Missionary Update

I have a wonderful interesting video that you would all love but it doesn't look like it's gonna work right now. This is where we live in South Africa. No that's not true. This it's just I like the pictures so I put it on the thing but is it are we on or but I just second a little it's going but I don't think the yeah see it's not.

I got volume here that's all right and we got volume here. See we're playing all right. Well while they work on that what I want to do this morning is just going to talk about Africa and I'll leave some time at the end for questions although Mike did a great job.

One thing you guys know Chris Williams. Right. And he was just here not too long ago I think. Wasn't he. No yes oh but he's in India because I think Mike has he been to India. I know he's been to Russia hasn't he.

Background on the Ministry and the Move to South Africa

Well I'll give you a just a little bit of background on the ministry what we do who were involved with and I'll tell you I've got some cool missionary stories which you'll like when when God saved me when I was 21 it was missions month at our church and I always loved the mission stories I got there and I listen these guys and their stories from all over the world and I thought that's the coolest thing but I never wanted to be a missionary so that's a big story how we got there ourselves but like Mike was saying we've known each other since seminary and I was a pastor down in Newtown Connecticut for nine years and God took us to South Africa.

It was about a four or five year process. I actually told him no a couple times because I was a pastor and that's what I was doing and I was here in New England and I thought God was gonna keep us here for the next 40 years or however long but he up and moved us to South Africa where I'm part of an it's an awesome ministry and I gotta say we've been well we've been in the States now since the end of last year and we were at some missionary meetings in Los Angeles and I've talked to a lot of churches been to a lot of places visited a lot of people and ministry is tough it is it's good but it's also tough and some missionaries are not having the best time of it out there and I can understand that it's difficult going cross-culturally.

It's difficult being taken away from friends and family and being plopped in a new place where they do everything different they think differently they speak differently. Africa is not America not even close and but I gotta say things are going really really well and I almost kind of feel guilty sometimes because people say oh you know it's tough there in Africa isn't it.

And it's hard and you know the ministry and you know you're out there sort of slogging away and you guys I get like immediate gratification. You know in the pastorate Mike has been here now I think 10 years right or thereabouts and he's I know he's been faithful and it's been great and it's been not so great sometimes.

Same thing with me down in Connecticut and it takes you know the old saying it takes all year to grow an apple. You know you don't always see fruit immediately from your ministry and there's good fruit now coming from Mike's you know decade-long ministry here and but where I'm at what I'm doing it's it's like I get to minister I get to teach and then immediate results it's like this.

I am a seminary professor. That's what I do. I have been the theology guy I was teaching theology for the last four years but now we're switching because we're changing some things in our school structurally changing a few things.

I'm going to be taking over the New Testament department when I get back in January which is sort of my preference anyway is this I'm getting. Is this are we up. Oh okay. Oh okay. Yeah I'm on a roll. Thank you.

No um but I've got it. I've got a little three-minute video which is just basic introduction like if you've never heard of me or you've never heard of Africa or you've never heard of our school or anything we do.

That's what kind of video this is now just so you all know you've heard about TMAI. Yes. No are those those initials sound familiar. Our school down in South Africa is part of an association of I think about 16 or 18 at least 16 maybe 18 now.

I don't do you know the number Karen schools around the world the one in India where Chris Williams is that is a TMAI school and it's like a church association. It's not a denomination where there's one central organization controlling everybody.

We're all independent owned and operated in our own culture but we associate with one another. Most of the instructors are from Master Seminary and so we mutually support each other. So that's our school is a part of that and so this video I'm going to show you is just a basic introduction to the school to us and then I'll I'll talk some more when it's done.

So we're going to give it a shot.

Here. Okay. So there you go. You got a little bit idea. That's that's an.

Introduction to us and our ministry. Now I want to tell you just about what we do and why we do it like pastor Mike was talking about we're there and we train indigenous pastors. In fact our target demographic if you want to call it that are the pastors from the rural villages and towns because that's about 95 of the churches in Africa and it's about 95 of the believers but these guys don't have access to education and they don't have any funds even if they could get access to education.

