The Gospel and Africa's Expansion - The Gospel and Africa's Expansion, Part 1

If your mind and heart is weary of hearing about evil and corruption and wars and bad news and you feel worn down and discouraged, today we're going to share some news that will brighten your day, move your heart, and deeply encourage you.

Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. I'm Dave Druey, and for the next two programs, we're stepping away from our regular Bible teaching to celebrate how God is moving in our world today and share the work this ministry is playing in that movement. So, our Executive Vice President of Global Ministries, Andrew Acardi, is here in studio right now to guide us through this important topic. Today, he and a special guest will highlight a place where the Gospel is shockingly spread like wildfire and what we can learn from their enthusiastic testimony. But before we dive into this conversation, let me quickly tell you that if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge or you want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org.

You'll find resources on tons of topics and countless programs to enjoy. Or if you prefer, the Chip Ingram app is also a great way to get plugged in with our ministry. Okay, here now is Andrew Acardi to introduce today's talk and his guest. Thanks Dave, great to be with you today. You know, I think many of our listeners don't know that Living on the Edge has a ministry that spans the globe.

Literally, we're in 20 countries around the world, and one of the areas where God seems to be opening a lot of doors is in Africa. And so, we're joined today by Patrick Cucchio, who is our Africa director at Living on the Edge, to talk about the life of pastors in Africa and why that's important to all of us. Patrick, welcome. Glad you're with us today. Thank you very much, Andrew.

It's an honor to be with you today. You know, my mother's 90 years old, and she has been supporting ministries in Africa around the world for most of her life. But she has this image in her mind about what Africa is today that was really based in the 1950s, I think. And there's been a lot of financial support that's come into Africa from the West. What impact did that have in Africa?

Africa will forever remain grateful to the West for taking the risk and countering malaria and countering the man-eating lions of the Savo, just to bring the gospel message. Missionaries of yesteryears were very intentional about preaching the gospel, proclaiming the gospel, and also demonstrating the gospel. So, most missionaries came preaching the gospel, but they set up schools.

They set up hospitals. They provided water, boreholes. So, they were able to challenge our religious paradigms because most Africans were very religious and still are very religious. It's just that we were looking for God in the wrong places. We looked for God in rivers. We looked for God on mountains.

We looked for God on trees. We never found God, but it took the courage and the love of missionaries who came to share the gospel message with Africa. But along with that, a lot of financial resources have been invested in the continent of Africa.

There's a switch that is happening. Africa was known to be the dark continent, but thank God that the gospel has illuminated the continent. Africa is no longer the dark continent when you think of the 718 million Christians currently on the continent.

But I've seen a shift in this regard, Andrew. Africa is no longer just the mission center that it used to be. Africa has become a mission force. Africa is now sending out missionaries all over the world. We are seeing churches in Africa actually promoting the work in Europe, the work in the West. The church that I came from, that I was raised in, has been endured by God. When we were planting a church in the US, it was fully funded from Africa.

There was no donor money coming in from the West or from anywhere else. We simply felt God called us to plant a church right in the heart of Washington, DC. We obeyed God provided. The church is thriving. So there's a shift from being a mission field to a mission force, from this recipient to a giver. And it's exciting to be on the front seat to see God at work, challenging, touching different individuals, congregations, business leaders who are very keen to see revival happen in the global West. You've been a pastor now for quite some time. What are some things that we should know about the life of a pastor in Africa? One thing you find true about the life of a pastor in Africa is that it's a simple life.

We are used to simplicity. In this sense, if you need to go from point A to point B with respect to transportation, if the bus is not available, if the Uber is not available, if it's not train by or tram, you simply walk to your destination. So it's commonplace to find people walking. You'll find pastors walking for miles and miles just to go preach the gospel and walk back home.

If it begins to rain, they'll take shelter maybe under a tree or by some neighbor somewhere. So life is not complicated. It is not complex. The life of a pastor in Africa is a simple life, the average pastor. But you also find that the average pastor in Africa is predisposed to trust God.

It's interesting. I was thinking about this the other day, Andrew, and you see when you grow up trusting God for almost everything, you wake up, yes, you are connected to the electric greed, but you're not too sure when you wake up, there will be power. So you go to bed praying God, keep the power on.

