These men and women had returned for the level 2 Preaching Programme with wonderful testimonies of God’s enabling during the past year as they had sought to teach faithfully, relevantly and clearly from His Word. Many of them had not only been a part of preachers clubs formed regionally from last year, but had invited others to join with them, passing on the training they had been given.

The participants greatly appreciated the input of Ma’afu Palu and Paul Barker for their gracious and wise teaching and leading — grasping the Bible’s big picture, with a focus on Preaching from the Old Testament.

You can view the 4 min presentation of last year’s level 1 programme “Eager to preach”. We are at present editing some of the wonderful testimonies recorded at this year’s level 2 seminar in Vanuatu. Please contact the LPA office if you would like copies of either of these DVDs to share with others (Eager to preach DVD or Vanuatu 2009 testimonies DVD) [sent to addresses in Australia].

Paul and Barby Windsor

Paul Windsor, for over 10 years the Principal of Carey Baptist College in New Zealand, has joined the global team of Langham Partnership International.

At a service in Auckland on Sunday April 19, Paul Windsor was commissioned for his new work as Associate Director of Langham Preaching. Sharing responsibility for the development of the global programme, Paul will take a special interest in the development of training initiatives in Asia and the Pacific. Langham Preaching, one of three international programmes of LPI founded by John Stott, works with national leaders in over 50 countries to nurture indigenous preaching movements for pastors and lay preachers all around the world.

Paul and his wife Barby were brought up in India, children of missionary families with a long history of service in the sub-continent.  Paul pursued an MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the USA, and is presently completing his DMin with the Australian College of Theology.  First serving as a pastor in Invercargill, New Zealand, Paul subsequently joined the teaching staff at the Bible College of New Zealand, where he taught Preaching to degree level as well as modules at Masters level. In 1998 he was appointed Principal of Carey Baptist College, during which time he has also taught at the University of Auckland, the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia (where he taught an MA module on Contemporary Biblical Preaching), and at the Bible College of Victoria, teaching the theory and practice of Expository Preaching as an MA/DMin module.

Paul Windsor at Marsden Cross, New Zealand

He is widely respected as a preacher and teacher, not only through his regular work with local churches but also at pastors conferences in Africa, Bible Conventions at Katoomba and Belgrave Heights in Australia, Preachers conferences and mission events. His wide mission interests are reflected in his involvement with many agencies, including Interserve, the Evangelical Fellowship of New Zealand (Vision Network New Zealand), the Asia Theological Association, and the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (IFES). But his real love is helping others in the work of preaching – something he has done both in the academic environment and amongst pastors and lay preachers in local churches.  Barby and their five children share Paul’s warm enthusiasm for this new opportunity of service around the world.

In a message of greeting read at the commissioning service, John Stott (founder), and Chris Wright (International Director) stated: ‘We are delighted that Paul will bring his exceptional gifts, experience and humble wisdom into the senior programme team.  It has been a particular encouragement to see the way in which Langham Preaching has grown, impacting so many countries in each of the continents of the world. It is a joy to hear reports of the warm response from so many pastors and lay preachers, often in places where the work of ministry is very tough and sometimes dangerous, and where resources and training facilities are almost non-existent.  Since the programme has been growing so fast under God’s clear blessing, it is a strategic moment for Paul to come alongside Jonathan Lamb to share the responsibilities of leadership. We are so grateful to God for Paul’s commitments to Biblical preaching, to the training of a new generation, and to the call to serve the churches in the Majority World. This mixture of vision, gifts and calling, already proven in New Zealand, will strengthen the work of Langham Preaching in the wider international arena.’

They came from 20 different denominations, and travelled from 13 different regions.  In February, over 150 pastors took part in the ongoing training work of Langham Preaching – called LP-MVIMUTA (a network of expository preachers clubs in Tanzania).  It’s been growing for the past five years, and now there are many hundreds of pastors involved, many preachers’ clubs, and an expanding vision to reach the towns and villages across this vast country.

‘I wish I had known this many years before’

The two training events were held in Mwanza and Mbeya, deliberately targeting groups of pastors in regions which have previously been unreached by the LP-MVIMUTA programme.  Rev Samuel Makocebe spoke for many when he said: ‘I have worked with the Church for more than 18 years, but I have never seen such direct Bible-centred preaching methods and content. I wish I had known this many years before. I am now well equipped to handle the Bible properly.’

