By the middle of this century the population of Africa is estimated to reach 2.4 billion people, one-quarter of the estimated 9.8 billion people who will on the planet. That is a staggeringly huge mission field which will require many workers to gather in the full harvest. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) has a small but significant role to play in making God’s kingdom come in Africa, through the work of the Confessional Lutheran Institute (CLI). This is the first of a three-part series of articles that will introduce you this new initiative of the WELS Board for World Missions working through One Africa Team. The CLI brings various aspects of worker training and enrichment together under one umbrella, in order to better coordinate our joint efforts with our partner churches across the continent of Africa. The CLI’s work is divided into three branches: Seminary Consultation, Formal Continuing Education and Professional Development.

The Wisconsin Synod has been training African Lutheran pastors since the 1930’s. Along the way, many difficult lessons have been learned, but God has blessed the work of his flawed servants and has planted thriving national churches through their efforts. WELS mission work in Africa has reached a watershed moment. God has raised up local leaders in established fields like Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria and Cameroon as well as areas where Lutheranism is emerging like  Liberia and Uganda. It is clear that WELS cannot send missionaries to live in each of these countries, nor is it advisable. The huge opportunities presenting themselves to us and our African partners call for a very different strategy, as WELS leverages its expertise and resources to support the development of local, nationally-operated seminaries.

Setting up a new seminary program is a challenging task that requires a great deal of forethought and planning. It is more than just a matter of constructing buildings and hiring teachers. The first question to ask is, “Who is your target audience?” What kind of people make up your church? For example, farmers living in remote rural areas have a very different view of the world than college-educated professional workers located in the sprawling urban centers of the country. God’s Word speaks the same messages of sin and grace to all people, yet it applies to people’s specific needs in infinitely various ways.

Likewise, pastors do not just deliver informational content to their members. They are leaders, shepherding their flocks after the manner of the Good Shepherd. A pastor training program must address the intellectual, emotional, behavioral and spiritual formation of its students. To do that, you need to know your students – where they come from, how did their families and communities influence them, what education have they received? A good pastor training program helps students build a bridge between God’s word and the people they will serve.

Once the target audience has been identified the next question is, “What does your program look like?” What are the minimum standards you expect of new students, and what process will you use to vet them? How long a period of time can you expect your students to engage in formal learning activities? Is it a matter of years or months? Are they engaged in full-time studies, or are they expected to have part-time jobs on the side? As for the subjects they will study, seminary courses traditionally fall into the following four categories: Doctrinal Studies, Biblical Studies, Historical Studies and Ministerial Studies. But does it make sense to borrow the curriculum from a seminary that serves a completely different target audience? Wouldn’t it be better to match course content with the needs of the people?

After you know what your program looks like the next question to ask is, “What manpower is needed?” Who is going to oversee the program? Who will teach the content and evaluate student progress? Who in your church body is qualified to serve, and how will they be compensated?

The very last question to ask is, “What material support is needed?” Buildings, textbooks, computers and salaries are all part of plan that ultimately serves the needs of the church, and not the needs of the seminary. What support can the local church provide? What additional support is required? What about sustainability? As you can sense, there are many questions that need to be answered before the first day of school.

The Seminary Consultation branch of the CLI not only helps establish new worker training programs. The CLI is equipped to provide resources for teaching, guidance in education and assessment practices, assistance in curriculum planning and materials,  and guidance on program standards. Our consultants are Africa missionaries, instructors from the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, WELS missionaries engaged in theological education in other parts of the world, and national leaderswho have a long history of training Lutheran pastors in Africa. Additionally, CLI seeks to  provide sister seminaries assistance in the area of instructor development. The best teachers are those who keep learning throughout their careers. CLI can provide tools for self-assessment and resources for continuing growth.

 CLI also provides short and long term WELS instructors for our programs.  This may mean sending a Missionary to live in a country for two weeks to teach an intensive class, or it may mean sending two missionaries to teach for years at one specific seminary.  It may also mean partnering with the PSI to coordinate WELS pastors to come to teach for a few weeks or months, or coordinating the sharing of African professors between church bodies. 

