This conference has become the highlight of the year for many of the pastors who labor diligently in difficult circumstances. It is an event that offers them a time of personal spiritual refreshment, much needed fellowship with their comrades in arms, and an opportunity to expand their own understanding of God's Word on much needed theological topics and practical applications to their ministries. In short, this conference is a major catalyst for effective ministry. Just about the time the pastors need an infusion of energy, encouragement, and equipment the conference takes place again.
It is no wonder that each year the attendance increases. This year a new conference pavilion was assembled that was intended to have room for growth over the next few years. However, each night at the general session each chair was filled! What a wonderful "problem" to experience. One of the reasons for such high attendance this particular year was the urgency of the topic in the cultural context of southern Africa. The conference theme was, "A Call to Biblical Discernment."
The dominant reality of Christianity in modern Africa is the fulfillment of what Peter said would happen, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." - 2 Peter 2:1-3
The most rapidly spreading movement within Christianity in Africa is the "Name it and Claim It" theology spread within Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement. This theology is sometimes referred to as the "Prosperity Gospel" or "Positive Confession." It is exactly the kind of heresy Peter warned the church to be looking out for and avoiding. It is a sensual theology that feeds off of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It is a theology that embraces the love of this world (1 John 2:15-17) and rejects the love of the Father. It exalts materially successful people as spiritually mature people when usually those people achieved their material success through dishonest gain (1 Timothy 3:8). This is not the image of Christ, but sadly, it has become the image of His church today. Therefore, the theme for this conference could not have been more timely!
The speakers were predominantly Zambian Pastors who have served with distinction and excellence. These men included Conrad Mbewe, Saidi Chishimba, Kabwe Kabwe, Grave Singogo, Isaac Makashinyi, and Ken Banda. If you have never heard of these men I strongly urge you to look them up. You will find most of them by doing a quick Google search. These men did a stellar job at at presenting the accurate Biblical teachings on all of these sensitive and often confusing topics with both clarity and cultural appropriateness. After all, as Zambians they can speak with far more understanding of how these false teachings impact their own society, and they can also speak with more authority when proposing proper applications within the African context. With this in mind, the 2013 Leadership Conference was perhaps the greatest conference yet and could not have been any more effective.
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| President Phil Hunt Welcoming Everyone |
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| Q &A Forum with Speakers on Monday |
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| Pastor Ken Banda Teaching with Sign Language Interpreting by Anderson Chimfumpa |
It was a privilege for our family to attend this conference and hear such wonderful teaching. It is always a blessing to go to an event where you can learn so much. We also enjoy it for the fellowship! We get to know many Pastors from all over the continent with the same passion for the Gospel that we have. We get to fellowship with missionaries from our board, IBM Global, that we rarely get to see. our children get to be around other missionary kids who know the blessings and challenges of being "Third Culture Kids."
Jamie, in particular, has been able to establish good friendships with the pastors who were doing the presentations both in 2012 and this year. These men have proven to be excellent encouragers and wise counselors as we endeavor to get established in an effective ministry in this country. We deeply desire that God would use us to facilitate a church planting movement of healthy churches that plant more healthy churches. There are many mistakes that we can make along the way that would cripple our efforts and make us ineffective. These men have seen many others make these mistakes and can help us avoid them if we come with teachable spirits ready to learn how to apply what we know to the ministry context of their country.
So obviously, this conference has become a highlight of the ministry year for us personally as well. Yet, this report would not be complete without telling you how this conference impacts the people we personally work alongside of in Nambaaza and Choma. After all, they are the reason that we attended the conference in 2012 and they got us hooked as well.
First of all, there are four churches in Choma that each send their leaders to attend this conference. In fact, it was by attending the 2012 Conference that I was introduced to the Pastors and leaders of each church. This conference was the common ground that was used to birth a Pastor's Fellowship in Choma this past year. These churches include Salvation Baptist Church pastored by Arthur Munkombwe, Grace Baptist Church pastored by Milford Mulimba, Central Baptist Church pastored by Kwenda Kwenda, and Calvary Baptist Church pastored by Harrison Banda. Attending this conference is a major commitment because it is a 650 km (404 mile) journey which is both time consuming and expensive. Yet, each person and each church considers it a bargain because of the impact these 5 days have on the quality of ministry the other 360 days of each year.
Second, there were three village churches represented in our group as well. Several years ago Calvary Baptist Church planted a church 45 minutes outside of Choma in a village called Siankope. This year several of the leaders from Siankope were able to attend the Leadership Conference. Also for the first time ever, we had men from Nambaaza attend with us. There were three men from Kauka Baptist and one man from Kakuse Baptist. It was such a humbling experience to see Mr. Kabanda make the effort to attend. He is the primary teacher/leader at Kauka Baptist, but he is also a farmer. He had to wait until the last minute to travel in to Choma so he could get his maize fields planted. By the time he was ready he found the roads were impassible. No trucks were going to Nambaaza any longer, yet he was determined to attend the conference. So, he walked for 50 km (31 miles) through mud, deep water, and areas inhabited by dangerous wildlife to get to the nearest village where trucks were still traveling in to Choma. Now that is commitment! We wish we could say his journey was easy at that point, but to transport all these people we took both Land Rovers and a car. Even then some still had to ride a bus. As we drove the Land Rovers we found that roadside repairs are a yearly tradition for the Leadership Conference. This is a tradition we hope to break next time. Yet, this year it happened again. Our rear differential housing cracked and we had to drain the oil, take the housing cover to the nearest town to get it welded, then make our own gasket with gasket sealer before we could get back on the road. Guess who was right there alongside of Pastor Arthur and Jamie during this repair? That' right. Mr. Kabanda. He had come too far to let a little car problem keep him from making it to this conference. His dedication is such an encouragement!
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| Roads from Nambaaza in November |
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| This section was impassible in Dec. |
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| Mr. Kabanda (yellow) and Mr. Kantolo |
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| Repairing the Differential Cover Plate |
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| Welding the Cover plate |
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| Mr. Kabanda refilling the oil |
Each of these men from Nambaaza received great spiritual blessings by attending this conference. Each day I would sit in the sessions with them. Afterward we would discuss how the topic affected ministry in Nambaaza and would think over proper applications. They couldn't wait to get back home and start teaching the others in their churches all that they had learned! This is the principle of 2 Timothy 2:2 being lived out in Zambia. We are teaching faithful men who will go and teach others also! Now it is time to use all that has been learned and look forward to the refreshment that awaits us all next December.
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| All the People from Choma and Nambaaza who attended the Conference |
So, as we conclude this report we just want to thank you for your investment in this ministry. Without your support we could not be a part of such life changing events (for us and those we minister alongside of) such as the CABC leadership conference. Without your prayers we would probably never make it safely from one destination to another. Please rest assured that we thank God in every remembrance of you and we cannot overstate that you are a crucial part of the ministry here in Zambia even though we are separated by thousands of miles.
