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This message was given at Grace
Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information
about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. All right, it's a joy to be with
you once again. And what I am doing is not my
usual hat. I'm more of a preacher than someone
who gives geography lessons or history lectures. But I will
do that nonetheless. And as you will notice there
on the screen, I'm dealing with the subject of the church in
Africa. And before I go into it, next
slide will be on my family there. And the reason why I've done
that is yesterday I was quite touched during the question and
answer session that quite a few questions were about my family,
and that's very unusual. I go from place to place preaching,
and apart from one or two old ladies during the cup of tea
asking me about my family, Everyone else just wants the word of God
and quickly get out of here. So I thought it would only make
sense, especially in the light of that, for me to just quickly
say one or two things about who's who. I will leave out the names
because they will just overwhelm you. They are all African names,
so there will just be quite a bit of confusion. But that's me there,
and that's my wife. Now, I do need to say a quick
thing about that picture. Our family right now is in that
stage, as you can see, the age range, they're in their 20s and
in different campuses of, you know, university or working somewhere
else, that we rarely ever together. And last month, rather the month
before in September, I was preaching somewhere outside the country,
when they realized that everyone was at home except me. So they
said, when you come back, we need to get a family picture.
So that's the latest thing that has happened, all because they
realized we were together for the first time after a very long
time. So as I said, that's my wife, Felistas. And then half
our children are adopted. The eldest is that girl there
who is in her mid-30s. That's her husband and two grandchildren
there. followed by this girl here who
is working now. She just began working last month. We have a traditional practice
back home in Africa that when your child gets his or her first
job, the salary comes to you, the parents. Now, that's the
way it is in theory. In practice, she simply buys
you a gift. This girl really believed it,
and she was saying, look, I've just begun in the middle of this
month, so please, if I can do it next month, and we really
had a big laugh about it, because it's not the whole salary that
really counts, it's just a gift. So anyway, we're expecting the
gift at the end of this month. And then is that gentleman there
who is a biological first born. He's also working, at the moment
is the only one at our home, so he's keeping my wife company
while I am out here. and then comes that gentleman
there who is currently in Cyprus. He was studying architecture,
graduated, but because he went in first year, second semester,
he's had to go back to do first year, first semester, and then
he's coming home. So that's what he's doing right
now, followed by this girl who graduated Last week, while I
was in the UK, it was a major anticlimax for all of us, but
they came up with the graduation day when it was a little too
late, and I just made sure there was the kind of gift that made
her immediately say, thank you, thank you, for answered prayer. So she's just graduated, and
she's the one I was saying is working for Vodipokam at the
moment, helping to look after his kids. And then lastly, I
spoke about a son who's adopted and the only one at the moment
who has not yet professed faith. So if you are to pray for him,
please do so. Thankfully, although his name
is a, a tongue twister in terms of a long African name because
they have exactly the same name as our eldest son. We call him
Biggie and we call him Small. So just remember Small. That's an English name, Small,
when you pray for him. Okay, thank you. So at least
you have some pictorial representation. Let's move on to Africa now.
I put that verse there in order to give a sense of context when
I'm sharing about either Zambia or Africa, and especially to
do with the church. I'd like the churches that I'm
sharing with to bear in mind that we're really talking about
the Great Commission. That's the reason why I'm sharing.
I'd like you to join your prayers with ours in the fulfillment
of the great command that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us.
So when I'm speaking, for instance, about economic poverty, I'm not
so much just saying, look, pray that we might end up with the
kind of wealth that is there in the West, because so what
if you're comfortable and end up in hell? The issue rather
is that we may have the means by which we can carry on the
great commission that our Lord Jesus has given us. Hence the
importance of that phrase. We were just singing about Jesus
Christ's resurrection, the triumph that he has done, and clearly
that's so that all authority might be given to him, and then
he's given us the task of going to make disciples of all nations.
Some of those nations are in Africa. and we ought to join
hands to achieve that and see the churches established and
consequently the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling the mandate that he
has been given in the Godhead to bring in the elect from the
four corners of the earth and then he will return to wrap up
history. All right? The usual best place to begin
is with a map of Africa, in case you are in the category of those
who are asking me where I come from, and I tell you it's Zambia,
and then when I ask you where it is, you start going like this.
