A key CMS missionary involved in theological education abroad has urged more people to consider training ministries in Africa.
“There’s a huge need in Africa for theological education,” says Dr Nathan Lovell, who lectures in Old Testament, Hebrew and Mission and Culture at George Whitefield College in South Africa. “The church has been growing at an enormous rate and the question is always ‘Who will pastor the new churches that are cropping up all over the place?’ I think Sydney is comparatively well resourced and educated, and so we are in a good position to partner with our brothers and sisters to develop the church.”
Dr Lovell speaks from experience, having put aside his qualifications in robotics and artificial intelligence to work in Cape Town as a missionary with CMS. His work at GWC puts him in a unique position. “We have students from all over Africa and so you get a feel for what is going on across the continent,” he says. “I think of the churches in the Zulu communities, or some of the township churches. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses but the thing they have in common is many more people than they can
actively minister to. So the need isn’t for people to go across and be ministers of churches, the need is for people to go across and train people to be ministers or, even better, to train people to work in theological education themselves.”
Dr Lovell’s call is not just aimed at the super-academic. “For this kind of ministry you obviously need a desire to teach but you don’t always need to be working at the highest academic levels,” he says. “There are colleges all over the continent serving God’s people in the way that is most appropriate for their context. I have many friends teaching at post-graduate level but others who teach agriculture alongside Biblical Theology.
“It’s all about what the local church needs. So if you have a desire to teach the Bible and train people for ministry, then probably there’s a college somewhere in Africa that will be working at a level where you will fit right in. And they’d probably love you to come and join them.”
Dr Lovell’s students know first hand the life-changing benefits of theological education.
“A lot of our students come from Zimbabwe,” he says. “One of the things that draws them is the difference they see in their communities between people who are Christian and those who are not. So if you ask, ‘Why did you decide to come to college?’ I’d expect them to say, ‘God was calling me to ministry’ or something like that. Instead they say, ‘My family became Christian... our whole lives changed and everything we did changed. But we didn’t always know what that meant, so I felt the need to train more people’. It’s hard to find a better reason than that.”
Photo: Dr Nathan Lovell teaching in Mozambique.