Explaining the impact of the programme as it reaches across the churches, country coordinator Frank Luvanda has sent this encouraging report:

‘By God’s grace we managed to have pastors from 20 denominations. It is continuing to help us by building a new generation of preachers and teachers who are not pre-occupied by their denominational backgrounds. This year, the training team included Julius Twongyeirwe, LP country coordinator in Uganda. As well as giving basic training in preaching, he addressed many difficult issues that face the Church in East Africa, such as misunderstanding between church leaders and between Christians of different denominations. Through his training, many church ministers understood their mistakes in ministry and told Frank that “Mchungaji Julius ametusaidia na kutufungua pale tulipokuwa tunakosea katika kuhubiri” (Pastor Julius has helped and opened our mind to know where we were making mistakes in preaching). Here in Tanzania we value so much this cross-pollination in our Preaching Movement.’

A further encouragement was the use of the Tanzanian team as main facilitators. Frank served the seminar programme in Mwanza in the north, the second time he has helped as a local facilitator in the national preaching movement, and Elkana Gonda helped in Mbeya, each working alongside fellow trainers Rodney Wood and Tony Swanson.

Growing preachers clubs

Tanzania has also re-structured the preaching clubs, retaining the five zones established in 2006 and establishing two new zones for local preaching movements, making the ministry of LP-MVIMUTA more effective. ‘We appointed new local representatives for five zones and we will keep on looking to identify other potential local leaders. We also appointed a convenor for each preachers club. God has helped us much in Tanzania because preachers clubs are flourishing and continue to multiply. We continue to encourage preachers clubs all over Tanzania. At the moment we have 42 clubs scattered across the country, but this is not enough. We are not aiming at increasing the number only, but we also aim at having active and effective preachers clubs. We look forward to having more local preaching movements all over Tanzania mainland at our own cost. When we have completed level one, we will then conduct a local level 2 preaching movement. This will help in reducing the costs of running national seminars for level 2.’

Spreading the news

‘To expand the work we plan to invite all bishops and other church leaders in their respective areas to introduce them the ministry of LP-MVIMUTA and its importance for the well being of the Church. We plan to meet church leaders in Morogoro, Mwanza, Mbeya, Kigoma, Arusha and Kagera.  We also look forward to introducing the ministry of LP-MVIMUTA in various theological colleges and Bible schools so that the training methods and values should be incorporated amongst in the curriculum, much as it is conducted at Morogoro Bible College. Knowing the importance of emerging leaders in secondary school and University colleges, we look forward to inviting young Christian leaders to attend LP-MVIMUTA preaching movements, so that they may be able to preach faithfully according to the Bible. This would be a special LP-MVIMUTA local preaching movement for leaders and preachers of students’ Christian associations.’

‘I am working hard in building a strong committed local team. I thank God that we have now managed to build a strong team of 14 local leaders, and we have already spotted a few other promising local leaders. Our aim is to do what Jethro advised Moses in Exodus 18:13-26.

Nurturing local support

‘It is true that most church ministers in rural Tanzania live below 1 dollar a day. The current global economic crisis has contributed much to economic instability for many church ministers in the country. Despite all these challenges we have determined to raise the local contribution. If we start early in the year we can then find ourselves with something to bring to LP-MVIMUTA national at the end of the year. Most Tanzanian church ministers serve the Lord as Paul did, with a ‘tent-making theology’, since the majority are under-paid in their normal work. But most Tanzanian church ministers have no additional skills, so we look forward to run life skills to help church ministers create small projects of their own.

‘In order to make the ministry become sustainable, we are developing ‘Friends of MVIMUTA’, who will be able to provide what they have for the ministry in the country. ‘Friends of MVIMUTA’ will help various churches to set a day for MVIMUTA, when there would be an extra collection for the work.’

Please pray for Frank and his team, for the growing network of preachers, and for effective preaching and teaching to shape the churches and communities of Tanzania.

