Mobilization Training For African Church Leaders

Samuel is the African Director of GMMI’s Global Mobilization Institute and lives with his family in Jos, Nigeria

FOUNDATION FOR GLOBAL MISSION

Genesis 12:1-3 “The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’”

The call of Abram (later named Abraham, Gen 17:5) as recorded in Genesis 12 begins a new chapter in the Old Testament revelation of God’s purpose to redeem and save humanity. God intended to have a man who would know and serve him with devoted faith. From this man would come a family who would know, teach, and keep the ways of the Lord (Gen 18:19).

From this family would come a chosen nation of people who would be separated from the ungodly ways of other nations to do God’s will. From this nation would come Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, the promised offspring of the woman (Gen 3:15).

All Peoples on Earth Will Be Blessed Through You…. It speaks of a spiritual blessing that would come through a descendant of Abraham. Paul states that this blessing refers to the gospel of Christ offered to all the nations (Gal 3:8,16).

God’s promise to Abram reveals that from the very beginning the purpose of the gospel was to bless all the nations with salvation and goodness. God is now accomplishing this purpose through Jesus Christ and his faithful people who share His burden by sending out message bearers who proclaim the gospel to all peoples on earth. This verse serves as a foundation for mission work throughout the world.

MISSIONS IN AFRICA: FOCUS ON NIGERIA

Nigeria is home to a large majority of West Africa’s Evangelicals and Africa’s largest church by membership…. The Nigerian Church has sent several missionaries out! But with the nation’s north-south divide, believers in the Muslim-majority north have suffered decades of persecution. Even so, Muslims are being drawn to Jesus and the Church has experienced growth.

Yet, some places of Nigeria have seen such fast Church growth that the new believers lack proper discipleship and spiritual guidance. Second-generation nominalism, syncretism, tribal and denominational divisions, materialism, and immorality all threaten the Body of Christ. The False teachings of the prosperity gospel are also rampant. About 16% of Nigeria’s people groups remain unreached, many of which are being rapidly Islamized.

Christianity is growing in Nigeria. This is evident in the football stadium-sized auditoriums springing up mostly across the middle belt region and the Southern States.

Nigeria has a strong mission association, Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA), with a membership of about 160 vibrant participating church denominations and mission organizations. Existing denominations are expanding home and abroad, and new ministries are springing up annually.

However, ironically, as the Church in Nigeria is growing numerically so are corruption and worldliness. High level corruption characterizes most of the sociopolitical life. The electoral processes are often marred by irregularities and violence. There is increasing financial fraud crimes (yahoo yahoo) among the youths, and most of the people live in abject poverty.

Quite unfortunately, believers and local churches are failing to separate themselves from the corrupt world system. In addition, the few cross-cultural missionaries sent by a few missions are returning home due to inadequate prayer and financial backing.

They feel mostly lonely and vulnerable. They are the forgotten ones in the forgotten places.

All these are symptoms of a deeper problem – there is little or no discipleship in the Nigerian Church. This is because church leaders seem to be disconnected from God’s heart.

Thus, the church leaders largely need to be retrained to be refocused on Christ and His mission to be able to offer Bible training for believers. However, not just any kind of training
would do.

So, what kind of training would be adequate to retrain these leaders, making them Christ’s disciples and mobilizers, so that believers and local churches might be activated in their Great Commission roles?

RETRAINING AFRICAN CHURCH LEADERS

In every discipline, the need for training before embarking on an assignment cannot be overemphasized. And even when one has been on a job for a few years, to stay effective retraining becomes inevitable.

Most African church leaders need to be retrained to become all that God intends. To retrain these leaders, the programme must be designed with a holistic framework, that is, curriculum, context, mode of facilitation, and the facilitators must be carefully though- through.

The programme must not only educate and inform, it must also be committed to transforming the whole person – thinking, attitudes, relationships, etc., and must be designed with the following important components;

1. The content must be rich on Christ, the Great Commission, and becoming disciples committed to mobilizing their local ministries for mission.
2. The design must foster dialogue and interaction among the participants.
3. In addition to classroom presentations, participants must engage in practical learning experiences in other contexts, e.g., learning visits to locations where they can immediately apply what they are learning.
4. There must be an on-going conversation between facilitators and participants beyond the training.

These components are all present in the GMMI’s Global Mobilization Institute schools. In addition, these schools emphasize wholehearted discipleship to Christ, the Great Commission, reaching the unreached and unengaged peoples, local ministries becoming Great Commission ministries, and mobilizing the global Church for the Great Commission.

Therefore, I urge leaders of Africa church denominations and mission organizations to learn more about the GMMI Global Mobilization Institute schools at globalmmi.net and to register for one to be held in their region.