Church Planting in the Townships

Church planting in the townships is one of the main things at the heart of Township Reformation. We believe that the church is a mission station and a sounding board for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since most of us are from the townships, we long to see the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed to our brothers according to the flesh. We have been severely grieved to see the church being infiltrated by false teachers and charlatans.  Considering the fact that a majority of South Africans live in the townships, it should be a great concern that townships have few biblically sound churches.

This workshop seeks to bring all those concerned about the state of our townships with regards to the advancement of the gospel through the planting of healthy churches. Churches that would be centered on the uncompromised gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There have been signs of an awakening among young people, albeit on a small scale, to the true teachings of Scripture about God’s sovereignty in all things including salvation. God has been pleased to use all sorts of means, including internet sermons of men like Conrad Mbewe, Paul Washer, Al Martin and John Mac Arthur to name a few, to bring this awakening about.

What has been an issue though is that these young people struggle to find churches that teach biblical truths in their townships. Many have to travel long distances to suburban churches to find faithful preaching.  It is at the heart of Township Reformation to see this issue being attended to. Our deepest prayer is that God would raise a generation of young men that would dedicate their lives to seeing healthy churches being planted in the townships, to seeing like-minded churches in affluent areas rise to the occasion and support township church planters and also plant there themselves.

This workshop will be focusing on the present state of our townships. It aims to look at the biblical imperatives of church planting, as well as at the challenges faced by those who have led the way of planting in the township. We will also hear the view of suburban churches on what are the challenges they face as they long and seek to go across and plant in townships.

If this resonates with you in any way, you are welcomed to join us on the 12^th of April 2014.   

Father to the Township Fatherless

I can still remember my teenage self running down the street, escaping from the clutches of a violent man. I run past my home. Not because the night is so dark that I can’t find my way home.  Not because the violent man’s punch to my face has blinded me.  I run past my home, aiming for my next door neighbour’s house because there is a father in that house, and in my desperate plight the house next door promises more safety and security than my fatherless home…

In hindsight, I believe that the Lord used this and many other experiences of my fatherless childhood to deepen my longing for a father to such an extent that the good news of adoption into the heavenly Father’s family, through Jesus Christ, would be so appealing to me that it would be one of the many strings with which the Lord would draw me to himself.

And I believe that in His sovereignty, God has ordained that many of his elect in the townships experience the sad reality of fatherlessness, so that when they hear the good news of the Fatherhood of God through Jesus Christ, they will be drawn to Him, as the One who can satisfy their longings for fatherly love, security, guidance and provision.

This article is not written to celebrate the scourge of fatherlessness in the townships as a good thing in and of itself, neither is it written to excuse those men who have only the power to make children, but not the patience to mould them.

But I believe that God is in absolute control over everyone and everything and therefore nothing comes to pass unless He ordained it before time began. So this piece is written as a feeble exploration of some of the reasons why God, in His wisdom and sovereignty, ordains fatherlessness for some of his elect.

God often deprives us of our heart’s desires, so that we can come to Him for their fulfillment

Consider Abraham; at 75 years old he was a sonless man with a barren wife, in a time when childlessness was seen as a curse. I can imagine him earnestly praying to his father’s gods, believing that some day they would answer his desperate cries for a son.  But by age 75, he must have given up all hope and reconciled himself to the thought that his name would forever be forgotten. 

This is why when the LORD reveals Himself to him and promises to make him the father of many nations, the words fall on Abraham’s ears like fresh water on parched lips. How can he not find this God appealing and worth following, when He promises to grant him abundantly more than that which he has been longing for his whole life?

In the same way, God sometimes deprives some of his elect the blessing of having good earthly fathers, so that when they hear the gospel of the Fatherhood of God, having experienced the loneliness and helplessness of fatherlessness, it becomes to them like a fountain of water in the desert, and they are irresistibly drawn to Him.

