At AE the gospel is at the core of what we do. Our missions are holistic and aim to engage entire cities with the good news of Jesus Christ. We have a passion to meet the urgent need of theological education for church leaders in Africa and is committed to helping train godly leadership, equipping church ministers to be faithful to the Gospel, and to grow the church. Unfortunately, in many parts of Africa the local pastors are not trained at all which often leads to pastors unknowingly spreading a false Gospel.
Pastor Training Courses (PTC) are an important way that African Enterprise works in partnership with the local church in Africa. These courses are offered to those already in Christian leadership positions in their local church or other ministries. AE wants to equip them with solid skills in understanding and teaching God’s word so that they may be even more effective in what they do. Training the local church leaders is a big need and through AE we provide the necessary training programs.
All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17
Let us pray for the Pastor’s Training Course,
- That AE, through the PTC bring the richness of the Gospel to life in the local churches
- That the PTC keep bringing the African church to maturity in Christ by the delivery of training to the church leaders that result in a better understanding and handling of God’s word.
- For financial support to make these courses self-sustaining
- For the lecturers to have an increased mission awareness in their home churches
- That the true Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name would be preached in all of Africa, and that false ‘gospels’ would be revealed.
Let us pray for the discipleship and follow up of new believers
- That the church will effectively support the new believers on their journey
- That enough resources will be available in order to assist the new believers to stay active
- To give understanding of God’s Word but also embed trust
- That lives can be transformed to accomplish His purpose
- To provide opportunities for personal growth and spiritual formation that strengthen the new believers in their Christian walk
- That the African church will be empowered to help all the new believers study the bible and apply its truths in their daily lives.
Let us pray for the unity of churches in approaching new believers
- That the true Gospel will be shared and a fire will be ignited
- For the effective follow up of new believers
- Please grant our leadership a plan for growth and development
- For more churches to enroll in our school of evangelism and partner with us on mission
Proclaim African Evangelists Congress 2020 changed the African outlook of evangelism. The 3-day Congress brought together 3,318 participants from 49 African countries and 10 diaspora countries. And this gave birth to an idea that will transform evangelism in Africa.
By targeting specific groups under the theme: Let Africa hear and proclaim the gospel, the congress seeks to impart knowledge, educate evangelists and build a strong foundation upon which evangelism will thrive in Africa with a view of reaching all Africans with the gospel.
Beginning with the Proclaim Young Evangelists Congress that will run from 10th to 12th September 2021 at 4pm GMT. Targeting at least 2,000 evangelists between the ages of 15-35 from all over Africa. By bringing together the future generation of evangelists together to learn at the feet of those curving the path ahead of them, this ensures that a proper appreciation of evangelism is instilled to go with the passion and fire that burns within each and every attendee of the Congress. The panelists have been specifically targeted for their influence in their areas of dominion.
This will be followed by the Regional Proclaim Evangelists Congress taking place in November 2021. Developed with the knowledge that evangelism styles across Africa are different, this will give the various regions of Africa i.e. North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa an opportunity to meet within their various regions and learn from each other as well as connect and network.
Proclaim Continental Congress 2021 shall be culmination of the country, regions and young evangelists’ congress within the year. The congress shall run as from 7th- 9th December 2021 for the virtual congress while the in person shall run from 6th- 11th December 2021 in Nairobi. Emerging evangelism topical issues from regional and country congress shall be handled. Seasoned and experienced evangelists shall handle such as this issues giving relevant case studies and success stories to learn from. Regions shall also present their Regional and Country Evangelism Plans to the wider Africa creating a platform to learn from each other. Proclaim 2021 shall also seek to study what other continents are doing to reach their own.
“His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.” – John Stott
Back in the 70’s when Billy Graham started to travel internationally, he would come across many evangelicals but they were all disconnected from each other. Traveling, ministering and spreading the Gospel alone. This was a concern for Dr. Graham who knew that the spirit of humility, friendship, prayer and partnership will bring hope and strengthen one another on mission.
The Lausanne Movement was born, chaired by John Stott they organised the very first international congress on world evangelisation back in 1974. An astounding 2,400 participants from 150 nations gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland for the first event. AE’s founder, Michael Cassidy was part of the initial planning of the very first congress. Later he served on the advisory council and was the chair of the Mission Committee for the 3rd Lausanne Congress held in Cape Town in 2010. Cassidy also became an honorary chair of the Movement in 2012.
Michael Cassidy at the Lausanne Congress 1974
The Lausanne Covenant emerged from this first congress in 1974. This document defines what it means to be an evangelical. It is also a call to Christians to unite and spread the Gospel throughout the world. Many mission organisations, including African Enterprise, use The Lausanne Covenant as their statement of faith.
You can read The Covenant here.
“Throughout their lives, Billy Graham and John Stott gave peerless leadership to evangelicals around the world. We should not look for successors. Their joint work in establishing a movement that bound evangelistic passion with theological reflection, and orthodoxy with orthopraxy, has proven a watershed for evangelicals. To this day, world congresses, global gatherings, and issue-specific forums and consultations have continued to be convened in what Billy Graham called ‘the spirit of Lausanne’—a spirit of humility, friendship, prayer, study, partnership, and hope—the very spirit mirrored in his friendship with John Stott.” – Billy Graham and John Stott, A friendship of evangelistic passion and theological reflection, The Lausanne Movement
More on the AE team and their involvement in The Lausanne Movement:
Michael Cassidy
Stephen Mbogo
Emmanuel Kwizera
Africa’s place in Global Christianity
Opponents of Christianity declare that it is dead. Despite their untimely celebration, our faith is very much alive. All over the world. In Africa, its pulse beats strong. In a continent that the world may have forgotten, God is weaving His redemption story.
