Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Among those who know me I mention Rahab [Egypt] and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush [Ethiopia] — “This one was born there,” they say.
Psalm 87:3-4
Psalm 87 is an amazing Psalm that says that the nations will be “born in Zion, the city of God.” They will be considered native-born citizens of the city of God, equal to the Israelites in salvation! His salvation is for all peoples and Africa is no exception. This year’s Global Outreach Conference 2022 will focus on the peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa. According to historian Andrew Walls, African Christianity should be seen as “potentially the representative Christianity of the twenty-first century. The Christianity of the twenty-first century will be shaped by the events and processes that take place in the southern continents, and above all by those that take place in Africa.”[1]
Black Africa has claimed more lives of Protestant missionaries than any other region of the world, especially during the nineteenth century. However, the risks taken were not in vain and the church in Africa expanded rapidly in the twentieth century from ten million professing Christians to five hundred million today. Another historian, Mark Noll, observes, “This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined… Kenya has more people in Christian churches on Sunday than all of Canada…This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland.”[2]
But with this massive growth comes massive challenges. There is rampant corruption in both the government and in the church. There is massive poverty despite the enormous amounts of rich resources in Africa. The prosperity gospel has spread like a virus. Wars and conflicts never end. Persecution from Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram has already killed hundreds of thousands of Christians and continues to do so.
Despite these challenges, the church continues to grow and flourish, defeating the “gates of hell,” as Jesus promised. So please join us from October 30 – November 6 and hear what God is doing in Africa today. Come and hear our global partners from around the world speak virtually and in-person from countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Egypt, Japan, India, Egypt, Iraq, and Greece. Come and eat delicious Ethiopian food at the international banquet on Saturday night, November 6. Discover new ways to pray for and give to our partners. This conference is for all believers, since we are all called to be global Christians as senders and goers in God’s mission. As Jesus and his disciples have said, come and see Him and his wondrous works!
Learn more about the Global Outreach Conference and register for it now.
[1] Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 147.
[2] John Piper, ‘Why have Africans Suffered so Much’, May 10, 2021, Episode 1624, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/whyhaveafricanssufferedsomuch.