The Discipleship Crisis in Africa, and How the Africa Study Bible Can Help

Last updated on: January 6, 2022 at 8:30 am by Randy Alcorn

The Discipleship Crisis in Africa, and How the Africa Study Bible Can Help 2021-12-27T11:40:32-08:00 Randy Alcorn

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Our ministry loves the work of Oasis International, which seeks to “empower the voices of the vibrant church in Africa as they disciple believers in Africa and speak to the global church.”

One of their major projects is the Africa Study Bible:

Africa’s Discipleship Crisis

Many pastors in Africa are leading churches with little or no training. They have few resources to help them understand and correctly apply God’s Word.

At the current rate, 42% of the world’s Christians will live in Africa by 2060. A discipleship crisis is growing, and there is a desperate need for affordable, biblical resources written by Africans.

How can there be a discipleship crisis in such a vibrant Church?

Good discipleship is a challenge in any context, but when well-trained leaders are few, and biblical resources are hard to find, too expensive, or not designed for local contexts, that challenge becomes a crisis. Consider the dispaerate differences between:

The Church in North America

Many churches have multiple pastors
87% of Americans own a Bible
80% of pastors have formal training

The Church in Africa

Many pastors serve multiple churches
Over 208 million believers don’t own a Bible
80% of pastors have no formal training

A Christian in North America can have the exact resource they want delivered to their house the next day. A Christian in Africa can spend their entire life without ever having access to a Bible. Oasis International has boldly stepped into this crisis to equip the fastest growing Church in the world with discipleship tools.

How is Oasis responding to the crisis?

Oasis has created three categories of tools to equip the Church in Africa to face this crisis:

Contextual relevant Bibles like the Africa Study Bible

Oasis original books

Apps and online resources

The Africa Study Bible

The Africa Study Bible looks at God’s Word through African eyes. Finally, African pastors and leaders have access to a study Bible that addresses tribalism, polygamy, ancestor worship, elder care, and much more, enabling them to prepare sermons and lessons that speak in understandable ways to the needs around them.

Our ministry was honored to help fund the giving of this Bible to 100 pastors in Nairobi. We received this wonderful note in reply:

Thank you note

If you’d like to support their efforts to get the Africa Study Bible into the hands of African pastors and church leaders, you can donate online.

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