NYI announces Africa's first Nazarene Youth Connection by Rev. Ronald Miller, Africa Regional NYI Coordinator
After years of dreaming, praying and consulting, the Africa Region Nazarene Youth International Council decided that the time is right for the first ever Africa Region NYC!
Normally we would say "Nazarene Youth Conference," but for us as Africans, it is more than that. It is Nazarene Youth Connection, an event where youth will be connecting across country, racial, social and political boundaries.
The event will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 14-18 January, 2016. The theme is CHOSEN 2 CHANGE, signifying the following:
When we accept the call to follow Jesus Christ, we are called to change to be like him.
We are also chosen to change our environment, to add value to our world.
The number 2 signifies a call to minister alongside others, to work in partnership with others.
This is a historical event from countries from all the fields on the Africa Region.
Please watch for more details at www.facebook.com/NYIAfrica or drop a note atnyi@africanazarene.org if you need any other details.
Reflections from the Nazarene Church General Board meeting by Dr. Filimao Chambo, Africa Regional Director
Dr. Fili Chambo
Every year in February since 2010, I have had the privilege of representing the Africa Region at the General Board. It is always a joy to have the opportunity to tell the story of God's work in and through the Church of the Nazarene in Africa.It is also a wonderful opportunity to hear and learn about God's work in other parts of the world. God is doing amazing things around the world. As his people, we are seeking to do our best to discern what he is up to and follow him to fulfill the call that we have. As a result, churches and disciples multiply, and new mission strategies and initiatives are birthed to help us remain faithful to the Great Commission.
There are two sessions that are always memorable for me: the commissioning of the new global missionaries and the honouring of the missionaries who are retiring from the mission field. These sessions give me a great sense of hope for the world and the Church.
It is a known fact that we live in a broken world, where it is becoming a huge challenge to go and minister where the church is not yet. We live in a world where there are many people who do not want to hear about or from the Lord. A world where people are persecuted for sharing the Good News.
Yet, as we see young and old respond to a call to ministry, we are reminded that God has not and will never give up his plan to redeem the world. God is committed to reconciling the world to himself. He invites the Church to be a part of this amazing work. And yes, even today, he still speaks to individuals and families to respond to his call to go around the world, to share God's grace and hope with the people everywhere. The commissioning service reminds me that God calls his Church to participate in God's missionary work.
The honouring service is a great moment of celebration as we reflect on the number of years that each retiring missionary gave to the Lord and his church for missionary service. It is a time of celebration and thanksgiving, as we reflect on what the Lord accomplished through these faithful servants. It is time to be reminded that God's faithfulness endures forever.
In this service, I often reflect on the words of the Psalmist: "His faithfulness continues through all generations" (Psalm 100:5b). Yes, his faithfulness continues through all generations. Therefore, even though we live in a broken world where it is becoming harder to do missions, the Lord remains faithful. He is the God who gave grace, love, strength, peace, and guidance to those retiring, but he is also going to continue to do so in the lives of those we deploy today. He is doing it in my own life and ministry, and he will continue through all generations. He is a faithful and dependable God.
Therefore, there is hope for the new ministers, new missionaries, there is hope for the Church, there is hope for the world. God is not done yet! He is never going to give up. He will continue to redeem the world, and he chooses the Church to be a part of his missionary work in this broken world.
I am thankful to all those who have faithfully served the Lord as missionaries and national leaders around the world, both clergy and laity. I have great appreciation for what the Lord accomplished in them and through them in this world. Because of their faithfulness, I am filled with hope for today and the future. I celebrate with those whom the Lord has called today to serve in the mission field. Be courageous and know that the Lord's faithfulness continues through all generations. The Lord will give you all that you need to fulfill the call that he placed in your lives.
I am committed to serve the Lord! I know that I can not do it on my own, therefore, I gladly submit my life under God's authority and choose to obey his voice, as I learn to serve him and his Church every day!