And these guys are gonna be pastors no matter what whether they get educated or not. Now the church in South Africa is Pentecostal charismatic and that's because of the culture. The culture is a very experience spiritually oriented culture.

If anything happens it's because the witch doctor the Sangoma you know you know sacrifice the chicken or did something you know rolled the bones or you know you know did whatever and made it so that you know if you got a job then he influenced the guy who's hiring you or you pleased the ancestors and so then they made it that you know while you were walking down the road and that car barely missed you you know that they made sure the car swerved.

The reason anything happens in the African culture is because of some spiritual metaphysical reason. And so when they see TBN and Benny Hinn like they do over there they look at that and that is right where they live that's that's the way life works.

They're used to seeing all that kind of stuff from the Sangoma so they show up at our school just right there. I mean they we've had guys show up with posters of Benny Hinn you know and saying you know you know you all you instructors are going to get the spirit will be speaking in tongues by the end of the first semester you know they they try and convert us but that's the culture that we're dealing with.

So what happens is these guys you know somebody prayed over them one time or you know they had a dream or a vision you know where you know the Holy Spirit spoke to them and poof you know Matt by magic all of a sudden you're the pastor so they've gone out and they've taken some little church or they've started some little church and since they're called they're convinced that's what they're gonna do and they're gonna do that whether they get educated or not and no one is really targeting these guys.

Now over there in Africa there's it seems like every organization has got some sort of training ministry or whatever going on out there. But we give these guys the education for free. We charge them a little administration fee about $125 a year and the reason we do that is not because we need the money is because before we did that their attitudes and the grades were kind of low.

But as you know as soon as you got to pay for something then you value it. So as soon as we started charging an administrative fee their grades and their attitudes went way up. But even then we give them the books for free we give them the education for free.

The way we do it is we don't take them out of their ministry. We have the first and the third year since you saw it's a four-year degree and and by the way when we made this last last year we had 70 full-time students.

This year we have 85. We're set up for a hundred and two. So every year we accept between 25 and 30 guys and just through natural attrition guys dropping out or you know can't continue on for whatever reason.

We usually hover around 80 students you know plus or minus so but this year we've got 85 full-time students anyway. So we have the first and the third year students come in for 10 days a month and we classes start at 630 in the morning till 130 in the afternoon and then they do homework and then they're there with us over a weekend and so they go to our church and they get to see you know expository preaching in action.

Then they go back a few days later. The second and the fourth year students come in for 10 days a month and go we go through the same thing. So the way we structure it is they're in class there at school for 10 days a month then back out at their churches in their ministries for 20 days a month because we've also found that if you take these guys away from their ministry like if it was a regular four-year school where they stayed with us they don't go back to the village because in Africa if you get an education you get a degree then you move to the cities where you can get a good job.

So we want to leave these guys in their villages and so far it's been very successful at that. These guys are not leaving their churches because they're maintaining their ministry there. So that's how we work it now.

Like I said I I teach I have been the theology guy. We're changing our structure a little bit because Lord willing in about four or five years with some logistical things we'll be adding a master's degree if you saw we're a four-year.

It's a bachelor's degree but it's a seminary degree. It's not a liberal arts degree. It's just it's seminary education and so in order to add the master's degree we all have to specialize in so I'm going to specialize when I get back in the New Testament the theology when I first got there well gosh it's almost it's almost five years now.

It's been five years since we've been here. I took the theology classes sort of got some continuity and some shape to them sort of you know tighten it up a little bit and we handed it over to like a little bit like what Mike was talking about one of our graduates really sharp guy graduated about six or eight years ago and he's a black gentleman Charlie Rampha Medzi from Venda a local tribe there and in the black church in Africa there's a perception where it's okay we know that that's what you white folks believe in your white churches but this is what we believe in our black churches and there's that sort of wall there.

So when you've got a black man a local South African black man teaching the theology the good theology that wall is just gone it doesn't exist and he can stamp there and he says hey look this is not a black white thing this is a biblical thing.

So Charlie's taking over the the theology classes I'm doing the New Testament and just a little bit about life like I told you it's it's really good. I mean you guys I get paid to teach the Bible and preach just all the time.