Therefore we must not neglect to proclaim this often forgotten blessing of adoption in our endeavours to present the gospel in the townships.  We must sound the ultimate call to khumbul ‘ekhaya. We must faithfully hold up this facet of the diamond of the gospel in all its lustre and glory, and trust the heavenly Father to make its allure effective to call His fatherless children home.

Having experienced the joy of being delivered from the pain of fatherlessness, will not those who have been adopted into the heavenly Father’s family become more sensitive to the plight of the fatherless in their communities?  Will they not be moved to act out this glorious spiritual adoption by physically adopting those who are orphans among them? Will this not in turn have a positive impact on the social ills which are the result of a lack of good fathers and father figures in the townships?

Finally, will these adopters not be eager to use this earthly adoption as a means to call and point their adopted children and onlookers to the ultimate, eternal, heavenly adoption, which all - both the well-parented and the orphaned - are in desperate need of?

Christ – The Real Power to the People

The Festive Season- Jesus and Township Teenage Pregnancy

It is that time of the year again, when partying, excessive drinking of alcohol and casual sex are at their highest around the world, particularly in the South African townships.

During this time of the year,  the township society at large tends to be indifferent to, or even approve of teenage drunkenness, which easily leads to careless sex and in many cases, pregnancy.  Even some of the strictest of parents tend to loosen their leash around this time of the year, all in the name of a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman

The story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria, found in John 4, is very instructive here.  An exhaustive exposition of this remarkable portion of scripture, though it would be edifying and soul-enrapturing, is beyond the scope of this short piece.  Suffice it to note the following:

The two main characters in this story are different.  They are different not only in the sense that one is female and the other is male, or in that one is a Samaritan and the other a Jew, or even in the sense that one is merely human while the other is the God-Man. The difference which is most instructive for our particular point of discussion is the difference in their sources of satisfaction. 

The Samaritan woman, having had five husbands and living with a man who was not her husband, had demonstrated time and time again that men were her source of satisfaction.  She had been drinking water from the muddy and shallow wells of relationships with men and after every time she had had her fill of one man, she would thirst again, and require another fill.  Hence Jesus gives her this astonishing promise:  “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give [her] will never be thirsty again…”

Jesus, on the other hand, had a totally different source of satisfaction. It was the well of pure, soul-satisfying water.  That is why when “the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat…’ He said to them ‘my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’”  Jesus derived satisfaction from the eternal spring of the glory of God, as demonstrated in His glorious work of reaping souls for harvest.  This satisfaction surpassed even his physical hunger and thirst: He had gone to the well out of physical weariness and thirst for natural water, but after drinking from the from the spring of eternal life, he got up from the well feeling so satiated in his soul that this satisfaction overflowed into his physical body.

What does all of this have to do with the festive season and the rise in township teenage pregnancy?

Well, much like the Samaritan woman, many of our township teenagers are thirsty.  They are drawing water from all kinds of springs.  The spring of the exhilarating thrill of being high and drunk, the spring of popularity among their peers and finding their identity in their social status, the spring of being envied for being the most beautiful and most wanted by the opposite sex, the spring of illicit sexual intercourse. They drink and drink and drink some more from these springs, but no sooner do they lift their heads up from these shallow wells to catch their breath than do they feel thirsty again.

Therefore, the same gospel promise which awoke the Samaritan woman from her drunken stupor, and freed her from her bondage to labouring for that which could not satisfy, is the same promise which needs to be proclaimed to the enslaved teenagers in our townships. Jesus stands up during these great festive days, amidst crowds with cooler boxes packed to capacity and cries out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The same indictment which the Lord pronounced against His people Israel through the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah is the same indictment which should be declared to our township teenagers: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” – Jeremiah 2:13.

As a soon-to-be father of a girl, these reflections are of particular significance to me. What should be the ultimate basis for my hope and confidence that my daughter will not become one of the statistics of teenage pregnancy?  Should I trust in my ability to be so strict that her fear of me will keep her away from boys, or should I resolve to shower her with so much money and gifts that she will not find any s’khothane appealing to her on account of these things?