Bible Storytelling connects with new church members by Holly Beech, news@africanazarene.org
CAMEROON - To memorize a Bible verse, you typically need to repeat it over and over again. But you only have to hear a story once to remember its lesson, said Rev. Cyrille Ebam, the Ministries Coordinator for Cameroon and Gabon.
Ebam is using the Bible Storytelling method to start church groups throughout Cameroon and revive the work of the Nazarene Church there.
Rev. Cyrille Ebam
"(Storytelling) is very much culturally relevant," Ebam said. Oral teaching is a strong tradition throughout Africa."We can have educated people, but those educated people can still be oral learners," Ebam said. "I think that's the case in most African countries."
The Bible Storytelling method is also effective because it's easy to use and easy to replicate, he said.
"I start a group basically with two people. Sometimes just with one person," Ebam said. "Then you tell the story - one story, a good Bible story - to the person. And you say, 'This is what I want us to be doing. Do you have a friend who can join us the next time that we meet?'"
There are about a dozen of these groups in two of Cameroon's 10 regions. Ebam's goal is to see the groups spread to all 10 regions.
Rev. Ebam travels to different communities to train group leaders. Currently there are trainings once every three months. Returning participants are assigned Bible stories to learn before the training, and during the event they discuss the context and meaning of each story.
"Jesus was talking to people who knew the context, so words like Pharisee and Sadducee were not explained in the New Testament," Ebam said. "So sometimes I have to explain so the people will understand."
At the trainings, the stories and discussions are recorded and sent via Bluetooth to all the participants at the end of the session, Ebam said. Each participant returns home with 12 stories and discussions, enough resources to use for the next three months.
"Each BibleStoryTelling group is unique, so these resources are to be used as guidelines," he said.
As much as possible, the groups don't use written materials during group. Rather, the teaching is all based on the oral repetition of Bible stories in the language of that community.
Photo courtesy Rev. Cyrille Ebam.
"Many groups are in Pidgin English," Ebam said. "This needs to be told in the heart language of the people."
The groups commonly use stories such as the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus the tax collector, the 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus, and Jesus turning water into wine. The stories all lead up to Jesus' death and resurrection.
"It's the Word of God. Our duty is to present it in a way that people will get it and understand. And we pray that maybe it will make sense to them and they will apply it," Ebam said. "It works very well."
A woman told Rev. Ebam that after housing a Bible Storytelling group for three months, her husband's life was changed. He went from being unwilling to work and support the family, she said, to having a change of heart and becoming someone she could depend on. She said her husband began to take God more seriously. He now drinks less alcohol and is calm about things that used to set off his temper.
"Information brings transformation," Ebam said, "because this (storytelling method) is really brought in our context."
Resources:
simplythestory.org
tellthestory.org
studymaps.org
Church of the Nazarene Tell THE Story
Sierra Leone begins Zero Ebola Campaign
Residents and businesses in Sierra Leone are experiencing temporary lockdowns as part of the government's Zero Ebola Campaign, an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Residents were required to stay home from the morning of 27th March to the evening of 29th March, although Christians were allowed to attend Palm Sunday services at church.
Lockdowns, which include a temporary ban on countrywide trade and activities at bars, restaurants and beaches, will continue on the first three Saturdays in April from6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The campaign also includes efforts to educate the public about how Ebola spreads and how to prevent transmission.
Workers such as health care providers, security agents and journalists will be allowed to move about during the lockdowns, as well as arriving and departing passengers at the Lungi Airport.
As of late March, Sierra Leone had seen a total of about 11,840 Ebola cases, resulting in approximately 3,747 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. In total, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have seen an estimated 24,872 cases of Ebola and 10,311 deaths.
Nazarene churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia have also launched a campaign in the efforts against Ebola and the stigma it often creates. Learn more about the "21 and Free" campaign here.
