The Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative Core Group was invited and welcomed to St Julian’s retreat centre, Limuru, by the Most Rev Dr Eliud Wakubala, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya. He presided at the first Eucharist and issued a challenge that in mission Jesus should be at the centre. Each morning’s session began with a biblical reflection and discussion on how Jesus went about his evangelism, and what should be learnt from his approach.
The core group began their meeting by visiting St Jerome’s and the Church Army Africa Urban Mission Centre in Kibera, Nairobi. Kiberais the biggest informal urban settlement in Africa. St Jerome’s, which has planted five new congregations in recent years, is the fastest growing parish in All Saints Cathedral Diocese. This visit introduced the group to an exciting context from which to inform and enrich their discussion.
Evangelism? When will the Africans get the point–everybody who ougth to be Anglican/Epsicopalian either (1) already is or (2) will eventually figure it out on their own. They need to be spending their time on more important things like recruiting new members for the country club.
LOL! I know you are kidding but this reminds me of a statement made by a Pentecostal missionary to Africa who was giving a presentation at a Christian school where I taught for a year. He was much chagrined that his efforts were going nowhere and somewhat perplexed to find so many Christians in Africa. ACK! They were Anglicans and other non Pentecostal denominations. Truthfully he was quite perplexed….. never quite realizing that some Christian missionaries beat him to the continent by about a century or more.