More Christians now live in Africa than on any other continent. As of 2020, around 49% of Africa’s population identify themselves as Christian. From less than 10 million Christians in 1900, there are now an estimated 685 million Christians on the continent. Recent growth of Christianity in Africa is partly due to population growth, but also due to African-led evangelism.
African-led evangelism and discipleship is critical for the future of Africa’s faith. Christianity is not the only influence in Africa. Islam is advancing aggressively across the continent, and in many regions, syncretism of Christianity with traditional religions has marred the truth of the Gospel.
The continent with the world’s fastest population growth, and youngest population on earth, needs to be nurtured by an African Church that is strong in faith and sound in doctrine. For 60 years, African Enterprise has been a trusted champion of the African Church. Reaching across denominational boundaries, AE is passionate about equipping the Church for true evangelism and discipleship.
It is estimated that, by the year 2060, 4 out of 10 global Christians will live in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the Church, we are the body of Christ on the earth. It could be said that, at this moment in history, the beating heart of global Christianity is in Africa. If so, we would do well to remember our brothers and sisters there.
“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
(1 Corinthians 12:27, NLT)
“To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that, as the reigning Lord, he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world. (1 Corinthians 15:3,4; Acts 2:32-39; John 20:21; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45) – The Lausanne Covenant; nr.4 The nature of evangelism
What makes African Enterprise unique is the fact that our evangelists are locals. They speak the same language as those around them and they come from the same backgrounds, but, what sets them apart from the other locals are their love for Christ, their commitment to Christ, their passion to spread the Gospel and their education and training.
Our evangelists are all trained using AE’s School of Evangelism, a formal course equipping local church leaders and pastors with solid Biblical knowledge to assist them in evangelising to locals. This training forms part of our Stratified Evangelism Process.
Mission preparation and planning starts 2 years before the mission. Mapping the mission field, dividing it into zones, building relationships with church leaders, equipping local evangelists by training them in the school of evangelism, selecting and training facilitators and mobilising the church. All of this leads up to 1 week of city-wide mission. After the mission week, new believers are followed up, nurtured and ensured that they belong to a church.
When COVID-19 hit Africa, our teams decided to rise above this challenge and used a new tool called Home Based Evangelism (HBE) to continue evangelising the cities of Africa. City-wide missions don’t look the way they used to, but HBE has proven to be a mighty and effective tool to bring people to Jesus. Still following our Stratified Evangelism Process, evangelists are now trained online instead of face to face, the message is no longer spread through a massive event but rather through TV and radio broadcasts and through evangelists walking in the streets, going from home to home to tell people the Good News, to give them hope in these uncertain times. Our teams are on the ground, local and ready to evangelise.
In the last year we’ve reached more than 6 million people with the Gospel and 63,516 were nurtured into churches.
Our Mombasa-West mission in Kenya just concluded a few weeks ago and we have 8 more missions planned for 2021. Please keep our teams in your prayers as they spread the Gospel across Africa, sometimes in very dangerous circumstances. Keep praying for those that made decisions to follow Christ. Pray for their faith to continue to grow and strengthen.
Cooper Kruize, an AE supporter, reflects on why he partners with AE and meeting Stephen Lungu.
I was a young man in high school searching for something to fill a hole in my life, God through Stephen and his story, showed me that it wasn’t popularity, influence, respect, or a good time that I was searching for, it was forgiveness and wholeness that only Jesus could bring.
In 2008 I was in year 8, a young man, just over a year into high school and although to all my friends and family on the outside I looked happy, I felt like I was far from it. Since immigrating to Australia in 2001 from South Africa, I have always been someone who has lived in the fast lane of life, chasing the next thing. Whether that be the next race, the next “life experience”, the next “well done” from my coaches”, the next friendship, what every it was, when I got it, it wasn’t enough, I needed more, although I didn’t know it. Until my mum took me along to hear Stephen Lungu’s story one night at Turramurra High School.
From the moment Steven got up from his seat in the front row and walked up the stairs on the side of the stage he had my undivided attention. As Stephen begun to share his story I was absorbed, my heart quickly opened-up and aligned with his, it wasn’t that I had the same life experiences as Stephen, in fact it couldn’t be further from it. Although I don’t think I could have articulated it back then, there was one thing that our stories unmistakably had in common – we had a God shaped hole in our lives and we were trying to fill it with things that could not fit, things that could never satisfy. It was through Stephens story my heart knew what it needed to be satisfied, I needed Jesus, I needed him to forgive me and fill me with life, so that I may live life truly to the full. After the event I went up to Stephen who laid hands on me and prayed for me. It was then that I broke down in tears, I don’t know why I was crying, but all I knew is that they were good tears, it was as if I was crying away the chains that I had been a slave to, I felt free.
It wasn’t till a few year later I was re-acquainted to the work that AE was doing all around the world. I was overjoyed to find out that I was not the only life that God had changed through this ministry. Every year through AE over a million people hear the good news that Jesus gives life, eternal life that our hearts desire. Giving to this ministry is the best investment that I have ever made, I can’t wait to meet all my brothers and sisters from Africa one day in heaven and hear how God used AE to bring them to eternal relationship and life with Jesus.
