Chapter Two: The History, Demography and Method of Operation of the DCC
2.2 Fred Roberts
The following information is drawn from the members of staff at the DCC, family members, and the autobiography of Fred and Nellie Roberts, All Things Possible (2004). It is essential to discuss the parentage and childhood of the founder of the DCC in order to establish his early influences and describe
The stories of William Seymour, Charles Parham, John G. Lake and other key Pentecostal figures in history, reveal the impact of healing on the direction of their lives and ministries.
important events that contributed to the formation his theological beliefs. Fred Roberts was born on 26 April 1932, the seventh child of Gertruida and Llewellyn Roberts, and had three older brothers and three older sisters. Penny (in Roberts 2004: ix) describes the circumstances surrounding Roberts' birth;
the dark and difficult days of the great depression and the going was tough - tough [sic] enough even for a mother who came from hardy Huguenot pioneer stock, and who was trying to raise a family of bright and talented but hungry children and who wondered what would be the hope and destiny of this one - her coming seventh child... Fred's mother prayed to the Lord that this child should be another Paul with a burning heart, a wide vision, and a kingdom calling; chosen like Paul (2004: ix).
It is important to point out that Roberts' mother and father were converted under the ministerial influence of John G. Lake55. Both his parents became devout Pentecostals as the direct result of the Pentecostal penetration into South Africa by preachers who had witnessed the effects of the Azusa56 street revival.
According to Roberts (2004:3), "[t]his type of sovereign move of God was not uncommon as the whole region was experiencing revival under Lake's stewardship at that time".
Roberts relates his mother's experience of the Holy Spirit when she was a young unmarried woman as follows:
Every night as a family they sat around the farmhouse table and read the Bible together. During one of those evening Bible studies, mom had a highly unusual experience. The Holy Spirit fell on her and she began speaking in tongues, giving loud praise to God (2004:3).
Although Roberts' mother and her family did not understand this phenomenon at that time, they later received and accepted teaching from a Pentecostal minister on this subject. Roberts described his father as "resolutely irreligious"
(2004:2). A near fatal fall from a horse, which left his father unconscious and fighting for his life in hospital, became the catalyst for his father's conversion.
He describes the incident:
Dad had no family in the area, but one of his friends had been converted under John G Lake, a great healing evangelist and pioneer The arrival of John G. Lake in South Africa during 1908 is described in Maxwell (1999:246).
The Azusa Street revival is discussed in Hollenweger (1972:22-24).
of the Pentecostal movement who'd travelled and ministered through South Africa in those years. This friend came to my father's hospital bedside, laid hands on him and prayed. The Lord saved and healed Dad miraculously. Two weeks later he was discharged, fit and well, to the sheer disbelief of the doctors, and from that day forward he served the Lord with all his heart, a complete reversal of who he'd been (2004:2-3).
Roberts described his parents as devout Pentecostals as a result of their own unique experiences. The household that they had established was characterised by a Pentecostal lifestyle. The Roberts family held prayer meetings and other gospel services at their home. Roberts' childhood days were filled with memories of a lively household, flowing with ministers, singers, and people who attended the meetings at their residence.
Throughout his childhood years, Roberts noted that he was taught to believe in divine healing.
For most of my childhood not a single method of modern medicine was employed to make us well, nor a doctor called or a hospital visited. Instead, mom and dad anointed us with oil and prayed the prayer of faith, believing we would be well. And amazingly, we were (2004:5).
Roberts' belief in divine healing was shaken when he found himself lying in a hospital bed for the first time. Being struck with a severe bout of amoebic dysentery, Roberts stated that he was confronted with the issues of salvation and healing. Being surrounded by the sick and dying rudely awakened him to the issues of life and death. In spite of the impact of his Pentecostal environment, Roberts notes, "[f]or all my godly upbringing and biblical learning the essence of the gospel and its transformative power had not peeped into my inner man. I had not accepted the Lord and I knew I needed to ...I knew with crystal clarity that I had heaven to gain or hell to shun" (2004:6-7). He made his choice in the hospital room by uttering the following prayer: "Lord, come into my heart. Save me!" (2004:7)
It was during his time of convalescence that Roberts began what he calls his
"journey of faith" (2004:7). He explains, "[a]s my father had been thrown from his saddle and placed on the narrow path, and my mother turned to the reality of the Holy Spirit and his work, now I was beginning my own journey of faith"
(2004:7). Ironically, Roberts began his "journey of faith" with the certainty of death. He speaks of his realisation that "there was no doubt that death would come and I was not ready to face it". Roberts decided to deal with this question in his hospital room and thus experienced not only healing but also being "born again" (2004:7).
