When Wachira Ngamau, a Kenyan attending seminary in the U.S., along with the missions committee at the Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, first proposed a short-term mission trip to Kenya 18 months ago, they expected three or four people to show interest, and perhaps one or two actually to go.

To their surprise, over 40 inquired about going, and 20 completed applications. A team of 11—three men and eight women—was finally chosen. It included two poor, single mothers who had never flown before. All but one were black. Each team member raised an average of $2,500 in order to take the trip in July.

Accelerated Activity

The three-week, 3,100-mile trek is one example of the growing involvement of black churches in missions, says Elward Ellis, president of Destiny Movement, Inc., which in 1987 sponsored a major conference on missions.

Many other black churches and agencies in the U.S., Ellis said, have begun to realize the need for and the advantages of black churches and missionaries reaching out to people all over the world. The result, he added, is a flurry of recent, black-initiated missions activity.

Ellis cited as an example the work of Los Angeles-based Ambassador Fellowship, an independent missions agency that focuses on recruiting blacks, Hispanics, and Asians for missionary work. The agency is headed by Virgil Amos, who served with the missions organization Operation Mobilization for 20 years prior to starting Ambassador Fellowship.

This summer the agency sponsored a team of ten primarily black and Hispanic Christians on a trip to Spain, France, West Germany, Kenya, and four other countries. The main purpose of the trip was to learn firsthand the needs of churches in these countries. Team member Ed Gaskin, a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, felt honored to preach at the African Inland Church in Kibera, Kenya, a small town near Nairobi.

In France, the group met people from African nations currently closed to Christian missionaries, learning that it is possible to reach these countries by evangelizing Africans living in Paris, who can in turn carry their newfound faith back to their home countries.

Another example cited by Ellis is the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Missions Convention, an agency named after the first U.S. missionary. This group has recently been more active among member churches in an effort to increase missions awareness and recruit more workers.

Also, black denominations such as the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention, USA, are, according to Ellis, promoting greater missions involvement among their congregations. These denominations have sponsored informational trips to enable pastors to observe firsthand the African church in action and to understand its need for missionary support. Meanwhile, the American Baptist Churches, in order to stimulate black missions awareness, recently sponsored a 100-voice choir from Zaire to tour many of its U.S. churches.

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“Returning” To Africa

The team from Rock of Our Salvation Church visited 25 churches in and around the area of Nyahururu, north of Nairobi. Glenda Ely, coleader of the delegation, said that for most, it was their first trip outside the U.S. And many of the Kenyans, she said, assuming that all Americans were white, had never seen a black American before. “We had a lot of misconceptions about each other,” said Ely.

“When we arrived and they saw that we looked just like them, there was much rejoicing,” Ely said. One black American woman in the group with more distinctively African features was nicknamed “Chepto” by the Kenyans, which means “one of us who left and has now returned.”

Group members traveled from church to church, preaching, singing, and donating labor. Armed with extra money, they asked the locals what they needed. One overworked pastor, who oversees nine churches, said he traveled 50 miles on foot each week just to reach one of them. The group bought a sturdy bicycle for him and also one for another itinerant minister. Moved by these gifts, a local church member donated his bicycle to a third exhausted pastor.

The Rock team also contributed funds toward several church-related projects, including the building of a new roof for a youth conference center, and the installation of a much-needed water tank. When it was all over, team members came home so inspired, according to Ely, that all are planning to return to Africa in some missions capacity.

Explaining The Enthusiasm

Ellis points to several reasons for the growing interest in missions among black Christians. One is the general increased awareness of international issues and events, particularly in developing countries. Church leaders are doing more traveling overseas, exchanging ideas and encouraging one another.

No doubt the Destiny Movement can claim some credit. Many black Christians who in the last two years have initiated short-term missions trips and pushed for greater missions involvement got their inspiration from the Destiny 87 conference. And since then, Ellis said, more traditional, predominantly white missions agencies have taken steps to strengthen ties with the black church community and to recruit more black missionaries. The Evangelical Alliance Mission, for instance, has hired a full-time black recruiter to develop relationships with black churches.

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In May, Destiny held a consultation in Atlanta with 11 of these white agencies to discuss how to overcome the history of alienation between those agencies and the black community.

