Ministry: Empowering local workers
In the Burkina Faso sahel there are now a number of mature local Christians and pastors. Any effective long-term ministry in the region will be built on them, not on rich white foreigners, and I see a large part of my role now as enabling them to carry forward the work in the sahel.
The priority of local workers
While God can of course use whoever he chooses, there are several reasons why good local workers can most often be more effective than western outsiders:
- Proximity. They are closer geographically, linguistically, culturally, economically, and sociologically to the people, and thus have less barriers to overcome. Also, while western missionaries usually leave after several years, a national missionary will usually expect to spend most of his life there.
- Incarnation. It is difficult for western Christians, who come in positions of wealth and influence, to effectively incarnate the Christ who came in weakness. The wealth and power often distorts and confuses the message. Local missionaries are more able to live as servants rather than be seen as "patrons".
- Spirituality. "Has God not chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith...?" (Ja 2:5). These local missionaries, with the little they have materially, are more dynamic in faith, passionate in prayer, zealous in evangelism, enduring in suffering, committed in vision, loving, humble, joyful, hospitable, and generous than most in the west.
The sahel is largely unreached by the gospel, but now there is an increasing number of Burkinabe pastors from other peoples who have moved here with the vision, love, and commitment to reach the Fulani with the life-transforming kingdom of God. In Oudalan for example there are pastors in Gorom-Gorom, Markoye, Deou, Oursi, Essakane, and Tassmakat.
Most of the pastors are effectively missionaries - men from other regions and people groups in Burkina, who have been sent to unreached areas to bring the gospel. Yet they have not been trained for such a cross-cultural ministry, and do not have the resources to do all they would like in ministry. They also mostly have very little support - there are not enough Christians to support them, and - as outsiders - they are given the worst land in an infertile area. They struggle to support themselves and their families, let alone to invest in the ministry as they would like. Yet people often turn to them when in need. They have stepped out in faith to follow God and have been serving him faithfully in an enormously challenging area.
Apart from the pastors, there are also now other Christians in the sahel willing and able to serve God here:
- There are those such as Seydou and "P", who have felt the call of God to move to the region to serve him, and have learned local language, and are finding ways to support themselves in ministry.
- There are Christians sent by the government to work in the area as teachers, nurses etc.
- And of course, there are local Christians such as "Yusufi", a Fulani Christian who used to be a Muslim religious teacher. In his village, he shares the story of Christ using Fulani parables and proverbs, and people come to listen as he leads them to the good news of Christ. He is a better communicator than I could ever be among the Fulani.
Thus I am trying to find ways forward to empower pastors and other Christians in the region in their cross-cultural mission:
- Training and encouragement.
I spend time visiting pastors to pray with and encourage them in their ministry and explore ways forward in cross-cultural mission in the area. I have also been asked also to do some training with them on issues such as Islam, cross-cultural adaptation, gospel and culture, etcI also seek to bring pastors and churches together across the denominations to work together in a common vision. A number of these local Christians and pastors in Oudalan are forming an interdenominational Christian association to work together to serve the kingdom of God in Oudalan and beyond in holistic mission.
To help with the ministry, I am developing a Ministry Centre, on a piece of land on the outskirts of Gorom-Gorom, which I hope will serve the ministry needs in the region for training and evangelism. This is my base, where I live with Seydou and Monique and family, and we will shortly be joined by Pastor P and his family.
- Resourcing through Partnerships.
For each village where there is a church, I am looking for partnering churches that can help serve the missionary vision of the pastor-missionary. A partnering church can resource such a venture by helping the pastor set up in ministry, by helping him establish a way for him to support himself financially, by supporting the mission activities of the church, and by visits, prayer, and encouragement. For more information on partnering, see Partnerships for Mission
For the latest news on the work in Gorom-Gorom, click here .
