A Letter from Kabwata

Of the many scandals involving some high profile church leaders in Africa, the one of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome tops the list. His wife is suing him for divorce. Whether he is guilty of the wife’s allegations or not will depend on the court’s findings and ruling.

However, Pastor Chris (as he is more popularly known) has spoken out recently to address these allegations. His speech is on the Internet for anyone to hear what he says in his defense. At the least, he said that the allegations were crazy and stupid.

Pastor Chris' main argument
The main rebuttal he uses is to argue that he is a man of God, and as a man of God he could not have done the kind of things he is being accused of doing by his wife. He said, “No man of God does something against the Lord. Are you hearing me?”

“A man of God is not just someone who worships God or who preaches God. A man of God is directed by God, set on course by God. If you study the Scriptures you will not find one man of God going against God, s…

I want to inform you about a ministry in Africa, which began 2008 and of which I am a part. It is called the African Pastors’ Conferences (APCs) and was begun with the initiative of Erroll Hulse who is currently incapacitated in England due to a stroke he suffered at an APC. The purpose of the APCs is to supplement the work of Bible colleges and seminaries by providing basic doctrinal preaching for local African pastors. At each conference, speakers—which are mainly Zambian pastors—preach God’s Word, modeling for them how to preach biblically and encouraging them in their work.

The advantage of having Reformed African speakers, as opposed to pastors from abroad, is that they uniquely understand the African culture. This enables them to correctly apply the Scriptures in practical, effective terms relevant to their audience. The speakers also provide models showing that biblical preaching is not a product of Western culture, but of Christian culture.

These conferences are held from one…

In a previous blog post, I argued that the modern popular view of the pastor within Charismatic circles is simply another form of the traditional view of the village witchdoctor. It is full-blown African traditional religion that has returned dressed with a thin veneer of Bible verses made to say what the Holy Spirit never intended them to say when he first inspired the biblical writers to pen them.

In this blog post, I am answering the question, “How can we bring down this popular unbiblical view and chase African traditional religion out of the church in Africa. How can we restore true Christianity to the African church?” It seems to me that this will only happen when we restore the New Testament teaching of the priesthood of all believers to the place it once held within Protestantism.

The priesthood of all believers in history
“The priesthood of all believers” is a teaching that was particularly popularised by Martin Luther, the great reformer of the 16th century. Prior to the refo…