Reflections on Being a Bible Teacher in West Africa

Being a Bible teacher in West Africa has exciting, energizing possibilities. There is a coming together of social and spiritual currents that make Bible teaching fertile ground for sowing the good seed. Africans are generally more open to Bible teaching than Westerners. Westerners tend to be so preoccupied with laying-up and protecting their treasures on earth that they have scant interest in spiritual and eternal concerns. Westerners are also so secure in their intellectual/scientific institutions that there is little need to seek anything beyond the tangible here and now.
Most Africans, on the other hand, have little hope or opportunity for prosperity and material security and therefore find it easier to be drawn by the spiritual, the next life possibilities and things eternal. This is why Jesus said the poor are blessed; the Kingdom of God is easily theirs, unencumbered and unabetted with materialistic goals.

Also whetting the appetite of Africans for solid Bible teaching are the aberrations of church so prevalent which have diminished the stature of church to such an extent that generally most churches are assumed to be a front for enterprising businessmen. To be called ‘pastor’ in West Africa has turned into a joke. This makes Africans all the more eager for the ‘real thing’.
Into this context I have recently begun helping Bible students explore the topic: Redemptive violence vs. Redemptive grace. I give this as an example of why Bible teaching in Africa is such a delight. The interest in this topic, new to most of them, is very high.

The Myth of Redemptive Violence is the notion that violence is necessary to bring order out of chaos. It is the belief that violence is necessary to hold back evil, that war brings peace and that it is necessary to sacrifice a few lives to save the many. Redemptive violence is a given worldwide; it has been in all cultures and from the beginning of time. This belief (a lie) is stated succinctly in the words of Caiaphas in John 11:50, “…it is better for you that one man [Jesus] should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” Then the writer of John goes on to tell his readers how Jesus turned this myth on its head.

The Genesis creation story does not support the myth of redemptive violence. It shows us that a good God created a good creation. The chaos before creation did not resist God’s order. His good creation was corrupted by mankind’s freedom to choose rebellion. Rebellion brought violence which, God’s gracious intervention with a Messiah, through his death and glorious resurrection, brought an end to the cycle of violence and offers us the choice to reclaim God’s good intentions for our own lives and all His creation.

Because Jesus willingly offered himself to violence, the myth of redemptive violence was confirmed as a lie; through his resurrection, Jesus defeated the power of that lie. (See Col. 2:15).  Moreover, those who would be his disciples are expected to make the same declaration by dying to self and sin as we participate in his victory. (See John 12: 24-26).

Most, but not all Africans, receive this teaching with joy once it is explained and understood. They see in it the potential for peace and hope in their communities and families where violence is the accepted norm. Everyone is happy about God’s grace in relation to their personal salvation; it takes a bit of nudging to help people see redemptive grace as the norm for all other relationships. People who find this teaching difficult usually have a secondary agenda they are not ready to give up.

As I teach and interact with Africans I find that when one raises the teachings and example of Christ to the central focus of our faith and life together, everything else comes together in unity and peace. And conversely, when Christ does not occupy that space, there is no end of confusion, aberrations and division. And for whatever reason, that teaching/learning journey seems quite a bit easier here in Africa than in the West.

A Teaching Ministry in West Africa

A Teaching Ministry Opportunity in West Africa

The Apostolic Commission

A concern at the heart of the ministry of Christ while he was in the flesh was that those who were close to him during that time, who were eyewitnesses to his work and who had heard his teaching, would then take that knowledge and share it wherever they went. In fact, he commissioned his apostles with the very task of taking his message around the globe; instructing people so that they would also become his disciples.

Thus we see, even in the New Testament era, how the apostles and eyewitnesses were deeply committed to communicating the message of the life and teachings of Jesus.

In 2 Peter 3:17-18, the apostle notes his concern for stability of faith in those who believe on Jesus. He says stability and growth happen where believers continue to “grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ”.

Analyzing the West Africa Church Situation

Practically from the day I arrived in West Africa sixteen years ago, I have been troubled by the deficiency of Christian believer’s grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. I have found many well-intentioned believers here but it is rare to find a community of believers who are being nurtured on the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. When disciples are not focusing on the life and teachings of Jesus, the door, as Peter says, is wide open to instability, false teaching and a witness that does not reflect the character and person of Jesus Christ.