No!  My ultimate hope and confidence must rest on the truth that Jesus is able to ravish her soul and thrill her in ways that no Pantsula dancer can ever hope to match.  He can speak to her a language more charming than a love proposal spoken in is’Camto (colloquial talk).

Therefore, the same gospel promise which awoke the Samaritan woman from her drunken stupor, and freed her from her bondage to labouring for that which could not satisfy, is the same promise we must proclaim to our daughters and sisters in our townships, in all its glorious facets so that they may not settle for the cheap cubic zirconias of the world’s fleeting pleasures, and instead aim for nothing less than the Pearl of great price!

Christ, the real power to the people!

Worship according to the Book

I look back with amazement when I think of the churches I’ve been a part of since my childhood. I must admit that I’ve been a church hopper of note, although most of them were even before my conversion. What has been of great interest though as I look back is the different styles and forms of worship that my church hopping exposed me to. 

 Days when I attended Sunday school in a small township Baptist church where we would sing from Icilongo leVangeli , listen to a long sermon about ‘holiness or hell’ and shake everyone hands at the end of the service, to days when we would being led by a rock band to Hillsong music and listen to a pastor deliver a 25 mins motivational sermon. Oh, how can I forget when we would ‘praise and worship’ for almost 2 hours, have tithes and offering collection for another hour (it would take time mostly because the pastor is not happy with the initial offering), then an hour sermon mostly about ‘My season…’

As much as I believe that our worship gatherings should be different, in terms of style and cultural context, I also believe they should be similar in terms of content.  I believe we should have a guide line on the non-negotiables with regards to what we do for our worship gatherings. In fact, we do have that guide line, the Word of God. We might be different in our cultural context and denominations but as long as we would consider ourselves a Christian church the Word of God has been clear with regards to some elements of our worship.  Such elements are reading and preaching of God’s Word, singing, prayer, and sacraments. In addition, elements such as creed readings, vows, and offerings have also been recognized in church history. Historically these guide lines of worship have been called the regulative principle. 

Furthermore, all these elements should have a focus on proclaiming or displaying God and His gospel.

I would like to briefly explain more on these elements on how we can faithfully flash them out regardless of our cultural context:

Reading of God’s Word: It is with shame that there [are] churches where the worship gathering will end without God’s Word being opened and read. When the Apostle Paul instructs Timothy on the matters of the church, he clearly tells him not to neglect the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13). Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Let us devote ourselves to this.  As my pastor once said, Scripture reading is the only infallible proclamation from the pulpit.

Preaching of God’s Word:  ‘Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove; rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching’ 2 Tim 4:2. Paul could not have been clearer. The preaching of God’s Word should rebuke in some days and others exhort.  It baffles me that we have preachers that insist that they specialize in feel-good messages. Paul also instructs that the ‘full counsel…’ of God’s Word should be preached. If this instruction by Paul was obeyed, we would not have ‘breakthrough’ messages every week in churches. Preachers should devote themselves in teaching that seeks to expose God’s people to the whole redemptive history; the person of God and creation, the fall and its implications, God’s wrath towards sin, God’s sovereign plan of redemption, and future consummation of all things. These truths should be the main diets of our pulpits. Preachers should refrain from sharing unnecessary things in the pulpit, just because you think your suit is the best thing since the solas doesn’t mean you have to spend 20 minutes talking about it. Preach the Word!

Prayer: ‘First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.’ 1 Tim 2:1. In case we tend to forget, the house of God is ‘a house of prayer’.  Corporate worship should always be marked with different kinds of prayers. Prayer of invocation, prayer of intercession, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of illumination, prayer of confession, prayer of adoration and prayer of benediction. These are some of the prayers we should devote ourselves to in our corporate gatherings. Our prayers should also be orderly.