Langham Preaching "escuelita" participants prepare an outline in class in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

What educational support would you want if you had to preach your first sermon?
For most of us, formal preaching training prior to a first sermon is expected. But for some
young leaders in Majority World countries, that training is unavailable or too expensive.
So when young church leader Miroslava Riffarrachi of Cochabamba, Bolivia, prepared to
preach to a congregation for the first time on Dec. 6, 2008, the training supported by JSM
was invaluable. In preparation, Miroslava had been studying a book on Bible exposition
she received during JSM-Langham preaching training (known as an “escuelita”) for young
leaders six months ago. And now the time had approached for her to put her training into
practice.

Miroslava came to the preaching seminar in La Paz along with her mentor and several
other members of her preacher’s school to better prepare herself for this opportunity. “I have
two passages I am working on,” said Miroslava. “An Old Testament prophetic passage and
one from the New Testament. This is why I was attracted to the workshop this week.” This
seminar focused on preaching from Jeremiah, enabling Miroslava to create several sermon
outlines that were reviewed by her small group and then by the workshop attendees.

“I am very grateful for people who support JSM and make it possible for people like us
who want to share the Word well, as it comes from God. This workshop helps us to study
it and to work on it, and encourages us to think that it is not impossible,” Miroslava says.

Miroslava Riffarachi at one of her first public preaching events following her training with Langham Preaching.

On December 6, 2008 Miroslava preached her first sermon. She preached on the text from Mark 8:31-38. To all of those praying for her she says, “Thank you for your prayers, I have felt so blessed the day of the preaching and they asked me return, preaching my biblical text again on December 28.”

Here is the full interview with Miroslava as she attending the Langham Preaching Seminiar in La Paz, Bolivia.

Interview with Miroslava Riffarachi
Nov 13, 2008
La Paz, Bolivia

DH: First can you tell me your name and where you are from?

MR: My name is Mirslava Riffarachi and I am from Cochabamba Bolivia. I am in La Paz to study from Chris Wright at the Langham Preaching seminar.

DH: What do you do in Cochabamba?

MR: I study business administration and I am working for Food for the Hungry at the moment in the area of child sponsorship.

Langham Preaching students with Chris Wright in Cochabamba, Bolivia

DH: What made you want to come to this seminar?

MR: I am part of the preaching school in Cochabamba, and they encouraged us to come to the seminar to learn about studying prophetic books. I have been in the preaching school for six months, and at the beginning of December, I will be giving my first sermon. I’ve chosen a prophetic passage, and I see now that it’s a bit difficult, but it helps me for the following ones.

DH: Tell me a bit about the escuelitas. How many people are involved and how often do you meet?

MR: OK, the school started with 15-17 people and all young people cause it’s a young peoples group. There are 10 that are going on with it. We are from different churches and institutions. We are learning together, and the majority are university students, with some of us graduating already. Each one is working with either with the young people in their church or in young peoples’ ministry.

DH: When you preach, will it be to the young people in your church, or the whole church, or is there another group that you preach to?

MR: Most of them are young peoples’ leaders, and they preach in the young peoples’ groups. Some of them are invited by other youth ministries. One of them has already preached in a Sunday service. And the rest are being considered by our pastors to preach to the entire congregation at some point. After my first one in December.

DH: When will you be preaching your first sermon?

MR: Dec 6. The preaching club meets every Saturday early at 7:00 a.m.

DH: Do you then talk about what you will be preaching on and help each other?

MR: Until last Saturday, we have been going through the book, The Seven Steps to a Good Bible Exposition. From now until the 6th of December, we are preparing a sermon based on what we have learned from the book and from this seminar.

DH: Will you be preparing your Bible passage on the prophetic verse you will be preaching on?

MR: But I have two passages. An old prophetic passage and a New Testament one. This is why I was attracted to the workshop this week. I am not going leave the prophetic passage and will continue to work on it, but I will be using New Testament passage for my exposition. Then I will finish the other one.

DH: When you leave here, will you share what you have learned with your escuelitas?

MR: Clara [of course]. I am taking recordings for those who are working and could not be here. Then we will have a mutual experience.

DH: What would you like to say to the Langham supporters?

MR: I am very grateful for people like you who make it possible for people like us who want to share the Word well, as it comes from God. It helps us to study it, to work on it and encourages us to think that it is not impossible. Thank you very much!

