God Forgive Me...

As I have been in Nairobi my team with TLI has been able to teach over 50 lay leaders from the Anglican Church in the City. The city is about 5.5 million people and the Anglican Church one of the better churches doctrinally in Nairobi (Reformed in Confession), seems to be dying rapidly, with only 107,000 estimated members in the city. There are other Reformed churches in the city but the Anglican church is struggling. Many of the Lay Leaders would blame such things on Bishops and Priests, however, they were all challenged by the National Leader of Church Army Africa, that they were the problem. They were not the ones preaching the Gospel, they are the ones who run the church, because they cannot be transferred or anything, they are the leaders of the Anglican Church, for they do the majority of the ministry. I want us to be praying for the Church.

Many of the reasons these leaders are not able to preach with authority and boldness, is because they are not trained. Many of them have not had training in 20 years of more. They know the Bible when it comes to knowing where things are and memorization better than I do, however they are not strong in theology (how the bible works as a continual story of God revealing himself), expository preaching, or how to apply the Scriptures to life today. These are key things that most Reformed churches in America have as their foundation. Therefore, I am guilty as many of us in the U.S. of not doing ministry when we have all the head knowledge. And the Church in Africa is guilty of doing ridiculous amounts of ministry with no foundation, in alot of ways. I pray and hope that this will change in me. God has convicted me of this.

Another great conviction of mine that created an excitement in me is the opportunity to teach and preach against the Prosperity Gospel (Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, etc.) that has run a muck here in Africa and all over the world. This message that God will bless you materially and relieve our suffering because we are God's people. This Gospel is false and is a heresy of the American Church that we have exported to the World and greatly in Africa. It is sad that as many of these lay leaders we have worked with have had a great lack of training they have fallen victim to this prosperity Gospel. Many of these pastors know that it is wrong but were not sure how to refute these teachings. One of the areas we touched on within our theological training is that of how do we deal with money and suffering in God-Centered Living. This were great topics for them and many have now seen that they do not have to struggle to appease God or have more faith for God to love them more. They now see that the Gospel is something to rest in, that God is our provider, protector, and reconciler. I praise God for this opportunity.

I have been over joyed with the love that has been shown among these leaders to want to see the church reach out to the community and see their city transformed by the Gospel. I pray that our teachings can start a revival here in Nairobi to see the true gospel message proclaimed and that God may be glorified with seeing many who have gone astray come back to bow at His feet, and not the feet of lying heretics and money.

Praise be to God, the God over All, and the joy of my life...

This may just be random thoughts and I am sorry for the lack of structure for this blog but these are just things on my mind and I do not have time to at this moment to edit my thoughts and structure this.

For some Video on the Prosperity Gospel and to see it exposed please follow the next to links to hear how this false gospel is being spread around the world...my God have mercy on us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s (John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel)

http://vodpod.com/watch/2456148-the-prosperity-gospel-in-africa-justin-taylor (a documentary)