NTC celebrates 24th annual graduation
Information and photos from Amy Crofford, assistant to the Africa Regional Education Coordinator
SOUTH FIELD - The Nazarene Theological College in Johannesburg celebrated the achievements of 41 students at a graduation ceremony on the 14th of March.
Seven students earned a bachelor's degree in theology, 31 students earned diplomas in theology, and three students earned a certificate in ministry.
Family members and friends celebrated the accomplishments with joyful dancing in the aisles, cheers and applause.
"It is inspiring to see how God continues to bless NTC under the strong leadership of its principal, Rev. Cathy Lebese," Africa Regional Education Coordinator Dr. Greg Crofford said. "We look forward to good reports of what God will do through the ministry of these 41 graduates who love Jesus and his Church."
Rev. Mashangu Maluleka, the field strategy coordinator for the South Field and an NTC facilitator, delivered the graduation address.
Preaching from Matt. 9:35, Rev. Maluleka reminded the audience that 12 ordinary disciples were the bridge between the King and the crowd. We must preach the Good News, he said, and give freely what we have received.
NTC is the International Board of Education approved school for the Africa South Field. It has 18 teaching centers and offers an accredited bachelor's in theology by extension to the region as a whole.
"NTC exists to be a channel of change between God's Kingdom and a hurting word," said Rev. Matt Marshall, academic dean and acting chaplain.
Note: Principal Catherine Lebese was recently featured in Engage magazine. Read the story here. NTC-South Africa principal shares testimony, dreams for NTCBy Gina Grate Pottenger on January 29, 2015
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When Catherine Lebese was 17, someone gave her a tract that was misprinted so that it was blank on the inside, and on the outside it had only a picture and the address for a Nazarene church. She was curious about the Christian faith, so she wrote to the address. The Mothotlung Church of the Nazarene, in an area of Johannesburg, South Africa, sent their new pastor to her home to speak to her about Christ, but Lebese was reluctant to make a commitment. She was familiar with the gospel, yet was skeptical about its truth.
“After he left, in the evening, [I thought] I’ve heard that so many times, I don’t even know if it’s true. Let’s try this and see if it works. I prayed, ‘Lord, if this is true what these people say about salvation, save me.’ Something changed immediately, I felt the change and I knew it was real and that’s when my walk with Christ started.”
The pastor had left her with the first lesson of the Basic Bible Studies and a Bible. Out of curiosity she decided to visit his church.
“The moment I stepped into the church, something deep inside told me this is home and I decided to stay, and I invited my friends and we started going. We became the first youth group in that church.”
After graduating high school, Lebese had no direction for what to do with her life. While reading the biography of a pastor, she began to feel troubled. She didn’t know what that meant. So she visited her local pastor and explained how she was feeling. He said it might mean God was calling her to something. He advised her to go home and pray, telling God that if He was calling her, she would say yes to whatever He asked her to do.
“If you have peace after that, you know God is calling you and if you still feel troubled, it’s something else,” her pastor said.
Lebese followed his advice, telling God that whatever He wanted her to do, she would do. Immediately she was filled with peace.
When it was time to apply to college, she felt led to attend the then Africa Nazarene Theological College in Port Elizabeth (now Nazarene Theological College-South Africa) in Muldersdrift, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theology. Afterward she followed her call by spending a number of years assisting pastors or serving as a senior pastor in different churches. Lebese also earned a second bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and then a master’s degree in sociology.
In 2003, she was asked to teach classes at NTC-South Africa, and in 2006 joined the staff as the registrar. In 2008, to her surprise she was made the academic dean. Then in March 2014, she was elected principal. When describing the sequence, Lebese acknowledges she was not expecting to lead and is seemingly still astounded to find herself in this role.
While leading the college, Lebese is also studying for a master’s degree in theology through NTC-South Africa’s partnership with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK. For the past three years, she has been part of a cohort with nine of her school’s students, taking coursework in Johannesburg and making one visit to Manchester at the tail end of the program in January 2015.