You're not too sure there will be water flowing through your pipe. So you have to trust God for water. You have to trust God for transportation. You're not too sure the bus will make it.

So you're not too sure you'll make it in time for your meeting. A number of pastors in Africa are extremely prayerful because prayer for most of us in Africa is our greatest fallback. When you look at the challenges your average pastor runs into or deals with on a daily basis, challenges of sicknesses or in access to medical care, poverty, the inability just to pay for your own children's education, the inability to meet your own needs. So you find people who have been raised in this environment they have learned to lean on God. So prayer is something that we love to do because it's like the circumstances around us have shaped our view of God. And so we know that unless we turn to God, we are done for. But you also find that pastors in Africa are very resilient people. They're not just simple in their lifestyle. They're not just dependent on God or trusting God, but you find that pastors in Africa are very resilient people.

I looked at the way, for instance, when COVID hit and there were sanctions upon sanctions. And one such sanction was the closure of churches. When the government shut down all our churches, it's interesting how many pastors migrated from the physical space to the online space. Very resilient. You find pastors who have never preached on social media platforms, have opened YouTube channels, are preaching on Facebook. Very, very resilient people. You block one way, they find another way.

You stop here, they turn the other way. So I found this extremely refreshing when I interacted with pastors, listening to their stories, their struggles. You listen to stories of resilience. We've worked with many, many pastors around the continent of Africa. So what did you learn then about pastoral ministry in that stage of your ministry life? One of it was that a congregation will always take after the pastor. Maybe put differently, that a church will either stand or fall on the spiritual leadership of its pastor and the strength of the disciples.

Why is that so important? I believe that it's important to have healthy pastors because we can only reproduce after our own kind. It's almost impossible for a mango tree to produce oranges. Jesus was very categorical when he said, you will only produce after your own kind. To have a healthy pastor is likely to lead to healthy church. And to have an unhealthy pastor is very, very likely bound to lead to a very unhealthy congregation. So there's a very strong correlation between the health of the leader and the health of the congregation.

They do cannot be divorced whatsoever. A proliferation of wrong doctrine is a challenge we struggle with in Africa. The vast majority of pastors in Africa lack formal theological training. I'm very, very fortunate to be among the few who God helped to find their way to Bible school and I got some theological instruction.

So you find as a result of my interaction with different professors, my desire for sound doctrine and communicating the same has been real. But there are pastors who don't have the privilege of formal education. They take the Bible and they go off and find a number of false teachings. Sin criticism is something we struggle in Africa where people would mix culture and Christianity. So there are times you find the two intertwined in a way that doesn't necessarily please God.

If you are to pause a little bit and find and investigate, is this really Godly? In many instances you find that there are a number of us pastors who have embraced African traditional religions and mixed it with the faith that we are taught in the Bible. But it takes training, it takes learning, it takes instruction to distinguish and differentiate the two.

Not many are able to do so. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and Andrew Acardi and Patrick Coccio from our international team will be back to continue their discussion in just a minute. But let me quickly tell you that we are more than a broadcast ministry. Every day all around the world we're supporting pastors who are discouraged and desperate for help. Let me encourage you to stick around after the teaching to learn more about this work and how you can be part of it.

Well, with that, here again are Andrew and Patrick. You know, I'm always interested in learning a little bit more about people's backgrounds. You actually started off in youth ministry many, many, many, many years ago. Why don't you just give us a little bit of background on how you got started in ministry?

Wow, that's interesting, Andrew. I never intended to be a minister in the first place, but there was this Canadian missionary who led our church, and I kind of saw the calling in my life, which I had never seen. I was determined to make money, and my idea of making money was go be an accountant, which I did, train, get a job, which I did. But then God began to stir my heart, and when I went to see the pastor, he told me, that sounds like a call to the ministry. He explained to me what a call was, and so I asked him, what should I do, pastor, with this call?

