Trends of Hope

As I now reflect back on the MANI 2016 Conference that took place in Addis Ababa from March 7-13, there are three themes in particular that are both encouraging and significant in terms of indicating the future of mission effort in Africa.

With African Emerging Leaders at the MANI Pre-conference

Theme #1 – Young Emerging Leaders. Beginning with a pre-conference and extending through special breakout sessions during MANI 2016, there was an emphasis on emerging leaders. MANI has always encouraged younger men and women under the age of forty who are involved in mission, but this time it was amazing to see both the quality and passion of this rising generation. I was privileged to be asked to give one of the keynote addresses at the pre-conference. Borrowing a metaphor from George Ayittey’s well known Ted Talk about the Hippo and Cheetah generation of African leadership, I suggested how leaders of tomorrow are going to need to think and behave differently than the previous generation in order to help the church truly respond to the incredible challenges Africa is facing. Judging from the enthusiastic response and the desire these young leaders have in being mentored in new ways to avoid past leadership failures, I think there is reason for great hope as we see the next generation of African church and mission leadership take charge.

Theme #2 – Go North! Without doubt the center of Evangelical Christianity in Africa is focused in the countries south of the Sahara Desert. But, with the recent increase in missionary Muslim influence coming south from North Africa, these sub-Saharan churches are realizing that much more needs to be done to reverse that trend by reaching northward with the Gospel of Christ. Fortunately, there were a few northern Africa countries represented at MANI 2016 by a single person Yet, they were enough to help inspire members of stronger church movements in the rest of the continent to commit to sending more indigenous mission workers to such places as Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. So, besides media broadcasts and other ministry efforts streaming southward to those countries from Europe, we should soon be seeing much more complementary mission effort coming northward from sub-Saharan Africa as well.

Theme #3 – An African Theology Foreign mission endeavor in Africa dates back to the mid 1800s. But because of the strong Western influence of those early missionaries, much of the theology of African churches still lacks some of the important contextualization that would make it more relevant to the African mindset. Instead, there is often a tendency toward syncretism or mixing of animistic African culture in with Christian beliefs. During the MANI 2016 conference we heard several outstanding presentations strongly challenging African leaders to grapple with the areas of theology that need to speak more forcefully about living out commitment to Christ in an African context. One of those talks highlighted five areas in the church must be more outspoken: 1-The value of the human individual, 2-The value of children, 3-The importance of the family, 4-Social Justice, and 5-Care for the environment.

Let’s pray that these three themes at the MANI conference are only the first signs of a great new movement that will truly propel Africa as a major global force in world missions during the next couple of decades.

China to Africa: Second Try

The year was 2010. Over eighty Chinese pastors and ministry leaders from the Beijing area were excited about being part of a delegation of two hundred from the People’s Republic of China to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization that was to meet in Cape Town, South Africa. Boarding passes in hand, they were just minutes away from getting on their plane when a security officer asked them all to follow him into a special conference room. Anxiety mounted as the minutes stretched into an hour or more. No explanation was given. Finally, when their flight had departed, they were released. News soon came that the all of the two hundred delegates had received the same treatment. It was clear that, for some reason, the Chinese government was not in favor of any delegation from their country participating in such a large, Christian, public forum.

That is why, with a special sense of excitement and praise, the five hundred and fifty of us at MANI 2016 enthusiastically welcomed five of those same Chinese pastors to our Africa-wide conference in Addis Ababa.  I was particularly proud of the fact that my own mission, One Challenge, was the key organization that had facilitated this special visit. There seemed to be no end of interest on the part of African leaders to chat and strategize with them, especially during coffee breaks, meals, and special breakout sessions.

Due to the incredible number of Chinese laborers coming to Africa to build major construction projects, African church leaders have been eager for Chinese missionaries to come to Africa to minister to the growing Chinese diaspora in the major cities of the continent. More than once, I’ve tried to be an intermediary for this plea, seeking a response from Chinese contacts I’ve made in the past. But consistently, I have been told that fledgling Chinese missionaries want to be on the cutting edge of missions, targeting unreached African populations rather than their own countrymen. After all, that doesn’t even demand learning a new language!

That’s why it was particularly heartening for me to hear these five Chinese delegates clearly express  that they are ready to partner with the Africans to reach the growing thousands of Chinese across the continent. “We have heard your cry, and we are ready to respond,” one Beijing pastor said with passion and sincerity.

Praise God that these friends experienced freedom to travel to our MANI event. Now pray that these new bonds of partnership will truly grow into fruitful ministry results in the years ahead.

Reunion at the African Union

It's the United Nations of Africa—a huge, modern, impressive facility located in downtown Addis Ababa which is now the place where all of the nations of Africa periodically gather to discuss and decide on key issues related to the political progress of the continent. From March 7-11, however, it was the venue for MANI 2016, a continental missions conference that brought 550 key leaders together to challenge each other on how to advance Christ’s Kingdom in their own countries and abroad.

MANI is a network that emerged out of the AD 2000 & Beyond movement of the 1990s that first challenged Christians to reach unreached people groups and coined the concept of the 10­-40 Window. When it concluded on December 31, 2000, all of the African delegates decided they wanted to sustain the momentum, so they formed the Movement of African National Initiatives (MANI). The objective was to help spawn a missions initiative in every country of Africa that would bring God’s Good News to the remaining unreached as well as mobilize African participants in global missions.

Having served on the MANI leadership team for the past three years, I found myself immediately immersed in the logistics of the conference. From planning the daily agenda to creating and operating the PowerPoint backdrops for all the sessions, it was quite a challenge to work alongside the rest of the MANI leaders to offer a smooth-flowing schedule of events each day. But despite our human frailties, it was clear that God was very able to accomplish his divine purposes of orchestrating strategic encounters among the many delegates from fifty different African countries. One such encounter happened when I introduced Jason Mandrake, the editor of Operation World, to a good friend from Nigeria, both of whom are working on similar visions for initiating global prayer centers that they now may be able to link together.

Probably the most meaningful event of the conference to me was the final session when everyone was challenged to fill the huge stately hall, the symbolic center of African political power, with praise and worship to God. That was the first time it had ever been done. Even my wife, Anita, was able to join in with the worship team and, in typical, joyous African fashion, help lead the delegates in worshipful song to our Lord.

So if the forces of spiritual darkness think they have an exclusive hold on the direction of African politics, they just may have another guess coming the next time African leaders meet in that hall and find the lingering impact of that special celebration of praise to the one true God!