Singing: ‘Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord all the earth, Sing to the Lord, Bless His name, Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day, Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.’ Psalm 96: 1-3. We see God commanding us to sing to Him through this Psalm. He doesn’t only commands us to sing but He also shows us what kinds of songs we should sing. Songs that are God-centered, Trinitarian, and Gospel-centered. Our singing should also be congregational; this implies that we don’t need superstars performing to us in our congregational worship. Our songs are not meant to be entertainment or a distraction from God. As God’s people the primary content of our songs, as we see in Eph 5:19; Col 3:16, are Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Choosing the songs to be sung on a given Lord’s Day should be intentional and done with great considerations. ‘As the main Teaching-Pastor it is your responsibility to shepherd the congregation into the green pastures of God-centered, Gospel-centered songs and away from plains of theological vacuity, meditations of human experience and emotional frenzy…’ Mark Dever.

Sacraments: ‘Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately constituted by God, to represent Christ, and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him: as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong to the church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to the Word.’ - Westminster Confession. Sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are among the means of grace for God’s people. Baptism identifies us with Christ and His people. In the Lord’s Supper we eat and drink in Christ spiritual presence, to remember His death, receive present nourishment, and look forward to the great banquet to come. Some churches have come to neglect the administration of these sacraments, brethren, these are not optional!

It would be unfortunate to see these elements carried out uniformly across every nation and tongue. The regulative principle should not confine us to uniformity but to free us from cultural captivity. We don’t have to follow the latest trends, we have the guide line. This is not about style, it’s about substance. When I’m gathered with God’s people in Livingstone, Zambia or when I’m in Soweto or Constantia, Pretoria, I would not expect a similar style and everything to look the same. ‘Our God has created diverse peoples, and any attempt to erase that diversity opposes His wise design.’ Trip Lee. 

As we seek to bring biblical worship to our townships let us not compromise what’s in the Book, and on the other hand let us not pretend that context doesn’t exist.

Written by Sihle Xulu

When words fail

^AS 1 Samuel 3:19 Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail.

One of our professors used to make a funny but true statement at school. Whenever as a class we would struggle to come up with a natural interpretation of what a text meant and try to be deep or manufacture the meaning of a given passage. He would stand in front of the class, hold up His bible and as if talking to little children say to us “Guys, this is simple. God wrote a book. And He chose to use human language. He did not use bird language or fish language.” 

As simple as that may sound, that statement has huge implications for how we approach ministry. As I think about Township Reformation I’m reminded of a recent meeting I had with a pastor from a village in Swaziland. His approach to the bible is typical of what has become normal in our Townships. The Bible is a tool that people use to say what they want to say. The general feeling is that “God reveals something to me in private and the bible must line up with what God has showed me.”  We laboured with Him for 4 hours on the issue of spiritual warfare. We tried to get Him to read the actual words of the text. He would read the words but then give a different interpretation to what the words are saying. At some point in the conversation it became clear that there is another authority that governs Him besides the Bible. Although many Churches in the Township boast that they are Bible Preaching Churches. Upon close scrutiny to what is preached on a weekly basis, one concludes that it is not the Bible that is being preached but people’s opinions, psychology, self-help theology and private revelations. Biblical Preaching has become so light in our Townships that words don’t mean anything anymore. The situation is so typical. After a couple of minutes in the sermon, the pastor will build His case, the congregation will respond with loud “Amen’s”, and after heightened emotional ecstasy the pastor will tell how he feels that someone’s blessing is coming or some other prediction regarding what he feels God is revealing to Him. A man can stand on the pulpit and throw words around whilst people say “Amen” to that but nothing actually changes in people’s lives. The congregation goes home, and come back the following week and hears the same rhetoric. You would think someone would call a time-out and be shocked that a man who stands on behalf of God on the pulpit has made a statement that claims divine authority but nobody saw its fulfillment. But unfortunately people come again the following week and the show continues.  

