Last week, I had the rare opportunity to
participate in a Bible college consultation hosted by the Mukhanyo Bible College in South
Africa (from Tuesday June 20 to Thursday June 22), on the theme of
“Christian Ethics for Bible Education in Africa”. This was their 7th year in
hosting such a consultation. More than 30 Bible colleges from across Africa met
to hear presentations on this subject and discuss how best to apply this to
their own colleges. Here is a synopsis of what took place.
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| Attendance at the Bible college consultation |
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| Dr Brian de Vries |
I then spoke on “Lessons for today from
mistakes of the past”. I was wearing the cap of chancellor for the African
Christian University at this event. I gave 5 mistakes of the past that Bible
colleges ought not to repeat. One of them was the tendency of Bible colleges to
delink themselves from the life of local churches and their pastors. Often the
result of this is that they become too academic and lose touch with the very
people they ought to be serving.
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| "Yours truly" |
On the second day, the first speaker was
Rev Peter Manzanga, the pastor of Hatfield United Baptist Church in Harare,
Zimbabwe, who spoke on “Teaching our students with integrity and propriety”. He
argued for the need for lecturers to be role models to students if we are going
to see graduates who will also be preachers of integrity and propriety in the
world.
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| Rev Peter Manzanga |
The second speaker that day was Prof Dr
P J Flip Buys, who was the founding principal of Mukhanyo Bible College. He
spoke on, “Mentoring future leaders to confront social problems.” He used
statistics to paint a dismal picture of the state of Africa and appealed to
Bible colleges to produce “prophets” who will confront the world’s social
problems by their preaching and by their example.
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| Prof Dr P J Flip Buys |
The third speaker was Prof. Basilius
Kasera, a lecturer at the Namibia Evangelical Theological College in Windhoek,
Namibia. He spoke on “A case study: Teaching against injustice and corruption.”
The case study he gave was that of William Wilberforce and showed how a heart
transformation through the gospel was what turned Wilberforce into a force for
ethical change in society. The lesson was: We must never bypass regeneration in
trying to build world changers.
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| Prof Basilius Kasera |
On the third day, Dr David Beakley, the
dean of academics at Christ Seminary and senior pastor of Christ Baptist Church
in Polokwane, South Africa, was the first speaker. He dealt with the topic,
“Teaching within divergent church contexts”. He said we were to do this through
“ethos, pathos and logos”! As an American pastor in Africa, his illustrations
and appreciation of African culture were refreshingly wise.
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| Dr David Beakley |
I was the second speaker on this last
day and spoke on “Teaching for interaction in the public sphere”. I emphasised
why interacting in the public sphere was vital for the church and for preachers.
Then I went on to show that Bible colleges can only produce graduates who
interact there if they are trained to appreciate the sufficiency of the Bible
for all matters of life and godliness. I also talked about the need for
students to be taught to think critically, coherently, and clearly from the
Scriptures.
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| Rev Isaac Maleke giving morning devotions |
Prof Dr Koos van Rooy was the last
speaker of the entire consultation. He spoke on “How to remain a reforming
influence in Africa”. After painting a dire spiritual situation that currently
pertains in Africa, he went on to encourage us to teach the Reformed Faith (the
doctrines of sovereign grace) from the Scriptures. The truth taught from the
Scriptures will win the day! He spent the rest of the time telling us how to do
so, e.g. ensuring that our students are regenerate. He also gave us course
content that is vital to Bible colleges today. He ended by saying that this
meeting was going to be the last public meeting he would speak at for the rest
of his life. I was told afterwards that he is about 90 years old!
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| Prof Dr Koos van Rooy |
These morning sessions began with a
brief time of devotions and were followed each day with workshops in the
afternoons, which were handled by various speakers (including “yours truly”).
These workshops included reviewing relevant literature on ethics, the
contextualising of ethics, dealing with witchcraft, confronting social evils,
mentoring for biblical ethics, dealing with all forms of conflicts, and the
influence of the Reformation on theological education.
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| Nicholas Moore led the singing |
The late afternoon was also a great time
to listen to short reports from each Bible college present and each report was
followed by a brief time of prayer. The colleges were going through different
situations. Perhaps the most common thread for many had to do with difficulties
in getting accreditation from their government bodies. Clearly, there is need
for some kind of concerted effort if this mountain is to be levelled.
Mukhanyo Bible College and its
management and faculty should be commended for holding such an event for 7
years in a row. It is a good time for networking and fellowship among
like-minded Bible colleges across Africa. It was my first time to attend this
event, but hopefully not my last!