DH: How can we pray for you?

MR: I would like for you to pray for me that God is in my life so that I when I come to the Word, I am able to share with people what God puts in my heart. It’s easy to share what’s happening to someone, what God’s done in your life. But it’s more difficult when you are doing an exposition from the Bible and what it actually says.

DH: How can we pray for the youth of Cochabamba?

MR: Pray that the heart of the young people really seek God and that they look at the Word. Because, our youth are like the youth in all the world, in that they only look at superficial things and they should seek the Word, and not just what it seems to be or what they feel. That is so common in our postmodern age. Pray that they do not push that aside because that is what young people are doing. Pray that the Word should be their foundation.

For more information on how to support Langham Preaching, visit LPI’s Get Involved section.

Mercy Ireri is the very energetic coordinator of the preaching clubs in Kenya. Armed with her mobile phone, she keeps track of the pastors and lay preachers, encouraging them to meet regularly, as well as visiting the clubs in different regions near Nairobi. She recently reported: ‘I attended the Kirinyaga Preachers Club this past Saturday. The group has been meeting consistently each month since September 07. It is made up of 2 men and 3 women, from the Anglican church, the Methodist church and Gospel Outreach church (Pentecostal). Since the August preaching seminar, one member joined a college in Nyeri, about 35km away from Keroguya which is the meeting venue. She makes the needed effort (time and bus fare) to attend the club meeting. The other lady moved to Nakuru, but still comes to the club meeting. The cohesiveness in the group was pretty obvious. On that day, they had chosen to present outlines from Daniel 10. At first I was, like, of all books, Daniel! They decided on the book so that with what they were taught at the seminar, they can try to handle those ‘difficult’ books in the Bible. It was quite amazing to note that they did not dwell on the ‘absurd details’ in the text, but they used the ‘Studying a passage’ sheet to study the passage. After each presentation, they would assess “Faithfulness, Relevance, Clarity”, and give their feedback. Each outline identified the audience, had a theme statement, had a verse structure and an accompanying sentence. I was able to wrap up the session with a few points on handling apocalyptic literature. We sure had a real good day! I left so, so encouraged. With calmness returning in the country, many groups are now planning on beginning their meetings. My other highlight each month has been calling the club leaders. I get to laugh as they share their stories, and I get so encouraged when they explain what they are doing, and when I place the phone down, I thank God for what is happening. Thank you for your enormous support in this work in Kenya.’

The Tanzanian preaching movement continues to extend its reach, with nearly 320 delegates attending the training seminars in February and March this year, as well as the launch of a new initiative in the training of local facilitators.

Coordinated by Frank Luvanda and Tony Swanson, the programme not only included large seminars in the north and south of the country. A small group of Tanzanian trainers have also been equipped to develop new level 1 training events in different regions of the country, taking the training to local groups and thereby strengthening the indigenous commitment of the preaching movement. This year over 170 pastors and lay preachers attended the Northern event in Mwanza, and nearly 150 attended the event in Morogoro.

Langham Preaching facilitator Rodney Wood worked with Frank and Tony, and they were joined by Mercy Ireri, the Langham country coordinator for the preaching movement in Kenya. Her training skills and her experience of nurturing preacher’s clubs in Kenya supported the Tanzanian training and is a good example of the emerging African preaching network – cross-border fellowship and support which is part of the Langham Preaching vision.

Safia Nana Zakana could not understand what had happened to Pastor James. She attended his church in Abuja, Nigeria, where he preached regularly. But during 2007 something changed. “I found he was different,” she told Chris Wright, who was leading the second Nigerian Langham Preaching seminar. “He used to preach all over the place, but now he never uses illustrations or stories that are not relevant to the text he is preaching from. And he always ties his conclusion to what the text is saying.”

Safia was attending the seminar at Level 1, and Pastor James had attended it last year, and clearly it had changed him. “So when I see him,” Safia laughed, “I’m going to tell him, ‘Now I know your secret!’ Already we are asking him to train us and others in the church in what he has learned.”