That's what I do. You know we're like I said school starts at 630 morning to 130 in the afternoon just teaching the Word of God. I'm also a pastor at our local church. Our church is about 375 people plus or minus.

We're fully integrated about 5050 black white and I mean we've got black pastors black elders black deacons black seminary professors all through the whole structure of the church. I preach most of the Sunday nights back home so I'm very used to the situation exactly what it is.

And also that's just at the church I counted up. I preached about 70 times last year so you know I'm teaching all the time for my job just during the week I preach a lot and then we have like our own shepherds conferences.

We've got two major conferences a year where they're three days each one shepherds conference ones our graduation conference. We also have monthly pastors meetings where we bring in the pastors from the area and we feed them lunch and then have like three or four seminar kinds of things.

I mean I am literally sometimes quite literally preaching and teaching seven days a week. I mean and it's they just show up you know and they listen and it's and I gotta tell you I get to the immediate gratification just before I was leaving.

There's this one area where we've got about six or eight graduates and you know the black church it's very you know they still do tent revivals and they do all that kind of stuff that's that's the way they do it.

So the six or eight graduates in these one this group of three villages we're having a conference in the theme of the conference was lift Jesus higher and so they invite all the different churches and all the different pastors and everybody from the whole area and for all week our our graduates they're just divided up my Christology notes and just taught it all week long to about 600 people.

I mean that's I get that I get in ministry you don't get that. I mean it's like a church you know you you and I'm not trying to make it sound bad and I want to say Pastor Mike has had nothing but great things to say about you guys.

I'm not talking about you guys in the church but I can tell you I've been a pastor for nine years and and that kind of time getting people in trouble but I mean you know it's ministry is a marathon it's a long haul but we get to teach guys you know for you know ten days a month they turn around and immediately the other three Sundays of and 20 days of the month they start teaching and putting into practice what they get in school and then they have these big conferences where they just take your notes and just divided up amongst like you know about 10 or 15 sermon times during the week and teach it to like 600 people.

I mean that's so and and that's why I'm there not planning a church because I'll always be the white guy from America even if I'm there for 50 years and that's just the way it is. But our students there like I said they're already the pastors or the church leaders or the associate pastors of these churches they are the culture they are in the culture.

What I tell people all the time is we give them what they don't have. They have the Word of God they have the Holy Spirit what they don't have and they just don't have access to unless it's a ministry like ours where we give it to him for free is education.

Now I say that people think well gee you know gosh if they got the Word of God and you know they already got the Bible then kind of what do you really need to be there. You know they've been evangelized.

Right. Like this little church history lesson can ask a question like Pastor Mike cannot answer like this and well okay now I haven't been here for a long time so I'm gonna say I assume that the teaching here is that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.

Right. Is that safe to say that's okay. He's been out of seminary for a while so I don't know if you know it's right. So okay. Good I'm glad now how long now think about this how long did it take the church in the West to clarify that statement that biblical truth.

Does anybody know Council of Chalcedon which was about 451 AD. You guys think about this 400 years after the death of Christ. Now that had always been believed that is the biblical truth you know by believers all.

Right. But it took the church in the West 400 years to clearly formulate that and make the Orthodox biblical statement and think about what the subject is the nature of Jesus himself. Okay 400 years now here's another one.

Okay I'm also going to assume I hope you know you know the teaching here is that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Does that sound somewhat familiar. I hope. Okay all right now again how long did it take the church in the West to formulate clearly that that biblical truth.

It's called the Reformation 1500 years after the death of Christ. Now like I said that had always been believed by true believers but you know to get it formulated and the clear statement that this is the biblical teaching and think about what the subject is salvation itself.

Okay so I tell people the reason I'm in Africa. Yeah we get to immediately strengthen these churches they start teaching good biblical truth. But you know what why should the church in Africa or like Chris Williams over in India or any of these other schools around the world.

Why does the church in the rest of the world. Or why should the church in the rest of the world have to stumble along in error and false teaching for 400 800 1500 years like we did in the West. So that's also a big part of why I'm there hopefully you know Lord willing we can just sort of jump through you know you know jumpstart the church so it doesn't have to go through all that kind of.

