VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Leadership that is futuristic in thinking
will always keep themselves alert
for evangelistic opportunities
that are produced by change.

One peaceful night I sat alone by the restless waves of the beaches of the country of
Gabon in the armpit of Africa. Waves are the same everywhere. They remind one of the
constant changing influences that torment the beaches of societies. Change is a way of
nature and life. Those who would not adapt or arise to the occasion and take advantage
of the opportunities that are produced by change will break with the traditional molds of
yesteryear or miss the golden opportunities that are presented for the future.
We live in societies in Africa that are going through the metamorphosis of cultural
and political change. As the typical African of this continent seeks to set himself free
from past dictators and Marxists regimes that bankrupted his economy and robbed him
of hope, he has proven again the resilience of the African mentality. A peace accord is
signed here, a past suppressive government is voted out there, a new civil war begins
and concludes. There are those usual agonies that arise from power struggles and
transfers, from the unleashing of past resentments and sociological baggage. However,
if one can see past the nonsense of politics and palaces, there is an emergence in sub-
Saharan Africa that is heading this continent toward a better world for Africa. In this
sociological emergence, God is working wondrously to open doors.
A common slogan in Africa is TIA. It means “this is Africa,” a place of social
(This series of blogs compose a book that carry the title, “Making Disciples In A Global Community.” )

contradictions, chaos and injustices. It is a place of struggle and a way of life that is
foreign to the closest foreigner. However, TIA is emerging into TIH, “there is hope.”
The emerging leadership generation in Africa is educated, and thus wants to join the
technological world in forming a new Africa. It will take a few generations to
accomplish this feat, but it is coming.
From a spiritual perspective, however, there are some clear and present
opportunities in Africa. The typical African is traditionally religious. There has never
been and never will be in Africa a passing receptivity caused by the fall of a Berlin wall
or the change of a political philosophy. The African has always been religious! He has
kept himself isolated from the turmoils of what goes on in oval offices. He is rural. He
is poor. He is, I suppose, uneducated in what the affluent urban societies call
“education.” But he is deeply religious, though this religious nature is fulfilled with a
host of distorted world views.
In the past one hundred years several African countries have survived beneath the
flow of political changes from Animistic tribalism, to colonialism, to dictatorial
communism, to dictatorial capitalism, and whatever comes next. However, those
changes that have occurred in the palaces seem to have little affect on the world views
of rural Africa. Changes in high places, though, often allow freedoms for Africans that
they have not experienced in the past. The changes have opened doors to those who can
reach out to him with the gospel of freedom.
As the typical sub-Saharan African moves into another century, political changes
affect him more. This is especially true in the urban areas. What seems to be happening
as the death of communism trickles down and throughout this continent is a new sense
of hope. Strifes of passed times are being forgotten. Times are changing for the better
as oppressive leaders of generations past are being set aside or just laid to rest. There
are only a few dictators left and they are very old in age.
In the 1990s, South Africa went through tremendous waves of change. In the times
of chaos, anxiety gripped the souls of the materialistic have-it-alls. They were afraid,
not so much of the change – they knew it had to come – but of losing what they had.
But such is the normal mentality of the rich and famous. It is this way everywhere in
the world when men’s possessions are threatened. Those on top always slap away and
are afraid of the hands reaching up from the pits of poverty.
Every culture has its affluent societies and every person of every society wants
more. Nevertheless, the materialism of the affluent South African is quite interesting.
This has always been an interesting cultural study for me from the very first day I
arrived in the country.

The affluent South African has been set in a “segregated” materialism that in times
past convinced him that he had a right to all the wealth. What happened was that
everyone at the top developed a certain pride, a definite arrogance about what they had
and who they were. Those on top developed an insular world with all its legal and
political fences and safeguards. Their arrogance led them to believe that no one else
should tell them how to run their country and life. Their pride made them think that
they could go it alone without the rest of the world. But this has all changed.
The affluent South African was at first afraid of the New South Africa that would
unfold in generations to come. He was very apprehensive. He knew that there must be
change, but he was willing for change to come in order to keep the stock market up and
the foreign investment coming. His willingness to change was not primarily for the
benefit of the poor and oppressed. He was like any other materialist. He would change
as long as the cycle of materialism in his life was unchanged.
The affluent South African was not alone in this feeling. The rest of the
materialistic world reacts the same way. So before we blame the past privileged South
African too much for his materialistic arrogance, we should look at ourselves. We might
discover that we are common bedfellows.