Let me tell you where it is. All right, so you've got South
Africa there, and then immediately north you've got the more famous
Zimbabwe, and then immediately north of that you have Zambia,
and we are surrounded by quite a number of countries there.
That little point where I have my pointer is the one place you
need to visit for two reasons. One is, we have next to it, one
of the seven natural wonders of the world, which is the Victoria
Falls, or as we prefer to call it, the Mosiu Otunia. but also
just next day is the only place in the world where you have one,
two, three, four countries meeting together. It's the only place.
So you can come and take a picture there and you will speak about
its uniqueness. However, the reason why I've
brought that map of Africa is that often when you talk about
Africa, especially in the context of the U.S., people think the
way you think about the United States of America as sort of
one huge country. And yet, as you will see, it's
populated by so many countries, and also the size of the U.S. would probably only fit into
that corner there. So it's a very, very vast continent,
and I often divide it into three sections, which we will look
at in a few moments, one after the other. the Islamic North,
where you're basically cutting across the Sahara, and you're
talking in terms of that northern part there, which is largely
occupied by Arabs, so another way would be to call it the Arab
North, but it is part of Africa. There is a complete difference
of lifestyles, primarily because of the Arab lifestyle, also the
desert itself, although we have a bit of the desert down there
as well, and then because of Islam. So we feel as much when
we go to that part of the world, we feel as though we've gone
out of Africa because it's really a different cultural lifestyle. And then south of that, you have
two different ways of life and living. And one is what I refer to as
rural Africa. We'll talk about that in a moment.
And then the other is urban Africa. Yes, and then also when there
was the Ebola crisis, which really was a major disaster for us,
we were as far away from that disaster as you yourselves are.
It was happening in that corner there. And I can assure you,
it takes me eight hours to fly to that point. And it takes me
eight hours to go from here over to Washington. So that's how
far the situation was. But again, that's how vast Africa
is. Then one more point before we
leave that picture. You haven't only been hearing
about the Ebola crisis, but you've also been hearing, I'm sure,
a lot concerning the conflicts that are taking place between
Islam and Christianity. churches being burnt, people
being murdered in their hundreds, if not thousands, schoolgirls
being abducted, and up to now yet to be found, the Al-Shabaab coming down and
literally just raising down an entire college or university, killing, riddling with bullets
the students and so on. Again, Zambia is there. All that is happening along that
line. And it's largely Islam pushing
downwards and Christianity pushing upwards. So that's where all
that conflict is happening. You can cut Nigeria into half,
and then those inroads would have been in what is now southern
Sudan. The guys who are fighting there
are the ones that were invading Kenya. All that to say that where we
are, we are also just hearing about it. It concerns us because
we are Christians, the attacks are on Christians, and it's also
on our kith and kin in the sense that it's happening on our continent,
but it's further up, and so we're also just praying about it and
so forth. And one of the main reasons why
that is taking place is that, by and large, Islam is a territorial
religion. They don't seek to convert you
as an individual. They don't come to your home,
knock on your door, and start sharing with you their good news,
put in quotation marks. Rather, they tend to take over
governments. And once they've taken over a
government, then the entire area ruled by that government must
be ruled by their law. And so, really, the northern
part of Africa, that's what has happened. And now they are pushing
downwards. The Christian faith, on the other
hand, is one that evangelizes one by one. And the frustration
that is being felt along that line is that Muslims are getting
converted. And as they are getting converted,
it's a very clear movement of Christianity upwards. And the
imams, get really enraged when they realize this. And their
reaction is not so much let's also evangelize, it is these
Christians nearby are the ones who are doing this, therefore
let's destroy the churches. And that's really the philosophical
understanding of what is happening there. If one was to say what's the
solution, It's simply the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Islam won't change its
philosophical understanding. It's a militant faith wanting
to take over the world. The Christian church won't change
its philosophical understanding. We're also wanting to take over
the world through the gospel. And Christians won't stop evangelizing
unless they become disobedient to the Lord. But let's continue
praying, especially for that conflict region because that's
going to continue. It's amazing, every so often
I meet Christians from that part of the world. More recently,
one of them came to be with us in Zambia. And They speak as
though, look, this is life, this is what Christianity is. We continue
to share the gospel, people are getting saved, and yes, these
things are happening, pray for us, but that's life, that's Christianity. So let's continue praying for
