A spiritually growing community whose members have a strong hunger for fellowship and eternal salvation.
To proclaim the word of God through preaching, teaching, evangelism and provision of social services so that many accept Christ Jesus as their personal saviour.
Doers of the Word (James 1:22)
Core values of the church
The church has the following core values:
Zomba CCAP congregation, located in Zomba City, the old capital of Malawi, was established in 1898, and currently boasts 1,638 Christians, of which 115 are church elders and 103 church deacons. It has vibrant women and youth ministries, and a management team that co-ordinates the work of eleven committees, among which are the partnership, evangelism and intercessory, and music committee, as well as faith and works committee which reaches out to the disadvantaged. Currently, with thirty of its prayer houses developed into full congregations, the church has devolved some of its activities to seven kirk districts where Christians meet for mid-week prayers.
The process of establishing a mission began in 1895 when the Rev. Henry Scott from Domasi Mission secured seven acres of land from the Government on which were built a church, manse, school and hospital. The first church building was constructed in 1898 and dedicated on 14 December 1898. The elegant current church, in Gothic style, with a huge bell in one of the spires, was constructed between 1905 and 1906. Seven women and seven men, the first to complete the hearers and catechumen classes, were baptized in January 1899 by the Rev. Scott.
For the first three years, the congregation relied on Malawians deacons from Blantyre, until 1901 when Zomba produced its first deacons. It was the Rev. Melvin Anderson, after succeeding the Rev. Scott in 1903 and while serving the congregation intermittently until 1920, who consolidated the congregation by inducting up to five local deacons by 1906, in line with his belief that African leaders were a major instrument in the growth of the church in Malawi.
During its formative period, the vision of the church was to evangelize, educate, and provide basic medical services to the local community. Accordingly, every Sunday there was preaching of the word, and sharing news about what went on in the education and medical departments of the mission, after conducting Sunday school for the youth and Bible classes for the adults. After the main service of worship on Sunday which sometimes lasted until early afternoon hours, the missionaries accompanied by Malawian teacher-evangelists and church elders radiated into the surrounding villages to take the Gospel to the people. What was designated the European Service closed the day from about 5:00 pm. Besides these, there were other outreach programmes devoted to education, health and the social-economic welfare of the people.
Positioned below the majestic Zomba Mountain and about fifteen kilometers west of the sparkling Lake Chirwa, the church has had immeasurable impact on the development of Malawi. Among the influential men of God are the Rev. Stephen Asona Kundeche, a trained teacher who was ordained in Zomba Church in 1911, and the Rev. Frederick Chintali, originally a teacher and school inspector in the late 1920s, who became a minister and served Zomba congregation at different times until 1979 when he retired. Graduates from the many schools the church operated were employed in the public service, a few of them rising to the top of the civil service, police and prison services, and the army.
Furthermore, early nationalist movements were started by educated members of the church, some of whom of course came to the capital from other places. Zomba has remained the centre of education with such national institutions as Chancellor College, the main college of the University of Malawi, Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB), and the Zomba Theological College (ZTC) where ministers from the five synods of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are educated to degree level. Other national institutions within Zomba are Domasi College of Education (DCE), another college of the University of Malawi, and Malawi Institute of Education (MIE), from the original Jeans College, specialists in in-service training, educational research, and curriculum and materials design, evaluation and production.
From Zomba congregation, the Gospel has spread to different parts of Zomba district and to the eastern part of Mozambique. At one time, the congregation had thirty prayer houses around, most of which are now stand-alone congregations. Today the congregation continues with the work through its organs and committees. The church celebrated its centenary in December 1998 under the theme “Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord”, taken from Lamentation 3:23.
Zomba CCAP congregation, located in Zomba City, the old capital of Malawi, was established in 1898, and currently boasts 1,638 Christians, of which 115 are church elders and 103 church deacons. It has vibrant women and youth ministries, and a management team that co-ordinates the work of eleven committees, among which are the partnership, evangelism and intercessory, and music committee, as well as faith and works committee... Read more