Safia Nana Zakana

Safia herself was a TV presenter before, so she never had any problem about standing up and speaking before audiences. Her problem was knowing how to handle the Bible well and how to teach it properly to others. She works for RURCON – ‘Rural Church Councillors of Nigeria’ – a teaching and training network that encourages rural church pastors to have a holistic ministry of the Gospel in words and works. So she has lots of opportunities to teach and train others. “I wanted to know how to present the Word of God properly in context – its own context, and our context – so that people can understand it and be changed,” she said. “This seminar is helping me to do exactly that.” And with a final bright smile, “My husband, who works for Christian aid and can’t be here, is so jealous!”

The Nigerian Movement Grows Fast

The Langham Preaching movement in Nigeria started in February 2007 with 150 people at Level 1. This year, 90 of them returned for Level 2 training, while another 160 joined at a fresh Level 1. After taking the original group to Level 3 in 2009, it is likely the movement will have to split into several regional streams. This is not surprising, since everything in Nigerian Christianity is big. The movement is supported by several heads of denominations that number millions of members, some of whom attended throughout, at the invitation of Gideon Para-Malam, the main organizer.

Langham Literature provided books for the participants, and some more were provided as gifts and for sale through Africa Christian Textbooks, run by Sid Garland. Many bought copies of the “Africa Bible Commentary.”

And Langham scholars are involved as well. The chair of the Nigerian Langham Preaching committee is Pandang Yamsat, who is the President of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN). And another Langham scholar, Bishop Cyril Okorocha sent ten pastors from his Diocese of Owerri, and gave a guest lecture one evening.

Making a Difference
Chris Wright, who was the main facilitator at last year’s seminar and returned for this one, was keen to hear from members of the first group if what they learned last year had made any difference to their preaching habits and their churches’ lives. He got some encouraging responses.

Pastor Bitrus Abba pastors a church in the Hausa speaking Kagoro region. “I used to feel so guilty before,” he said, “because I never prepared properly. I would just do a bit on Saturday night or even Sunday morning before preaching. So last year’s seminar made me sit up. Now, I start every Monday morning to study and prepare. Then I do a little bit each evening and put it all together on Friday night. There has been a much better response from my people. Their level of interest is greater because they can see clearly the main message and purpose of each passage. Many more are coming to the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study.

“During the past year, I have preached through James (in 2 months), 1 Timothy, 1 Corinthians, and parts of Micah and Habakkuk. I have just bought the ‘Africa Bible Commentary,’ which will be really helpful. I find I learn so much as I prepare.

“During the past year we also started a preachers club for our town, and that has met twice, and we will go on meeting and learning together.”

Exploding but Dissatisfied
Pastor Caleb Mutfwang leads a large church in Kaduna, in the northern part of Nigeria. He told Chris Wright that although there is an explosion of church attendance in Nigeria, people are often dissatisfied with church. They look for somewhere where the Word is being taught because they are severely hungry. And they appreciate it when they hear thorough exegesis of the Bible itself. They are not gullible. What had he particularly learned from last year’s seminar?

• “I was conscious that I had often preached out of context. Even though the message might have been true, the supporting text was not appropriate.
• “Secondly I learned the need to stay within the text while preaching it.
• “Then thirdly, I learned the discipline of preparing sermon notes seriously, and not just extempore ‘as the Spirit leads’.
• “Fourthly, our church began to look at more theological themes, like ‘Who really is God?’, and if you do that, you have to be more diligent in your study. We have a fairly educated membership. In my younger days I used to despise theology, but suddenly I have realized through my reading of John Stott and others, that it is not dry. And you can give people good content without being boring.”

As the Nigerian Langham Preaching movement grows and spreads, pray that it may become an open secret, and change a whole culture of preaching back to its biblical roots.

Read more about Nigerian Langham Scholar Matthew Michaels

View the Langham Preaching-Nigeria Photo Gallery

by Jonathan Lamb, Langham Preaching International Director

‘For the first time, it looks as though the vision of a Preaching movement is being realised’, said Jonathan Lamb, following the Africa Preaching Consultation hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, in mid-December last year.   Country coordinators of the Langham Preaching programmes from 13 countries met for 3 days of fellowship, discussion and prayer.  They came from Zambia and Zimbabwe in the South to Ethiopia in the East, from Francophone countries in Central Africa to some of the largest as well as the poorest of countries in the continent.

