Christianity and Spiritual Warfare in Africa

CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN AFRICA

Part Three

The Christian Church has been firmly founded in Africa and there are many vibrant Christians committed to Jesus Christ. They show by their lives of commitment that they truly are disciples of Christ. But those who are truly discipled are a distinct minority with the masses of “Christians” either nominal in their confession or weak in their understanding and obedience to the Word of God. The peoples and the countries wherever we went are wide open to the Gospel. Africa has not yet reached a state, as found in the West, where the peoples oppose Christianity and resist the Gospel. This is the day for the Christian Church to fulfill the Great Commission in Africa.

We must not give up on Africa, either in despair because of its failure to progress, or in the belief that Africa is now Christian and can evangelize their own people without the help of western missionaries. The greatest need in Africa today, as we see it, is biblical teaching of the Christians and the training of church leaders. So many, many evangelical denominations in these countries are tiny and need a boost in evangelistic zeal. So many denominations have only a small percentage of trained pastors. The result is that many Christians are not being taught the deep truths of Scripture and challenged to devote themselves fully to Christ. In many ways the Christian Church in Africa is the victim of her own success. The churches have grown so rapidly that they have not been able to provide adequate numbers of well trained shepherds to disciple the flock. We need missions and missionaries who can come along side the national Christians with a sensitive and humble spirit to assist them in becoming all that God intends them to be, firmly rooted in the Word of God. There is so much confusion everywhere, a cacophony of different theologies and ideologies that Christians must become confused without deep teaching from Scripture. In Machakos, our neighboring town in Kenya, with 30,000 people (precise figure is not known), there are 37 different kinds of churches (this I counted recently).

Our visit to these Scott graduates has confirmed my conviction that the ministry of Scott Theological College, along with other similar ministries of leadership training, is the most strategic and important ministry today in Africa. Together with this, we need to find creative ways of providing Bible teaching with practical application so that the anemic and weak Christians can grow. We need to find ways to provide in-service training for pastors to help them continue to grow in the Lord. And above all else, we need to continue to pray and work for revival in our churches. A revitalized and renewed Christian Church will be energetic in their witness, faithful in their personal lives and eager to reach out to the lost who still do not know the Lord.

FINIS