them in that sense. And maybe just one more thing, Nigeria
and South Africa, I'll talk about them hopefully as I go along,
if I don't forget, but those are the two strongest economies
on the continent and fairly highly populated. Good, let's go to
the next slide. Okay, I've already talked quite
a bit about that, the Islamic North, and I will refer to it
again towards the end of my presentation. That's a part of the world that
is the least evangelized in terms of Africa itself. Historically, that's where the
Christian church began, and I'm quite sure that if you studied
church history, you have studied about that part of the world,
and then with the rise of Islam, the Muslims swept right across
Northern Africa from east heading towards the west and destroyed
the Christian faith in terms of its visibility. You can't destroy the Christian
faith completely and utterly, and Islam has since taken over
that part of the world. It's very, very difficult for
Christians to live there and also to attempt to evangelize
publicly. I'm sure you know that anyone
who turns then from Islam to Christianity largely endangers
his life physically and the The ratio of missionaries in that
part of the world compared to most of the rest of the world
is extremely low. Most of the missions work that's
taking place there is more in terms of individuals who go in
as professionals, they've got different jobs that they do there,
and then in a more sort of subtle way are continuing to share their
faith. In terms of Christianity, what
you have is more of orthodox Christianity, and by orthodox
I don't really mean sound. but it's really denominational,
the Greek Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and
so on and so forth, very traditional in its expression of the Christian
faith rather than the evangelical faith as you and I know it today. So when you pray for Northern
Africa, please remember those very unique circumstances and
difficulties that they are in even today. But please, as you
pray, remember it's not a defeated Christian faith. The church there
is also continuing to grow. It's not heading downwards, except
the pace is slower because of the reality that is there. Again, a lot of news comes to
you, I'm sure, through all kinds of news media. the downfall of quite a number
of their governments through what was then called the Arab spring, yes. I kept wanting to
say upswing, but that wasn't right. The Arab spring, yes.
So that's the political environment in which they are, and social
life has been largely disrupted, and that's continuing to be a
major challenge. There are a lot of Africans from
a little lower than the Arab North who are seeking to make
their way into Europe, and a lot of them are dying on the Mediterranean
Sea. Again, that's something that
must be news to you as much as it is to us. So again, that's
all taking place in that area. But the church is marching on.
Let's move on to the next slide. Okay, I've already introduced
that. South of the Sahara, when you
think in terms of Africa, think in terms of rural and also think
in terms of urban. In terms of rural Africa, perhaps
the best place to begin is that that's where Christianity south
of the Sahara began. That was the way Africa was. in the middle of the 19th century. There was no electricity, there
was no piped water, no tarred roads, no railway lines. Life
was extremely basic and that's where the pioneer missionaries
came to do their evangelistic and missions work. Initially,
most of that was along the coast, and then in due season, they
began to go into the interior. Individuals like David Livingstone,
who's been fairly well-known as a pioneer missionary, would
have been among those that entered into the heart of Africa. I've just done my PhD on the
earliest Baptist work in Zambia, and two individuals that were
extraordinary in my reading, was the first African leader
who, I'll skip for a moment, but the missionary who came and
gave his life lived the longest. In fact, she probably still is
maintaining the record of the longest service is a lady called
Olive Dock, who grew up in England, got converted in New Zealand,
and then with her parents moved to South Africa, and then later
on made her way into Zambia and lived there the longest period. But again, when you read those
accounts, they are heroic accounts of the Christian faith. I saw a number of the pictures
because I went to the archives in South Africa, and the house
she was living in was like that. extraordinary accounts. Busy trying to translate the
Bible into the local Lamba language, she hears a noise and turns around
and it's a snake that's about to bite her. It spits, but thankfully
she says, that was the one day in my life I thanked God I wore
glasses. and so forth, yeah. But speaking
generally, there are more professing Christians in rural Africa than
in urban Africa. So, missiologists would say,
that most of our work now is in urban Africa because that's
where we have a lot more work in evangelizing individuals. I think theoretically that is
correct. Practically, those of us who are in Africa feel that
most of our work is reaching now the rural areas. The reason
is because a lot of the Christianity in rural areas is tribal. For instance, my father is Nyanja,
my mother is Bemba. Nyanja is on the eastern side
of Zambia, and the Dutch reformed church from South Africa evangelized
that corner of the world. So if you are Nyanja, then you
are reformed. This is your church. But clearly,
most of the people, we are evangelicals, we should know this, most of
the people are unconverted. They've not experienced regeneration.