Shortly after this distressing time, Roberts began attending the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Durban with his brothers Gideon and Charles Roberts. While attending a Wednesday evening prayer meeting at Gideon Roberts' house he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He describes the experience as follows,
"the Spirit of God came on me so powerfully that I started to shake violently and speak loudly in tongues" (2004:9). According to Roberts, he was so overwhelmed by the power of the Holy Spirit that he could not even walk. For two days after this initial experience he continually spoke in tongues. He described the days that followed in the following manner, "The days after that was a swirl of prayer meetings, Bible reading, praising God, and camp meetings put on by the Full Gospel Tabernacle" (2004:10). In his enthusiasm, Roberts began to ask everyone at these meetings whether they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. He indicated that his passion was to "preach the gospel and minister healing to the sick" (2004:14). He explained that he felt so radically refreshed and invigorated after he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit that he gave up his ambition to become an airline pilot in order to become a preacher (2004:10).
It was during this time that Nellie Roberts' family moved from Pietermaritzburg to Durban and they also began attending the Full Gospel Tabernacle. It was in this context that Fred and Nellie Roberts began their courtship; their days were characterised by much activity. "Nellie and I were the most enthusiastic Christian workers imaginable and the busiest" (2004:12). However, in spite of
their full involvement in ministry, Fred and Nellie Roberts were determined to set their priorities in order. According to Fred, there was a strong realisation of the importance of time spent "in the presence of God" (2004:12). A significant experience that Fred and Nellie shared was their desire to sing in the choir at the Durban City Hall during William Branham's57 meetings. Together they were deeply influenced by what they witnessed. Fred recounts this unique experience: "Nellie and I were in the choir, no more than ten feet from Branham and had a close up view as he operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit with such power and accuracy that it struck me as being like the book of Acts" (2004:12).
Roberts attended the Assemblies of God Bible school in England, which was regarded as the oldest Pentecostal Bible College in the world. The principal at that time was Donald Gee58 and Roberts was taught and mentored by Pentecostal name brands such as Howard Carter59, John Carter60, and Harold Horton61 (2004:18).
2.3 The ministry of Fred and Nellie Roberts
Being young and full of enthusiasm, Fred and Nellie Roberts were excited about their first ministry appointment which was in Livingstone in Northern Rhodesia, as it was then known. Roberts found himself in a pioneering situation at a time of political unrest, which did not deter the young couple. Roberts recalls the initial days of his ministry in Livingstone;
I started out with a congregation of two, a couple named Fromington.
It was their humble home we stayed in as we surveyed the town and the challenge of pioneering a work in this far-flung place that bore the name David Livingstone, the great missionary explorer. There were no Pentecostal churches there, indeed, there were hardly any churches at all, and so we started sharing the gospel with people and began a little Sunday school for children. People started coming to our little church and getting saved, just as we'd hoped. We baptised
57 Branham is further discussed in Burgess and Van de Maas (eds) International Dictionary of Pentecostal Charismatic Movements (IDPCM) (2002: 440-441).
58 See IDPCM (2002:662-663).
59 See IDPCM (2002:456).
60 See IDPCM (2002:456-457).
61 See IDPCM (2002:772-773).
our first converts in the crocodile-infested Zambezi River...
(2004:23).
The church in Livingstone grew to approximately one hundred members when Roberts handed the ministry to a more seasoned pastor, so they returned to South Africa (2004:25). After Livingstone, the next pastorate for Fred and Nellie Roberts was in Estcourt, a small town in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Fred Roberts decided to join the Full Gospel Church. He spent a year studying theology so that he could be ordained by the denomination he "wanted to affiliate with" (2004:25). These were challenging times for the Roberts' as they tried to establish their new church and establish their young family. Fred Roberts described their move to Estcourt: "It was a faith venture, which is to say we had absolutely no furniture or creature comforts. As usual the church gave us nothing for payment and there was no other Pentecostal church in the city".
In spite of all their hardship their zeal for evangelism did not wane.
A notable incident which took place in Estcourt left an indelible impression on Fred Roberts' mind. The couple prayed for a church building that could seat two hundred people (2004:32). Roberts believes that God instructed him to ask the richest man in the town for some land. Roberts made enquires and learnt that a certain Mr. Cook was this man. After some deliberation, Mr. Cook agreed to give ten acres of land at no cost to the church. Roberts later decided to leave Estcourt and return to Durban. Fifteen years later Roberts was invited by a pastor from Estcourt, Dermot Saunders, to minister at a three day crusade in the Estcourt town hall. When Roberts told his audience about the land that "God miraculously gave him [on which] to build a church", a certain man from the congregation reported to him that he had bought nine of the acres from the church but his plans to use them never materialised. Whenever he tried to sell the land he began to shake violently. The man explained to Roberts,
I learned a valuable lesson that men and women who give houses and land to the Lord for the ministry of the gospel have built a living memorial. Tonight I realise this is God's land. You must have it for your church. Not only that but I will give you all the material you need to build the church (2004:34).
After pastoring churches in Livingstone and Estcourt their next destination was Malvern, a suburb of Durban. Fred and Nellie Roberts pastored a Full Gospel Church there.
