God’s move since Pentecost till the 20th century
The eternal God has always been committed to the spread of His fame and worship among men. What started as a movement on the day of Pentecost and championed by Jews, has since escalated to a global movement being advanced by different races and people, at different times in History in the last twenty centuries.
The Africa continent will be eternally grateful to the obedience of the western Christians in the 18th and 19th century as they responded to the great Commission to bring the Gospel to Africa. Many came at great personal and family cost, others paid the ultimate price to bring the light of the Gospel to the dark continent. Many actually came with their coffins knowing they were taking the Gospel to where is referred to as the White man’s graveyard.
Global Christianity today
According to Status of Global Christianity, 2023, in the Context of 1900-2050 published by Center for the Study of Global Christianity of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, by mid-2023 the global South comprising Africa, Latin America and Asia shall have more Christians than the global North. In the report, it is estimated that there will be 718,096,000 Christians in Africa, 611,370,000 in Latin America, 406,555,000 in Asia, 566,423,000 in Europe (including Russia) and 271,870,000 in North America. This makes Africa the continent with the highest population of Christians globally. Also, it is estimated that by mid-2023 there will be 2,604,382,000Christians in the world. From the foregoing, 27% of all Christians in the world were in Africa by mid-2023 making it approximately one in every four Christian in the world being an African!
Africa has emerged as the power house of Christianity in terms of population with sub Saharan Africa housing a bulk of the continent’s Christians. The continent that was hitherto dubbed as a high priority unreached continent is now the bastion of Christianity. In spite of the large population of Christians in Africa, a bulk of the Missionaries going to the unreached world do not come from Africa. It is justifiable to argue that the continent with the highest concentration of Christians should send out the most Missionaries.
Africa and youth population
According to the data by the United Nations, 70% of sub-Saharan African are under the age of 30 making Africa the continent with the youngest population in the world. According to the CIA World Fact book, the top 10 countries with the lowest median age are in Africa. Niger Republic’s median age is 14.8, Uganda has the second youngest being 15.7. Excluding island nations like the Seychelles and North African nations like Tunisia and Algeria, no African country save South Africa falls outside the world’s 150 youngest populations.
From the statistics available, Africa being the continent with the highest Christian population can also be said to be a young people’s continent and by deduction the African Christian population is a youthful population of Christ followers. Therefore, if we are focusing on the potential of African Christians to deploy Missionaries across the globe then we must focus African Christian youth.
Africa and 21st Century Missions
The advent of the 21st century has spotlighted Africa as not only being headlined with corruption and bad leadership alone but also with great strides of exploit and advances of great dimensions stirring hope of a great future for the continent. Today, large Church congregations with excited youths dot the landscape. The largest church congregations and Church buildings are found in Nigeria and other African cities while painfully Church cathedrals are being bought over for cinemas and other purposes in Europe. Also, due to the search for greener pasture and capacity development, African youths are migrating all over the world with many of them actively practicing their faith where they found themselves around the globe. There is a growing African influence in the Christian landscape of Europe and America with several large church congregations being led by Africans. The African youths are not left behind in the IT engagement with many of them proving their worth and taking their place in the global IT and AI development. All these are capped with the resilience and persevering spirit of Africans.
There is no gainsaying that the African Church is having a growing influence in global Christian affairs and cannot be ignored if the global Church must finish the task of evangelizing the remaining unreached people groups of the world!
Challenges and limitations
In spite of the great potential of the African Church and her youth, there are pertinent challenges confronting her in taking her place in World Missions, especially in global deployment of her youth. Key among the challenges is Discipleship. There is a serious discipleship gap in the African Church.