To respond to the increased missions interest, the Destiny movement, along with Operation Mobilization, is putting together a promotional package called “Operation World,” designed to help black churches get more of their members involved in short-term missions. Destiny also plans another missions conference for 1991.

By Verne Becker.

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

END TIMES

Throwing in the Towel

After September 1 came and went Rapture-less for the second straight year, end-times author Edgar Whisenant said he planned no more books on the Rapture or the end times.

Over four million copies of Whisenant’s 1988 book, which predicted a September 1988 Rapture, were distributed last year. Whisenant said earlier this year that his calculations were off by a year, and promptly produced another book, which sold only 30,000 copies.

But it appears the retired NASA engineer has finally come around to a view held by many of his critics. Asked by the Religious News Service about his failed prediction, Whisenant said, “I guess God doesn’t always do things the way man thinks he will.”

YOUTH MINISTRY

Church Growth Concerns

A survey conducted by Group, the Loveland, Colorado-based youth-publishing ministry, suggests that ministry to youth is a greater contributing factor to church growth than is generally acknowledged among church-growth experts. Eighty percent of the families surveyed for the report “Youth Ministry: Its Impact on Church Growth,” according to Group, said their church’s youth ministry was an important consideration in their decision to join.

A Group press release notes that, according to the American Institute for Church Growth, over 75 percent of lay people say they visit a church because of a friend or a relative. But the number-two reason families join a church, Group’s research concluded, is the church’s ministry to youth. The number-one consideration is preaching.

HOMOSEXUALITY

Student Forced Out

An avowed homosexual student who was planning to graduate in May from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has been forced to withdraw from school. According to Baptist Press, Kevin Kouba, 32, has lost two appeals to panels composed of faculty, students, and administrators. He now plans to take the final step of the appeals process by going to the seminary’s president.

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Kouba admitted to charges of homosexual activity after being assured he would not be expelled if he told the truth. The Baptist Press account of the controversy indicated Kouba did not realize at the time a difference between expulsion—which is permanent—and forced withdrawal, which allows for the possibility of reinstatement.

Kouba told Louisville reporters that when he entered the seminary in 1986 he had every intention “of living the ‘straight’ life.” But he now believes homosexuality is not sinful and that the school’s policy is discriminatory.

A statement issued by the seminary maintained that the school “has a right and an obligation to expect certain standards from its students.”

BOYCOTT PRESSURE

Première Reconsidered

The Muskegon, Michigan-based Christian film company Gospel Films, Inc., recently decided to move the location of the premier showing of Next Time I Fall in Love, which had been scheduled at Universal Studios in California.

A letter signed by Gospel Films president Billy Zeoli said the move was made “in order to be fully supportive with the ongoing boycott of Universal Studios.” Universal produced the controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ.

A few days prior to this action an open letter was sent to Zeoli from R. L. Hymers, pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle in Los Angeles, who warned against carrying out the engagement at Universal. Hymers wrote,” I must warn you that everything possible will be done to shame you and Gospel Films if you should go through with this perfidious engagement in collusion with the anti-Christ forces at Universal Studios.” Hymers sent the letter to over 40 Christian individuals or organizations.

Zeoli told CHRISTIANITY TODAY, however, that the Hymers letter had nothing to do with his organization’s change in plans. He said the scheduling of the première at Universal resulted from an oversight and that Gospel Films corrected its mistake as soon as it was discovered and prior to receiving the threatening letter.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Named: As president of Word, Inc., Roland Lundy, previously executive vice-president of Word’s records and music division. He succeeds Gary Ingersoll, who was named president of the Chilton Company, which, like Word, is a unit of ABC Publishing.

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Appointed: As national commander of the Salvation Army, James Osborne. He takes the reins from the current national commander, Andrew S. Miller, on November 1.

Teaming up: Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship ministry and the Bill Glass Evangelistic Association. Glass’s organization has for some time wanted to expand its prison evangelism program. In order to do this without abandoning those who become Christians, it has turned its follow-up program over to Prison Fellowship, which specializes in nurturing new believers.

Died: Prominent United Methodist theologian and ecumenist Albert C. Outler, on September 1 at the age of 80, after spending nearly two weeks in a coma following a massive stroke. A scholar, Outler interpreted the theology of John Wesley for contemporary believers. He also specialized in building Protestant-Catholic relations, becoming in 1971 the first non-Roman Catholic to be elected president of the American Catholic Historical Association.

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