Malawi (MNN) ― A decade changes a lot in ministry, especially in one developing nation known as "The Warm Heart of Africa."
The innate friendliness of the people was a perfect fit for outreach says Sam Vinton with Grace Ministries International. "We began going into villages and holding crusades. In the process of coming to the Lord, we also would find Christian people who are maybe schoolteachers, and then we began discipling."
Training involves module programs for the leadership of the churches. Through this method, preaching points eventually became church plants. "Our missionary in Malawi, Kennedy Simtowe, took them out doing evangelism. He taught them in the morning, and in the afternoon, he takes them out, witnessing."
Vinton says these new church ministries are becoming more independent. "They have chosen now what we would call the first church full board. They represent these churches then. We continue to train men--we do not have a Bible school in that country yet, but these are men who are being trained through literature and special seminars."
The most recent leadership conference was last September. 58 elders/pastors, 10 other church leaders, and five wives attended. Their numbers marked 70 churches in Malawi that are being led by elders who are being trained through these seminars.
Vinton says they're geared to teach these leaders how to assume pastoral responsibilities of church plants. A national council of the Grace Churches in Malawi was chosen and the commitment of the new leaders is to have 120 churches by the end of 2010.