They go to church. It's the way of life. But even
in church, they're not really hearing the gospel. What they're
hearing is you are the good people. The people that haven't come
to church are the bad ones, and so forth. So really, it's now
an issue of taking the true evangelical message back there so that individuals
are challenged, as it was with the great evangelical awakening
and its message, you must be born again. Doesn't matter whether
you have been sprinkled or baptized or a church member, if you're
not born again, you're still on your way to hell. So that's
part of the challenge. And part of what makes that difficult
is that our churches in the urban areas, which I'll come to in
a moment, are largely westernized with professionals
and still thinking that we are still on the receiving end. So
when we think about missions, we think about missionaries coming
from America, going right past us in the urban areas, and going
into the villages to evangelize our people. To make that mind
shift is a real challenge, and it still is. are on, I mean,
I come here to America and I've written about this on my blog,
that young adults, probably either about to get married or just
having been married, will say, look, we're praying about coming
out to Africa as missionaries. My own young adults, if you were
to say to them, guys, the rural areas are yet to be evangelized
in the sense in which we know it. We need missionaries to go
out there. They'll be thinking, okay, let's
pray that they will come from America. So continue to pray
for us that the African church generally may, especially the
evangelical church, may begin to see that rural Africa is our
responsibility. We need to get out there with
the real message of salvation. And the main reason why the reluctance
is there is clearly, again, the amenities, as I said. The people
that live in these areas still go down to the stream to draw
water. put it on their heads, walk up
the hill back to home, boil the water to kill the germs, cool
it down, and then begin drinking. They still cook simply using
logs or charcoal, and then that's how they make their food. they
eat, they still use little places like that as place to bath and
use as lavatory and so forth. So that's what I can say about
rural Africa in terms of its needs and the need for us to
pray. Otherwise, they go to church.
It's a little bit like the way it may have been in the West,
Perhaps soon after the pilgrim fathers came here, I mean, the
Lord's Day, almost everybody went to church. It's just a taken. It's very much like that out
in rural Africa. Education-wise, and also in terms
of medical facilities, I was going to say there are, Far and
few between. Okay, few and far between. And
consequently, still very much a real need. And so as the Christian
work goes back into those areas, you also go with the social needs
to be met out there. All right, let's move on to the
next. That's urban Africa. This is
Lusaka. As you are coming in from the
south, that place there is a traffic circle. And when you head out
that way and then turn right, you are coming to where Kabwatha
Baptist Church is. I think I've touched on that
to some extent already, and the next few slides will be to do
with pictures that show something of what's going on. Basically,
somewhere in the first half of the 20th century, going to the
middle of the 20th century, there was a major drive towards urbanization,
the colonial powers, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal,
France, and so on invaded Africa in the 19th century, and then
the Africans began to fight for independence as yourselves did
in the 20th century. And then the same thing happened
with the Christian churches. the national leaders began to
take over as well, and churches, because people moved from the
rural areas into the urban centers, the churches also came into the
urban centers. But it wasn't so much evangelizing
the people as simply putting up a church building and saying,
Nyanja people, your church has now come. And then they would
sort of quickly assemble in that place rather than actual evangelism. And so one generation leading
to another, there has been a lot of dropout. So the churches are
there lined up, but there's been a major dropout, and so there's
now a lot more of evangelizing the actual people rather than
simply expecting them to come because it's their church. And
also, At least in Zambia, in the middle of the 20th century,
we adopted English as an official language. Other nations adopted
the languages of their colonial masters. And what it has meant
over time is that in the cities, Like Lusaka, for instance, we
speak English. If I was to talk to any of my
children right now on the phone, we'll be speaking English. And
that doesn't mean we don't know any other language. In my home
we have two, my language and my wife's, and then English.
