Africa

Hope for Africa? Trend Studies Reveal Looming Crisis and Opportunity

/ Phill

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Africa caught my attention when two recent economic studies crossed my computer screen this month within hours of each other.

The amazing, surprising, Africa-driven demographic future of the Earth, in 9 charts, a UN Population Division study, projects that Africa is the place to watch. The indicators are that it will outstrip the other continents in economic as well as population growth. It will dominate the 21st century.

Then, Why African Entrepreneurs Outperform Their Peers When the Playing Field is Level, an article from the Wharton school of business. The title pretty well summarizes the findings. African entrepreneurs are more productive and creative when they work in a comparable setting. Poor governance, infrastructure, and resource management on the continent hold them back.

Both of these studies findings seem counter-intuitive. They point to enormous opportunity and potential for Africa to change its destiny. They also point to tremendous challenges ahead.

Historically Africa is the continent that has received the most aide and yet stubbornly is the most impoverish. These studies suggest we are on the cusp of a major transition IF Africa can overcome its challenges in the area of governance and resource management.

WOW! These are exciting prospects.

I am reminded of one other writing about this situation. Darrow Miller wrote in 2005 about Africa’s problems and mentioned one other factor that both of these studies ignore. In his booklet, Against All Hope: Hope for Africa, he alludes to Africa’s great potential in its people and resources. He also recognizes a great spirituality among the peoples. Yet one thing they lack is a worldview that aligns with the principles of the God of the Bible. True transformation cannot take place without a transformation of the heart and a renewing of the mind. Without this transformation the other changes are less likely to happen, and if they do, they will not be to the benefit of the people.

Where does all of this lead. Tentmakers. There is tremendous opportunity, even need, for tentmakers to participate in the transformation of Africa.

1.    Africa is ripe for economic development.

2.    It needs men and women of faith to permeate the marketplace bringing economic development while demonstrating the practice Biblical principles.

3.    There is a growing movement among the African community to prepare and spread out and take the gospel to the whole continent in a wholistic ministry that touches every part of the continent and penetrates to the to the heart and soul as well as the purse.

4.    Tentmakers contribute to the economic as well as the social and spiritual development of their communities. When enough of them are active they can change countries and continents.

5.    Tentmakers model Christian values within the workplace and the culture.

6.    Tentmakers do not require massive outside support structures and funds – nor do they create the expectation that such is necessary for the community and the church to prosper and grow.

God is mobilizing his church. There is great opportunity for the expansion of tentmaking workers in Africa. There are a few pivot points in history where the decisions that are made determine the social direction for many decades. This could be one of those times. Are the “men of Issachar” interpreting the times and preparing to march?

These projections “…aren’t destiny, of course, and lots of people are already trying to change them… But this is the direction the data points today. Whatever happens, it should be quite a century.” (The amazing, surprising Africa-driven demographic…)

May God grant wisdom to the brothers in Africa as they guide the church through these times. And may He grant the rest of the church the wisdom to support where they should, and to give have the grace to allow the African leadership to grow without undo interference.

All Africa TI Tentmakers Congress Amazes!

/ Guest Contributor

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Steinar Opheim of TENT Norway and Ari Rocklin of Global Opportunities had the pleasure to train 53 focused leaders from many African countries to become trainers.

From their questions it became apparent that they were grasping this new model of missions that is not dependent on funding. There will be an upcoming follow-up article on the course for trainers that took place immideately after the congress. God is at work through the African tentmaking movement!

Christians are Terrorist Targets Across Africa

/ Steinar Opheim

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 A big share of Africa’s terrorist groups is connected to Islamist networks. This has made the Christians on the continent especially vulnerable. Also the lives of several tentmakers are at risk.

The Christians in Nigeria have been under pressure for several years. Also the past 12 months there have been numerous deadly attacks against churches and congregations in Africa’s most populous nation. The Islamist group named Boko Haram has taken on responsibility for many of them. Their aim is to overthrow Nigeria’s secular government and implement Sharia as nationwide laws. Sharia already constitutes a big part of the legal system in several of the country’s northern states.

It is however not only in Nigeria that Christians increasingly are becoming targets for militant Muslims with clearly defined political goals. In Mali most of the Christians fled the Northern territories when Tuareg-rebels and Islamists gained control in the end of March. Eyewitnesses tell stories of rape, murder and robbed and ruined Christian homes. Christians in Kenya, Sudan, Morocco, Libya and Egypt have also become victims in bloody and deadly attacks the past six months.

According to World Evangelical Alliance al-Qaeda may be a major back player in 
the attacks on Christians in Africa. WEAs conclusions are built on reports from the defense forum of Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The forum indicates that the war in Afghanistan has forced al-Qaeda to establish its work in other region where their training can go on more or less unnoticed.

– Right now the leaders in al-Qaeda are trying to form strategic partnerships with likeminded organizations in Africa, for instance with al-Shabaab. At the same time they are strengthening their ties with organizations they are already collaborating with, states RUSI´s security analyst Valentine Soria in a report.

A great number of tentmakers both from Africa and other continents are serving God in the affected nations across Africa. Many of them are staying on at the places where God has put them despite the dangers. The past years Global Opportunities and Tent have run tentmaking courses in several of the nations where Christians have been targeted.

Europe’s Last Hegemony is Falling – and Africa is Taking Over

/ Steinar Opheim

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In the midst of “de-christianisation”, secularism and materialism Europe has kept 
one leadership position in the Christian world. But now even this hegemony seems to fall.

According to Status of Global Mission 2012 there are still more church members in Europe than on any other continent. But within the coming one-two years Latin-America will overtake Europe. Just a few years later Africa will surpass both Latin-America and Europe and take the leadership role. Since the church grows faster in Africa than on any other continent, Africa will probably keep on top of the church member statistics for many years to come.

100 years ago no one could challenge Europe’s top position as the World’s Christian center of gravity. In year 1900 70 per cent of all the world’s church members belonged to European churches. Since then the churches in Europe have experienced stagnation or decline. At the same time the population growth on the continent has been very small.

Huge growth

The churches in Africa have had the opposite development. In year 1900 less than nine million Africans were members of a Christian church. Today the African churches in total have approximately 500 million members.

– The church growth has been greatest in areas where we earlier found the traditional, African religions. The gospel has given people hope and filled spiritual needs that the traditional religions could not meet. Now we also see that the Gospel is advancing in the Muslim areas in the northern part of Africa despite the threats and persecution that the believers are facing there, comments Tiowa Diarra. He is the head of Tentmakers International Africa (TIA), a network that is training African tentmakers to take the gospel to all the unreached areas in Africa and beyond.

Tentmaking is seen as a great mission model in Africa. Because most tentmakers are supporting themselves through their work, this model allows all churches to be involved in the worldwide mission work even if their resources are limited.

Growing impact

According to Operation World the evangelical churches in Africa are growing faster than all other congregations. 100 years ago the continent had 1.6 million evangelical Christians. Today they number 182 million.

Tiowa Diarra believes that the African churches to a growing extent will impact 
the worldwide Christian church in the years to come.

– The African congregations can contribute with many things. For instance I believe we can give valuable input when it comes to evangelism and discipleship training, says the TIA leader.

Next year Tentmakers International Africa will host the TI World Congress on tentmaking. The Congress is taking place in Dar es Salaam in the beginning of August.