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Evangelical Missiology from Africa 277 Authoritarian and Bureaucratic

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Evangelical Missiology from Africa 277 Authoritarian and Bureaucratic evangelical missiology from africa 277 Authoritarian and bureaucratic Christian missions. These independent church structures faith missions did two important things. African Christianity inherited hierarchi- First, they developed new church struc- cal, authoritarian, and bureaucratic church tures and organisations, and second, they structures from the missionaries. These trained Africans to take over their mission structures tended to undermine the Afri- work. They emphasised building churches can communal way of life. The recent Pen- that were self-governing, self-supporting, tecostal and charismatic emphasis on and self-propagating, in accordance with loose church structures and spontaneous the “three-self ” formula espoused by religious expression is now creating pow- Rufus Anderson, Henry Venn, and Roland erful, authoritarian church personalities. Allen. Denominational missions, on the The search for relevant church structures other hand, such as the Baptists, Presby- must cut across both the older churches terians, Methodists, Anglicans (CMS), and and the newer Pentecostal and charismatic Catholics, merely trained Africans to take churches. the places of missionaries and subse- quently incorporated the African mission Capital intensive missions churches into their world denominational The first Evangelical missions in Africa church structures. were industrial missions. They believed in Indigenisation principles had a pro- both the gospel and commerce. This con- found influence upon Christian missions. cept was later dropped as a result of the These policies defined in general terms debates between “social gospel” and “pure the nature of the church, its quality, struc- gospel,” that is, “deed” versus “word.” tures, etc. The preparation of Africans to Christian missions raised funds and take over the mission work depended very personnel from their home mission office much upon what missions understood by and gradually became more and more these indigenous policies and also what dependent on the home mission. As a re- models they used in implementing them. sult, the economic and personnel poten- The following techniques were used: tial of the field missions was not fully Evangelism and developed. The powerful personalities of church planting some of the new Pentecostal and charis- matic movements have not addressed this Principles of evangelism were taught issue, nor have they provided an alterna- to early converts, who became itinerant tive. Instead, they have tended to rely evangelists alongside the missionaries. more heavily upon Western capital and Church planting resulted from a variety monetary philosophy. Internal resource of missionary activities, including evange- generation and personnel development lism, itineration, education, medical work, must be given priority attention in Africa literature work, etc. Organised evangelism if change is to occur. and church planting based upon indigeni- sation principles were quite evident even Indigenisation policies and during the pioneering stages of the mis- mission/church relations sion work. The indigenisation policy of some Theological training Christian missions led to the founding of national churches in the 1950s in some Christian missions founded many ver- African countries. This phenomenon oc- nacular Bible training schools with the curred mostly among non-denominational primary purpose of developing indig- 278 addressing issues of globalized evangelical missiology enous Bible teachers, evangelists, and church leaders. The major cause of this pastors who would later provide church conflict was the missionary ecclesiology, leadership. which was incompatible with African ex- pectations and their simple biblical under- Teacher training standing of the church. Teacher training centres were also built by Christian missions with the primary pur- Transfer of mission vision pose of developing indigenous teachers. Two simple truths failed to be realised Similar advanced schools were established when it came time for Western missionar- with the view of preparing indigenous ies to transfer the vision of mission to Af- leadership within the African church. ricans. These truths were, “Like father, like son” and “Like begets like.” By and large, Pastoral training the African church has failed to grasp the Pastoral training was the least devel- mission vision and burden of Western mis- oped by Christian missions. Theological sionaries. This is our greatest puzzle, and institutions were mainly centres of train- it is the greatest indictment of mission ing evangelists and Bible teachers. Pastoral work in Africa. How could a missionary training and church administration were not transfer his vision and burden of mis- less emphasised. The missionaries felt that sion to Africans? And how could Africans these two areas should not be introduced not catch the vision and burden of mis- to the Africans too soon. Unfortunately, sion from the missionary who brought this simple preference became doctrinaire them the gospel of