And because like I said the church there it is charismatic it is Pentecostal Benny Hinn is the man they and what they do is they see that on TV which that is there and I am not kidding your students come in they think that is church in America everybody is like that because that's what they see.

They have no idea no idea what it's really like. So so that's that's kind of the ministry in a nutshell. Now if you have some questions good I'll save them to the end. Okay because I want to talk about something so I mean that's what I do that's the ministry.

A Missionary Story About Spiritual Warfare and Matthew 18

I got some really good stories some cool stories I'll tell you one right now I do this every year this is in fact I have a very calculated very very scripted out thing I do in one of my classes because I teach the theology classes so I teach the angel Satan demons you know spirit world all right.

And so the students they can't wait to get to that class because they think I'm going to teach them how to you know cast out demons and you know whatever all that kind of you know spiritual warfare and all this kind of stuff so so and I do this every year and I go back and forth whether I should or shouldn't because our student every year there's some students that seriously get freaked out about this.

So so this is here we go this is a cool missionary story all right. So I'm standing up there in class and you saw me up in class and yes I hope you're not offended but I do teach in a polo shirt okay without a tie I mean this is Africa all right.

I asked the coolies I said do I have to wear a tie tomorrow and oh yeah oh yeah you better wear a tie so you know so yes I'm here that's you know I can eat meat sacrifice to idols or not it doesn't matter.

So now I lost my groove. Okay yeah another story all right all right. So I'm up there I'm in class and we get to this and and you know we get to you know whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven and you know Matthew 18 there and so I'm there in class and I go okay now you guys now listen you know where I'm from you know we don't bind Satan.

And they go yeah pastor Steve we know and I said but now come on and this is this is at the beginning of their second year so they know us you know they know us pretty well and I say now but I know now come on you guys tell me how many of you last Sunday at your church were binding Satan.

You know it's okay you can tell me you know and so like you know everybody raises their hand. I said no listen it's alright. I understand I understand listen I understand your motivation nobody wants Satan loose wreaking havoc amongst the people in their church you know sowing disunity and discord and confusion.

Oh I said believe me I'm with you and you want to protect people because listen it's true you know Satan does prowl around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour all this stuff. Listen I am with you.

I understand and you know but you know you know where we're from you know we don't do that I mean you understand that and they go yeah yeah. And then then I said well you know listen I mean you think about it.

I mean not only do you not want Satan wreaking havoc in your church but I mean think about it here at school I mean you think about here we go we got like you know 80 90 guys and we're we're teaching you know the truth and we're we're you know teaching guys how to minister and and I mean and you guys are the church leaders you think I mean if there's one place also where you certainly don't want Satan involved and getting error in there and and causing all kinds of problems and you know you don't want Satan steering the leaders of the church wrong.

I mean then the whole church goes you know in the wrong direction right. Yeah so I say you know I mean have you any of you guys ever like bound Satan here at church I mean here at here at school and they go well no no I haven't.

So then I go you guys listen if this ever gets out I'm gonna lose my job. I say you guys close the curtains close the door and they're like the other thing like we got one I say now if this gets back to America I'm gonna lose all my support.

Okay I better pull up out of this by the end of Sunday school right. I said I'm gonna lose I don't you dare say a word to the other instructors don't you dare. So they're excited so I say now now help me here okay help me understand this and so we go to Matthew 18 and they pull all these verses out of thin air you know greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