The teaching on the lordship of Jesus is not a priority teaching in some of the leading Churches. Deliverance, Spiritual warfare and Prophetic messages seems to be the attraction that brought many to the Church. While these are not wrong in themselves as Jesus also came to deliver his people and bless them. Jesus blessing of the Church calls us to a responsibility of making that blessing known and experienced by the multitude who have not known Jesus. It is the teaching of responsible Christianity that comes with discipleship that is missing in most of these congregations! Of particular attention also is the need to focus on the discipleship of the teeming African Christian youth who are the majority in the Church. Young people should be taught and envisioned for world Missions early in life while there should be an urgent and radical shift in thrusting leadership responsibility on the shoulders of the youth. The Missions vision should also be communicated to the youth in a creative and appealing way that make them see the prospect of embracing Missions as a career.
It is not unlikely to see a youth saying he does not have a calling for a Missionary career and by that he means he is not called to the traditional way of Missions engagement by the older generation. A career that only emphasizes sacrifice, loss, suffering and lack of enthusiastic pursuit. There is need to make the young people of Africa see the joy of serving in Missions, the blessing of embracing a missionary career, the enthusiasm of being an instrument in bringing the gospel message to a region without light! Missions work is fun and fulfilling. That is what the African youth are looking for and that is what we should invite them to participate in. The African Church need to engage and understand the culture of the 21st century African youth so as to be able to mobilize them for Missions.
Closely linked to the point raised above is a dynamic Missions vision in the African Church. Many congregations still look inward and have a mentality of a receiving congregation looking to the west for resources for growth. The picture of a Missionary being a white skinned still looms in the consciousness of many. While there are strong outreaches in-country in a number of countries, the vision of the need for a global engagement is still at the infancy state. There is a need for a strong emphasis in the possibility of African youth bearing the torch of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. There is an urgent need to cast the vision of a global harvest waiting for the African youth.
Furthermore, the African Church need to wake up and change her perspective from a receiving continent to a sending continent in terms of missionary deployment. The move of God has come to Africa. It is not for nothing that Africa is the continent with the highest population of Christians! She needs to consciously develop structures to mobilize, envision and deploy her youth for global harvest. The frustration often expressed by many youth with Missions passion is that of a great discouragement from the Church hierarchy. This needs to change if Africa will take her place in the global harvest of the unreached.
Another challenge that has been highlighted is economic limitation. Missions work is capital intensive. Mobilizing, training and deploying a Missionary is expensive. More expensive is the cost of maintaining a Missionary on the field and investing in the Missions field which may not yield an indigenous Church movement in time. This is cast against the background of a continent with serious economic challenges. However, a close study of Missions advance has not always been done by the rich and economically advantaged communities or region. It has always been carried out by an obedient and willing people who have creatively developed means of sending and maintaining Missionaries on the field. Part of the structuring the African Church may have to develop is reprioritizing her budget and commitment of her resources if she will take her place in world Missions. The African youth are enthusiastic, where are the willing Churches that will back their enthusiasm with resources for global harvest?
Lastly, I will also want to highlight a sensitive challenge. Racial prejudice. Most part of the world have not come to terms with a Missionary being dark skinned. Both the African Church and the global Church should have a mind renewal of the global workforce for Missions being from every nation to every nation. While the African Church should rise beyond the prejudice of deploying to the world and develop a global Missions vision, the global church should also be open minded to a reality that has come upon the world- the African Missionaries are here!
Just as it was written in the scriptures, “ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. ”. Galatians 3:28,29, both the African Church and the global Church should see themselves as one in Christ who are bringing divers gifts and strength to the global Missions workforce to advance the frontiers of the kingdom.
It is a Kairos moment for the African Church
Indeed, this is a Kairos moment for the African Church. A moment where the African Church need to be deliberate in taking advantage of God’s visitation at a time like this. A moment she need to approach with all sobriety and humility so as to play her role in youth deployment in her time of visitation. It is also a moment that calls for a strong collaboration with the global church not in a paternalistic relationship but in a mutually beneficial and God glorifying partnership that accelerates the completion of the harvest of the nations in our time.
God is waiting!
The nations are waiting!
What are the African Christian youths waiting for?
NB: The title of this article is the subject of a book that will soon be published. It gives the feedback of 1000 African youths on their perspective of world Missions. Watch out!