To host the event, Langham Preaching joined forces with the Philip Project, a UK ministry that provides Bible training for Africans who are pursuing post-graduate study in the UK, so that they can return home better equipped to serve their churches.  The Consultation gathered leaders of considerable stature and experience, and provided the opportunity to hear of new initiatives in training, growing evidence of indigenous local movements for pastors and lay preachers, and the ripple effect of the training as it impacts churches and communities.   Muhindo Isesomo, the country coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo, explained how the 3-level Langham programme has been running for some 40 or 50 participants from across the DRC, but as a result of the establishment of small preachers clubs, 157 pastors and evangelists are already involved in the training ministry, with plans for extending the work during 2008.

The Africa Preaching movement is encouraging the exchange of trainers who cross borders to support each others programmes, the development of regional networks, and the planning for publishing in local languages.

In Tanzania some 280 pastors and lay preachers will gather in Mwanza and Morogoro for the next stage of training in February.  And in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, a new programme launches designed to equip local facilitators, who will in turn train pastors and lay preachers in their own towns and regions.  New initiatives are being planned for other African countries, including Rwanda, Liberia, Benin, Togo and Zambia.

Step by step, the African preaching movement is making progress.  By God’s grace there is now the potential for a continent-wide network to encourage Biblical preaching.

It’s the third-largest country in Africa with an area the size of Western Europe and a population of 62 million people. Since 1964, it has changed its name three times, has experienced six or more wars and coups, and struggles with safety and stability. And with 80 percent of its citizens living in extreme poverty, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) certainly presents a challenging set of responsibilities for the local pastors.

In September 2007, DR Congo was one of four locations in the Francophone Africa region where Langham Preaching ran further seminars offering practical training to help pastors preach with faithfulness and relevance in a war-torn, poverty-stricken nation.

More than 150 participants attended preaching seminars (for training Levels 1 – 3) in Burundi, DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, led by Langham Preaching facilitator Gordon Woolard. “In Congo we have eight Anglican dioceses participating,” said Gordon. “At least four of the dioceses have follow-up day workshops to discuss what they have learned in our seminars. And we are encouraging each diocese to form preachers clubs.”

DR Congo

The seminar program has been greeted with great appreciation, as it supports local pastors in dire need of proper biblical education and resources. In particular, the DR Congo preaching seminars have initiated future plans for locally based movements.

Muhindo Isesomo, country coordinator for the DR Congo, has realized firsthand the unique needs for the pastors in this area. The political unrest and lack of transportation have made it difficult to organize any training other than that conducted locally, by local pastors. And a woeful lack of resources means that sharing literature – to the point of sometimes tearing apart French Bibles so that several pastors can use them at the same time for sermons – is commonplace. Muhindo and others are set on organizing a “training of trainers” event – equipping graduates of Langham Preaching’s Level 3 training to conduct future training for pastors in their local towns and region. This particular plan for Langham-sponsored training has been successful in other countries, equipping pastors who might not otherwise receive any formal training.

“Basically, we are trying to identify a handful of people who, having completed the three levels, and who having understood the importance of preaching from Bible passages, could be trained to then develop Level 1 programs in their own region of town. We feel this would be really valuable, rather than having an expensive central program for a new Level 1. It pushes the training to a local level, which we think is a good idea,” Muhindo said.

Langham Preaching facilitators in Burundi

Burundi

In Burundi, Langham Preaching launched a new program with Level 1 training for 23 participants from six churches. The conference was translated for some participants from French into Kirundi, the native language for Burundi. 50 participants have since been divided into eight small clubs. Each group has a leader and they meet once a month. They review the Langham Preaching material and contribute to each other’s sermon content. Afterwards they will discuss how the sermon went.

All agreed that limiting the training to small groups was indeed the most effective method for maximum impact. But it did pose another issue: how to keep up with the growing demand for God’s Word in this area, especially with several different native languages present. “We are pleased to help our sisters and brothers to improve their preaching and the Langham Preaching system is appreciated by everyone who is following it,” said facilitator Florence Kamegeri.