History shows us that preceding every great revival was the true preaching of God’s word. If we are serious about Township Reformation then it is inevitable that we have to be serious about the true preaching of God’s word .As my Professor said that “God wrote a book.” He used subjects. He used verbs. He used objects and clauses to communicate truth to us. Any preaching of God’s word that does not take seriously first and foremost the basic building block of language (words) presumes on God. It makes God seem as if He was confused or did not really intend to say what He said in the book. I am aware that it will take some time for our people to get used to logical, systematic study and preaching of God’s word because of our cultural backgrounds. But anything that we use to shortcut that process will also shortcut what God meant to say to us. If there is one doctrine that we must hammer on in our Townships, it is the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Let’s bring back the Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Written by Sibusiso Mlotshwa

What does ‘Reformed’ mean?

In the introduction of his book ‘What is Reformed Theology’, R.C  Sproul says 

‘The Protestant church is under assault more than ever to give up the biblical distinctive that made the Reformation a necessity. Unfortunately, most evangelicals don’t know when the Reformation occurred, don’t know what it was about, and don’t understand the debt they owe men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. So the question “What is Reformed theology?” has become a critical question in my lifetime, not a mere marketing-savvy title to grab your attention’.

In light of the coming Reformation Day on the 31 October, I thought it would be appropriate to engage on what it really means to be ‘Reformed’.  If you have visited our Facebook page you would notice a big banner written ‘Reformed’ and maybe you’ve been wondering what we really mean by that word. You may be familiar with denominations such as Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist or other. One of the ways in which some of these denominations identify themselves is by calling themselves ‘Reformed’.

Reformed theology gets its name from theological emphases of the 16^th century Protestant Reformation, which was an attempt to recover the apostolic faith from Roman Catholicism. Although believers in the Reformed tradition highly regard the specific contribution of such people as Martin Luther, John Knox and particularly John Calvin, they nevertheless also find their strong distinctives in the giants of the faith before them, in persons such as Anselm and Augustine, and ultimately in the letters of Paul and the teachings of the Lord Jesus. ‘Reformed theology’ has also been widely known as ‘Calvinism’ because of one of the Reformers, who was at the theological forefront in the Reformation, John Calvin.

 This is unfortunate because this theology is much older than Calvin. Many of the church fathers taught it, especially the great Augustine. The reformed tradition carried on through British, American, Scotland, and Netherland preachers such as John Bunyan, Matthew Henry, and John Knox. Later preachers and theologians such as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones became prominent in this tradition.    

But- what does ‘Reformed’ mean in practice today?

Reformed Christians hold to doctrines characteristic of all Christians, including the Trinity, the true deity and true humanity of Jesus Christ, the inspiration of the Bible, the atonement, the new birth, the church as a divinely ordained institution, the requirement for Christians to live godly lives, the Great Commission, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the final judgment and eternal life. They hold other doctrines in common with all evangelical Christians, such as the inerrancy of the Bible and justification by faith alone. These may be the similarities that we may share with other evangelicals but let us now look at some Reformed distinctives.

For most Reformed Christians the chief and distinct doctrine in their belief system is the Sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God means that God rules over his creation with absolute power and authority. 

He determines what is going to happen, and it does happen. God is not alarmed, thwarted, frustrated or defeated by circumstances or by the sin or rebellion of his creatures. The Reformed Christian is ‘God-entranced’.  Reformed Christians see the glory of God as the goal of all life and eternity and God’s purpose in all His work. It is of immense and ultimate comfort to the believer that God is Sovereign in creation and providence (Gen 50:19.20; Isa 46:9-11) and in salvation (Acts 2:23, 4:28; John 6:37, Jonah 2:9; Eph 1:3-11)

Reformed Christians understand that God, in creation, made us; in providence, governs us, and in salvation He saves us.

