That being said, we want to share our excitement at what God has been speaking to us through the conference and the past few months – because no matter how EI may become involved, God is definitely doing something in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa!
So we went, along with Walter from our office, and Patrick, the catechist (lay pastor) of our local church.
One of the primary take-home lessons we learned was that evangelical Christianity is growing faster in sub-Saharan Africa than in most places in the world. By 2060, it is estimated that 42% of the world’s evangelical Christians will be right here, in sub-Saharan Africa. So the question becomes…what will happen to the global missions movement if Africa doesn’t get involved?
Those are obviously hard questions with many answers. However, we talked about sending models that can work in the African context, and broke the misconception that there’s not enough money to send out African missionaries. Another emphasis was that the churches in Africa suffer from the same problem churches everywhere are facing – many are filled with multitudes instead of filled with disciples. And it’s only disciples that can go and make disciples. A historian cannot train a person to be a doctor. A doctor cannot teach someone to be a mechanic. It takes a disciple to make a disciple. And that’s one area we really feel we fit into this bigger picture.
Most of the ministries and activities the Lord has led us into over the past 3 years have been focused on helping people move from being part of the multitudes to being a real disciple of Jesus Christ. Only we didn’t have the bigger picture in mind. So one way we can immediately implement what we’ve learned is to integrate this vision into what we’re already doing. We can help young people be missions-minded (both locally and globally). We can challenge them that they are part of the bigger picture.
What else this might mean for us and our ministry is still a subject of prayer and discussion within the organization, but we’re excited for what the Lord is saying and doing!
And for now, we echo the cry of the conference: Yes to the Lord of the harvest!
Can we get an Amen?