Through being exposed to how a European college teaches and trains, Lebese is adding to her own vision and understanding of how NTC-South Africa can teach and train African students.
“It challenges not only me but every African that comes here to want to do theology for Africa, learn whatever you can and find ways of applying it back home. That is my dream: If I can see some of us writing from an African perspective and actually coming up with approaches to some of the things that we study, that would address some of the issues back home, that for me will be the greatest achievement ever.”
Africa is facing critical challenges in its theology, Lebese says.
The most difficult challenge is teaching and articulating a doctrine of entire sanctification – the denomination’s distinctive, core belief – in the African context.
“We are finding more and more people are struggling to understand or explain. Is it a crisis? Is it a process? So that becomes a bit of a problem. A lot of our pastors, even if they go through classes, cannot explain it in their churches.”
In South Africa, the way that the doctrine of entire sanctification has been taught and understood causes difficulty and confusion. Entire sanctification is popularly understood to remove the "root of sin once and for all," she explained. This has led to a widespread, mistaken thinking that a sanctified person is no longer able to sin. Yet people do continue to sin. A person who sins subsequent to testifying to sanctification can find themselves in a spiritual crisis, with people asking whether or not the person truly experienced sanctification. This understanding of entire sanctification as “sinless perfection” was denied by John Wesley, but has crept in to the spirituality of some holiness groups around the world. The Nazarene Church is currently reconsidering its articulation of the doctrine to prevent such misunderstandings. In Wesley’s theology, holiness is not the inability to sin, but a heart filled with love for God and neighbor. At its pinnacle, this love for God outweighs all other desires a person may have. Lebese’s work involves finding clear and creative ways to communicate this doctrine of Christian holiness.
“I think up until now we haven’t really reached the point where we can explain it in understandable terms to our people,” she said.
Currently, NTC-South Africa offers a certificate in ministry, a diploma in theology, and a bachelor of theology. Lebese’s goal is to introduce a master’s degree program in the next five years, and in the long-term to implement a PhD program.
“My dream is that [the students] would … continue to their bachelor’s and master’s and come and take over. I would be happy if one of my students would replace me as principal.”
Testimonies from Nazarene Theological Institute
Established in 1989 in Ivory Coast, the Nazarene Theological Institute (or the Institut Biblique Nazaréen) is a distance education program for those seeking to equip themselves for ministry or be ordained in the Nazarene Church. The institute serves more than 1,000 students in 16 sub-Saharan countries.
Here are testimonies from some of those programs, provided in the Next Level newsletter from Rev. Paul Martin:
LIBERIA
"I'm very happy that our strategy to make use of the extra time available during the Ebola crisis to teach more than two courses on the Monrovia District this month." [Stephen Tarpeh]
Photos of the NTI graduation in Nigeria, courtesy of Mrs. Sharon Martin, academic dean, West Africa.
NIGERIA
the educational and spiritual development of the Nazarene Church in Nigeria.
"Thank you for giving us ministerial education that has prepared our pastors with more knowledge, skill, and spirituality to help them engage the world for Christ." [Oladele Oguntola]
Congratulations to Mr. Oguntola for recently earning a Master of Arts in Theological Studies!
SIERRA LEONE
"We had classes in three centers, Waterloo, Kissy and Lumley. It was very exciting to see all our developing pastors in these classes, we are praising for what He is doing even in a time of crisis. [Marie Kamara]
Sierra Leone has offered 15 classes in five months in these three centers, in the midst of the Ebola crisis.
GHANA
"Thank God with me for a successful NTI class we had here in the Ghana Midland
District. Besides the new things we learned, I praise God for lives changed as Rev. Paul Martin taught the course 'The Holy Life.' Things I personally never knew were taught, and the Lord worked in my heart in a wonderful way that has never happened before, as we went through the 'Crisis & Process in Santificaiton' of John Wesley's Grace Continuum.