So we sort of operate between three languages in the home. But what it has meant is that
The churches in the cities now primarily use English, and so
you're not so much thinking tribal, you are thinking there's a soul
out there that needs to be saved that is assuming it's an evangelical
church. Whatever his tribe is, You win
him to Christ, and he comes to your church. So there's a lot
more mixture, especially in the evangelical churches. Let's go
on to the other slides now, which will be... Okay, now, this is
not really a church service. This is the Lusaka Baptist Church,
and we run an annual conference there every year in August, which
we call the Zambian Reformed Conference. And this is the conference
taking place there, must have been last year, yes, that's when
we had Ken Jones from one of the American states, I think
Florida, to be one of our speakers. But at least it gives you a bit
of the church growing. So when you think in terms of
the church in Africa, you're thinking in terms of growth. There's no doubt about it. Churches
are starting everywhere, literally every day. Church buildings are going up
everywhere, every day. Church buildings are being expanded,
as I'm speaking right now. Deacons are breaking down one
wall, and then very soon they'll be breaking down the wall that
goes into the lobby so that we can accommodate, and you'll see
a picture of that as well. So the issue is not lack of growth
in terms of numbers. That's not the issue. We still
have, to a large extent, a sense of it's Sunday, people go to
church. Our own congregation, for instance,
I probably spoke about it, I think so, that we try and encourage
our own members not to come to church on Sunday morning, but
to go out there. It gives space for the non-church
members to be in church. Otherwise, it's the usual announcements,
please squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and so forth. So it's good news. It's something that we're grateful
for, especially because it's not that we provide entertainment,
and that's why the people come. It is the fact that it's still
very much in the psyche of the people that it's Sunday, and
unless you're really anti-God, you find your way in church.
Okay, so that's something positive. Next. Okay, now that's our own congregation
and the walls that are going down, it's that wall and that
wall in order to give space. And the main thing there that
I wanted to capture is the youthfulness of a lot of our people. Statisticians tell us that at
least 60 or 70% of the population in Africa is below the age of
35. That's the statistics they give
us. And you therefore can't miss
it when you go into the church. In my own church, I'm among the
oldest in our church. In a membership of about 450,
we probably have less than 20 would be above the age of 60.
Most of our membership would be between 15 and about the age
of 40. So although these would be children
of our church members, here they just love this first and second
pew. I'm not too sure why, but it's
still nice to have the kids close by listening to me. and then
most of their parents would sort of begin there and so forth,
and at the back is usually our visitors. So it speaks well of
the future, because if you can evangelize this generation, then
the Lord willing, if he delays his coming, then you can imagine
what's coming forth in the years to come. But as I said, I think
it was yesterday, I've been speaking in all kinds of places so I forget
what I said where. Most of them would be first generation
Christians, most of them. And that's not saying that they're
coming from totally pagan backgrounds. They're coming from families
that were going to church. but they were not genuinely converted. I myself grew up in a church-going
family. From the earliest times that
my memory can recall, we went to Sunday school with our parents,
but I got converted totally outside that context. And so there's
nothing in my background apart from church going that teaches
me how to be a Christian husband, a Christian father, I have to
get it from here and from Christian books and then seeking to see
how that could be applied. So that's fairly true concerning
most of these individuals. Okay, next. I think these are
now some of the negatives. I've touched on this. We have
a lot of religion, but lack of salvation. And I'm speaking now
south of the Sahara. Almost any home I can go to today
for evangelistic purposes, the moment they know I'm a church
pastor, I will have a lot of respect immediately. They'll
want to call the kids to sit and hear from me. Usually, the
lady of the house will quickly disappear to go and try and prepare
some food, and I will prevent that. Because I live there, I
know when the lady disappears, I'm losing her ears. And so,
if I notice she's been gone five minutes, I'll quickly say to
the husband, you know, could you bring her back? I'll have
food at home. I'd like us to still sit and
talk. The openness is certainly there.
