The Northern Deanery

The Northern Deanery is one of the smallest deaneries in the ELCZ and it is housed in Zimbabwe’s second-largest city koBulawayo. It has five big parishes in the city – these are the heartbeat of the deanery if not of the diocese. Three of the parishes are outside the city, namely Stanmore parish along Bulawayo Gwanda road. The other two parishes are Hwange and Victoria Falls; these two places are well-known for tourism.

The Northern deanery has the potential to extend to new territories in Kezi, Patalika mission area. Currently, the deanery footprint stretches to Plumtree where it has a preaching point. As already stated, the heart of the deanery is in Bulawayo where some of the national institutions are located such as the Head office, Njube Youth Centre, and LUCSA Infohut.

The Deanery has twenty-two (22) congregations and eight (8) preaching points translating to eight (8) parishes. It is run by seven (7) full-time pastors and a Dean. However, it has a lot of support from tent ministers who are seconded by the church working for the government, NGO’s and the church.

Furthermore, it has a handful of retired but energetic former leaders such as Bishops and Deans so Deanery is never short of the human resource be it ordained or laity workers of the church. The Deanery offices are housed at Lutheran house along Herbert Chitepo. Only two parishes are housed in the same building as the rest have relocated to their respective parish offices.

Activities

The Northern deanery activities are drawn from the strategic document 2022-2025. The Strategic Objectives (SO) were developed to cover various areas of concern in the deanery namely: doctrinal teaching, the prophetic role of the deanery, evangelism, fellowship, financial sustainability, diaconia, and the development of human resources and projects.

SO 1 to sustainable preach the gospel of Christ
Achievement of the objective requires serious training of lay preachers, as each parish should have a number of trained preachers. Christians should be taught and encouraged to live a Christian life, they should be the salt and light of the world (Mathew 5 vs 13-16). Periodic evangelical programs should be developed for all parishes and the mission area.

SO 2 to engage in doctrinal teaching in all parishes
The objective aims at teaching the pure Lutheran doctrine and strengthening faith to all members through preaching the gospel of Christ thus leading people to reconcile with God and fellow human beings and other creations e.g. climatic changes. The Diaconia Evangelism Stewardship Committees (DESC) are pivotal in achieving this objective.

SO 3 to increase church membership and financial sustainability in all parishes

On evangelism, the Deanery subscribes to the biblical example that things ‘should begin in Jerusalem’ meaning evangelism must begin within the parishes where more teachings on the subject are provided to prepare the parishioners. We can also ensure all our functional structures are in place and there are no gaps, mitigation actions are employed where gaps are identified. Furthermore, we require resources to reach out to the uttermost parts of our deanery hence there is a need to mobilize financial resources first before effectively evangelizing in remote areas. To achieve the above objective there is a need for leadership training of all structures and organs in the deanery.