Who gets your Amen?
- Chanté Schatz
Millions put their faith in religious leaders despite some dramatic exposés of untrustworthy conduct.
A congregation gathers around a pastor on his birthday. There is singing, prayer and celebration. Then comes the surprise: the church presents him with a luxury car.
Across the country, a teenager scrolls through TikTok. Between dance videos and skincare routines, a young pastor appears on screen. "God put this message on my heart for someone today," he says, looking directly into the camera as a scripture flashes across the screen.
Meanwhile, headlines continue to surface about churches accused of financial misconduct, spiritual abuse and cult-like behaviour.
South Africans have watched allegations of sexual and physical abuse unfold around the KwaSizabantu Mission in KwaZulu-Natal. They have debated the influence of the Seven Angels Ministry in Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape, a church that made national headlines after a deadly shootout with police linked to a botched cash-in-transit heist. Yet despite these scandals, millions continue to trust pastors, churches and faith communities.
Why?
It is tempting to assume the answer is blind faith. However, according to researcher Shongile Myeza, that explanation misses something important. The real currency is not belief. It is belonging.
Photo by Safar Consoler
Family ties
Myeza, a Master’s candidate in Social and Psychological Research, studies churches as what social researchers call "third spaces" – places outside of home and work where people build relationships, identity and community.
For many people, churches do far more than offer spiritual guidance.
Every Sunday, millions of South Africans still fill churches across the country. Not because they cannot see the headlines but because churches offer something many people struggle to find elsewhere. Kinship. Acceptance. Inclusion.
"It plays a huge role in trying to figure out where you want to go in life," says Myeza. "The person at the top is your role model in terms of career and in terms of relationships."
For some people, church is where they find mentors. For others, it is where they build professional networks, find parenting advice or meet the people that they will eventually call family.
"Community is big," says Myeza. "Church members become the people you do life with.
Networks
That sense of belonging helps explain a contradiction that often frustrates outsiders. Why do people stay when they see warning signs? Why do followers defend pastors accused of wrongdoing? Why do congregations continue supporting leaders after financial controversies or public scandals?
Part of the answer is that leaving a church rarely means leaving a single individual. It means leaving friendships, routines, support systems and a community built over years.
"Finding a new pastor is difficult," says Myeza. "To find a church, start again, building a community. Who can you trust?"
Faith online
The same dynamic is increasingly playing out online.
TikTok has become home to a new generation of faith influencers offering everything from relationship advice to daily devotionals. Some attract huge audiences by appearing authentic and relatable. Others rise quickly before falling from grace just as fast.
"Faith influencers rise and fall in cycles," says Myeza. "Someone gains an audience, changes their beliefs or walks away from faith and followers are left searching again. As you flip, there's always, ‘okay, now I have to find something else’.”
People are constantly searching for voices that they can trust. Part of that trust comes from relatability. According to Myeza, many charismatic pastors are skilled at connecting scripture to everyday struggles. "Many of the pastors come from low economic backgrounds, so they know what it is to struggle and they know what poverty is," she says.
Through personal stories and practical advice, pastors create the feeling that they understand the realities that their congregations face. For younger audiences, youth pastors often become aspirational figures in their own right – people who seem successful, confident and relatable at the same time. Trust, Myeza suggests, is built not only on belief but also on the sense that someone understands where you have come from and where you hope to go.
Evangelicals abroad
The search for trusted voices is not unique to South Africa.
Research by Dr Rodrigo Campos of King's College London found that evangelical chaplaincy groups have expanded their reach within Brazil's police force by providing services traditionally associated with welfare and mental health support.
Officers dealing with trauma, burnout and personal crises could access 24-hour counselling, support networks, and around-the-clock chaplaincy assistance. According to Campos, these initiatives gained traction because they responded to needs that many officers felt were not being adequately addressed elsewhere.
In his words, "If there is a problem, evangelicals present a solution."
Campos' research revealed something important about human nature. Communities are rarely held together by fear alone. More often, they are held together by "aspiration, pride, friendship, camaraderie and solidarity". In other words, belonging comes first. Influence follows. That is what makes trust such a powerful force.
The same pastor who becomes the centre of controversy may also be the person praying beside a hospital bed. The same church criticised from the outside may be the place where someone found friendship after years of loneliness. However, this does not excuse exploitation, nor does it mean that churches should be immune from scrutiny.
Campos warns that influence often grows from care. Once people trust a community, they become more open to its messages, values and worldviews. What begins as support can evolve into something far more powerful, and potentially insidious.
- Chanté Schatz is a freelance writer.
- This article first appeared in CURIOS.TY, a research magazine produced by  and the .
- Read more in the 21st issue, themed #Trust — the invisible glue binding society, science and technology.