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JMTC-NetACT-ASSRC Conference 11 August 2007

The growth of the church in Africa:

Fact & figures

Problems & Challenges

Jurgens Hendriks

Stellenbosch University

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EVANGELISM IN AFRICA INTRODUCTION

Paradigm and Key concepts (2-7) Four hypotheses (8-11) Some statistical tables (12-19) Church growth: USA style & African variation (20-

22) Why & when did the church started growing in

Africa? (23-24) Lamin Sanneh answers (25-26) Harvey Cox answers (27-30) Concluding thoughts (31-35)

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MISSIONAL THEOLOGY

Missional and ecumenical ecclesiology Guder et al:

This ecclesiocentric understanding of mission has been replaced during this century by a profoundly theocentric reconceptualization of Christian mission. We have come to see that mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation. ‘Mission’ means ‘sending,’ and is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in history …. God’s character and purpose as a sending or missionary God redefines our understanding of the Trinity.

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Mission defined:

Mission: wider than evangelism. Bosch: “mission is, quite simply, the participation of

Christians in the liberating mission of Jesus …, wagering on a future that verifiable experience seems to belie. It is the good news of God’s love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the world.”

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EVANGELISM AS MISSIONAL THEOLOGY

Evanglism (Bosch): “…that dimension and activity of the church’s mission

which, by word and deed and in the light of the particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives, a reorientation which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Saviour and Lord; becoming living members of that community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace and justice on earth; and being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ.”

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MISSIONAL

Missional (Roxburgh) “The word missional was coined to express the

conviction that North America and Europe are now primarily ‘mission fields’ themselves. Missional also expresses that God’s mission … is that which shapes and defines all that the church is and does, as opposed to expecting church to be the ultimate self-help group for meeting our own needs and finding fulfilment in our individual lives. … the focus of this mission must be upon placing the God who has encountered us in Jesus Christ back in the center of our communities of faith that shape and give meaning to our lives.”

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Difference between missionary and missional

We are trying to get away from an old colonial paradigm where missionaries were Western / white people and the object of the missionary work evangelizing and “civilizing” other people

With missional we refer to a new paradigm where the focus is on God and his agenda (Missio Dei) for the world. God is a missional God and Christians therefore are a missional people who ought to be involved in this agenda

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HYPOTHESIS 1

1. The Western world no longer trusts the good news to be good news; In Africa (and elsewhere) it brings hope, joy and healing.

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HYPOTHESIS 2

1. The centre of gravity of the Christian world is shifting southward, to Africa, Asia and Latin America.

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HYPOTHESIS 3

3. If God is missional, then the identity of the church should be likewise, meaning that the church will grow only if it dies to itself;

If it allows the gospel to cross boundaries and reach out to its neighbours to address the needs of creation.

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HYPOTHESIS 4

4 Key factors to an understanding of the growth of the church in Africa lies in notions such as: Becoming missional (stated above), Doing theology ecumenically and Doing theology and evangelism in a holistic way and as a kenotic action on a community / congregational level.

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STATISTICS

1. World Population trends: Southern shift

2. Christianity in Africa: Regions - Denom’s

3. Southern African Info

4. SA: 1911-2001 Christian market share growth and decline pattern

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Southern Shift in Christianity

1900

Popul

1900

Christ

%

Christ

2005

Popul

2005

Christ

%

Christ

South 179 73 41% 1 479 954 65%

North 1 441 449 31% 4 975 1 131 23%

Total 1 620 552 32% 6454 2085 32%Numbers are in millions

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Church Growth in Africa

1900: 9 million Christians = 9% of population

1900: 4 Muslims for every 1 Christian

2005: 408m Christen = 46% of population

2005: 355m Muslim = 40% of population

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American church growth marketing values and assumptions

1. Capitalism’s value system of success in numbers is the DNA of this system

2. Personal fulfilment – “What you need is what you get…”

3. Healing is a product of your faith4. If consumers determine the agenda of

the church, the Lord’s agenda is usually absent.

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The big three in Africa:

1. Ignorance

2. Poverty

3. Disease

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Church growth African style: rogue pastors

In a context of ignorance, poverty and disease:

There is a yearning for escaping these calamities

So: what you see (on TV and in the big tent “arena”) is what you believe

Cult figures calling themselves pastors use these calamities to mislead and beguile innocent, ignorant people to enrich themselves. Church growth is thus a profitable business

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The growth of the church in Africa

We need to look deeper

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When did this growth occur?

1962: Independence came to Africa; Missionaries start to leave.

1962: 60m Christians & 145m Muslims Between 1970 & 1985 Christianity grew in

Africa at 16,500 conversions a day – mostly in poor areas.

During the same time 4,300 people were leaving the church weekly in the West

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Whose religion is Christianity? Other reasons for the growth…

1. The rapid expansion of Christianity took place after the colonial period

2. The translation of the Bible in African languages played a major role in the growth of an African Christianity.

3. African leadership and the role of women freed the church from the disadvantages of foreign compromise and Western denominationalism

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Other reasons:

4. Christian expansion is virtually directly linked to those societies whose people preserved the indigenous name of God

5. African theology is holistic: the physical / rational world & the spiritual world = 1

6. The Pentecostal spirituality: rediscovering primal speech, spirituality & hope The important role of music!

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EVANGELISM IN AFRICA -Pentecostalism

Cox:

My own conviction is that Pentecostals have touched so many people because they have indeed restored something. But they have done it in a very particular way. They have enabled countless people to recover, on a quite personal level, three dimensions of this elemental spirituality that I call “primal speech,” “primal piety,” and “primal hope.”

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The Pentecostal contribution 1

Primal speech: In a world where the cognitive grids and perceptual barriers are drawn in cold and clear logic, people need to get in touch with the supernatural, with a God who can relate to them and with whom they can relate, even if words cannot be found to express what is in the heart.

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The Pentecostal contribution-2

Primal spirituality: refers to signs and wonders and the recovery of primal piety. The Pentecostals, almost by accident it seems, found a way: They rebelled against creeds but retained mystery. They abolished hierarchies but kept ecstasy. This happened in the worship of those who had to face the new realities of cities being dislocated from their rural lifestyle and family.

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The Pentecostal contribution-3

Primal hope: Pentecostalism became the global vehicle for the restoration of primal hope in a century with two world wars, a holocaust, the first nuclear bombs, a cold war, innumerable atrocities, and the growing economic disparities illustrated by the growing gap between rich and poor. Eschatology, not only distant, is a reality with Pentecostalism. Music carried their message!

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Then why so little reconciliation?

Why all the Poverty and corruption Ignorance and exploitation by leaders Disease – 70% of the world’s HIV infected? The incessant warfare and ethnocentrism?

Is Christianity in Africa a mile wide and an inch deep?

Correct? Yes and no.

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How do we do theology and How do we train our leaders?

I believe we are standing at the cradle of the birth of African theology and a new generation of leadership….

Unmistakeably: The Spirit of the Lord is moving in Africa! How do we discern where He is leading?A group of Africans from seminaries in 8 Sub-

Saharan countries proposed the following as a preliminary suggestion of doing contextual theology:

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Doing theology in Africa

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THE CHURCH IN AFRICA: Whose religion is Christianity?

Whose religion is Christianity? It certainly is not the exclusive religion and domain of the Western world and its way of doing theology.

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THE CHURCH IN AFRICA: Conclusion

This beautiful continent realises that its only hope lies with Jesus Christ who came to reconcile the world with Himself.

Mission is faith in action and

Evangelism opens the door to it.