The Backbone of the Church

A letter from Nancy Collins serving as Regional Liaison for East Central Africa, based in Zambia

March 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

In January, I had the pleasure of visiting with congregations in my home presbytery in the U.S.A. — the Presbytery of Southern New England. It was wonderful to reconnect with multiple congregations in Rhode Island; with New Haven Korean Church in New Haven, Connecticut; and with the pastors of Valley Presbyterian in Brookfield, Connecticut, and First Presbyterian in Stamford, Connecticut. I have been in mission service now for almost 20 years — 11 of those years were with the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (the social services wing of the Egyptian Presbyterian Church) and I am now in my 8th year as Regional Liaison for East Central Africa. It is heartening that friendships and communication with the Presbytery of Southern New England have continued over all that time.

When I interviewed for the Regional Liaison position in 2009, I learned that the position has a special emphasis on evangelism and church growth. At that time, my focus was much more on social services, so I found the evangelism focus somewhat intimidating. But over these past eight years I have very much come to embrace that emphasis.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Christianity had just begun its introduction to people groups in Africa. The number of Christians throughout Africa was estimated at 8.7 million. One hundred years later, 360 million Africans identified themselves as Christian. Americans often ask me why the church in Africa is growing while the church in the U.S.A. and in the Northern Hemisphere is in general shrinking. My answer is evangelism. The churches I visit in Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda consider evangelism the backbone of the church. They take to heart Christ’s great commission. They evangelize very directly and with great commitment at all levels—from house groups and prayer houses up to the synod level.

Rev. George Jankens

The growth of the churches in Africa, coupled with the poverty of most of the congregants, means the churches struggle to train pastors to meet the needs of congregations. Young, intelligent and passionate George Jankens symbolizes that struggle. I met him as a student at Justo Mwale Theological University College, Lusaka, Zambia, where he was sent for theological training by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Blantyre. When Rev. Jankens graduated in 2013—at age 31—he was assigned to pastor five congregations, each composed of multiple prayer houses located kilometers apart.

Two years later, I received an email from Rev. Jankens that said: “Hi Mum. I hope you are well. I am now pastor in charge of eight congregations—each with a membership of 1,600 congregants.” That means Rev. Jankens pastors 12,800 congregants. He does not have assistant or associate pastors with whom to share his responsibilities. Every pastor in my countries of focus is a solo pastor. Rev. Jankens relies on the elders and deacons of his congregations to preach most Sundays, to visit the sick, and to carry many of the responsibilities American pastors would handle. How many of the elders in your congregation preach once or twice a month? In his Bachelor of Theology dissertation, Rev. Jankens wrote: “In Blantyre every Sunday about 450 congregations do not have a minister present.” As a student, Jankens understood his call in terms of evangelizing people to Jesus Christ. I imagine he finds the amount of time he spends mentoring elders and deacons and addressing administrative tasks a little disappointing.

My continuing 2017 interpretation assignment time has changed. I will be continuing on interpretation assignment August through October 2017. I will be back in the U.S.A. then and will be available for speaking in your congregation. I am eager to preach, share a minute for mission, speak at a potluck dinner, give a Sunday School presentation for any age, join you for a cup of coffee and conversation—there are so many ways I can share the wonders of what God is doing in East Central Africa and in my life. Please email me at nancy.collins@pcusa.org for additional information or to send me an invitation and indicate how you would like me to participate.

Go to https://www.presbyterianmission.org/wp-content/uploads/we-can-help-faqs.pdf for information about hosting a mission co-worker.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve God in this place, at this time. If you have not already made a commitment to this work, please prayerfully consider joining with me in being a part of what our Lord is doing in East Central Africa! I need your prayers and your financial support so that I might continue to be a voice for our international global partners in their ministries of theological education.

In Christ,
Nancy