The CLI Seminary Consultancy branch does not seek to run seminaries, dictate local policies or determine what program will be used  in a sister church’s training program. Since every worker training system is different, the exact role of seminary consultation will vary from church body to church body. Rather, our goal is to provide encouragement and positive feedback to our brothers who are preparing the next generation of God’s harvest workers. We celebrate all our Gospel partnerships, just as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi: “ I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Php 1:4-6)

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi and directs the Seminary Consultation branch of the Confessional Lutheran Institute. This is the first of a three-part series on the CLI.

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

“Howzit goin’?” I used to hear
in the States.

Now: “Muli bwanji?”
(“How are you”?)

My wife Debbie, my son Drew, and I moved from Minnesota to
Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in early December 2019.

My future role: Theological Educator for the One Africa Team
of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, concentrating especially on formal
continuing education for African pastors in our fellowship.

My current role: Newbie. Learner. OAT called me to spend at
least the first 6 months here learning as much language and culture as
possible.

How is that going? There is too much to tell.

Pithy proverbs may help. That is, let’s zero in on 28
January 2020, one of the best days I have spent in Africa.

Malawian pastors Stanley Daile and Alfred Kumchulesi at the
Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi took many hours out of their day
to get to know me and help me get to know them, their lives, their city, their
heart language, and the future pastors they teach.

After a particularly comforting morning devotion by Pastor
Kumchulesi on God’s forgiveness as seen in Psalm 32, I went with Professor
Darlington Mwakatika to an LBI class which focused on English and Chewa
proverbs.

The easiest Chewa proverb for me to learn was the shortest: Safunsa anadya phula.
“The-one-who-didn’t-ask ate wax.” He could have had honey, the dummy, if he had
only asked for help.

That proverb sums up much of my last months. I keep asking abale anga, my brothers and sisters,
both Western and African, about their lives, their language, their customs,
their faith, their suggestions for what to do next, and more.

Otherwise, Nzeru za
yekha, anaviika nsima madzi. “Wisdom-of-himself — he soaked nsima in water.”

Only a fool would take a handful of his maize flour
porridge, nsima—an important staple
in central African diets—and dunk it in water. That would ruin it. But Mr.
Know-it-all did that.

New missionaries, thinking they are wise, can become such fools.
(“I am familiar with biblical Hebrew. I have been a pastor since 1992. I know
how things work in the States.”) But pride poisons everything. Pride offends
our holy God. It also ruins relationships with abale athu, our brothers and sisters.

Bought by blood, though, forgiven through faith in the true Nzeru za yekha, Jesus, who really is all
wisdom-in-himself—oh!

My family and I are so glad for the gospel preaching of our
pastor Chibikubantu Simweeleba; the seminary senior assigned to our
congregation, Justin Namakhwa; and the elders who also do some of the preaching
at Bethel, the congregation we attend.

We wish you could hear the youth and ladies choirs here,
too. Click this link to watch https://youtu.be/Fqjj1A6O8DE
For most Sundays, both choirs have learned four a capella songs. The youth choir sings a recessional as well. I’m
catching more Chewa words all the time, but from the first service we attended
in December—words fail. Such conviction. Such joy in the Lord in the choir
members, young and old.

One of our favorite new customs comes at the end of each
service. Out the door of the church building walks the pastor, then any special
guests, then all of us, one by one. Unlike your church, probably, here everyone
takes their place in a line outside stretching into a large circle. Everyone
shakes everyone else’s hand, taking a new place in the circle, while the youth
choir continues to sing and shake hands at the same time, at the end.

Such highlights are more important to share than

• what it has been like to wait for our shipment to arrive, or
• which American conveniences we miss, or
• what it has been like for Debbie and me to learn to shift with our left hands and drive a manual transmission Ford Ranger 4×4 on the left side of the road, or
• what the international school has been like so far for Drew.

How is it going? In short, we are part of great team. We
learn and adjust daily. We are especially learning to lean more on God.

One last Chewa proverb: Kuona maso ankhono kudeka. “To see the eyes of the snail [requires] to slow down.”

That big snail inched up a mango tree in our yard the other
day. Can you see its eyes, up at the top of the Y? Did you have to slow down
and look closely to see them, against the tree?

That is how it is going. Pang’ono,
pang’ono, “my friend,” munzanga, Mr.
Zulu, tells me all the time. I tell it to others, when they ask especially
about language learning: “bit by bit.”