He tells me, you need to go train in Bible school. So I resigned my job, went to Bible school, and after graduating, I found myself in youth ministry, I think because I was the youngest on the team, not because I had specialized training in youth ministry or had a call. And so I felt like I'd been thrown into the deep end, because I was not very keen about taking spiritual care over young people. But I stumbled across a book written by Doug Fields on the purpose-driven youth ministry.

That was my lifeline. It turned around my approach to youth ministry, and indeed, we ended up having a very vibrant youth ministry in Nairobi that touched many, many, many, many congregations and actually people would come from far and wide just to see us doing youth ministry. We had about 1,500 young people in our youth group, and you can imagine, but those numbers grew from about 350 over six years to 1,500 when I began to implement the principles I learned from Doug Fields. So what were some of the things that you learned as you're starting off in your pastoral career from youth ministry?

Great question, Andrew. I learned a lot. The first thing I would say is learning is always multi-directional.

It's never one way. You get to learn from the people you lead and you get to learn from the person who leads you. So I'll tell you a very short story here. So one Sunday, I got up and I taught in youth group at the youth church, and I thought the message was sound, delivered with passion, very compelling.

The response was amazing. But at the end of the service, one of the ushers in the youth church tells me, hey, there's a young girl who would like to speak to you. I said, oh, sure, not a problem. So when I was done with the altar ministry, I walked up to this maybe 17-year-old, maybe five foot two young lady and say, so how can I help you? And she goes like, well, pastor, I didn't like something you said during your preaching. I was like, uh-oh. She goes like, you see, when you said, I don't care what you may be going through, when you use that phrase over and over again, pastor, it conveys that you don't actually care, yet you are a shepherd. You're supposed to be caring. What if you used a different phrase? I asked which one?

She goes like, what have you said? I may not know what you're going through, but add what you want to add. Would you believe it, Andrew? That was the last time I ever used that phrase.

I don't care what you are going through. And I learned it from a 17-year-old young girl in youth ministry. So my take home there was that you could learn from young people that you're leading. You could learn from peers, you could learn from mentors, you could learn from children, you could learn from anybody. So learning is multi-directional. But I also learned ministry is relational.

Ministry is relational and never transactional. So I put value more on relationships than transactions. So I knew that I was there to relate to these young people because I didn't have much training. But I realized that relationships was a currency that I leveraged on to influence and to actually build a model youth ministry in Nairobi, relationships. So you know that phrase, I don't care what you're going through, that's probably one we need to learn as parents not to say. So there is application here even in youth ministry to our lives as parents.

And there's some humility in thinking even as a parent, I can learn from the kids that I'm around to help me be a better person, a better communicator. You moved from being a youth pastor and then you became a church planner. You literally started many churches.

How did that happen? It's interesting. For many years, I had been approached by the leadership to consider leading a congregation.

And for some reason, I would always push back and say, I'm not interested. Not now. Let me pray about it.

Let me think it over. Until one time, a mentor of mine, he said, Patrick, you are very passionate about matters youth ministry. But it appears that key decisions regarding youth ministry are made outside your presence. So he said, it might be useful for you to strategically find yourself where decisions are being made. He used a very interesting example. He said, when you are not at the table, you are likely part of the menu. That's a great line.

I know, right? So I was like, okay. So the next time the leadership asked if I could take on a responsibility of being a lead pastor, senior pastor, I said, sure. So I took on this responsibility and led a congregation for four and a half years, grew from 250 people to about 2,500 people by the time I was leaving in four and a half years. Then I took on a new congregation within the same denomination, served there for about 18 months.

Then I was asked to be the head of missions or the director of missions. And that's when I began my church planting journey. And by God's grace, Andrew, it was exciting to see 20 churches planted. These are mega churches across the country, one in the US, one in Southeast Asia, in Istimo, one in Namibia, and one in Europe, in Bucharest, Romania.

That was very fulfilling for me. You know, as we were talking about youth ministry and planting churches, I was just thinking about global youth culture in a lot of places around the world, Africa, US, Europe, South America. Because of technology, big brands, if you will, music, it's becoming really similar all around the world.

And it's creating some interesting challenges now. At Living on the Edge, we talk about reaching the next generation. As you think about this emerging global youth culture, what do you think are some of the greatest challenges and opportunities that we face? Like rightly said, the trends, fashions, tastes, and likes are almost the same across board.

