Out of Darkness, Light for the World
ASET 2024 Keynote Adress Preview
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined,” where we dream about mission in a postcolonial world. Every Thursday, I share one thought that has spoken to me in the week, some resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about. I pray one of these will energise you in the coming week.
1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off
I have titled my ASET 2024 keynote speech “Out of Darkness, Light for the World.” This is also the message you will see when you look at the cover of my new edited book, Africa Bears Witness—the sun shines brightly against a black background.
As African Christians emerge with a conviction to share the good news of Christ with the world, it must drive Henry Morton Stanley crazy in his grave. He is the man who, after meeting David Livingstone in Tanzania in 1871, popularised the term “Dark Continent” as a descriptor for Africa. His two book, Through the Dark Continent and In the Darkest Africa, were instant best sellers. “Dark Continent” meant a few things. One of them was that Africa was dark because it either had no religion (and for him and many in his generation, religion was Christianity, and its absence meant the presence of the darkness of heathenism) or whatever religion it had was “devilish” (a common word for what would then become animism). Today, one hundred and fifty years after Stanley, the light of the good news of Christ shines from Africa and through African Christians to Europe and the rest of the world. It is amazing what God can do.
Africa Bears Witness is a collection of essays from around the continent written by scholars and practitioners of mission. (We do not separate them; I am sure many will not tell the difference). It invites readers, wherever they are located in the world, to begin to imagine what the work of making disciples of all nations will look like when done by Africans. The missionary work of Africans must differ in significant ways from what has happened in the past 500 years. Africans cannot evangelise like Europeans or North Americans and that, in my opinion, is a good thing. Of course, they may not have figured this out fully yet, but I am sure they will pretty soon. The experiences they are having both in Africa and other continents will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, guide them to the truth that God can use the weak to reach the mighty or that it is usually in human weakness that God’s strength can be seen. This movement of Africans bearing witness in the world will, in so many ways, reflect the journey of influence that the Early Church did from Nazareth towards Rome. With Africans rising up to reach the nations again, it almost feels like it did at the beginning when the Galileans in the Roman colony of Judea were trusted with a world-changing message of the radical love of God. This, I find extremely exciting.
In the keynote, I will spend most of my time discussing what I believe will be the critical characteristics of an African missiology: it has to be communal, it has to humanise others, it must have a humble posture, it has to attend to the young Christians around the continent, etc. And for this to happen, we need new ways of speaking about mission—we need a new language. We also need new theological and philosophical perspectives. And finally, we need to take migration seriously. The migration of African Christians will be the most important factor in all this. The era of the mission agency is coming to a slow end in Africa. The African church itself will embrace the migration of its people around the world as a strategy to reach the nations. This is already happening.
2. Resources I am Enjoying
The resource for the week is Africa Bears Witness. Below is what the publishers say about it.
This remarkable collection of essays explores the role of African Christianity in God’s mission around the world. Featuring the contributions of African scholars and mission practitioners from throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora – including both men and women, veteran scholars, and fresh new voices – this volume provides a diverse perspective on missiology as understood and practised by African Christians. Engaging such wide-ranging topics as gender violence, globalisation, Westernization, peacebuilding, development, Pentecostalism, urban missiology, theological education, and African Christianity in Europe, this volume ambitiously bridges the gap between academic and practitioner perspectives, engaging both theological discourse and the hands-on reality of how God’s mission is taking shape in Africa and beyond. This book offers an empowering look at the work God is accomplishing in and through the African church.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
… the Gospel proclamation does not require a transfer of culture or community. The resultant community must take care of the aspirations of the existing one. — Donatus Nnabueze Ngolade
If creation is the beginning of God’s engagement with creation and humans in history, the ultimate goal of God’s activity in history is the restoration of his creation. History, then, is the platform where he unfolds and executes his mission plans. — Julie Ma and Wonsuk Ma
We can add nothing to the Gospel for this is an eternal gift of God; but Christianity is a beggar seeking food and drink, cover and shelter from the cultures it encounters in its never-ending journeys and wanderings. — John Mbiti
I pray that you will be faithful in whatever God calls you to do this week.
Thank you so much Dr Harvey,
I mostly see your writings as prophetic utterances that are fully pregnant with key happenings in the now and the future.
I have no doubt that Africa is birthing scholars in the known and others yet to come in the process of time will begin quoting most of your divinely inspired writings to proved of the revelations you keep unfolding about the Africa continent and her migrants.
We're always blessed to be fed each week with your continuous missionary undoubted information about what God is doing with the people of Africa as they travelled around globe with their faith in the God they believed and not as trained missionaries.
This is an inspiring article by Dr. Kwiyani. There's no doubt that Africa is fast becoming the home of the Christian Faith and Church. It's from that solid platform that African Christians are migrating to other parts of the world and sharing the Gospel of God's Love for Humanity.