Equipping Leaders to Free the Church
The people of south-central Africa face many challenges. There are no simple solutions to many of them. To help find the answers, mature leaders are needed to equip believers to face the issues confronting them as Christians. Sadly, even the leaders are imprisoned by their cultures and are not really free to lead.
The mission of Emmaus Road Ministries is to help free these Christian leaders. By challenging them to examine how they live and explore the principles that guide them, they discover their current worldview, their philosophy of life. David facilitates an exploration and comparison of it with biblical principles for living as God’s people. The result is a new life as they replace an old worldview with a biblical worldview. This enables them to become transformational leaders who are part of God’s plan for spiritual maturity in the church, seen in Romans 12:2.
What Emmaus Road Ministries does:
We are working in Zambia to:
- Teach how the Christian faith brings salvation—new life—to all aspects of the daily lives of the African people.
- Challenge Christian leaders to encounter God and the Scriptures as Zambians, looking for answers to their questions, seeking to be transformed by the renewing of their minds and thinking about what believing means in their life settings.
- Equip church leaders with a biblical worldview upon which they can add knowledge and skills that will help them build their congregations into strong, viable, discipling churches that are actively engaging the whole world with the whole gospel of new life in a restored relationship with God.
- Help African believers to mature in their spiritual gifts by teaching how to develop and to use those gifts in the whole context of their lives.
How is This Being Done?
¨ Small groups and personal mentoring of local pastors. David meets weekly, discussing pertinent issues of the day, such as marriage, witchcraft, work of the Holy Spirit, prophets, and more.
¨ Seminars. Previously, these have been affiliated with a denomination or with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia. As funding allows, Emmaus Road Ministries plans to conduct a few seminars during 2016-17 to teach and discuss foundations for Christian leadership in Zambia.
¨ Classroom setting. David teaches several courses at local schools: Church History, Cross-cultural communication, Christian Care of the Environment, and Survey courses. He will introduce one this year on Worldview and the Christian.
¨ Continuing research. David continues to conduct research on leadership in Zambia. He will be writing the results for publication in academic journals (one is nearing completion now) and ministry-related magazines in the coming year.
¨ Writing. In addition to the articles, David will be writing and publishing small books that will utilize insights and understandings of 26 years living in and experiencing local cultures in Kenya and Zambia. These will address topics such as: The Pastor and His Home; The Church in Zambia; and What is the Kingdom of God?
Where is Zambia?
Zambia is located in south-central Africa.
Did you know Africa is how big?
Sometimes we forget that Africa is not a country, but a continent, and a big one at that! How big? Take a look at the map to the right and see what countries could be put onto the land mass of Africa. I read somewhere that three continental United States could fit with lots of land left over.
Yep, Africa is even a little bigger than Texas. Just a lit’l bit.