CMU’s Friesen lectures focus on Mennonite church in Africa

Barbara Nkala

Barbara Nkala of Harare, Zimbabwe gave a firsthand account of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Church in Africa in the John and Margaret Friesen Lectures at Canadian Mennonite University, Oct. 6–7. She also addressed the general state of Christianity on the continent.

While Africa has a massive hunger for Christ, “Christianity in Africa is a mile long but an inch deep,” she said. Lack of effective leadership is one of the biggest challenges for the African Christian church. “Churches die because of a lack of effective leadership.”

Nkala is a Brethren in Christ Church leader, director of the International Bible Society of Zimbabwe and Malawi, and contributor to the first volume of A Global Mennonite History.

She also said that the church is best able to address the violence in various African countries by emphasizing forgiveness and reconciliation, and by banding together with other church voices including mainline, Evangelical Fellowship and Roman Catholic groups to speak to governments with one message.

She said that the Mennonite church in the developed world is perceived as one that emphasizes service, while the Mennonite church in Africa concentrates on preaching the gospel message. It is the merging of these strengths that is shaping today’s Mennonite churches in Africa, she said.

Earlier in the week, Nkala also presented at the State of the Art of North American Mennonite History conference (see MBH, Nov. 5) and at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery where she thanked the North American church for choosing Zimbabwe as the site of last year’s Mennonite World Conference.

—CMU news release