Dreams and ideas crowded my mind now in Malvern and I wanted to constantly expand, plant and build. Anything less made me feel like a caged bird. If my church wasn't growing and adding ministries, what was the use? I began to reach other pastors who were content to have a small stable church, enough to provide income. But if I couldn't get a church to grow, I figured I might as well quit, go into business, make a lot of money and give it to the ministry (2004:39).
The Malvern experience was bittersweet for Roberts. On one hand there were times of great blessings, on the other, times of great struggle; there were times of tears and times of joy, times of fulfilment and times of deep frustration.
Instead of these experiences overwhelming him, they served to make him more determined to pursue his goal of evangelism.
He later visited the United States where he planned to start a church in California. It was there that the "Lord spoke" to him and told him to build a
"house of prayer for all nations". His wife confirmed this calling, and was in agreement with his decision to start this ministry.
The Roberts returned to South Africa. The political situation during the 70's and 80's was amongst the most turbulent in South African history. Inter-racial gatherings were strictly prohibited. However, determined to obey his vision, Roberts exposed his congregation to inter-racial fellowship. This move caused great waves of disapproval in the Full Gospel leadership, which at that time was racially divided, and accepted government policies.
It was obvious right from the start that this was a significant move of the Holy Spirit, and Pastor Fred and Nellie Roberts were led to leave their particular denomination in the suburb of Malvern, Durban, where they had spent 21 years in ministry, building a very strong church (The DCC promotional booklet, Welcome62 (2004:2).
This move occurred because Roberts, being regarded as a rebel, was subsequently expelled from the Full Gospel Church. He suffered alienation and
62 See appendix E p.284for the DCC welcome booklet.
persecution from his peers. In certain instances, when people from the Full Gospel Church would see Roberts on the street, they would actually walk across the street to get away so as to show their dissatisfaction and disgust.
Despite these and other events that humiliated Roberts, he pursued his vision for "a house of prayer for all nations". His multi-racial church services were closely monitored by undercover members of the South African Police, who were planted in the congregation, in order to screen the services for any anti- government propaganda, and any incitement against the apartheid policies of the time63.
According to Roberts, certain individuals were given the task of obtaining any information that would defame his character; however, this ploy was unsuccessful. Roberts was so intent on a united church in Durban that he even approached the Full Gospel leadership for the purpose of "gaining their forgiveness even though he had not done anything wrong". He wanted the churches in Durban to be in a right relationship with each other. It was with this intention and in this time, in a deeply racially divided Durban, that the DCC opened its doors.
Roberts is driven by the need to reach as many people as possible with the gospel. Members of staff, members of the congregation and family, regard him as a man with a "big heart", full of love for people, despite race or religious differences. He is motivated by passion and a great evangelical thrust, to such a degree that almost every event, including a funeral, is an opportunity to have an altar call. Roberts had a certain dream, which demonstrates his priority. In this dream he has just been shot and, as he falls to the ground he asks, "Do you know Jesus? ...do you know Jesus? There is a consensus among staff at the DCC concerning Roberts' character. He is described as "down to earth", "non- reactional", "a good listener", "thoughtful", "an incredible example of Christ's love", "a guardian angel" and "a special unique person".
Information on this page drawn from conversations with Llewellyn Roberts, the grandson of Fred Roberts in December 2005.
In December 2004 Fred and Nellie Roberts celebrated "fifty years of marriage and ministry64". At a glitzy event held in Durban's plush International Conference Centre, the Roberts' celebrated together with some members of their congregation, family and well-wishers from across the country and the world. Special audio-visual presentations were screened which included
pictures of the couple in earlier years and the various churches they had pastored. The couple walked into the celebration in true African style: a praise singer led their way down a red carpet into the banquet hall with cheers and ululating from the crowd. They continue to view themselves as the "spiritual parents" of the members in their congregation and the other churches that they influence and oversee. At a December 2005 Christmas lunch for associated pastors, Fred Roberts explained that he plans to invest more time in both local and international "younger ministers and ministries". He wishes to serve in an
"apostolic"65 capacity, advising and encouraging fledgling ministers. The reins of leadership over the congregation, church affairs and future of the DCC are presently placed in the hands of John and Joy Torrens.
64 See appendix F p.293 for the brochure of this event: 50 years of marriage and ministry.
65 Charismatic Christians refer to pastors who travel extensively to influence and advise and encourage other church leadership and their members as operating in an "apostolic anointing".
According to my observation, many of the pastors who receive this title come from established Charismatic churches that are financially viable, possess strong international links and exercise influence over smaller churches that seek assistance. The use of this term has increased in South Africa since the introduction of American Christian television, which has been broadcast in the country since 2002. The term "apostolic" carries with it a sense of awe and respect amongst Charismatics since they believe people who are called apostles are higher ranking in terms of power, wisdom and insight. The office of apostle is bestowed upon an individual by a church, prominent leader or denomination. This title is coveted and is also used (or abused) by individuals who bestow it upon themselves, owing to the "title craze" that has swept over Pentecostal/Charismatic leaders in recent years.