If you’re familiar with global missions, you may have heard the term “church plants.” This term refers to the process of beginning a new church in an area without a church at all or in need of another church. While this happens in the US, it’s the foundation of many international missions—including ours.
But what does church planting in Africa look like? How do you ensure the success of a church halfway across the world? Okoa Refuge is passionate about the church of Africa, and today, we’ll show you our process of planting new churches in African communities.
The Christian population in Africa is growing at a rapid pace. In fact, in less than 20 years, the number of Africans who followed Christianity grew from 36% to over 50%, making them the majority religion on the continent. While this is fantastic news and a testament to God’s power, these new Christians need a place to foster their faith, and many in Africa still have not heard the good news of the gospel.
Furthermore, there is a rapidly growing Muslim population in Africa, causing increased persecution of Christians and converting more and more people to Islam. Through church plants and Christian ministries in Africa, we can share the Word of God to reach the hearts of its people, push back against the rising tide of Islam in Africa, and help bring more souls to Christ!
At Okoa Refuge, we have a defined process for church planting in order to ensure we’re building healthy, sustainable churches. Here are the five steps in our process.
We believe all churches need a biblical foundation on which to grow. That’s why we start our church planting process with a Bible School. Our Bible Schools teach all members of the community who want to know more about the Bible, but it’s also designed to build up local pastors and native missionaries.
Those who want to are able to earn a 2-year certificate or degree in Biblical Studies through our Bible Schools. Once they complete this program, we send these new pastors and missionaries out to their local communities to start churches. It may even be in the very village where the Bible School is located! We want to raise up leaders from the community itself to help foster independence, confidence, and sustainability. A pastor’s success is more likely if they are already familiar with the area they serve.
Wherever we have a Bible School set up or in communities near the area, we have the local students and teachers start Bible studies with residents in the area. Our first goal is to find what we call a “person of peace” to host the Bible study. They don’t need to be a believer themselves, but they should be open and receptive to the idea of using their land or property to host a Bible study.
Upon discovering a person of peace, we fill their home with prayer and worship, seeking God’s blessing for growth in grace and truth among the group who meets there. Then we hold a Bible study, ideally every week! The Word is read, worship is held, and prayer is done in groups of two to three for a more intimate experience. Some people who come to these groups are not saved, but we disciple them regardless and pray God will soften their hearts to His Word. The lessons are usually on short passages of scripture so everyone can take time to digest the verse and meditate on it throughout the week.
With a group of believers established within a community, we’ll monitor its growth and attendance over the course of months or even years. If there have been at least 20 adults meeting at a spot for a year or more, it’s a successful church plant! At this time, the group is eligible to receive our support services, such as a building and Bibles, as they get started in an official capacity.
There are several things we do to support a church in its early days:
In all that we do, we aim to create self-sustaining churches. While we provide our support at first, our programs are built so that they can continue to thrive and grow without our help in just a few years.
With the church established, our ultimate goal is that it will reach the community around it and send out missionaries throughout East Africa. We make sure our church plants are prepared to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of the village they are in. We’ve seen communities transformed by the presence of a church—we pray that God will continue to grow His church in East Africa through our faithfulness and work!
Our process has allowed us to already plant over 800 churches in East Africa. We expect to see many more church plantings in the years ahead with your help! A church plant in Uganda only costs $3,500—that price includes a building, education for the pastor, Bibles for the congregation, and all logistics of the building. If you are passionate about growing the church all over the world, you can give directly to this cause and help establish a new church in Africa. We also hope that you’ll pray over these new churches and their continued growth!