Like many young professionals, Dumisani Mavuso moved to the city of Ermelo, South Africa, for work. He's a processing specialist at a chrome mining company, and his wife, Thulile, is a unit controller at Eskom, a power company.

 

Ermelo, a city of more than 40,000 people, is known for its mining and farming industries, which attract workers and their families to move to the city's middle-class suburbs.

 

The population shift from rural areas to cities is happening globally. A major focus for the Church of the Nazarene's Africa Region is to follow this transition by planting more churches in the cities.

 

God placed a call on the Mavusos' hearts to start a church in Ermelo. In 2013, they took on a pastor role at a Nazarene church in Chrissiesmeer, a neighboring town.  

 

But their passion to plant a church near their home in Ermelo continued to grow. Many of their neighbors — other young families who moved to the city for work — did not have a church home.

 

"I would say here in Ermelo, most people who are really concerned about church and God are the older people," Thulile said. "For the younger generation, it's a thing of, you know, we're going to a club on the weekend."

 

There is an Ermelo Church of the Nazarene, where Thulile was raised, but it is located in the township, a residential area on the outskirts of town.

 

"We just saw the community and felt like people need to worship God closer to their homes," Thulile said.

 

The Mavusos' vision gained momentum when another young couple from their church, Robby and Adonhetia Motubatse, came alongside them with the same call. The couple also moved to Ermelo for employment; Robby is an animal scientist with the Department of Agriculture.

 

Robby said he had moved twice before for work, and both times he left a city, he felt God asking him, "What was your contribution to this area?"

 

"I would try to console myself, but I knew that I didn't contribute much," he said. When he moved to Ermelo in 2011, he wanted things to be different. "So it came to my heart to say, 'God, where I'm going now, I don't know the place, but I want to contribute to the Kingdom.'"

 

The two couples embraced their mission to plant a church. But they ran into some problems. For one, Robby said, it's more expensive to start a church in the city than in the townships. Secondly, they couldn't find a suitable space to rent.

 

"It was scary, because to start something in town, it needed a lot of muscles," Robby said. "But we just felt like if it's God who planted this idea in us, irrespective of the challenge of starting, then we'll take the bull by the horns."

 

The Motubatses opened up their garage to be used for church services, with the blessing of their neighbors and of their home church in Chrissiesmeer.

 

The new church, called New Vision Church of the Nazarene, held the first service in January of 2014. The couples now laugh thinking back at that small service of only nine attendees, including the four founders and the church secretary, Mrs. Priscilla Munzhelele. They had 20 chairs and were hoping for a bigger start.

 

"It was like we were crazy," Pastor Dumisani said. But the  nine began to grow. Within five months, up to 40 people were attending. In May of 2014, New Vision moved into a rented space. The following year, when their rented space was unexpectedly downsized, church members raised money and purchased a tent and chairs. One member, Mr. Collins, offered to let them set up the tent on his land in town.

 

The church leaders began to see God making a difference in members' lives. Families who were going through struggles would call them for prayer and support, and would later report how God helped them through. The church started two cell groups that meet during the week, and youth meet every Saturday.

 

Thulile envisions the church becoming a well-known center in the community where people with struggles such as drug addictions can come find help. Dumisani wants to go back to school for a marriage and family counseling degree. Robby recently registered at the Nazarene Theological College in Johannesburg to obtain a bachelor's degree in theology.

 

All four share leadership roles at the church. Pastor Dumisani typically preaches, Pastor Robby and Pastor Thulile organize Sunday school, and Pastor Adonhetia leads worship.

 

The topics of discussion, the style of music and the mode of outreach are all focused on drawing younger generations to Jesus, Thulile said. "We are looking in all those areas where we can try to meet them halfway to say, you know, Jesus is not this hard person, this dull (person) with no enjoyment at all," she said.

 

New Vision held a revival week in May and invited Africa South Field Strategy Coordinator Mashangu Maluleka to speak. Up to 70 people squeezed into the 5-by-10-meter tent.

 

"It was very clear to me that the tent was too small for going forward," Maluleka said.

 

He was touched by the commitment of this small, young church to raise money for their temporary sanctuary. But he wanted the church to have more room to grow.

 

With the support of Africa Regional Director Filimao Chambo, the region and the Africa South Field partnered to buy New Vision a 9-by-15-meter tent, along with 100 chairs, two tables and a toilet. The money came out of a new urban ministry outreach fund.

 

"Fili and I are committed to this drive to the cities," Maluleka said. "... The main purpose, the main drive for reaching the cities, is responding to the 21st century reality that people are moving to the cities."

 

That reality is especially strong in South Africa, he said. During the apartheid era, black Africans weren't allowed to live in white suburbs and were pushed to government-built townships on the outskirts of cities. Now, 20 years after the end of apartheid, a diverse mix of young professionals are moving to the cities. The Nazarene Church needs to meet them there, Maluleka said.

 

"Most of our people are in the maintenance mood. They don't mind driving 100 kilometers back to the township church and leave the people here (in the city). So we need people who can think outside of the box, people who can go where people are," he said.

 

Money is not an obstacle for God, Maluleka said.

 

"God will never give you a vision that he will not fund," he said. "God is not in the business of frustrating us. If he sends you to a city, if he sends you to something, he will resource you for something."

 

The pastors at New Vision want to take this gift they have received and multiply its impact.

 

"We want to see New Vision being a home to the community, and we also want to see New Vision contributing to the planting of other churches in other towns, even in our villages," Pastor Robby said. "We are being assisted now, as you are seeing, so we must be able to learn from that and also contribute to the success of other churches."