Christ? The most seri- over the years. Licensing and ordination ous weakness of the African church lies in of Africans for pastoral duties and church this area. This aspect needs to be re-intro- leadership were most difficult to come by, duced to the African church today. so the number of national church leaders was very limited. Contributions of the African Church Training of African evangelists to the Global Church African evangelists were trained as an auxiliary work force to that of the mission- The place of the African church within aries in the mission field. For the most the global church needs to be clarified. part, indigenous missionary agencies simi- Discussions and issues arising from part- lar to those of Western societies were not nership consultations reflect the problem. formed. One exception was SIM in Nige- We must recognise that the indices used ria, which developed an indigenous orga- to measure the contributions of the Afri- nisation, the African Missionary Society/ can church may not necessarily be the Evangelical Missionary Society in the late same as those that are being used to mea- 1940s. sure global success, strength, and influ- ence. Judged by the contemporary issues Church autonomy facing it, the African church may be said The issues of church control and church to occupy a very weak position within the autonomy plagued the indigenisation poli- global church. We must look elsewhere to cies of Christian missions in Africa. Relin- find a standard that gives the African quishing control and granting autonomy church a position within the global to Africans was the most difficult aspect church. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 provides a and created the greatest source of conflict theological basis in this case. The position between Western missionaries and African of the African church can be judged not evangelical missiology from africa 279 only from a human perspective, but also and leadership all serve to manifest God’s from God’s divine wisdom. If we look at strength and wisdom in raising up his the African church from this perspective, church in Africa. The Bible is clear on how its contribution will become more appar- a weaker brother should be treated. The ent. The church can be strengthened if its weaknesses of the African church should contribution is appreciated. not translate into paternalism, a depen- dency syndrome, dominance, or lack of Numerical size respect for human dignity and worth. Crit- With over 230 million adherents, the ics of mission work in Africa usually give African church is bound to shape the glo- up on mission when they come across the bal church by its size alone. Andrew Walls manifest display of human weakness. But has noted that the center of Christianity this is a gross failure to understand that has shifted from the North to the South. God uses the weak things of this earth to This is an astonishing change. Kwame manifest his glory. A lot has been done by Bediako asserts that the vibrant life and weak missionaries to establish the church size of the African church demand that a of Christ in Africa. serious study be made so as to ascertain The church in Africa is still struggling the church’s place, role, and contribution with human weaknesses in its short mis- to global Christianity. siological history, resulting in crises of The non-Christian world has recog- mission/church relations in Africa. In glo- nised the size of Africa in world affairs, and bal Christianity, weakness will become a this fact has influenced the appointments virtue in a biblical sense if we correct some of Boutrous Boutrous Ghali of Egypt and of the problems of mission ecclesiology Kofi Anang of Ghana as Secretaries Gen- in Africa by recognising and assigning to eral of the United Nations and Chief the African church its proper place and Emeka Anyoku of Nigeria as Secretary of role in global Christianity. the Commonwealth. The World Evangeli- cal Fellowship has done the same, with Potentials and possibilities Tokunboh Adeyemo of Nigeria as its Chair- The African church is numerically man. The World Council of Churches has strong and has great potential. Africans made similar appointments. But we must have some general characteristics which go beyond just having a “black face.” True can be utilised in the global strategy of mis- representation must be based upon equal- sion. They generally possess vitality of life, ity and upon respect for the dignity and with the ability and the perseverance to worth of persons. It also means under- live in very harsh and difficult conditions. standing the views and needs of the per- Furthermore, Africans generally under- son being represented. It requires hearing stand the language of the spirit world. Can and not just listening. Representation Africans be recruited as missionaries by means allowing the other person to be a Western mission agencies? We are all aware participant and not just a spectator. A spiri- of the fact that Western sporting clubs re- tual understanding of representation will cruit African stars to play for their clubs. definitely make the African church the Westerners should likewise tap into the centrepiece of global strategies of mission.
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