All 16 West African nations are expected to have representatives at the conference that will be held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, in February. Photo: Adobestock.

Aims at mobilizing West African professionals

Mobilizing tentmakers from West Africa is the main aim when Tent and collaborating partners gather leaders for a West Africa Tentmaking Conference in Nigeria next year. “We must activate the whole, global church if we are to fulfill the great commission,” says Tent Nigeria’s leader, Victor Agbonkpolor. 

All 16 West African nations are expected to have representatives at the conference that will be held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, in February.

Called to the workplace

Agbonkpolor is a medical doctor by profession. At a conference in 2013 he got introduced to the idea of serving Jesus in the workplace. 

“This opened up a whole new universe for me. Since I was young, I felt that God called me to be a missionary. As most people, I saw this as a geographic assignment. At the conference in 2013 I realized that God called me to be a missionary in my workplace and to serve him through my job,” shares Agbonkpolor. Now, he wants all fellow West Africans to experience the same joy and be trained to be good full-time ambassadors for Jesus and his kingdom in their own communities and in other nations. 

Migration and opportunities

West Africa stretches from Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in the west to Niger and Nigeria in the east. 16 nations with a total population of 420 million people, are included in the UN’s definition of West Africa. Close to 500 unreached people groups live in the region.

Huge numbers of people are already moving as migrants within West Africa. This gives opportunities for sharing the gospel in new areas. Tens of thousands of Christians from Ghana do for instance live and work in Muslim majority Côte d’Ivoire. Similarly, tens of thousands of Christian Nigerians live in neighboring Niger. 

“Most of these people have moved just to work, and they do not have a vision of serving God and reaching out with the Gospel where they are. I am sure that many of them would enjoy hearing how God desires for them to become his ambassadors through life and work,” says Agbonkpolor. 

From receiving to sending

According to Joshua Project, four of the 16 West African nations have Christianity as their primary religion, 10 are majority Muslim nations, whereas the majority of the population adhere to ethnic religions in two nations.

With few exceptions, the nations in West Africa have been seen as mission fields

Agbonkpolor does however believe that all churches have been called to be sending churches – no matter their location, size or resources. Tentmaking gives everyone the tools needed to send people.

“Those who go are self-funded through their work. So, the only thing you need is committed people. There is a great, unused sending capacity in these nations. Through our conference we aim at mobilizing churches to send more people to strategic areas,” comments Tent Nigeria’s director.The focus of the West Africa conference will be on how to train, send and follow up tentmakers. All seminars will be translated into three different languages – English, French and Portuguese – so all participants should get information in a language they know.  

Fact box

Facts about West Africa

West Africa consists of 16 nations. Here is an overview of some key factors in all of them:

 By Steinar Opheim