Côte d’Ivoire

The last Langham Preaching training in Côte d’Ivoire encountered low attendance due to a national crisis, so this past September’s attendance of 33 was met with thanksgiving. This was also the third year for the training at Abidjan where previous Level 1 and 2 events were conducted. “I’m thankful that we had evangelicals from across the spectrum in attendance as well as several general secretaries from the Francophone International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) movement. Langham is getting to be well-known in other countries as the general secretaries return to their campuses across Africa,” said Gordon.

Burkina Faso

Preaching training was also successful in Burkina Faso, said National Committee Chairman Roland Tamini. “We have the idea to plan two review meetings this year, in January and in May,” he said. “We will also plan a weekend meeting for the pastors who came from outside of Ouagadougou. We also have the plan to create a network of groups of participants to do review of the material they’ve received.”

It’s clear that the training in the preaching movements is having a positive impact on the life of the church. “There were some British missionaries who had worked in Congo and had returned to England,” said Gordon. “They visited the Congo again and went to a church where the preacher had attended a Langham seminar. They asked afterwards where he had learned to preach this way, since they had never heard someone remain so close to the text of Scripture. I think this speaks well of the Langham Preaching material, and does credit to John Stott’s lifetime commitment to expository preaching.”

The countries in Francophone Africa are consistently listed by the United Nations as the “least livable” places to live in the world. * By God’s grace, through the pastors and their local congregations, Langham Preaching hopes to change those statistics by sustaining the preaching movements in all four countries in 2008, as well as developing a new program in another French-speaking country, Rwanda.

*UN Human Development Index, http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778562.html

Visit the Francophone Africa photo gallery of events
Read Gordon Woolard’s report on Francophone Africa
Read the report on the Africa Preaching Consultation

Recently a Kenyan friend of ours made a journey up the Rift Valley.  His normal work is in serving churches in the Nairobi area, specially nurturing the Christian community in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. During these opening days of 2008, the slums have been badly hit by violence and destruction, the centre of a bloody feud.  But today he is on the road, delivering food and blankets to the thousands of displaced people in the west of Kenya, and sharing the gospel of reconciliation with the youths manning the barricades along the roads. 

Speaking of the people at the road blocks, Edward wrote yesterday: ‘With our God, our vulnerability, our prayer and conversations we shall prayerfully urge them to stop this lawlessness. Yes it sounds senselessly risky, unthinkable and shocking to both police and government officials here, and maybe to you too. Blockades have the potential to turn into extortion traps, militia controlled territories as in the case of Burundi where I fell victim, and it may scar Kenya for the rest of our lives. It may mean the end of safe travel on the Great North Road and spell death to our initiatives of training pastors and advancing peace work in West and Northern Kenya.’

Just before Christmas, we were with Edward in Nairobi, along with 20 other African leaders from 13 different countries, for the first Africa Preaching Consultation, which Langham hosted along with the Philip Project.  It was an enormous encouragement to hear of the growth of the preaching movements across the continent, and to see such an impressive group of leaders committed to training pastors and preachers, for the sake of strengthening the churches and transforming societies. 

And here is the link. Training and supporting young leaders in the task of explaining the Bible is not an academic exercise. The 20 country coordinators meeting in Nairobi last month all know what is at stake.  They and their churches are often on the front line, confronting the issues which Edward is meeting now along the Great North Road in Kenya: the horrors of tribal conflict, its devastating impact on refugees, the daily struggles of the poor and destitute, a blindness to the gospel …  Our friends came to the Consultation from countries where these and other stories can be repeated over and over again: what can we say about Isesomo from Congo, where poverty and war remain a wearying reality, but where preachers travel hundreds of kilometres on foot to care for the needy; or about John Bell who came from Zimbabwe, where the believers are struggling to keep their ministries alive in a devastating decline in the economic and social infrastructure, but where they lead the way in caring for those without family or food, seeking to restore hope for a generation of young people growing up with no expectation of a viable future.

It is for all such desperate human situations that God sent his Son, gave his Word, established his church, and called his servants to live and to preach the gospel of reconciliation.  It is this which motivates us to work harder for our brothers and sisters in the Langham family: that through resourcing, supporting and encouraging younger leaders in their Christian service, the ripple effects will, by God’s grace, impact churches, communities, and societies.