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Grace out of Africa

6:35pm Wednesday, 19th May 2010

Does the world still need
missionaries? Femi Adeleye gives the answer from the emerging world.

Femi Adeleye believes “much good or grace can come from unexpected places” —that’s one of the things he believes Australian Christians have to learn about Africa and African Christians like him.
Adeleye, is visiting Australia to headline the missions based “Reachout” conference in Sydney in August, and returns for the AFES national training event in Canberra in January. He is often to be found in northern Ghana where he is finishing a PhD at the Akrofi Christaller Institute.
But he is no reclusive scholar, Adeleye is in demand as a conference speaker around the world and is an Associate General Secretary for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
Eternity asked Femi “What would you most like western Christians to learn from African Christians?”.
“That God’s saving plan is reaches out to the ends of the earth and in a multifaceted way includes all cultures, ethnic or race categories; that God speaks in more diverse languages and mother tongues than what we are often familiar with (English,Latin, etc.); that much joy and grace abounds in the midst of African adversities.”
We followed up with: “As a growing percentage of global Christianity is African what changes do you see flowing from that?”
“More diversity in ways of worship and prayer,” says Femi, “more diverse ways of expounding Scripture and communicating the gospel while affirming the same essentials: the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural diversification of all geographical territories with new insights into God’s global mosaicthrough African migrants—legal or illegal.
For Femi that the church is diverse is good news. “Today’s Church is multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-coloured and multi-gifted!”
“The colours of this global mosaic includes • The pioneering spirit of early missionaries from the north.
• The perseverance and suffering of eastern missionaries.
• The pain and suffering of diverse martyrs of the faith.
• The beauty of the buoyant and celebrative life of the Latin American Church as well as their heart of community.
• The African sense of transcendence; the engaging interaction between the natural and supernatural world as well as God’s daily involvement in the routines of daily life.
• The pure delight of worship amongst Ethiopian students or the perseverance of those under affliction in the Sudan or Ukraine.
• The sobriety and anticipation of Korean or Malaysian Christians in prayers
• The gift of the suffering Church world wide
“Worship and Service ascend to the throne of God with diverse gifts from the ends of the earth to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God!
• The Good News from God’s Global Mosaic in many ways confirm that ‘In Christ there is no east or west—No north or south.’”
Adeleye acknowledges that these definitions can sometimes be divisive:
• with some suggesting that the era of northern sending nations is over
• with some suggesting that the world has changed so much that
• perhaps Australia has no more role to play.
Adeleye’s response is clear. “Has the world changed? Yes—the world has changed significantly. Does this mean the end of a role for the global north? No!”
The face of the globe has come into the global north, Femi points out
“Through global migration the real world has truly come to your door steps through migrants from all continents of the world—from the very ends of the earth—as entrepreneurs, students, scholars, refugees or drifters: some legal, others illegal, but they’ll keep coming!
“The comfort zone has been invaded and ‘the axis of evil’ is no longer in some distant hidden geographical location. (How then do we now respond to serious global issues we were once shielded from?)
“The global face of the church is no longer out there but very much with you! The color of your churches is being reconfigured.”
“The global voice of the church is also no longer out there but very much here. It is the voice of a new generation of missionaries who have come from previous receiving nations back to previous sending nations as voices of hope and renewal.
There’s talk of taking the gospel back to Jerusalem from Jos Nigeria, from the global south to the global north.
These are fresh winds of voices with a passion for biblical truth as reflected in the voices of African Episcopal/Anglican Bishops against perceived lowering of standards. These voices will continue to be heard.”
Adelaye points out that this raises the question for global north churches “How then do we now respond to serious global issues we were once shielded from?”
But on the issue of mission he continues:
“In this new tapestry of God’s global mosaic, is there still a role to play? Even though it
• Invades our private world and lives
• Gets us out of comfort zones
• Shifts us from being majority to minority
• Messes up previous colour configurations and mindsets
Yes there is !!!!”
Femi’s call to mission minded Christians:
a.) Welcome and celebrate what God has done and continues to do! He loves his world and has done according to his good pleasure.
b.) Welcome the global guests in your midst—the students, migrants and missionaries.
c.) Accept and be committed to partnership with the new wave of global missionaries. The era of ‘foreign mission’ is over! What we now have is global international interdependent, multi-ethnic partnership in missions. And this is God’s doing!
Open your arms to new missionaries in your midst—they’ll be different—time wise, communication-wise, new accents, fresh perspectives.
d.) Learn from the world at your doorsteps and beyond. Need a good vacation? Don’t go to [Bali]—that’s old stuff, go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe or to Botswana! Travel the world and get into God’s Mosaic!
e.) Continue to do what you’ve done in obedience to God as best as you can. Yes! Keep going as missionaries. First world missionaries are still needed around the world with all the gifts and skills they can give. This country is still one of the best resourced and equipped to meet the needs of the world. Go with your high tech and incredible generosity. However go in partnership and not on your own terms!
f.) Get a map or globe of the world. Pray for it, engage with it, visit and support it.
g.) Most critical—partnership with likeminded people: as God has shown us from history, no-one and no part of the world can accomplish the task alone—we must partner with one another.
This story contains material from answers to Eternity and a sermon Femi sreached to Christian students in November.

Who is Femi Adeleye?

The son of a Christian mother Femi Adeleye grew up in northern Nigeria and came to Christ through a Baptist missionary.
“I was exposed to what it means to live and witness in an Islamic context, including being on a list of those targeted for elimination by extremists. I began sharing the gospel with my friends in school and later on campus as a college student, especially between 1975 and 1979.
“I was also involved in leadership and cross cultural evangelism as a student under the auspices of the Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES), leading teams of students on mission trips to rural communities in Northern Nigeria. Later, with other students, we soon began crossing borders to do evangelistic outreaches in Niger and Guinea Republics.”
Adelaye became a NIFES staffworker for 12 years, taking part in a mission to Oxford Universiy and spent time as a graduate student at Wheaton College (near Chicago).
Today after serving as Regional Secretary for International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) ministry in English and Portuguese Speaking Africa from 2000 to 2008, Femi serves as the IFES International Associate General for Partnership. He works with the Langham Partnership to nurture a new generation of Bible expositors and teachers in Africa.