And it’s not just Africa
Our team August 2019
Conrad Mbewe hits a home run in this article that diagnoses the disease in the church in Africa called “the prosperity gospel”, “the health and wealth gospel”, or “name it and claim it”. Whatever you call it, its not what Jesus taught and it has given millions a false hope by a false gospel. Unfortunately, this gospel has invaded the U.S. also. Not only overtly as typified by TV preachers and others, but also under the guise of Christian niceness, comfort an
Conrad writes,
“It is a well-known fact that state governments in Africa are deciding that enough is enough and are moving in to arrest the rot taking place, largely in Charismatic churches. The stench cannot be ignored any more. This has already begun to happen in Kenya under President Uhuru Kenyatta. South Africa and Zambia are also preparing legislation. It will not be long before other African nations join in.
Why are national governments beginning to do this? Because their citizens have been sexually raped and financially defrauded by so-called men of the cloth with impunity. Rightly, they can no longer look the other way. Sadly, this predicament is a result of the church doing little to nothing to address the trend.church in Africa. That why TLI goes.
“It is a well-known fact that state governments in Africa are deciding that enough is enough and are moving in to arrest the rot taking place, largely in Charismatic churches. The stench cannot be ignored any more. This has already begun to happen in Kenya under President Uhuru Kenyatta. South Africa and Zambia are also preparing legislation. It will not be long before other African nations join in.
Why are national governments beginning to do this? Because their citizens have been sexually raped and financially defrauded by so-called men of the cloth with impunity. Rightly, they can no longer look the other way. Sadly, this predicament is a result of the church doing little to nothing to address the trend.”
The rest us here:
https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/article/stop-pastoral-self-appointments/
My schedule
Just a quick update on my travel schedule for the coming months.
- I leave for bi-annual staff meeting Sept. 9-12, in Minneapolis. Our agenda is cross cultural leading/teaching. We will be lead by Jim Plueddemann, professor of intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
- I will hop on the plane in Minnesota, with 4 other men, Sept. 12th, and head to Ethiopia to teach a group of hungry pastors the story of the Bible and how to integrate that story into their preaching.
- December will bring a trip to India to teach the Gospel of Mark, Dec. 6-15.
- In March I will travel back to Liberia and teach a week of 2 Timothy, participate in graduation ceremonies, and then another week of the new cohort teaching attributes of God and the call of the pastor.
Liberia August 2019
Liberia, August 1-10, 2019
I’m heading to Liberia next Thursday, August 1. I am going with a team of 5 to teach the Gospel of John. I will have the same group of students I had in December and March so we will have a glad reunion. They are growing in their abilities and I’m excited to hear their stories and what they have been preaching the last several months. In March we taught the Gospel of Mark so I am assuming they all preached Mark in the interim – I would do the same thing.
I wonder if they plan to preach the Gospel of John after we leave! I suppose two Gospels back-to-back would be a real joy.
Please pray for them: that they don’t get tired of me, that they would understand this deep and powerful book of the Bible, and that recent events in Liberia do not derail them from coming. One hundred million dollars in currency was stolen – vanished into thin air!
You can read about it here.
Many of the students travel for days to come, sleep in the classrooms at night, and then travel home after the week is over. The difficulty with the currency has caused some stability problems so things may be getting more expensive. When money gets difficult everybody seems to get upset.
I am going to serve them. I passionately desire that their ministry be built on the Bible and the Gospel. Their preaching and teaching must be Gospel-centered and Christ-exalting. Liberian Christian culture exalts the pastor. This is a hard sell when Americans come and tell them that they are to be the church’s chief servant! So pray. Pray that they will see me as a servant, that they will see Christ as the ultimate servant and the church in Liberia has a fresh moving of the Spirit.
I will come back on August 10th and then return to Ethiopia September 10-21. More about that trip later.
Bob and Vickie
Training Pastors Worldwide 