Hundreds of churches in seven Southern African nations will participate in a live simulcast event in September at the launch of a campaign that aims to equip hundreds of thousands of men and women to disciple new leaders.
The ambitious Teach Every Nation (TEN) campaign is the dream of US-based author and veteran Bible teacher Dr Bruce Wilkinson who says: “I can think of a no more fulfilling pursuit than to respond to the need created by the wave of new churches being planted in the Global South.”
500 host churches already
Five hundred churches in the launch countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have already applied to host the Bible training simulcast from September 11 to 13, says Martin Deacon, Global Partnership Director TEN.
The church in Africa is exploding and needs hundreds of thousands of trained men and women to disciple new believers, says Deacon. He says God’s provision of technology to train large groups of people simultaneously provides an opportunity to realise the vision of Wilkinson, who has been ministering in Southern Africa since 2006.
“Bible teaching will make a deep personal difference that will impact people and communities and this brings great enthusiasm to all those involved,” he says.
He says that through its partner, Judea Harvest, TEN is “literally going town to town and region by region meeting with pastors – many without formal training who are saying YES to the opportunity not only to get personally trained but to use their church to open a TEN campus for the community”.
“We hope, work and pray for 1 000 sites and ask all potential churches and students to go to www.teacheverynation.org for more info on how to connect. And I ask all readers to bless TEN by praying for this initiative right now to become a movement of God to bless the nations starting in Southern Africa.”
Other partners in the initiative are Turn the Tide which is providing Christian education resources, and the South African Theological Seminary (SATS) which will award appropriate course credits to new degree students who have completed TEN courses.
Looking ahead, TEN‘s strategy is a combination of biannual satellite broadcasts to hundreds of church campuses, followed by thousands of cohort and group training sessions, weeklong person-to-person on-campus training events, and continuous online education courses.