"My advice to the pastors was that, they must allow the Lord to change them at these meetings so that back at their home churches the Lord would then use them to change their people as well. Thank God they are teaching the truths of this course in their local churches, and we are praying lives are going to change as a result." [Alex Akomaning]
PRAYER REQUESTS
Praise God that the Fullah family in Sierra Leone has made it through quarantine Ebola-free, and the 6-year-old daughter has recovered from Ebola! Continue to pray for Pastor James Fullah and his five children as they mourn the loss of Mrs. Isatu Fullah, Pastor Fullah's wife, who died from Ebola in February.
Please pray for the youth in churches across Africa as their passion and love for God helps transform communities.
Pray for the inaugural Nazarene Youth Connection, which will take place in South Africa in January of 2016.
Pray for God's peace and protection for those living in areas that are hostile toward Christians.
Pray for missionaries who are working in previously unreached parts of Africa to spread the gospel.
Praise the Lord for the power of our risen Savior! We hope you had a beautiful Holy Week and Easter celebration.
ABOUT THE REGION
Email us at news@africanazarene.org.
“After he left, in the evening, [I thought] I’ve heard that so many times, I don’t even know if it’s true. Let’s try this and see if it works. I prayed, ‘Lord, if this is true what these people say about salvation, save me.’ Something changed immediately, I felt the change and I knew it was real and that’s when my walk with Christ started.”
The pastor had left her with the first lesson of the Basic Bible Studies and a Bible. Out of curiosity she decided to visit his church.
“The moment I stepped into the church, something deep inside told me this is home and I decided to stay, and I invited my friends and we started going. We became the first youth group in that church.”
After graduating high school, Lebese had no direction for what to do with her life. While reading the biography of a pastor, she began to feel troubled. She didn’t know what that meant. So she visited her local pastor and explained how she was feeling. He said it might mean God was calling her to something. He advised her to go home and pray, telling God that if He was calling her, she would say yes to whatever He asked her to do.
“If you have peace after that, you know God is calling you and if you still feel troubled, it’s something else,” her pastor said.
Lebese followed his advice, telling God that whatever He wanted her to do, she would do. Immediately she was filled with peace.
When it was time to apply to college, she felt led to attend the then Africa Nazarene Theological College in Port Elizabeth (now Nazarene Theological College-South Africa) in Muldersdrift, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theology. Afterward she followed her call by spending a number of years assisting pastors or serving as a senior pastor in different churches. Lebese also earned a second bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and then a master’s degree in sociology.
In 2003, she was asked to teach classes at NTC-South Africa, and in 2006 joined the staff as the registrar. In 2008, to her surprise she was made the academic dean. Then in March 2014, she was elected principal. When describing the sequence, Lebese acknowledges she was not expecting to lead and is seemingly still astounded to find herself in this role.
While leading the college, Lebese is also studying for a master’s degree in theology through NTC-South Africa’s partnership with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK. For the past three years, she has been part of a cohort with nine of her school’s students, taking coursework in Johannesburg and making one visit to Manchester at the tail end of the program in January 2015.
Through being exposed to how a European college teaches and trains, Lebese is adding to her own vision and understanding of how NTC-South Africa can teach and train African students.
“It challenges not only me but every African that comes here to want to do theology for Africa, learn whatever you can and find ways of applying it back home. That is my dream: If I can see some of us writing from an African perspective and actually coming up with approaches to some of the things that we study, that would address some of the issues back home, that for me will be the greatest achievement ever.”
Africa is facing critical challenges in its theology, Lebese says.
The most difficult challenge is teaching and articulating a doctrine of entire sanctification – the denomination’s distinctive, core belief – in the African context.
“We are finding more and more people are struggling to understand or explain. Is it a crisis? Is it a process? So that becomes a bit of a problem. A lot of our pastors, even if they go through classes, cannot explain it in their churches.”
