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PEOPLE PROFILE
MBBS makes first international appointment

Nzash Lumeya

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary has made its first international faculty appointment. Nzash Lumeya has been appointed as associate professor of world mission, effective June 1, 2000.

Lumeya is currently dean at University Missiological Center in Kinshasa, Congo, a position he has held since 1990; a visiting professor at the Alliance Seminary in Abidjah, Ivory Coast; vice-president of the African Theological Initiative; and coordinator of the Francophone African Theological Fellowship.

MBBS and MBMS International have jointly appointed Lumeya to teach in the area of missions and Old Testament, as well as providing global mission leadership for the MB church.

“A number of us know you well and remember you from your time with us in Fresno and subsequent meetings at conventions,” MBBS President Henry Schmidt wrote. “We have learned to appreciate and respect you as a leader not only in Congo, but in the global Mennonite Brethren and larger evangelical church.”

Lumeya has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., a diploma from MBBS and a Th.M. in theology from Vaux-Sur-Seine in France.

Previously, he taught at Protestant University of Congo, served as senior pastor of Missionary MB Church of Kitambo, and taught at Bangui Evangelical School of Theology in the Central African Republic.

The Congolese, including 70,000 MBs, have seen a great deal of change and turmoil in recent years in the revolution and transition of power from Mobutu to Kabila. Yet Lumeya reports: “Spiritually there is a revival going on in Kinshasa. A prayer movement is going on [there]. Unbelievable and very exciting to see people confessing personal and national sin to Christ for forgiveness.”

“Lumeya wrote to Schmidt concerning the appointment, “I feel that the Lord is guiding us all the way. We’re in the Kingdom business. By His grace, our experience with MBBS and MBMSI will enable us to see a larger picture of the MB global family . . . I’m aware of the great responsibility that comes with this opportunity.”

One concern expressed by Schmidt is MBBS’s and MBMSI’s desire that North American schools not deplete leadership resources in the two-thirds world in an attempt to train global leaders.

“I am satisfied with your response that you have trained competent Congolese leaders to carry on the leadership training program in your home country,” Schmidt told Lumeya. “The challenge of reshaping global, missional, leadership training among God’s people in the new millennium has never been greater or more strategic.”

Nzash, 49, and his wife Christine have three daughters, 16, 14 and 5 years of age.  – Kent H. Gaston, MB Biblical Seminary

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Last modified October 13, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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