“Slow but sure,” munzanga
Mr. Kalima put the proverb to me.

You too: Thanks for all your little-by-little, slow-but-sure
prayers and support for us and all WELS missionaries and their families. Keep
it up, slow-but-sure, for Jesus’ sake.

Missionary Dan Witte lives in Zambia

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for
harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn
more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working
faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

Christ for All, Great News for Africa. Seven words. One
passion. A core focus of the One Africa Team (OAT) that burns like fire in the
belly. That Godly desire. That Christ-like obsession. That Spirit-driven yearn
of the heart. I could sense the hunger in the room:  a resolve to know Christ and to make Him
known.

How can we do that in the most effective, God-pleasing
way in our little corner of the world into which God has placed us?  Especially considering that THAT “little
corner” happens to be the size of AFRICA! 
Or better said, it is Africa. 
Whew. That question hung intimidatingly over us like Malawi’s January clouds.

To figure out the answer to that question, the One Africa
Team gathered in Lilongwe, Malawi for its annual meeting.  The 4-day pow wow was a call to arms of
sorts, a raising of the flag “Christ for All, Great News for Africa.” Five men
from Malawi, four men from Zambia and three from the States.  A dirty dozen washed clean in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ.

It rang true then as it does every day: the better we
know Christ, the greater the passion God fuels in us to be His disciples, His workers
in His harvest fields. Or as John Hartmann reminded us in his opening sermon based
on Titus 1:1-9, “We are Slaves of the Trustworthy Message.”   

An appropriate theme and a timely reminder for the One
Africa Team.   A slave serves.  In our case – and in yours dear Mission
Partner – when the One whom we are serving is the Savior Jesus who gave us the
trustworthy message – wow – that really helps craft and shape our niche in both
life and ministry. 

It did for us as the One Africa Team:  “Through theological education and coordination
of WELS resources, we, the One Africa Team, assist our partners in Africa to
grow as independent, healthy church bodies.” Our partners in Africa?  The Sister Synods who are located in these
countries: Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia.

These are the ones with whom we have an official
fellowship relationship and standing. 
But there’s more.  Much
more.  By God’s grace the list of potential
sister synods in Africa is growing longer. 
The Holy Spirit is on the move.  OAT
is, too. OAT is following up with contacts and/or groups in Rwanda, Tanzania,
Mozambique, Uganda, Liberia, Congo, Burundi, Zimbabwe… The task is as BIG as it
sounds.  

Understanding that it is, Missionary Hartmann succinctly
summarized the sermon text in a nutshell: 1) we are entrusted with the truth
and 2) we are sent to train others. Are we up for such a task?  Nope, not in our own power!  But as the Word of God impresses upon us, it’s
a mission given and empowered by God Himself. He’s behind it all. And out in
front of us all!   We sang…

In your promise firm we stand;

None can take us from your hand.

Speak we hear at your command,

We will follow YOU!

By your blood our souls were bought;

By your life salvation wrought;

By your light our feet are taught,

Lord, to follow YOU!

He is a Good One to follow.  Yes, Jesus is both behind it all and out in
front.  A Lamb who laid down His life for
His sheep.  (Already happened!) A Shepherd
who still leads His sheep. (Still happening!) 
But he’s not so distant ahead that we can’t follow Him.  Not so far beyond reach that He’s out of
touch.    

What an impassioned desire He has for us!  

To seek and to save is His focused obsession! 

Oh, the deep yearn of Christ’s heart for you and me!

Paul Nitz, the One Africa Team Integrator, set up an
agenda that rallied us around that passion. We participated in some team
building exercises, evaluated our strengths and reconfirmed our core values.  We set down some long-range goals, worked
through some thorny issues and readjusted some structure.  We rethought, rehashed and revisited what
needed attention.

Though the “plans of mice and men” and even OAT for that
matter, may not turn out the way we might think or expect, we have a God who certainly
knows what He’s doing and knows what is best. 
He’s in control and – make no mistake about it – He makes no mistakes
about it.  Even on a continent the size of
Africa.

Christ for All.  Great News for Africa.

Missionary John Holtz lives in Malawi