To date, there is a rapid emergence of organized congregations and seminary events (held within Shembe temples) across the nine provinces of South Africa.

[5]: 18  During this time, he met the African Native Baptist Church (in Boksburg), which was led by Reverend William Leshega, who later baptized him on 22 July 1906.

[7] Messengers preceded his arrival into various parts of Natal, proclaiming that "A Man of Heaven" had been sent by God to preach to the African people.

He formed the Ibandla lamaNazaretha (the Nazaretha Baptist Church) in 1913, with his converts consisting primarily of poverty-stricken migrants living at the margins of Natal's urban areas.

In 1911, he purchased a freehold farm and established a holy city at eKuphakameni that sought in part to keep his people on the land free of white control.

His exhortation and strict religious regimens turned his followers into a distinctive group known for their honesty, punctuality, and work ethic.

In addition to his preaching and healing, Shembe was known for composing numerous Zulu hymns and sacred dances, for creating sacred costumes that combined Zulu and European clothing styles, for developing a new liturgical calendar (that omitted Christmas, Easter, and Sunday worshipping), and for dietary laws that included a restriction against eating chicken, pork and other unclean foods as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

In the 1930s, Shembe (who was an autodidact in terms of literacy and theology) commissioned his neighbour, John Dube, to write his biography.

His bona fides as a prophet are questioned, while his ability to extract financial contributions from his membership is highlighted.

Oosthuizen argued that the movement was "a new religion that sees Isaiah Shembe as 'the manifestation of God.'"

On the one hand, Oosthuizen was attacked by Bengt Sundkler and Absolom Vilakazi as being too westernized to understand Zulu culture, and claimed that the movement remained Christian.