Zambia Hunt

Africa, a continent of nearly 1.5 billion people, was once known as the “missionary graveyard.”  In the early days of the modern missionary movement, wave after wave of pioneer gospel workers landed on the shores of this continent, determined to establish a beachhead for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  “Africa has claimed the lives of more… missionaries than any other area of the world.”^[1] These men and women laid down their lives to disease and a hostile population for the sake of the gospel.  Yet still they came – these bold messengers of Jesus Christ.  These “nineteenth-century missionary pioneers risked all to open the way for Christianity in Africa.^[2]”  

Today, there are cures for diseases like malaria and dysentery, and most peoples of Africa have laid down their weapons and joined the urbanization migration.  However, the challenge our generation faces in the continuing effort to bring the gospel to every corner of the continent is no less daunting than that of our nineteenth-century forbearers.

Over 340 million people in Africa live among groups that have yet to be reached with the gospel. That is nearly 30% of the entire population!^[3] Add to this the reality that much of what is classified as “evangelical” Christianity in Africa is influenced to some degree by Health/Prosperity theology, and it becomes abundantly clear that the need for local churches to raise and send missionaries is both urgent and necessary.^[4]  

As I wrote in another article, “Initial evangelism must lead to planting new churches. Christians must be nurtured to maturity within these churches. Leaders must be identified and trained to evangelize, plant other churches, pastor and shepherd the community of believers, and train other leaders.” This should be the goal and expectation of all Christ-honoring churches anywhere in the world.

Across Africa, Islam is aggressively spreading its doctrine. Of the 58 nations that comprise the Continent of Africa, 34 have a measurable Islamic population.^[5]

On a visit to Somaliland (a breakaway republic in northern Somalia), I was assured by a high-ranking official of religious freedom in the country. I asked this Somali gentleman, “You speak of religious freedom in Somaliland.  What would happen if a Somali decided to leave Islam and embrace Jesus Christ as Savior?”  “Oh, then there would be problems,” the official replied, “that person would have to flee for his life.”  

As the African Church advances a biblical gospel, plants churches, and sends missionaries, so too must churches around the globe send workers from their congregations.  This is not an “either-or” proposition but a “both-and.” A survey in the West ^[6] suggested the top three reasons Christian young people are not considering serving God as full-time missionaries:

1. They are unwilling to set aside their own self-interest and material comforts.
2. The world today is a dangerous place, especially overseas.
3. Young people today have too much debt (Education, credit card, etc.)

God has not revoked his Commission to the Western Church.  We are to go into all the world to preach the gospel, make disciples, and gather fellowships of growing believers who will reproduce themselves. 

As we ask the Lord of Harvest to send forth laborers to fulfill the Great Commission in Africa, let us ask for men and women of Consecration.  The unfinished task of reaching this generation in Africa must be seized by passionate lovers of God, those who long for Christ to be magnified among the nations of Africa.^[7]

Let us also ask for men and women of Commitment.  Soldiers of Christ who will not become entangled with civilian affairs, committed to pleasing the One who has called them as disciple-makers.^[8]

Finally, let us ask for men and women of Courage.  We stand in a missionary heritage passed down from the apostles and the early church, a heritage of men and women who, in the face of threats, persecution, and death, believed that “to die is gain.”^[9]  The evangelization of Africa in our generation will require courage, men and women who love not their own lives even unto death.^[10]

^[1] Ibid

^[2] Ibid

^[3] https://joshuaproject.net/continents/AFR

^[4] An interesting survey of Christianity in Africa. http://www.pewforum.org/2011/06/22/global-survey-beliefs/

^[5] Muslim Countries of Africa/Asia/Middle East/South East Asia: C. 2000, http://www.theislamproject.org/education/Africa_Mideast_etc.html

^[6] Thornton. Why They Don’t Go: Surveying the Next Generation of Mission Workers.  EMQ April 2008. p208

^[7] Philippians 1.20

^[8] 2 Timothy 2:2-4

^[9] Philippians 1:21

^[10] Revelation 12.11