Reformed Baptist Preachers in Zambia

*There's alot more where these came from!

• Kennedy Sunkutu






Pastor Kennedy Sunkutu

    Ps Sunkutu is one of my most favourite preachers. This is true of my friends as well. Many times we have altered our plans, when we've heard that he is in town, just to hear him preach.

He has a unique style of preaching. I feel like he speaks in an almost... rhythmic manner. You can almost dance to his sermon. He has a way of emphasizing certain syllables in his pronouncement of words causing the words to stand out and remain ringing between your ears. For instance, he may say 'essss-taaaa-blished' for established or 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrepent' for repent. Also he tends to add the sound “eeee” before words throughout his sermon, something which I particularly love! For instance, 'eeee-that', or 'eeee-Jesus'.

Ps Sunkutu has, arguably, the deepest voice among Zambian Reformed Baptist preachers as far as I know although when he begins preaching, he changes it. He only uses his usual voice when saying a few words before the sermon, when praying and when giving illustrations. He is an extremely passionate preacher. And when he is approaching terminal velocity in his sermon, he waves his finger a lot and throws one leg forward. He also also has a tendency of putting his hand on his hip.

As for his content, Ps Sunkutu has a great mind and his sermons are always insightful. He also has an applicatory preaching style. He will always ask questions in his sermons to his audience such as, “Is that you my friend?” Throughout his sermons he usually addresses his crowd by the phrase/name “dear friends”.

There are at least two quotes that I’ll never forget by Ps Sunkutu, namely:

“For him it was business as usual.”
He said this with his closed eyes and waving his finger while pulling arm outward. This was said in reference to the Inn Keeper in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“Here I am, send me.” “We see two things from the onset [in our text], availability and willingness.”
Introduction to his sermon on the call of Jeremiah.

• Choolwe Mwetwa





Pastor Choolwe Mwetwa

   If you want to prove that preaching is an art, use one of Ps Choolwe Mwetwa's sermons. When he is in town, plans get cancelled and it is non-negotiable. My friends and I rarely get to hear him because he is based on the Copperbelt. One of my friends particularly cannot get enough of him and is always mimicking him and quoting him much to our amusement. Pastor Mwetwa arguably has the richest voice among Reformed Baptist preachers in Zambia. He sounds like two people are talking at the same time when he speaks.

He is very funny and rarely laughs at the jokes he himself cracks from the pulpit, maintaining a serious disposition only making the things he says more funny. He is perhaps, also, the most hard working Reformed Baptist preacher in Zambia as he literally dances in the pulpit when he is on fire. His sermons are well thought through and are thus captivating and interesting. Hearing him preach is an education for me because I always learn atleast one new word. In his last sermon I must have written down over four. Apart from his very charismatic mannerisms, he never shouts in the pulpit but actually uses some kind of monotone.

• Isaac Makashinyi





Pastor Isaac Makashinyi

   Pastor Makashinyi is definitely one of my favourite preachers. I just love his preaching. Also, he puts 'cool' on the word Pastor. One friend of mine said of him that he is a man who has proved that the ministry is not merely a place for men who couldn't do anything or failed everywhere else in life (as the perception tends to be), but ought to be a place for brilliant men. Pastor Makashinyi is a great preacher, his insight into God's word and his delivery are very good. The last time I heard him preach it was a classic.

Ask anyone what comes to mind when they hear Isaiah 40. "Comfort". "For the oppressed", most will probably say. He took that text of scripture and when he asked us to turn there I immediately thought it would be around the theme of comfort but to my amazement it was about 'preaching'. Who would think even remotely that Isaiah 40 could be used to explain what sound preaching is all about? Or am I just expressing my ignorance? Well, I sat there knowing full well that I would have never seen that in the text.

I haven't heard Ps Makashinyi a whole lot but hope to hear alot more of him. From the little I have observed about his style I think he uses his arms alot especially when stressing points. He has a constant smile on his face and is very eloquent.

• Grave Singogo





Pastor Grave Singogo

   Among all the preachers in this piece of writing, I have heard Ps Singogo the least and yet his sermons stick. I have attended many meetings where people are selecting preachers to speak at an event scheduled to come up and his name is almost always the first suggested. He is obviously very difficult to 'book' but people don't stop suggesting him. Some of the most outstanding things about Ps Singogo is the texts from which he preaches. I've heard him preach from Proverbs and before that from 2 Samuel (I think) and both were evangelistic sermons from texts that would not particularly strike you as evangelistic.

• Conrad Mbewe



Pastor Conrad Mbewe

 Last but by no means least, is my very own father. Growing up listening to my father, I didn't think much of his preaching but that was probably because I was unregenerate and was thus dead to what I was hearing. I noticed from an early age that my father travelled alot to preach. For some reason I thought every other preacher I knew travelled just as much. When I realised that my father travelled alot more frequently and extensively than the other preachers I knew, my view of his preaching shot to unrealistic heights. Infact, I would get so surprised to hear that some church members would leave the church due to transfers to other towns by their employers. I thought they'd sooner quit their jobs than be moved to another town and thus be separated from the great preaching of my father! I soon grew out of that obviously.

Well, what made me realise (for myself) that my dad was actually good at what he did were my friends. They would praise his sermons so much that I finally decided to listen carefully and sure enough, I soon began to marvel at his preaching.

Many things stand out about my fathers preaching. The most outstanding thing as pointed out, again by my friends, is how he tries his best to stick to and be true to the text he is preaching from.