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Africa - the future face of Christianity

Picture credit: Bible Society / Andrew Boyd

Africa’s – the future face of Christianity

Seven key reforms to help Africa arise

African Christianity is set to become the face of Christianity around the world. By 2050, 40 per cent of the world’s Christians will be African, the African Biblical Leadership Initiative (ABLI Forum) was told.

The Forum heard a clear call for Africa to strengthen its moral fabric. The church must lead the way in transforming the continent according to Biblical principles. ABLI was also given a warning: ‘Do not dilute Christ-centred, Biblical Christianity.

‘Africa’s time is now,’ said keynote speaker Dr Delanyo Adadevoh. ‘Africa is the paradise that has yet to be seen.’ That paradise, he said, must be established along Biblical lines.

Dr Adadevoh, of the US-based International Leadership Foundation, said there were encouraging trends that Africa was making progress towards realising its true potential.

‘Africa is increasingly stable. We have experimented with different ideologies, but we are becoming more convinced that multi-party democracy is the best form of government for us.’

By 2025, the workforce of Africa will exceed that of China. And by 2050, Africa will account for 25 per cent of the workforce of the entire world. Already, Africa’s middle class was bigger than that of India.

‘What an incredible opportunity!’ he said. ‘Africa is the market for today.’

In September 2016, when Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was in Kenya, he posted: ‘Just landed in Nairobi. I am here to meet with entrepreneurs to talk about mobile money. Kenya is a world leader.’

Yet intra-African trade remains in its infacy, Dr Adadevoh added. Only some 11 per cent of Africa’s trade is within its own borders. The rest is with nations outside of Africa.

‘Perhaps the time will come when we can say, “Africa first”.’

Africa spends 20 per cent of GDP on education – seven per cent more than the United States. ‘We are putting our money where our mouth is. Yet Africa still needs everything – infrastructure, education, healthcare, consumer goods.

Dr Adadevoh outlined seven key reforms that he believed would help Africa arise.

• Strengthen the moral fabric of society. Our foundation should be who we want to become and the values we want to characterise us. African morality must be centred on God himself. Africa desperately needs a healthy, godly, proactive church. The church must lead in developing the moral vision for the continent.
• We must strengthen our democratic constitutions. Power to the people must be translated into institutions that hold each other accountable.
• We need to invest massively in developing infrastructure. Without it, we cannot realise the dream. Thailand exports more than all South Saharan Africa put together. Thailand has just 70m people, yet Africa has more than a billion.
• Africa needs to shift from raw-material based economies to value-added economies. Ghana has been exporting gold since the 15^th Century, yet Ghana still does not have a major gold refinery.
• Africa must engage its diaspora. We as people of African descent should come together intentionally to work on our common development. The incredible power we carry as a people when we come together must be realised in our lifetime.
• Africa must no longer be a project for the rest of the world. Africans must take responsibility to speak for ourselves and negotiate our own development.
• Africa must invest massively in education and research, in the development of our people.

‘Africa’s time is now,’ said Dr Adadevoh. ‘Africa must realise its potential.

‘I see a new Africa with a church that is strong and godly and exercises Biblical leadership. By 2050, 40 per cent of the world’s Christians will be African. That is the new shape of Christianity. What a tragedy if at that time Christianity in Africa is diluted. We need to ensure that African Christianity is biblical, Christ-centred and kingdom-driven.

‘Africa is taking a message to the world that we do need development, we do need to advance – but we have to have God at the centre.’

ABLI is an initiative of Bible Society. The Forum is in its seventh year.

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Picture credit: Bible Society / Andrew Boyd