People are religious in that sense. And even our own members
easily would get tired in terms of the number of doors that open
up for evangelistic purposes. But it's when you now bring in
these five solas here, that's when you begin to realize that
that religion is skin deep. They want a salvation by works.
They want a syncretistic salvation, which we'll be speaking about
in a few moments. They want not just this book,
but all the other voices, and so forth. And that's where the
real challenge is, and that's where you know that unless the
Holy Spirit himself does the work, this is just a social event
that we are going through. So, the need for real salvation
cannot be missed. You see it a lot, for instance, the AIDS problem, HIV AIDS, in
Africa is among heterosexuals. There are very, very few homosexuals,
very, very few in terms of drug users. So you ask yourself the
question, if we have so many Christians, How come there's
this problem? Obviously it is suggesting that
most of the Christianity is on its skin deep. Speak about corruption. It's endemic in society. A policeman stopping you will
want a bribe, and then when you say to him, look, I'm a Christian,
almost with a blushing face, he will say, yes,
we're all Christians, but we need to help one another. And
what he's really saying is, look, I can slap a fee on you, I'm
not being a Christian if I do that. So by being a Christian,
I'm saying, okay, I won't do this, I forgive you, but look,
I can't forgive you free, because I'm also in need back home. So
let's, you also give me a little something. Now it's all skin
deep. And if there really was true
Christianity, a lot of these social ills would have been dealt
with through the power of the gospel. So you can't miss that. The next, that's one of our major
problems. The Pentecostal movement largely
swept across Africa, I would say, in the second half of the last century,
and in the second half of that second half. And it was conservative Pentecostalism. You could go in and there would
be an actual Bible study. There would be an effort to preach
from the Bible. Somewhere towards the end of
the last century and the beginning of this century, the more extreme
form of the charismatic movement has come on the back of the older
Pentecostal movement. When I say this back home, people
get offended. In fact, while I was here, I
got an email from somebody who said, look, we really respect
you, you are a great Bible teacher, but the fact that you keep saying
that these wrong things are because we are charismatics offends me. because you are putting all of
us in the same bracket. And I haven't yet replied to
that email. My reply will be, can we talk
on the phone over this? Because I'm pretty sure when
you talk, the individuals will have to accept that this is riding
on the back of Pentecostalism. And it's a fact. The guys have become totally
uncontrollable. And it's syncretism at its worst. I will have a slide on that in
a moment. But it's at its worst in the sense that it's the health
and wealth gospel that was exported across the Atlantic and then
it's become mixed with traditional African religion, and that's
what is now being served as Jesus Christ delivering people from
all kinds of bondage and vices. There's no counseling. A person
comes and says I'm having marriage problems, and most likely all
they will do to him is exactly that. That's all. Lay hands on
him, he falls back, and yeah, he's been delivered from whatever
that marriage problem was. But look, marriages are still
falling apart. But for some reason, because
we are so close to our African religious backgrounds, people
still see this as the solution. The man of God phenomenon. Last
Sunday before coming here, I mean, before going to the UK and then
I came here. As soon as I go to church, a
man came in with a foster son into my office and said, look,
I don't come to your church, but I have been advised to come
and see you. My son has a problem. And I can
assure you my guess was this person thinks I'm a man of God,
reeking with power, and he's expecting me to do exactly that. And sure enough, I was correct.