Nevertheless, South Africa during the 90’s came out on the other end of two decades
of sociological and economic change. The younger generation of the leadership has
been molded by times of hope, and not by the struggles of the underprivileged or by the
arrogance of the privileged. This generation is representative of the New South Africa
and the new African who wants change.
I was in Mutare, Zimbabwe in the latter 90’s preaching and teaching. I met a
twenty-year old white South African youth there who had come up to Zimbabwe in
order to live and learn from the Zimbabweans. He went to the village in order to live
and eat for a week with a rural Zimbabwean brother and sister. He said he wanted to be
a missionary and thus wanted to better understand the poor. To the best of his ability, he
wanted to experience their world. He wanted to come out of his separation from reality
in his past life in South Africa in order to experience the realities of life. He was typical
of many of the new South African young people who wanted to communicate and be
with those from whom his forefathers had separated him. These feelings will eventually
bring South Africa, and other African counties, into a new social order. It will not be an
order of one tribe against another tribe. It will be a new order where nationalism will
replace tribalism. It will be our youth who will lead us out of our past cultural sins.
Old oppressive governments and dictators of Africa have for the past thirty to forty
years squeezed the life out of many African economies and countries. But this is
changing in some countries. The move from either dictatorial governments or
presidents began the latter part of the 20th century, and thus the movement to change in governments and societies will bring forth a new Africa that is not labelled “the dark
continent.” Something exciting is happening on this continent. Fifty or a hundred years
from now historians will write doctoral theses about what is happening today.
A. Opportunities for evangelism:
So what should we as the church do? First, we must adapt our thinking and methods
of work and outreach to changing social environments. Old mission methods of years
past will not work in a new urban Africa that has more self-esteem and confidence.
Research mission books of past works in urban Africa are out of date for the new
African missionary. For example, the old mission of houses and church buildings within
a compound is no longer appropriate for most African evangelism. Also, the
churchianism that is so prevalent in the American/European religious culture is deficient
in the urban setting of Africa. The old system of “colonial” mission control of Africans
must be reexamined as Africans claim Africa, and thus seek to write their own mission
textbooks.
Secondly, the American church should rise to the occasion. We must never forget
that the basic nature of the African is religious. We would urge the American church not
to ignore what is happening in Africa. The American church has always been too fickle
when it comes to missions. What makes headlines is too often what gets the mission
emphasis. The church in sub-Saharan Africa is now larger than in any other place of the
world. There are more disciples in Africa because the receptivity of this continent
continues, especially in rural settings.
Thirdly, with the fall of old governments and the emergence of new open doors,
there are countless areas where evangelists must be sent. Many African churches are
now realizing that African evangelism is not an American problem. However, the
African church does want and need foreign church partnership. We must remember that
the typical rural African church is still poor, and it often takes money to send evangelists
into new nations. In establishing strong partnerships with African churches who can do
the job, the American church would do well to encourage African evangelism to all the
continent.
However, I suggest the preceding with some caution. The American is greatly
entrenched with the philosophy that he who pays the bills pulls the strings. This
philosophy may work in the business world, but when it comes to brethren doing the
work of the Lord in world evangelism, there are many complications. The worthy
African evangelist needs to be educated to effectively do the work of the Lord, but he
does not need to be some supporter’s puppet. I have found that the more strings that are
attached to the support of a qualified evangelist, the less effective the supported is in
accomplishing his mission. After all, how can someone thousands of miles away
correctly determine what must be done locally and in a different cultural setting? The
African would thus call on the supporters to be very cautious and wise with the use of
funds, but also be cautious about controlling the work of an evangelist who knows what
he is doing.
Fourthly, I would suggest a major paradigm shift for urban African evangelism. The
majority of the membership of the church in African urban centers is financially
challenged. At the same time, the real estate in the same centers is priced according to
or above First World costs. Does this mean that the urban African church is doomed
with the Western churchianism that is identified by the presence of some physical
structure on the main streets of Nairobi or Accra? And in order to get to that structure to
do the supposed performances of an imported religion the typical African father and
husband must fork out a good amont of his weekly salary to buses and taxis just to get
his family of six or eight to the place of meeting? If this is the scenario we have
imposed on the urban African church, then the urban African disciple is doomed to
continually sit with his cuffed hand toward the First World in order to build a “plant” for
worship and buy buses to get there.
