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Mission as Theological Education in Africa: 1. The Growth of the Church in Africa and Its Need for Theological Education

Introduction
In several posts, I intend to explore aspects of mission as theological education in Africa.  I begin here with the simple observation that the Church is growing in Africa and that this is one reason to keep mission activity focussed, among other things, on theological education in the decades to come.

The Growth of the Church in Africa

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, one of the great and growing challenges needing our attention in missions is theological education in Africa.  This is because the Church is growing in Africa more than anywhere else in the world, Africa faces greater academic challenges more than anywhere else in the world, and Africa has a growing responsibility to provide leadership in the Church worldwide.

Perhaps the most well-known statistic on Christianity in the world in our day is that the centre of Christianity has shifted south and into Africa.  This centre (it is located in the region of Timbuktu!) is symbolic, showing where the average number of Christians moves on the world map as those professing the faith wax or wane in different parts of the world.  The shift into Africa shows that Christianity has slowed in the West and has grown elsewhere, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.  In Africa, Christianity will grow from 142,609,000 in 1970 to 630,644,000 in 2020; given population growth, this means an increase from 38.7% to 49.3% of the population.  Christians in Northern America, on the other hand, will move from constituting 91.2% of the population to 76.9%.[1]  (Such broad statistics, note, do not include a much needed assessment of what passes as Christian—many ‘Christians’ need evangelization themselves.)  The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell publishes the following trends by region for the growth of Christianity by continent.

Status of Global Christianity, 2015, in the Context of 1900–2050[2]
1900
1970
2000
trend (%)
mid-2015
2025
2050
Africa
8,736,000
114,785,000
359,245,000
2.78
541,816,000
704,003,000
1,207,833,000
Asia
20,774,000
91,585,000
271,420,000
2.19
375,905,000
464,797,000
598,589,000
Europe (including Russia)
368,254,000
467,266,000
546,448,000
0.16
559,900,000
546,065,000
501,488,000
Latin America
60,027,000
262,919,000
481,355,000
1.20
575,464,000
628,336,000
702,896,000
Northern America
59,570,000
168,472,000
209,585,000
0.67
231,499,000
239,501,000
266,038,000
Oceania
4,323,000
14,463,000
21,178,000
1.08
24,892,000
27,459,000
33,654,000

Missiologists use statistics to discussion mission strategies.  We should be cautious about this, since mission work is not a social science but a spiritual calling.  For instance, the fact that the Church is growing in Africa should not lead us to stop evangelizing and church planting on the continent so as to focus on areas of supposed greater need.  Harvesters do not stop harvesting because the planting and growing seasons were successful.  However, this statistic of Christian growth on the continent versus that in the West does raise an important concern for mission strategy: the ever increasing need for theological education in Africa.

The Need for Theological Education

Where the church is growing, there is inevitably a need for teaching at every level—Biblical literacy and instruction in the faith for laity and ministerial training for those entering into various roles in ministry.  Where there is fast growth, there is always the challenge of syncretism and shallow theology.  And where the church is growing, there are special concerns related to those contexts that need to be addressed.  In Africa, these might include theological and ministerial training where there is social and political unrest, the unique politics of certain denominations or fellowships, challenges posed by other religions, and unorthodox teachings from the West or that are home-grown.  Finally, where the Church is growing most in the world is where influential persons are likely to arise, including theologians for the Church.  Thus, not only Africa but also the worldwide Church needs good, well-educated, and orthodox African theologians.

Conclusion

In a word, theological education is mission, and the Church's mission must focus on theological education in Africa.  This is not an exclusive statement, as though other concerns should be ignored.  Yet the needs in Africa for good theological education at every level and for the development of centres for theological education of a high quality are monumental.



[1] See statistics at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (2013) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; online at: http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/research/documents/2ChristianityinitsGlobalContext.pdf (accessed 27 July, 2016).
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