Last week Gateway published Moss Nthla’s 30 year old dream beginning to be fulfilled through the recent Kingdom Come South Africa conference held in Gauteng in April. This week I spoke to John Crumpton, co-convenor of the conference.
The son of Derek Crumpton who initiated, organised and convened two of the first multiracial “Come Holy Spirit” conferences in South Africa, in 1977 and 1980, John too has a global view of God’s Kingdom. Through the years he has become aware that a large portion of the church in South Africa and the continent of Africa, is largely focused on the Gospel of salvation, rather than on the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
When John first read this message of the Kingdom of God in Bill Johnson’s books, he immediately identified with the passion to bring “heaven to earth” through releasing God’s influence into every aspect of society. He realised that the revelation of this truth has the power to transform not only individuals, but communities, cities and nations.
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Hungry for more, John first visited Bethel Church in Redding, California in 2008 and during the last decade, he has travelled there numerous times accompanied by interested leaders. He has found unprecedented favour as well as some meaningful friendships in the Bethel community. In 2017 (as related in our earlier story) he invited Moss Nthla, head of the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, to accompany a tour group to Redding, to get a “behind the scenes” view of the life-transforming effect of this message – expressed through individuals, the local congregation as well as into their city.
God gave John a vision to establish a new initiative called Kingdom Come South Africa to expose as many local South African church leaders to the message of the Kingdom of God. It was to embrace as many believers as possible across the board, without the baggage or history that may exclude or threaten any segment of the body of Christ. It would not be connected to any individual church, denomination, cultural or racial group but hopefully include them all!
In 2007, before Bethel Church became as well-known as it is now, a close colleague of John’s had a dream about a rugby match between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions. In the dream Bill Johnson pulls on a Springbok rugby jersey and is introduced as an “impact player”. The Lord spoke clearly to John of the impact Bill Johnson was to make in this nation.
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John saw that Bill was uniquely equipped to address two evident weaknesses in the South African church. Firstly he would speak as a spiritual father to the orphan spirit/fatherlessness of the church and would help us to establish our identity as sons and daughters of the King. Secondly, he would be able to release a revelation of spiritual legacy into the church – the partnering of multi-generational leaders who honour and embrace each other’s anointing and gifts, rather than being threatened by the emerging generation.
Finally Bill accepted John’s request to speak at the first Kingdom Come South Africa in February 2017. At the same time, John invited Moss and Khumo Nthla to be part of the first conference because he felt that Moss is uniquely positioned to be a bridge builder across various communities in South Africa.
And in 2018 John asked Moss to co-convene the conference with him and this time he invited Bill’s son, Eric to accompany Bill and to demonstrate “what honour and legacy between generations looks like.” Despite Bill not being in the building, the culture of father and sons flowing together (Banning Liebscher being another son of the house) was clearly illustrated.
Watch this space for “Kingdom Come South Africa 2019” …! After all, isn’t that our heart cry as a nation?