I suggest that the urban African must be directed toward the first century and the
houses in which the early Christians met. For the first three hundred years of the
existence of the church, there were no purpose-built church houses as designated places
of worship. Only when Constantine hijacked Christianity and planted the first seeds of
churchianism, were church buildings erected in the Roman Empire with a professional
clergy that was on state support.
If we can survive the intimidation of our religious communities that we must make a
statement of our faith with a church building, then we will be able to realize greater
growth in African urban settings. I am not optimistic about this suggestion. I am not for
two reasons. First, the churchianism that has been imported into the African religious
scene from Europe and America for the past five hundred years has had its effect.
Second, the effect of church house oriented religion is strong on the continent. As the
religions around us take pride in their cathedrals, local disciples are intimidated to build
the same. They are thus humbled by meeting in houses, schools and under trees
throughout the continent. In order to keep up with the nations around them, they are
compelled to build. If they cannot build, they suffer with a low self esteem because they
can never be as the religious nations around them.
If you cannot come up with two million dollars each to build hundreds of church
buildings in urban centers across Africa, then we should change our emphasis from a
building oriented religion to a livingroom faith. We must remember that true
Christianity has always been a relational experience across a dinner table, and not in the
eloquent performances of a high church assembly on Sunday morning.
B. The work of God:
These are challenging times for world evangelism. So many doors are opened that it
befuddles our minds as to which one must be entered. However, we do not frustrate
ourselves by trying to determine which door we must personally enter. When we work
as the apostles, great things can happen.
The apostles stayed in Jerusalem after the establishment of the church for at least
fifteen years. The reason was that every year there was the Jewish Passover/Pentecost
feasts to which Jews came from throughout the Roman Empire. The Passover/Pentecost
feasts when the Spirit was poured out on the apostles in Acts 2 was unique. The church
was launched into existence with the baptism of about 3,000 on the first day, many of
whom went back to their homes in order to urge those of the synagogues of their
homelands to go to Jerusalem the next year. They did, and you know who was waiting
in Jerusalem upon their arrival? The apostles thus evangelized the world by proxy, by
those who were converted in Jerusalem during the Passover/Pentceost feasts. By A.D.
61/62, just thirty years after the establishment of the church, Paul could write that the
gospel had gone into all the world (Cl 1:23).
God has made it possible to reach any and all open doors throughout the world
through the distance training of local church leaders and evangelists. The apostles did
not have a worldwide postal system, but we do. This is the main reason why I have
been so convinced throughout the years that distance training schools by use of the post
office are necessary in world leadership training in order to reach the masses of the
world.
The reason for this is simple. We cannot simply concentrate on bringing evangelists
together into classrooms in order to equip them for the task that is to be accomplished.
God has given us a pen, press, stamps, envelopes and a postal service in order to take
the “classroom” into all the world. Not only is this system cheaper than resident
schools, it allows the church the opportunity to reach to distant lands with teaching for
faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
In Ephesians 4:11, God set different ministries of leadership in the church. The
primary purpose for these ministries was “for the equipping of the saints for the work of
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ep 4:12). Through distance training
courses for leadership, we are able to equip the church for the work of ministry in
distant lands.
Now try to visualize what is happening with the distance training schools of the
church that are reaching out to thousands of church leaders who would never be able to
attend a resident training school. Through extension training courses and seminars that
are conducted, mature leadership can touch the lives of thousands who must be
equipped for world evangelism. There are prospective evangelists and church leaders
scattered in countries throughout the world. Many are in the receptive fields of Africa.
So how can the church train its leaders in isolated and Third World environments? The
answer is in sending the teachers (the courses) to the students instead of trying to bring
the students to the teachers.
The Cape Town International Bible Institute is only one example. By the end of
1993, the Cape Town Institute was sending courses to over 1,000 preachers, teachers
and church leaders in over thirty different countries. We could multiply this number of
leaders by the number of Christians and non-Christians that these leaders touched with
their personal teaching and preaching of the material what we sent them. By working
with this system, distance training institutes can reach a tremendous number of people.
God has opened a door of fantastic proportions through such efforts. Thousands are
being equipped as God works exceedingly abundantly above all we can imagine.
The question with distance training is that we can never know exactly how many
people are being equipped by mailing courses throughout the world. Courses of
distance training schools are being used by thousands of preachers and teachers to teach
classes and preach sermons in various areas. Students of these schools are using their
courses for their own seminars and lectures in training schools. The impact of
leadership training by distant training courses is the way of the future. This is especially
true as the world goes online with the Internet. When we consider the vast population
of the world, and the number of evangelists who are needed to get the job done, then our
primary emphasis leadership training must be in distance training courses, not resident
schools.
