Multiply the Church
50 Supporters
Train the next generation of African pastors, theologians, authors, and missionaries.
50 Supporters
About This Project
Africa is on the rise! The history of Christian missions, rising birth rates, and the African church’s phenomenal growth have put Africa on the course to becoming the largest Christian continent in the world. While there are still many places unreached with the gospel, God is doing marvelous things in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is poised to become the next sending center for missionary advance. However, in many ways, she is not prepared for this task. Rapid church growth has outpaced the number of trained church leaders needed to shepherd the African church. Africans want to go to the world, but there are significant challenges, including heretical theologies that hinder them. Your gift will train a new generation of Africa pastors and missionaries who are prepared to take up their role in Great Commission work and teach others the truths of God’s Word. The African church is zealous and vibrant with a heart for going to the nations, and your generosity will help them answer God’s call to reach the unreached.
Theological education is of paramount importance across all sub-Saharan Africa. Across the sub-continent, aberrant theologies such as the prosperity gospel and neo-Pentecostalism weaken many churches at the core and significantly limit their potential for fulfilling their place in the global story of the Great Commission.
For many years Southern Baptists and other like-minded partners have engaged in theological education efforts and started many schools. Many of those schools have been turned over to local leadership in recent years and are attempting to find their way forward in a rapidly changing cultural environment. To assist and encourage them, IMB’s Sub-Saharan Africa affinity has embarked on a radical, continent-wide strategy of theological education to re-engage in partnership with most of these schools.
Together, IMB teams and African Baptist leaders are developing new, exciting approaches to theological education in places where no training currently exists. Their goal is to bring the entire continent of Baptists into a unified network with a vision for preparing future leaders who will strengthen the church in Africa and take the gospel around the world. Your partnership is key to this plan’s success. Your gift to “Theological Education in Sub-Saharan Africa” will enable existing schools to have limited, but vital, extra support to increase their capacity and to enable them to do more than they can currently do. Your generosity will help with the development of African pastors and missionaries this year and develop resources and publications that will continue the work long into the future. Give today!
Why direct giving matters
Giving directly to a missionary team helps fund the specific, on-the-ground needs your missionaries care deeply about—needs that aren't covered by CP and LMCO alone.
In the next five years, a globalization goal of all IMB workers is to mobilize 500 local believers to become global missionary partners serving on IMB teams.
100% of your gift directly supports missionaries and their ministries overseas.
100% of your gift directly supports missionaries and their ministries overseas.
Related Projects
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This biennial gathering brought together Baptist leaders from across Africa and beyond to strengthen theological education rooted firmly in Scripture.
Gifts equip national partners. Your partnership with us in theological education in Sub-Saharan Africa is critical to seeing the next generation of African theologians, pastors, and missionaries developed for future Kingdom work. The Africa Baptist Theological Education Network (ABTEN) brings African Baptist seminaries and Bible schools together so they can dream, collaborate, and concentrate on developing healthy African churches that send African missionaries to the nations. This organization helps Baptist theological institutions impact local African churches by strengthening and promoting sound, missional, and contextual theological education rooted in the Bible and responsive to Africa’s socio-cultural realities.
Conference trains more than 150 Africans. Recently, your gifts helped host the Fourth Continental Africa Baptist Theological Education meeting. This year’s conference theme was “Theological Education & Missions.” The meeting was hybrid, with over 100 theological educators in attendance and more than 50 who joined by Zoom. This gathering was our most successful to date, and your giving made it possible. Thank you for continuing to pray for healthy churches in Africa, for ABTEN and its impact, and for African missionaries to go to the ends of the earth. Please pray for our convenor, who recently stepped into the role, and the new steering committee as they lead the viral work of this organization.