Staff Reporter
MASVINGO – Harvest House International Church pastor, Reverend Tichavaka Hlomayi recently launched two books titled The Power of Agreement and Surviving the Perils of Leadership.
The Power of Agreement was published in 2019 and Surviving the Perils of Leadership in 2022 but the former’s launch was affected by Covid-19 restrictions prompting the pastor to write the latter and decided to launch the two books the same day.
The launch was held at the local church in Masvingo town and the books are being sold at US$ 10 each.
In the first book, Rev Hlomayi talks about how important it is for leaders and their subordinates to be in agreement and highlight ways in which they can work in unison for the benefit of the church or any other organization.
The book helps leaders to build teams, teaching how important it is for each person to know his or her jurisdiction to allow moving together giving practical and biblical examples of conflicts and how they were resolved.
In the second book, he talks about how challenging leadership is; it warns and prepares would-be-leaders to build the stamina needed in every leader and master the art of survival.
“Leadership is like a jungle and one needs to be prepared before taking any leadership role, so from my life experiences as a leader and lessons learnt along the way, I saw it fit to prepare others,” said Rev Hlomayi.
He said the idea to write books was inspired by a number of reasons informed by the need to reach a wide number of audiences which cannot be reached through preaching in church.
“I have discovered that a year has only 52 weeks and we mainly preach in churches on Sundays and that time is not enough. I was also driven by the need to reach to other audiences who are not our congregants, so books are accessible to anyone,” said Rev Hlomayi.
He also said he was a reader and listener who discovered that people have a reading culture hence he could use books to teach.
“I am a reader and also a listener and with a number of pastors including our Bishop being writers, I decided also to put my teachings into books,” he added.
Rev Hlomayi also said his two books teach about leadership which was informed by his own life experiences and lessons which he said he wanted to share with other leaders and those who aspire to be leaders.
Rev Hlomayi went on to say he was working on two more books which he intend to finish by year end for publishing early next year.
He said he started writing in 2015 but the book he started working on then is yet to be finished and is almost halfway.
“I started writing in 2015 but my first publication was in 2019. I am yet to finish the book I started in 2015 and it’s almost halfway now,” he said.
He added that he has a supportive family and the church was always behind him so it was not hard for him to write and publish books since the church had its own publishing house.
“I have a very supportive family and my second book’s cover was done by my son that is a clear testimony that they support my work.
“The church is behind me since most of our pastors and the Bishop are writers. I used the church publishing house and it was so cheap for me because publishing costs are high out there and it’s not easy to publish,” said Rev Hlomayi.
