“Nothing on earth has greater potential to change lives and carry out His kingdom work in your community, than your local church. There’s nothing like the local church when it’s working right.” — Bill Hybels
“Jesus is the hope of the world and the local church is the vehicle of expressing that hope to the world.” — Andy Stanley
Churches are vital for nation-building. They become community hubs, especially in under-resourced areas, and are often used as polling stations, mobile clinics, crèches, and venues for youth programs. They provide stability, continuity, and spiritual guidance.
The first NEW ZION Church began in August 1984 in Pietermaritzburg. For 16 years, it rented various facilities. Acquiring its own property at 43 Boom Street marked a massive shift in the church’s stability and its capacity to serve the city. This experience has taught us a powerful lesson about the importance of a permanent home.
The Problem: The High Cost of Instability
Planting and growing churches is a key part of NEW ZION’s vision. However, new churches are particularly vulnerable, and many don’t survive. We have deployed our best people and invested hundreds of thousands, but the casualties have been high, with most failed church plants faltering because of venue-related frustrations.
Churches without a stable venue face multiple challenges:
- Spending large amounts on rentals that could have been used to buy their own facilities.
- Being at the mercy of landlords.
- Losing members and restarting multiple times when they are forced to move.
- Expending huge amounts of energy on setting up and setting down in temporary venues.
A telling example is NEW ZION Pietermaritzburg Central, which spent more money on rent (R400,000) in ten years than the purchase price of the building it eventually bought (R350,000 in 2000).
The Solution: The Power of Collective Action
While individual, fledgling congregations struggle to afford buildings, everything changes when church networks act collectively. NEW ZION Ministries International (NZMI) has adopted a three-pronged strategy to solve this problem.
One: Giving as a Network
By giving, saving, and fundraising as a network, we have been able to:
- Buy and renovate NEW ZION Pietermaritzburg North in 2023, with attendance doubling since it opened in 2024.
- Buy NEW ZION Pietermaritzburg West, where renovations are currently in progress.
- Raise pledges of R970,000 from the network for a building in Hanover Park, Cape Town. Of this, R732,000 has been collected, but R1.5 million more is needed by 12 September 2025.
Two: Our Extended Family
The 4,000 to 5,000 ex-members of NEW ZION represent an extended family — a Great Commission Community – blessed by our churches, who are now positioned all over the world to help build Christ’s kingdom by buying and building churches with us.
Three: The Power of Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project by raising money from a large number of people, typically online. By combining the giving power of NEW ZION’s ten churches with the power of crowdfunding from our extended family and friends, raising the remaining funds by September is extremely doable.
Stories of Hope: Lives Transformed
The impact of a stable church is seen in the lives it touches.
- McWilliam Chipeta came to South Africa from Malawi as an economic refugee. Through a NEW ZION small group, he joined the church, found better employment, and was inspired to study. After once being an underpaid petrol attendant, he now holds a doctorate from the University of Kwazulu-Natal.
- Sibongile Dlamini was taken in by a NEW ZION member almost thirty years ago. The church paid for her tertiary studies; today she is a qualified teacher, married with three daughters, the eldest of which is a medical doctor.
- Pastor Richard Gumbi grew up as the child of a farm worker and nearly became a statistic of political violence in the early 90s. Today, he and his wife, Pastor Thandi, lead NEW ZION Pietermaritzburg West, a beacon of hope in a troubled community. Pastor Thandi, a qualified teacher, also developed the church’s NGO to the point that it secured millions from USAID for TB projects.
How You Can Become Part of the Story?
You can become part of the New Zion family and our mission to build.
- Get in Touch: Provide your contact details to receive regular updates on our progress. We also want to hear from you. We aim to feature stories from our extended family every week — including yours.
- Read Our History: In 2024, we published Forty Stories Forty Years, an anthology chronicling the adventures of NEW ZION members past and present.
- Give: To give towards securing a permanent home for our Hanover Park congregation and others like it, please follow the prompts on our giving page.