JOHN DEMPSTER: Future minister’s journey to Inshes Church in Inverness was ‘God’s will’ says Cleopas Takavada
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Worship in Scottish churches is often very cerebral, Cleopas told me, focussing on deep and searching ideas about God. Whereas in Africa, people instinctively know they can respond to God with their whole being. They freely shout out “Hallelujah!”, faces alive, bodies moving in joyful worship-dance.
Cleopas Takavada formerly a pastor in the Reformed Church of Zimbabwe is currently working alongside the minister in Inshes Church, while he waits to be called to a parish as a Church of Scotland minister.
What brought Cleopas, his wife and four children to Inverness in 2021? “It was God’s will,” he says and speaks of “reverse mission”. Over a century ago Scottish missionaries founded churches in southern Africa. Now, when the “Mother Church” is in difficulties, Zimbabwean ministers are coming to Scotland to lead churches here.
Cleopas has hope for the future of the Church of Scotland, despite its apparent decline. “When something is at its lowest we can expect it to rise,” he says, adding “I believe that Christianity can never die. The gospel can never be suppressed.”
The church in Zimbabwe is thriving, in contrast to its Scottish counterpart – there, churchgoing is fashionable, seen as a source of goodness. “What’s the secret?” I ask him.
Cleopas speaks about sub-Saharan African culture, with its widespread belief in the spirit world, populated by spirits both good and evil. People flock to church because the name of Jesus has demonstrable power over dark spirits, and an encounter with Jesus brings relief and freedom.
Scottish Christians believe that dark forces are at work, but belief in evil spirits is not part of our culture in general. But, Cleopas assures me, God meets us in our own situation, our own cultural context.
As we hear the gospel – the good news of Jesus’ life and death, and victory over all darkness – we learn of his power to forgive us, to restore us to friendship with God, and to set us free instantly or over time from burdens of darkness and fear. Cleopas describes a pivotal moment in his life. At the Easter Sunday service in 1994 when he was 17, he heard St Paul’s words: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” There came a deep knowing that this was the way ahead – to throw his life open to the ultimate Good Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus.
What gives Cleopas hope amid today’s many uncertainties? “My only hope is that it is God who brought me here.” If we know that the God we glimpse in Jesus brought us to this point of time, and is liberatingly with us, we have boundless grounds for shouting “Hallelujah!”
