The AICs and theological training : with special reference to the St John's Apostolic Faith Mission Church of Ma Nku

Abstract

The St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission is one of the African Indigenous Churches founded by Mother Christinah Nku in the 1930s. Since then this church has gone from strength to strength; however, it has no “theological muscle”. Given this lack of theological guidance, what has facilitated growth in St John's (AFM)? This church is one of the major African Indigenous Churches, similar to the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), Shembe and the International Pentecostal Church (IPCC) of the late Modise. In some of the interviews, it became clear that the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission lacks theological training and its efforts towards addressing this problem have borne little fruit in South Africa. In my research, I discovered that the crux of the matter was the tension between “institutional education” versus “natural wisdom” (natural wisdom mainly consists of an oral tradition). The article concludes with a few suggestions on how the theology of St John’s and the AICs generally could be advanced.