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The development community is increasingly aware of tensions and challenges inherent in relief work – and the need for sustainable solutions for communities experiencing poverty and crisis. How can the local church help to create and maintain such resilient communities? Boan and Ayers utilize their extensive experience working within the humanitarian sector, and in cooperation with local churches, to examine the evidence for effective partnerships between development agencies and local faith communities. The authors provide practical guidance on how church leaders can forge stronger relationships with NGOs, donors, and government while reinforcing, rather than compromising, the unique calling of the church. They explore resilience as an inherently communal characteristic and one located at the heart of the church’s historic calling to build community, strengthen faith, and shelter those in need. This is an excellent resource for anyone desiring to understand the value of local faith communities in battling poverty and helping communities survive and thrive amidst the impact of climate change and natural disasters.

What if suffering were not arbitrary? Not meaningless, nor a sign of punishment or defeat, but a fundamental element of healing, growth, and triumph? What if suffering were positive?This book is a study and meditation on the nature, origin, and reality of suffering. Contemplating the suffering of Christ and other biblical figures, J. Bryson Arthur investigates a theology of suffering that testifies to its necessity within the plan of God. Bryson reminds us that the nature of suffering is to share fellowship with Christ – to take up one’s cross and follow him. Thus, suffering is not arbitrary but intrinsic to the path God has laid before our feet: a path leading to restoration, wholeness, and fullness of life.An important resource for students of theology, this is also a powerful and hopeful read for anyone seeking meaning in the midst of suffering.

Any attempt to earn God’s love undermines the truth that God loves us freely. This is Paul’s message in his letter to the Galatians, presented with clarity and with deep love and concern for the Galatian believers. This refreshing teaching lifts the burden of false obligations that Western and African Christians lay on themselves and on each other and drives us to praise.Key Features:- Easy to understand writing style- Content organized into sermon units for use in preaching- African case studies and illustrations for contextual application- Questions for discusssion after each unit- Endnotes explaining the Greek and academic discussions

In the telling of the history of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Tanzania, the initiatives, contributions, and experiences of indigenous teachers have too often been neglected in favour of stories of sacrifices of Western missionaries. Bishop Mwita Akiri redresses this bias by using a socio-historical approach, written from an Afro-centric tradition, to evaluate the contributions and experiences of indigenous agents in the growth of Christianity in Tanzania. This book underscores the significance of oral tradition in African historiography and challenges the claim that foreign missionaries succeeded in destroying African cultures, when they are in fact alive and well. This much-needed research also provides a model for dialogue between the perspective of Christian missions and that of African religious and social heritage in order to continue forward with a Christianity that is authentic and also distinctly African.

“Name it and claim it!”“Just have faith!”“Give and you will get!”Catchphrases like this have convinced many Christians that trusting in God will bring health and wealth. But the gospel does not promise prosperity without pain or salvation without sanctification. Femi Adeleye draws on his wide-ranging experience as he examines the appeal and peril of this new gospel of prosperity that has made deep inroads in Africa, as well as in the West.

In this powerful and challenging book, David W. Smith identifies a crisis at the heart of the church. It is the crisis of triumphalism – the tendency to avoid honest engagement with brokenness and suffering, privileging victory while rejecting the practice of lament. This imbalance, Smith argues, threatens to undermine the credibility of faith for a watching world, alienating those experiencing hardship and oppression; those wrestling with doubt, uncertainty, and loss.In Stumbling toward Zion, Smith reclaims the importance of lament throughout Scripture – from the Old Testament to the gospel narratives and Paul’s letters – and explores the history and impact of its loss within certain church traditions. World Christianity, with its heartlands in contexts of poverty, war and persecution, has a crucial role to play in recovering an understanding of God’s love for a suffering creation capable of restoring the credibility of Christian witness in the midst of our brokenness. Containing practical application for church life and mission, Smith offers an opportunity to reengage with biblical lament, rediscover neglected aspects of Christian faith, and reawaken to God’s heart for a suffering world.

This collection of essays – the product of the 8th annual conference of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology – wrestles with the topics of God and creation from distinctly African perspectives. Touching on topics from environmentalism, to ethnic conflict, to childlessness, the contributors present a powerful and timely reflection on the nature of God as creator and the implications of that identity on our relationship with the divine, with the earth, and with each other. Highlighting the rich wisdom of African voices, this book explores the particularities and complexities of an African cultural context, while presenting biblical truth that extends beyond geographical limits. Anyone interested in thinking theologically about our role in the universe God has made or what African culture, in dialogue with Scripture, has to teach us, will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

La littérature sur le thème des Églises d’initiative africaine est très abondante en anglais, mais ce phénomène n’est pas encore un sujet de réflexion très abordé et approfondi dans le monde francophone. Il suscite souvent des réactions stéréotypées et négatives qui contrastent avec l’appréciation positive des membres et des promoteurs des Églises d’initiative africaine. Comment faut-il donc voir ce mouvement d’envergure croissante ?Cet ouvrage donne la parole à la fois aux membres et missiologues issus des Églises d’initiative africaine et aux voix extérieures pour présenter ce phénomène en faisant une description puis une évaluation de la contextualisation faite par ces Églises et mouvements. Ce deuxième texte en français sur les Églises d’initiative africaine rédigé dans une perspective évangélique est le fruit d’un travail collectif des doctorants en missiologie de la Faculté de théologie évangélique de Bangui au Cameroun, élargi à quelques missiologues du Réseau évangélique de missiologues pour la francophonie. Il intéressera tous ceux qui désirent mieux connaître les Églises d’initiative africaine.

