**4. The rationale for studying the AFM in Zimbabwe Church**

According to Ndlovu ([2], pp. 1-4) is presently one of the fastest-growing Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. It is also considered to be the mother of Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe [2, 3]. AFM is an offshoot of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFMSA) (Hwata, 2015; [2–6]). Ndlovu ([2], p. 119) further argues that;

*Langton Kupara became the first A.F.M.Z.'s black Superintendent in 1983. According to Madziyire and Risinamhodzi (2016, p. 73) Pastor Gashwend officially handed over A.F.M. to local leadership in 1983. During the occasion Gashwend gave Langton Kupara a golden watch, making the complete transformation of A.F.M.S.A. into A.F.M.Z.*

Several studies that have been undertaken from within the context of the AFM have both directly and indirectly alluded to the leadership crisis that is becoming evident in the AFM [2, 3, 5–10]. It is also worth noting that right at the beginning of this work to this present day, AFM has been characterised by innuendos that suggest that the gigantic Pentecostal movement is embroiled in its worst power contestation ever since it became an indigenous church ([2], pp. 1-4; [3, 5, 8]). According to The AFM New Life Assembly Church of Chitungwiza, Harare, website: 'The work of the AFM in Zimbabwe is said to have begun in 1915 in Gwanda through the preaching of Zacharias Manamela, a convert of the AFM of South Africa.'1 Similarly, Chivasa [7] observes that, "It has long been recognised that the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe church is the mother of Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe (Hwata 2005, p. 27; [4], p. 18; [3], p. 31; [6], p. 2). In 2015, the AFM in Zimbabwe celebrated 100 years of active ministry across Zimbabwe (Madziyire & Risinamhodzi 2015, p. 105; Murefu 2015, p. 1) and the denomination claims to have more than two million members (http://www.pindula.co.zw) in a population of 13 million people ([4], p. 17)."

Additionally, several young churches look up to AFMZ as a role model of Pentecostalism that is not only pastoring its members only but it is pastoring other churches too. Machingura [4] further posits that, "The interest on AFM cannot be overlooked considering the number of followers that the church commands, yet surprisingly not much has been done by scholars in terms of research save to mention in passing its existence as one of the biggest Pentecostal churches" [4]. The motivation to conduct this analysis was sparked by two factors. The first was the prevalence of leadership succession-related power contestation in the AFM. The second was that no efforts to date have been made to examine the change of the traditional model of transferring power as the main contributing factor to the widespread power contestation that has engendered incessant schisms in the church under review. As such the current study attempts to fill this gap and it makes a case for the need to resurrect the traditional institutionalised

<sup>1</sup> See, for example, [11].

*Organizational Conflict - New Insights*

leadership succession planning trend as well as advocates for the responsible management of appreciations as the panacea to the conflict of power that is currently rocking the AFM in Zimbabwe. To interrogate the conflict of power, this research was guided by the following three questions: What evidence is there that there is a conflict of power associated with leadership succession in the AFM? Which factor(s) mainly contributed to the widespread conflict of power in the AFM? How significant is the traditional model of transferring power and appreciations at the top level in the AFM?
