Your grace, you were attacked the other night for the third time. Some think the Fulani are targeting you. Are you afraid?
I am not afraid to die, I continue to live my normal life as you have seen but I do nurse the fear that I might get killed. My sure faith, however, is that until my time is over and assignment completed nothing shall yet happen to me. So I live between these tensions.
Archbishop, you have just released a new book, Evangelism and Mission: Biblical and Strategic Insights for the Church Today (Africa Christian Textbooks). Why did you write this book?
I wanted to give pastors a book they could use. No one has any business being a priest if he does not do the work of an evangelist and missionary. That is what we are called to first and foremost, to be missionaries. This book tells them how to do this.
In 1992 when I started as a bishop, most Anglican pastors in this part of Nigeria were doing “church” in a way that was alien to what I had learned from my own experience of planting churches. They had no understanding of the church as a vehicle of salvation for people who did not have the gospel. I had been teaching and doing this for years.
Once they started seeing how we do this in rural areas, there was a domino effect. We sent teams out without cars or bicycles, with just enough money to buy transport. They had to minister by faith, and see God provide for them. It was crucial to their learning how God meets their needs day by day. They learned what Anglicans should mean by “apostolic succession”—planting churches from scratch like the apostles did.
I also wanted to explain in the book why we must not make the mistake of the early African church, that lost North Africa to Islam. That church did not do enough mission. We must not make that mistake.
An Interview with Archbishop Ben Kwashi https://t.co/mUWMbwWJkb via @DrGRMcDermott #nigeria #anglican #religion #violence #terrorism #crime #law #politics #ethics #africa #FulaniHerdsmen
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 2, 2018