They put all this stuff together say see it's an authority thing and you know and he's our conquered foe and you know we can you know he's under our heel and blah blah blah blah all this kind of stuff and you know they explain all stuff and I say so you know we look at it in Greek I say wow you know whatever you bind whatever you loose and I said man you know the secret Greek meaning to the term whatever is whatever you know so wow I guess you know look at that yeah and so you know they're showing me and so it's like okay now let me get this straight so it's whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven meaning like you know God's done it himself like yeah yeah it's like so also like whatever I loose you know and it's yeah it's a parallel construction you know all this kind of stuff I go well okay and I mean I mean I take like all class period to build this up I mean and it's like they're they're at the edge of their seat and so I say now help me out how do I do this what do I say is there a right way to do it a wrong way to do it all this kind of stuff and and I say now not only on Satan but does this work on like like the demons and they go yeah you know and so they tell me about all the kinds of demons and all this stuff and there's the tokelos which are the little household demons they're about a foot high that's why African beds are up on stilts so at nighttime when they run around they can't grab you so these little household demons that they got and territorial demons and all this kind of stuff so I say okay now you know whatever you bind on earth shall be bound on heaven whatever you loose on earth shall be loose now yeah all right man here we go and I mean in there and by this time most of them are like standing up you know they're so I get up there and I go I go Satan and any any of you territorial demons and you took a lotion any other evil spirit within the sound of my voice and then like this I go I now loose you on these men in this room right now and it's it is just you know that dead silence for a second and then as I mean in this I am not kidding you it is a serious freakout and then you know they're like huh.

And then I start naming names you know timber you know yes here and then I tell him and tonight they will be sleeping in the hostel right next door you know and you are free to work your evil there and attack them at will and all this kind of stuff and they're just you know you can't do that.

I said no. Wait a minute wait a minute we looked and it said whatever you bind and whatever you loose you told me that like no yeah. And then there's always some guy over here you know that's always like no no Satan I bind you.

I said no I lose them you know. So we go back and forth you know bind loose bind loose bind loose. You know yeah. And I did this one year and there was a guy in the front row it was I mean he's a black guy but if he could have gone white he would have he would have gone white.

He was seriously freaked. I mean he was shaking all this. I said okay go ahead and bind him. I won't lose him. Go ahead it's that's all right. You know so and so I mean I've had students go have you gone apostate.

You know I mean it just and I say now wait a minute now because listen remember like we talked about there is a spiritual reason for everything in their culture and their culture is an experiential culture.

All right. They they understand abstractly and they process abstractly. That's not the problem. They're plenty smart they get it. Okay they figure it out but in their culture it's not it's not really incorporated until there's an experience associated with it.

Okay now this is why in black churches in Africa probably like churches here in the States like you've seen you know the guy gets up there and he says today we're gonna talk about our great God and they say somebody says amen thank you let me hear amen.

And I know I don't mean a great God I mean our God is the the almighty most powerful God. Amen. Okay yeah all right. So you know how it goes and you know they do that they say the same thing and they repeat it about 10 or 15 times all right.

You know. Well I'm sitting here saying okay I got it the first time I understood you know and they got it the first time too but it's the experience part of it that is their culture. Okay so so I'm trying to bring them an experience and man this is an experience for them.

So you know they're they're freaked out and I say you know what. Let me tell you guys something and they've been there you know they've been remember this is beginning of their second year and I say you know what.

You guys the fourth-year students so these are second-year students so the fourth-year students are there. I said the fourth-year students went through the same thing two years ago and I said guess what.

I've been loosing Satan probably three or four times a month around school here since I got here now let me ask you something see because you have to tie it to an experience. I say you guys by your own admission you're binding Satan and demons all the time in the village but there's nothing but demonic activity going on out there right.

And they go yeah and I say I've been loosing Satan and demons here at school all the time let me ask you something is there more demonic activity going on here at school or in your village and they go well there's no demonic activity here at school and I go you're right.

So maybe that verse doesn't mean what you think it means. See what I did is is I took their experience and I took this theological issue and I tied it to their experience and I work it. So that's the end of the class and I say okay so tomorrow we'll look at that passage and see what it really means because at this point they're still too freaked out and I tell me okay when you walk out that door the fourth-year students know what today is and they'll be right out there and because I know you're gonna be up all night talking to them you know and what's going on.

So I mean that's just the kind I mean that's as exciting I guess as it gets you know I'm a seminary professor in the classroom and you know so you got to do these kind of things to it helps you to connect and it helps them to to understand that you know you're not just attacking them or their beliefs or the things they do but you have to expose them and show them what the Bible teaches on these things you know and anybody you know it doesn't take any doesn't take any brains to just get up there and just lecture somebody and say you know you've been taught therefore you've been sanctified or whatever.