In South Africa, the way that the doctrine of entire sanctification has been taught and understood causes difficulty and confusion. Entire sanctification is popularly understood to remove the "root of sin once and for all," she explained. This has led to a widespread, mistaken thinking that a sanctified person is no longer able to sin. Yet people do continue to sin. A person who sins subsequent to testifying to sanctification can find themselves in a spiritual crisis, with people asking whether or not the person truly experienced sanctification. This understanding of entire sanctification as “sinless perfection” was denied by John Wesley, but has crept in to the spirituality of some holiness groups around the world. The Nazarene Church is currently reconsidering its articulation of the doctrine to prevent such misunderstandings. In Wesley’s theology, holiness is not the inability to sin, but a heart filled with love for God and neighbor. At its pinnacle, this love for God outweighs all other desires a person may have. Lebese’s work involves finding clear and creative ways to communicate this doctrine of Christian holiness.
“I think up until now we haven’t really reached the point where we can explain it in understandable terms to our people,” she said.
Currently, NTC-South Africa offers a certificate in ministry, a diploma in theology, and a bachelor of theology. Lebese’s goal is to introduce a master’s degree program in the next five years, and in the long-term to implement a PhD program.
“My dream is that [the students] would … continue to their bachelor’s and master’s and come and take over. I would be happy if one of my students would replace me as principal.”
Testimonies from Nazarene Theological Institute
Established in 1989 in Ivory Coast, the Nazarene Theological Institute (or the Institut Biblique Nazaréen) is a distance education program for those seeking to equip themselves for ministry or be ordained in the Nazarene Church. The institute serves more than 1,000 students in 16 sub-Saharan countries.
Here are testimonies from some of those programs, provided in the Next Level newsletter from Rev. Paul Martin:
LIBERIA
"I'm very happy that our strategy to make use of the extra time available during the Ebola crisis to teach more than two courses on the Monrovia District this month." [Stephen Tarpeh]
NIGERIA
Eleven students graduated with a diploma in theology. A day before the ceremony, NTI Nigeria held its first theological conference, which will become an annual event to keep in touch with graduates and to help with
"Thank you for giving us ministerial education that has prepared our pastors with more knowledge, skill, and spirituality to help them engage the world for Christ." [Oladele Oguntola]
Congratulations to Mr. Oguntola for recently earning a Master of Arts in Theological Studies!
SIERRA LEONE
"We had classes in three centers, Waterloo, Kissy and Lumley. It was very exciting to see all our developing pastors in these classes, we are praising for what He is doing even in a time of crisis. [Marie Kamara]
Sierra Leone has offered 15 classes in five months in these three centers, in the midst of the Ebola crisis.
GHANA
"Thank God with me for a successful NTI class we had here in the Ghana Midland
District. Besides the new things we learned, I praise God for lives changed as Rev. Paul Martin taught the course 'The Holy Life.' Things I personally never knew were taught, and the Lord worked in my heart in a wonderful way that has never happened before, as we went through the 'Crisis & Process in Santificaiton' of John Wesley's Grace Continuum.
"My advice to the pastors was that, they must allow the Lord to change them at these meetings so that back at their home churches the Lord would then use them to change their people as well. Thank God they are teaching the truths of this course in their local churches, and we are praying lives are going to change as a result." [Alex Akomaning]
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray for the youth in churches across Africa as their passion and love for God helps transform communities.
Pray for the inaugural Nazarene Youth Connection, which will take place in South Africa in January of 2016.
Pray for God's peace and protection for those living in areas that are hostile toward Christians.
Pray for missionaries who are working in previously unreached parts of Africa to spread the gospel.
Praise the Lord for the power of our risen Savior! We hope you had a beautiful Holy Week and Easter celebration.
ABOUT THE REGION
The Nazarene Church is in 42 countries in Africa, with more than 600,000 members in six fields.
What would you like to see in Out of Africa? Email us at news@africanazarene.org.
@NazAfrica
Holly Beech, editor
17 Botes Street
Holly Beech, editor
17 Botes Street
Johannesburg
Gauteng
South Africa
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