Some of the key social media influences in the West are the same key social influences in the global South. What I found very challenging, and I think is global, is the issue of identity. There are many young people struggling with identity.

That has been a big one. And I've seen in my interactions online, in my interactions here in Africa, and also at my visits to the global West, even in Europe, the question of identity is one that our young people are wrestling with. And they're wondering who would be kind enough, bold and courageous enough to help them resolve questions around their identity. But I also found something very interesting is the desire to see justice done and served by young people is a need that is shared globally. The young people in Africa who are very passionate about seeing matters justice.

In fact, the other day I was interacting with the research from Barnard. And the issue of social action, the issue of advocacy is one that young people globally resonate with. They would love to see justice.

They would love to see the innocent being acquitted and the guilty being held accountable and not vice versa. Yeah, it certainly brings Micah 6-8 into view there with the younger generation. Absolutely. I think it's really encouraging, at least it is to me, for people who've been faithful supporters who've been concerned about Africa for decades. And now Africa really is becoming a spiritual force in Christianity.

And it's starting to lead the way. We're going to talk about that in our next program about why Africa is so strategic. But one of the reasons we're talking about Africa today is we really believe that when we invest in the kingdom in Africa, it has a big impact, not only on that continent, but around the world. As a matter of fact, this month, a small group of donors have come together and said, whatever the radio audience gives – so in your mind, you could perhaps think, gives towards Africa – will match it. Amazing.

So every dollar that is given will be matched by another dollar. So Dave, could you just tell us a little bit more about this month's match? Yes, I'd be glad to do that, Andrew.

But let me quickly say this is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And you've been listening to the first part of our newest conversation, The Gospel and Africa's Expansion. Andrew Acardi was our host, and his guest was Patrick Coccio, the Africa director with our international team. I hope today's discussion opened your eyes to the explosion of the gospel throughout Africa and the opportunity we have to meet the real spiritual needs there. Now, Andrew just mentioned our mid-year match that's going on right now. So Chip's joined me in studio to help all of you better understand the heart of why we do what we do.

Chip? Thanks so much, Dave. You know, at Living on the Edge, we focus on three things – growing disciples like you, equipping leaders, and reaching the next generation. In today's world, I believe with all my heart, the greatest need is discipleship. The world is impacted most when disciples in the church are healthy and active – what I like to call Christians living like Christians.

But here's the problem. As one theologian has said, the church is 10,000 miles wide and one-half inch deep. Many people have made decisions for Christ, but they're not growing as disciples. Part of the solution is equipping pastors. But being a pastor isn't easy. Believe me, I've been there. The work is hard. The hours are long. The spiritual opposition is very real.

They're often discouraged and isolated. In many places in the world, there's tremendous sacrifice – jail, beatings, poverty. By God's grace, we have trained 180,000 pastors face-to-face.

And here's what happens. After you train a pastor, they take what they've learned and they share it with their congregation. Millions of people, Lord willing, will be impacted by that pastor, because each pastor represents hundreds or thousands of people in their churches here and around the world. Our God-sized dream is to train an additional 200,000 pastors.

But we can't do that alone. We need your prayers, and we need your financial support. And there's never been a better or more important time to give to Living on the Edge. Thanks to a small group of friends, every dollar you give between now and July 9th will be doubled dollar for dollar. So would you today stop and pray and think about that pastor and ask the Lord what he would have you give? And thank you in advance for whatever he leads you to do.

Thanks Chip. And if you believe God is calling you to encourage and support pastors with us, now's a great time to become a financial partner. Because from now until July 9th, every gift we receive is being matched dollar for dollar. So to be part of our mid-year match, call us at 888-333-6003 or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap donate. Well, just before we close, would you stop and take a minute and pray for Living on the Edge today? We've never seen a greater need for God's truth to go out than right now. And by God's grace, Living on the Edge has provided encouragement, teaching, and personal discipleship resources to more people than ever. So thank you to those who support us in prayer. God is doing amazing things. We'll listen to next time as we share the remainder of this insightful conversation, The Gospel and Africa's Expansion. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.