We must use both the present and past tense to describe the outreach of distance
training schools. The reason is that by the time you read this book, even if the Cape
Town Institute, and many like it, might not be in existence, there are thousands of course
books of the schools that have already been sent throughout the world that will continue
to be used for preaching and teaching material for years to come. The impact of the
printed page ceases only when the books deteriorate. This is the power of the distance
training system of theological education. It forces the school to produce the materials
for student studies. If the school disappears, the materials continue to teach.
Those who use the courses often better express the effectiveness such programs.
Here are a couple of examples. From Ghana one of our preaching students wrote:
Permit me to express my sincere gratitude to you for your tremendous work which you and
your team are doing for the Lord. I have so dearly loved your courses. They are highly
educative for the 20th century Bible student. For example, I knew very little about Satan and
his hosts when I graduated from Bible College in 1990. But now, your Course 110 has given
me more details about the clever tricks of Satan and his hosts. It is my prayer that the Lord
will strengthen us so that we all in Africa may follow strictly the way of evangelism which
was taught in Course 112.
Another student wrote the following concerning his use of the courses in his daily
ministry:
I send you this to thank you so much for the wonderful job you are doing through the
Institute. Since I started studying these lessons, four people have been led to Christ. One of
these was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church. I studied with Julius [of the
S.D.A.] for two weeks using Course 105 on the Law and the Sabbath. At the end of our
study he just asked to be baptized.
What distance training schools do is provide materials through extension courses for
preachers and teachers who complete guided studies as they work in the field. However,
it is the purpose of the distance training school to equip the saints for the work of
ministry through the local preachers and leaders. From Bolgatanga, Ghana a preacher
explained this in his letter to us.
I have the pleasure to write you and thank you for the good work you are doing for us here to
enlighten us more in the word of God. I do appreciate it and pray that God will help your
ministry of leadership training to enable brethren to lead local congregations. Course 139,
Christian Leadership, has come to me at the right time. This year the theme of our program
is church growth and leadership training. This course is helping me and the church for the
program of the church.
From Lisbon, Portugal a student translated some of his courses into Portuguese. He
expressed the effect of distrance training in his life in the following letter:
Thank you so very much for the excellent course on baptism you have sent to me. It is
greatly helping me in my teaching on this most vital and so important step in our conversion
to Christ. You have no idea how much your courses are helping me both in my learning and
teaching. Thank you so much, dear brother, for your interest in helping people like me to
acquire a deeper knowledge of God’s word.
Distance training schools are fulfilling the dreams of those who are in isolated areas.
Faithful men want equipping. However, they cannot go to a resident school. They
cannot leave their farms or jobs. They are great distances from other churches and
brethren. Nevertheless, these men can be reached for leadership training by extension
courses. From Zimbabwe a preacher once wrote,
I do rejoice, am refreshed and relieved every day when I read the word of God. Your lessons
are very good, encouraging, exhorting. They give me good goals for the future. I had never
dreamed that one day I would be fortunate to have such biblical lessons which would make
me grow spiritually. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
One distance training student from Ghana wrote, “I took over as preacher when
brother Seth Normanijo died. I am not a trained preacher from any college. Therefore,
I want you to train me through your school to be able to preach for this church.”
These are the needs distance training schools must fulfill for hundreds of church
leaders throughout the world. We must evangelize the world by training local church
leaders to evangelize their own people. Those who have promoted resident schools in
the West have been slow to catch on to the concept of distance training. The Western
culture is a culture that sends its children to school. For this reason it has always been
difficult for Westerners to understand that in world evangelism we must send the school
to the students. Unless we can understand this point, we will always allow the
opportunity for worldwide evangelism through the training of national church leaders to
slip through our fingers.
The growth of the church will always excel our opportunity to train leaders in a
classroom setting. In fact, if we are confined in our thinking to classroom training of
leaders, we will bottle-neck the growth of the church. We will never be able to have
enough classrooms to train the amount of leaders that must be trained to keep up with
the growth of the church. For this reason, we must change our thinking when it comes
to training those who will lead the church. The local church has the responsibility to
train its own leaders. If we can partner with churches who are seeking to do this, then
great things will come. If the West can provide the courses for the training of local
evangelists by local churches, then the extent of leadership training has no boundaries.