We live in a world gone awry. Social injustice pervades our societies, the poor are disdained, despotic leaders and nations seem to control world events, and racism and hatred abound. Yet, while it might appear that evil reigns, the sovereign God is in control. Such is the message of the book of Micah, a text that underscores God’s presence in the world, righting wrongs, delivering the marginalized, and restoring the intended order of creation. In this careful explication of the minor prophet, Dr Semwayo challenges those who would question the text’s unity, revealing Micah as a powerful theological reflection on the reestablishment of Yahweh’s sovereignty on earth. Connecting the Zion/Davidic traditions to the Abrahamic covenant, Semwayo articulates a vision of hope that is as relevant for us in the twenty-first century as it was for Micah’s original audience.

Since the disintegration of the USSR many Russian Baptists have actively engaged in evangelism, church planting, and acts of social service. This book is a response to the need to critically evaluate the effectiveness of past mission efforts and their undergirding theology.In this detailed study, Dr Andrey Kravtsev combines historical and qualitative studies to outline the understanding of mission developed by Russian Baptists during the Soviet era when they were almost completely isolated from global missiological developments. First, Kravtsev identifies four key missiological concepts and uses them to analyze the history of mission theology in global evangelical mission movements and the Russian Baptists. He then interviewed thirty leaders from the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists to find their view of these concepts, and their convictions of the need to reconsider traditional missiological views. From his findings, Dr Kravtsev suggests five themes for facilitating the transition of Russian Baptist mission theology from the late-Soviet model of eschatological escapism, to a holistic, missional evangelicalism. This book places evangelical mission in contemporary Russian socio-political and ideological contexts and provides an important contribution for leading churches to a renewed missionary encounter with culture.

Do you wish you had a better understanding of the issues and questions African Christians face as they seek to live out their faith in their cultural context? Do you wonder how Africans themselves frame these questions and their answers? Would you like access to actual research that can confirm your own experience or bring new information to your attention that would deepen and broaden your understanding? This unique book, the product of a multiyear study and survey sponsored by the Tyndale House Foundation, offers insights into all these questions and more. Featuring input from over 8,000 African survey participants and 57 in-depth interviews, it provides invaluable insight and concise analysis of the dynamics of the development of African Christian leaders today.

Since its founding in 1924, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) has grown to span five synods across Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. Dr Rhodian Munyenyembe traces the history of these synods back to their shared roots in the Reformation and individual roots in three separate Presbyterian missions.Dr Munyenyembe skillfully explores both historic and contemporary challenges to the unity of the CCAP, and raises the question of whether the CCAP truly functions as a single denomination or could better be understood as a loose federation of five distinct churches. His in-depth explanation provides a critical look that goes beyond a surface understanding of what it means to unite churches from different cultural traditions, and brings honest answers to disputes and conflicts among the CCAP synods. Through this analysis and exploration, Dr Munyenyembe also sheds light on the political and socio-economic aspects of life in relation to the influence of religious denominations. In this objective yet astute account, Munyenyembe gives voice to the CCAP’s complex history, present reality, and future potential.

Designed as an undergraduate textbook, and shaped by needs of both Muslim and Christian students across Africa, this resource provides a thorough introduction to the history, theology and teaching of early Christianity.Professors Helleman and Gaiya follow Christianity from its inception in Jerusalem through to the decline of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean and the development of Orthodox churches in the East and in Africa before the arrival of Islam. The book provides an overview of critical historical events, controversies, teaching, and important individuals and movements providing foundational understanding of early developments in Christianity and the general history of antiquity. Students and lecturers will also appreciate the attention given to the role of North African leaders in early Christianity and the impact of major issues on the North African church, such as Gnosticism, Donatism and Arianism.Additional Features:Introduction to online tools & resourcesSurvey of the study of early ChristianityIntroduction to key historiansEvaluation of recent literature & early Christianity 

Ethiopia is an icon of freedom and indigenous Christianity across Africa due to its historic independence, ancient Christian identity and rich religious heritage. However, Ethiopia and its various Christian denominations have their own understandings of this identity and how these communities relate to one another. In this detailed study, Dr Seblewengel Daniel explores the perception and identity of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and evangelical church in Ethiopia and examines the relations between the two.Beginning with the earliest evangelical missionary engagement with the Orthodox church, Dr Daniel skilfully uses historical and theological frameworks to explain the dynamics at play when approaching the relations over two centuries between these two churches and their respective communities. Daniel ultimately emphasizes that what unites the Orthodox and evangelical church is greater than what divides – namely an ancient faith in the triune God. This important study urges both sides to place the Bible at the centre, using it to understand their differences, and challenges them to take responsibility for past negative perceptions in order to move forward together in greater unity and mutual respect.

The Christian faith presents a distinctive vision of last things: that God in Christ aims to reconcile the world to himself, and through his Spirit and a new people, to set all things to right. This good news is for all nations and peoples, but for too long the Christian doctrine of eschatology has focused on debates and arguments rooted solely in the Western church. In All Things New, leading theologians and biblical scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America offer readers a glimpse of how Christians around the globe are perceiving and describing the Christian hope. The result is a remarkably refreshing and distinctive vision of eschatology guaranteed to raise new questions and add new insights to the global church’s vision of the eschaton.

It would seem that every culture on earth has a propensity towards controlling and authoritarian leadership - at its very core, the human condition has a desire for control and self-determination. In this book, Julyan Lidstone uses his decades of experience in western and central Asia and, most importantly, the authoritative teaching of the Bible, to shed light on issues of authoritarian leadership in honour-shame cultures.Gifted young leaders are gathering new believers in Jesus all over the world but the prevailing culture of domineering leadership is the single greatest obstacle to the healthy growth and firm establishment of these new churches. Lidstone winsomely and accurately applies the servant leadership modelled by Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, as revealed by Scripture, as the cross-centred antidote to the pain, damage and disillusionment caused by leadership that does not reflect the Christlikeness of the kingdom of God.