Last week, I was asked to lead the cluster of Baptist pastors from the greater Dar area in a lesson on the challenges facing African urban church pastors. As I prepared for the lesson, it became clear we’d only be able to scratch the surface of many key issues. Some of the issues we touched upon were:

1.    Poverty. HUGE issue. Physical, emotional, spiritual. Joblessness. How should church care for poor? What is the church’s responsibility? Is God concerned?

2.    Religious confusion / syncretism – sound theology must be proclaimed, not emotional hype and feelings. Get people grounded in the Word. Training (formally and informally) for future leaders in church is desperately needed.

3.    Breakdown of family structure, so few two-parent homes and families. Moral breakdown – AIDS, immoral lifestyle, etc.

4.    Racial/gender/age strife and tension. (See Acts 6 where Hellenistic widows are treated as second class citizens.)

5.    Paradigm and worldview shifts. Lifestyles speeding up (less “time” for church), Western influence toward secularism, more info but less clarity. Materialism.

In our discussion, we looked at the book of Acts to see how the Apostles ministered in urban centers.

1.    The Church needs to be flexible with negotiables, without compromising non-negotiables. Dynamic leadership, not static. Like men of Issachar (1 Chron.12:32).

2.    Find a balance of meeting physical needs and meeting spiritual needs. Discipleship involves both, as we see Jesus demonstrating.

3.    Delegate responsibilities to those in church suited to meet needs (Acts 6:1-4).

4.    Churches can work together and pool human and material resources to make larger impact in the cities (Acts 2:44/4:32).

 

Then we looked at church planting and growth in urban centers in book of Acts, focusing on Acts 19.

 

·         As opposed to his style early on in ministry, Paul spent nearly two years in Corinth, and three years in Ephesus.

·         Instead of planting churches, he taught in school of Tyrannus (19:9).

·         Through his time there, he trained and sent out many pastors who planted churches all over Europe (possibly in their home towns). (Epaphras to Colossae, etc.)

·         In this way he says that all Jews and Greeks in Asia heard word of Lord (19:10).

·         Advantage – multiplication happens much more quickly, students become teachers.

·         Disadvantage – church leaders and planter are quite inexperienced and new to faith.

·         One of the challenges of urban church leaders will be to train African leaders and send them back to their villages and home towns to plant churches among their people.

I learned a great deal from the pastors, and I believe it was a beneficial time for everyone. Let us pray for pastors in these urban centers to be effective at making disciples in their Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Pressing on, Eric