Faith Like Potatoes

Why “Faith Like Potatoes?” I need to start by explaining a little bit of the background. Most South Africans would know! But Swedes probably ask questions. Let me make it easy and quote Wikipedia:

Angus Buchan was originally a Zambian maize and cattle farmer of Scottish descent who started farming in Zambia but was forced to sell everything and move to Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 1978 due to political unrest in that country.

In 1980 he started the Shalom Ministries to preach in his local community. Over time he has become a full time evangelist while the farm is now being run mostly by both his sons.

In 1998 Angus wrote a book about his life, Faith Like Potatoes, the book was turned into a film of the same title in 2006. Angus Buchan's Ordinary People is a 2012 semi-biographical film that tells the story of the growth of Buchan's ministry from the 1970s to the present, and that of three fictional characters whose lives are changed after attending one of his conferences.

The conferences are called Mighty Men Conferences. In 2010 about 400 000 men of different age gathered.

We learned about his coming to Pietermaritzburg and my dear wife bought tickets. ZAR 15:-/person. Sunday at 2 pm we got two seats at the Harry Gwala Stadium, which is on walking distance from our home.  (Harry Gwala was a freedom fighter in the ANC who spent some years on Robben Island, together with Mandela. 1964-72. A different kind of mighty man).

On our way to the stadium I asked my wife:

What are your expectations?

She didn’t have any specific expectations, she answered. Myself I thought we were going to find ourselves in a charismatic revival happening. I also thought that it would be a very patriarchal context. Well, here comes my reflection:

It started with a few songs. Texts on two big screens. The band was good. The pastor from the church that organised the meeting welcomed all and after about 1 hour Angus Buchan entered the stage. What can I say? It’s a charming man. I can’t say that he is one of those aggressive preachers. Not at all! He really did his best to include people from different contexts. Starting in isiZulu, addressing youth, women, men, children etc. The atmosphere was inclusive. To a certain extent! And it was really multicultural, as far as I could see.

But there is a strong undercurrent. Of course I expected just that. His main target group is men, fathers. He wants men to stand up and be responsible. For instance he said like this, before inviting us to pray:

You who are fathers: I invite you to pray. Yours children will look at you, remember that. You must lead from the front.

When he spoke about mothers, which he also did, he naturally described them as housewives. He never mentioned anything about female leadership. I could go on with examples.

As a part of his sermon a 4 minutes video sequence was shown on the big screens. It was recorded when he preached in a conference in Ein Gedi, not far from the Dead Sea. See for yourself. He preaches about the first Pentecost, when the Spirit came as a wind. According to what he said, Ein Gedi is not a windy place and it never rains. That day a might wind, with scatters of rain, came down exactly when he read from Acts. What can I say? I was not there? See for yourself! The link comes here.

Revivals usually end with altar calls. Also this one. It was quite different, though. We were all invited to gather on the soccer field. I guess 98% did. A few songs, a few prayers. Everything was very structured. I was actually happy about the open invitation. I have been to similar meetings, were the preacher uses psychologically suspect methods, where people don’t come voluntarily.

The bottom line is this: It is much better that men are responsible and take care of their beloved ones than having a lot of confused men running around and behaving in an evil way. I do believe that Angus Buchan has meant a lot to many men and many families.

But this is not my piece of cake. I will never become the kind of father “which leads from the front”. Everyone who knows my wife will understand that she will never be the kind of person who can be described as

…. behind every successful man there is a woman …

She is not behind me. I am not behind her. We walk together. I read the quote in another form on a website from Ghana:

BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL MAN, THERE IS A WOMAN, BUT, BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL WOMAN IS THERE A MAN?

Couldn’t we just hope that beside every person there is another person, for support? Isn’t that good enough?

Still, it was fruitful to be there and listen to him. It is not a context where I feel totally at ease.  But we belong to same Christian family. There is always something to learn.