forms of apartheid made us party to an inhuman political ideology.”
The church also “did the unthinkable for a Pentecostal church, it joined the South African Council of Churches” which was “regarded as the ANC at prayer”, said Rhema representative Ron Steele.
The conversion was not always well received within the church: “… it caused a lot of trauma because at that time our constituency was still very much that politics and the gospel were a no-no [and] that this was a communist plot”.
Pastor Ray says he is “no longer right wing”. However he hesitates to call himself left wing.
The church’s conversion at a time when change in South Africa was inevitable can, McCauley says, look rather opportunistic. He acknowledges it took time for Rhema’s history to be forgiven. Black Christians “did watch us for a long time. You have to earn credibility.” But the church’s behaviour over the past decade – particularly its involvement in welfare work – appears to have wiped out the past for the increasing black congregation.
David Newby, a Methodist minister, says McCauley has “shown enormous courage to say sorry and to follow up with a massive shift in what [he] says and does”. Newby attributes the attraction of the church to its accessibility to people. “It is a middle-class church seeking to be involved in the issues of the day.”
A junior Mr South Africa (1964), McCauley reached the apex of his body-building career when he was placed third in the 1974 Mr Universe competition. And then, according to Steele: “God took an ex- bodybuilder, slapped him around and said go and be a preacher.” In 1978 McCauley started Bible studies in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Graduating together with his wife Lyndie in 1979, he held his first Rhema Church service at his parents’ home in Johannesburg the same year. The product of a middle-class family, McCauley dropped out of school after standard eight. Steroid use during his body-building days meant the couple had problems conceiving their first child, a boy. They later adopted a daughter. McCauley is a supporter of Gun Free SA.
Rhema – Greek for the “spoken word of God” – now has a congregation of about 22E000, almost two-thirds of whom are black. Members include Bafana Bafana coach Trott Moloto and former Miss South Africa Peggy Sue Khumalo, while occasional attendees include first lady Zanele Mbeki. McCauley is chaplain to the South African cricket team.
Described by a theologian as a proponent of “prosperity teaching” in its early days, the church does encourage people to be successful. “Don’t hoard that money, God doesn’t bless what you keep but what you give,” says Steele.
And the Rhema congregation gives – including one donation of a fully equipped bakery, which produces bread for its soup kitchens. Although some of the giving can be seen in the massive Rhema complex in Randpark Ridge, donations are also seen in the increasing welfare work done by the church.
It runs orphanages, a hospice and a school, and claims its soup kitchens feed 100E000 people a month in Johannesburg. Famously the church also runs its own Channel to God satellite TV station.
A Section 21 company, the Rhema Church has annual revenues of about R12-million. McCauley receives a salary set by a board of the church. About half of the total staff of around 600 – 300 of whom work in the social welfare programmes – are black. Of the 27 pastors, only five are black and three are female, including McCauley’s wife, Lyndie. “We are looking to groom more and more black pastors but don’t want to do window dressing,” says Steele.
While the Rhema Church’s good works and McCauley’s involvement in political situations have raised its political and moral credibility, the lure of the church also rests on its acceptance of worldly success, and a charismatic preacher with whom people can identify. Steele summed up at least part of the appeal: “You don’t have to suck lemons to go to church.”