I have also found that believers here have a tremendous openness and hunger for this very teaching: Who is Jesus? What does he teach us about God? How do we truly live and witness the message and power of Jesus? What does the community of Christ look like and how does it function? The enthusiasm and the joy West Africans have for the teachings and model of Jesus is truly astonishing.

Why? Because almost every Sunday when they go to the worship service they are bombarded with a graceless, legalistic and often threatening message from an Old Testament text. Much of Christianity in West Africa has a strong Old Covenant, bad news, angry God orientation. I have visited many West African churches, become friends with many believers and have had heart to heart talks with pastors: this is what I am hearing and seeing throughout West Africa.

Christological vision is limited to a Jesus who forgives my sins so that I can go to heaven when I die. Plus, he can do a miracle here and there to get one ahead in life. This inadequate Christology leads to instability in faithfulness, lack of transformation and general shallowness. It results in churches trying to generate faithfulness through legalism, which in turn leads to doctrinal conflicts and personality clashes. Churches not really centered on the person and ethics of Jesus are prone to jump onto false teachings like prosperity gospel and miracle showmanship. Where Christ is not the head, front and center of the church the ‘big man’ leadership style fills the void and corruption becomes commonplace.

Africans are not ignorant about what is going on in their churches; they know something is wrong but because of their inadequate Christology they have a problem articulating the problem and what to do about it. That is why, when I preach and teach the wholistic gospel of Jesus I see eyes lighting up all over the audience as it begins dawning on people the inadequacy of their knowledge of Christ and how that ignorance is short changing their life in Christ. Most of these folks have made a good start in Christ but his life-giving nurture is in short supply.

Preaching Christ

What I teach is simply radical Anabaptism: going back to the roots of the church, the foundation of Christ and the 1^st century apostle, prophets and eyewitnesses (Eph. 2:20). I teach what Jesus taught and how the apostles made his teachings real in the Christian communities they established.

This is the message that most Christians in West Africa are hungry to hear: How Christians can grow up into our head Jesus Christ and how the community of Christ looks and acts like him when it is joined at the center of the faith  (Eph. 4: 4-6).

The vision for a radical, Anabaptist oriented church developed in my thinking within a year of my arrival in West Africa in 2000. The vision came as I interacted and fellowshipped with a variety of congregations in Gambia. Most of the evangelical churches in that country had been started by African missionaries from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana. They have been only minimally successful in establishing viable congregations among the people they came to evangelize. It didn’t take me long to catch onto why they were seeing so little success.  It was then that I decided an Anabaptist witness was needed in West Africa and I subsequently started evangelizing from a clearly Christ-centered, Anabaptist model. In those early years I was not aware that there was a broad, latent interest throughout West Africa in radical Christianity.

In 2010 I attended a CHE (Christian Health Evangelism) meeting in Ghana. CHE is a Christian evangelizing and development network based on radical church theology. It was from that meeting that I began networking with churches and leaders who shared much with Anabaptism’s wholistic gospel. Thru these contacts I began realizing the potential Mennonites could have in working together with believers and communities who share with us a vision for the radical church. When I concluded my work as a pioneer missionary in 2013 I began moving in the direction of becoming a Bible teacher for various church groups who shared with me the desire to return to the roots of our faith.  During the past three years I have been finding open doors for radical Bible teaching in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Senegal in addition to the Mennonite congregations in Gambia and Guinea Bissau.

A Proposal

My proposal now is that the ministry of nurturing the wholistic, Christ-centered, radical Anabaptist faith should become an officially recognized component of the EMM West Africa vision. This does not necessarily mean that we will be establishing Mennonite affiliated congregations all over the place; it means that we are simply stepping into the task of nurturing the hunger for Christlikeness that is already abundantly and naturally present among believers authentically seeking to grow up into Christ. Mennonites, through God’s grace and providence are theologically gifted to be here to serve for such a time as this. 

For the near future this proposal would not require a budget. I would just continue in my role as a ‘volunteer missionary’ partially supported by my MST. But in the longer term it could evolve into a program requiring long or short-term Bible teachers doing seminars or in some way walking with West African leaders in a minimally institutionalized format.

Beryl Forrester,

Jan. 8, 2016