The moment he finished, I said to him, all right, tomorrow morning,
bring your son to my home, and I'll spend the whole morning
with him. I want to ask him a lot of questions.
so that I can know the details of all this, and then by lunchtime,
you can come and collect him. Well, Monday morning, he didn't
show up. Nobody came. Most likely, from
there, they went on to another man of God, because what they
wanted was this. And really, if you're to pray
for us about anything, pray for us with respect to this matter,
because it's tragic. especially because it's within
the context of evangelicalism. You could point previously to
liberalism out there. Roman Catholicism out there. And of course, all these other
cults, Jehovah's Witnesses out there. But this is happening
with people that claim to be born again. So that kind of language
is part of the language they're using. And because of that, the
evangelical movement is reluctant to address it, very reluctant. And one of the reasons why is
because the membership of these wider evangelical bodies comprises
these same guys. For instance, the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zambia, the president is our Zambian, Joel Austin. So obviously, you don't expect
that this thing will be addressed. Okay, let's move on. I have two
to three minutes. Okay, I've put something there,
I think I touched on it at the very beginning, the difficulties
with economies and consequently poverty and consequently challenging
the church with respect to the means of its own growth. A lot of deaths taking place
with illnesses that would easily be preventable if there were
more medical facilities and more education, schools not being
enough for the purposes of educating the next generation, and so on. That's supposed to be a witch
doctor there. This gentleman has brought his
child in order to be cured, and you wonder what producing that
smoke has to do with this guy getting healed. But that's part
of life back home. Sadly, especially in rural Africa,
that's just part of life. And to break that with true biblical
Christianity continues to be a major challenge. All right,
next. I've talked about that. The only
addition I need to make is that there's been a new movement,
especially from the Middle East, where mosques are being put up
at a very fast rate. They are putting up schools,
putting up clinics, and if you are a Muslim, it's free. If you
are not, you pay. And if you are Muslim, you are
even given free food, free clothing, and so on. And if you add that
to the economic poverty I spoke about earlier on, you can see
how attractive it's becoming. So we are having a lot more Africans
professing to be Muslims and going around with Islamic attire. And that's obviously a time bomb,
a ticking time bomb. In places south of the Sahara,
we may begin to suffer the kind of difficulties that are there
in Northern Africa. Okay, let's I've got two issues
that I wanted to speak about. One is the provision of books
as a way of bringing true biblical Christianity into the heart of
Africa. The cost of books is very high
compared to the economies back home. Add the shipping cost. It even pushes it further beyond
the reach of most of our people. And some solution has to be found
with respect to subsidizing the costs. I've just done a book
which I hope will be published soon on pastoral preaching, and
I had a lot more to say but I kept that out of the book so that
I could reduce the number of pages because that reduces the
cost of the book and makes it more available, rather accessible
to the people I want to buy that book. So please remember that
very real challenge. Unfortunately, the heretics tend
to be the ones to send books across the ocean free of charge. and therefore people are drinking
in a lot of error through wrong literature. Next, pastor training. Your pastor will remember being
in this room earlier this year, which became too small because
of the number of people that came for the lessons, so we had
to use the main church building. But that's also a major area
because The traditional form of Bible college training cannot
meet the rate of growth. It's just totally impossible.
A lot of people are pastoring today in Africa with absolutely
no training whatsoever. Absolutely no training. Simply
because of partly the need and then partly because of the number
of churches that are just splitting up, splitting up, splitting up.
And also a guy sits listening to his pastor giving next to
nothing and assumes, what? I can do that. So why sit here,
listening to nothing? So before long, he also starts
his own church across the next neighborhood. Thankfully, they're
very open for training. So for instance, almost all our
students here are non-Baptist and non-Reformed Baptists. Almost
all of them. And yet, they come, they apply,
and they come. And their understanding is, this
is where you get grounded. in this book, this is where you
get grounded. And so they apply, they come through. Of course,
doctrinally, before you know it, a number of them want to
run away. But some of them stick around,
and so they get the full menu. Okay, I think, yeah, that was
where I really wanted to end, and then I had a few prayer items
which you can go on to. And while, oh. I also had African
Christian University. I'll say one or two things before
I preach. Yeah, let's end there. Ultimately, it's getting the
church back to the Bible, ultimately. Because the spirit of God works
through the word of God. to bring salvation and to bring
sanctification. And that's why I ended with that. Please let us pray that what
God has done and is doing across the continent may have the strength
of God's word as part of it. Amen, thank you very much. We
hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in
Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or
other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our
website gracenevada.com.
The State of the Church in Africa
Series Walking in the Light - 1 John
| Sermon ID | 118151533593 |
| Duration | 56:52 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Matthew 28:18-20 |
| Language | English |
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