I mean that it doesn't work that way. You've got to have the relationship and they've got to trust you and they've got to see see that you care about them. So that's one of the things that we do and I'll tell you by the end of the fourth year you know we usually have about 22 graduates each year plus or minus you know in that neighborhood by the end of the fourth year this is sort of the percentage probably about two-thirds of the students have just like bought into everything that we're trying to teach them you know they realize they have been in his you know that's that's not it you know and the whole name it and claim it group that's not it.

You know they they understand now and they see now that you know they they they see when they hear those guys preach and they hear the other pastors in their area preach they're just pulling their hair out.

I can't believe you know they were so unbiblical just a few years ago and so you know methodologically theologically probably about two-thirds of you know are there with us. You probably got about another you know twenty percent or so that are okay.

Benny Haney's not a good guy that's I got that but maybe some of this stuff is maybe not quite so bad so you know they've they've bought in theologically but maybe methodologically on a few things there they're still and you know that's that's just where they're at but you always got about maybe one or two that are just like holding on you know like I've just dug in their heels and just you know I'm not gonna go with it so actually that's not a bad percentage.

Teaching Students to Reject Magic and Trust the Gospel

There's another thing we do I went on and in just a minute but I I do in the first year is probably about the second or third week after they get there I got this little like magic trick I do because they they believe in magic 100

And another one of our professors also from America also he's got this card trick which is a really great even I haven't figured out this card trick yet it's a great card. I'm like show me that thing he won't show me but he does this card trick and freaks the students oh you know and I got this little trick that I do and you know it helps to build the relationship especially early on and I sort of play it up you know like yeah I got the secret power kind of thing but I really don't and you know I kid him but there's always again at the end of the fourth year there's maybe one that's holding out you know there really is some sort of magic here and so I tell these guys you know your last week your fourth year I'll show you the magic trick and so like some of them are holding on you know to for the secret magic whatever and so I show them and it's just a trick and I it's just a trick.

Yeah it's just a trick it's no there's nothing to it there's nothing to it. It's and you know there's no trick you know for being a pastor no trick for studying for a sermon no secret magical nothing.

Because they do that remember that's their culture. I mean they're they literally you know are sitting on the front row and you know knowing God's gonna zap them with a message as they walk up to preach.

So that's how we get them and but they they don't leave that way all right. So that's that's in a nutshell what I do. Any questions any questions. Anybody have anything. Yes yeah good question good question.

Language, Accreditation, and the Range of Students

We do in fact we teach in English in South Africa everybody speaks English. It's their second or third language and in most of Africa people speak English. And in fact when you go there and you talk to people they find out you're American.

They want to speak English because English is the international language of business and commerce and education and so they want to sharpen their skills. And in Africa in South Africa just the nation of South Africa there's 11 official languages so even if we spoke like SUTU which would be the main language in our area I mean the vast majority of our students are not SUTU so they don't speak it.

In fact in the hostel our students all speak English to one another because they all understand it although we do once in a while have students and in fact the group that you guys sent over was it two years ago right.

Was it two years ago they went over to Mozambique. We've got two of our students from those churches that they visited in Mozambique to our students they came over Mozambique excuse me Mozambique was a Portuguese colony so they speak Shan gone which is their native language plus Portuguese.

They showed up not speaking a word of English other than you know. Hello. And we've had guys from the Congo where they spoke French because it was a French colony and a few other countries around Africa.

And what we do see remember they don't pay for the education. So we just throw them right into class knowing they can't understand a word we say and we give them the books knowing they can't read a word of it.

But by three or four months in class they understand us they can hear us. They can't really speak it yet by the end of their first year they can read English they can write English and they can converse in English.

And we just tell them you're just gonna do the first year over again. So we just throw them because they're not paying for it and they don't mind. So that's just how we do it because we're not going to turn them away.

We're not going to say go someplace else learn English first then come here. You know what we'll still give you the books will feed you will house you the other students will help you will throw you right in the classroom.