All evangelical theologies will agree that salvation is solely by God's grace, but Reformed theology alone says that grace is sovereignly given to whomever God chooses to grant it. “The doctrines of grace,” or the Five Points of Calvinism, are summarized by the popular acronym TULIP: 

Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. We might add that Calvinism stresses the five great doctrines rediscovered in the Protestant Reformation: Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), Sola Fide (faith alone), Solo Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory).

Reformed theology has also defended its views of Scripture for centuries from liberals and cults. Reformed Christians have always affirmed these 4 things about Scripture.

Authority of Scripture: ‘The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God’ Grudem. 

Clarity of Scripture: ‘This is not to say that everything in the bible is perfectly clear. But that the basic message of salvation is sufficiently clear that anyone can understand it himself or by using ordinary means of grace, such as talking to a fellow believers and elders’John Frame. 

Necessity of Scripture: The necessity of Scripture simply means that we are in the darkness without God’s Word. 

Sufficiency of Scripture:  ‘Sufficiency means simply that in Scripture we have all the Words of God we need. We should not expect God to give us further revelation of the same authority as the Bible’ John Frame.

Another distinctive of Reformed Christians is that we also hold a high view of the Church. It is the body of Christ. If we hold Christ as precious, the Church must also be precious. We are drawn together by Christ, therefore we regard our assembling together to be special. Reformed Christians believe that even our worship, when we gather together, should be governed by God’s Word.  

That idea is called the Regulative Principle, that everything we do in worship should have a biblical basis. So Reformed worship will usually consist of: the Word of God read and preached, praise, and the Lord’s Supper. Worship is also to be rational, simple and Christ-centred.

Reformed theology also lays special attention on the cultural mandate, which means the obligation of Christians to permeate society and work for the transformation of the world and its cultures. We are called to be in the world and not to withdraw from it. We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, and such things. Yet, the chief needs of people are nevertheless spiritual, so that social work is therefore no adequate substitute for evangelism. Examples of Reformed Christians who have exemplified this include George Muller, Abraham Kuyper, William Wilberforce, and more.

This is by no means a comprehensive look at Reformed theology but I hope it would spark an interest to find out more about it. This is what Township Reformation is about and we look to spread this love for biblical theology to all of our South African Townships. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Do we need more church plants in the township?

If you would think of any township, you would agree that, on the face of it, churches are not in shortage. The open areas where we would play as kids have now been occupied by church tents, if not by a car wash or shisanyama.  Every school is packed with 3 or more churches using classrooms as places of worship on Sundays. This is on top of many old mainline churches that have existed for years, whose buildings are almost falling apart and not forgetting the hip mega-churches that attract thousands of people from that same township.

 Now, we that said you would think that the obvious answer for the headline question would be an emphatic No, the reality is with all that said I’m convinced that townships still need more churches and I would like to spend the rest of this post attempting to make  case: why we need more church plants in the townships.

I might be generalizing , but from my past observations and experiences, I have come to a conclusion that most of the churches that are in our townships are not healthy, bible centered. In most cases the bible is not faithfully taught, they may use extracts from the bible to support whatever message they want but there is no proper sound teaching of who God is, man is, and what the gospel is. In fact, you may ask a prominent member (the ones who sit in the front row) of any of those churches what the gospel is, you may not find a biblical answer. 

The unfortunate result of gospel-void preaching is that it produces false converts.  As Mark Dever once said “False conversions are a suicide of any local church”, the more false converts are in that local church, the slow death of that local church begins.  These churches produce them in numbers. These congregants are not concerned about the propagation of the gospel, discipleship, sound doctrine and living in light of the gospel in their daily lives.

They are just mostly in it for entertainment, socializing, fashion parades and material success.  One of the main reasons why this has happened is the men (unfortunately even women) who lead these churches.  They fit the exact description of Paul when exhorting Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3, that ‘a time will come when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they accumulate for themselves teachers to suits their passions’.  They have twisted the Scriptures in order to scratch people’s ears and give them false hope. I wish this was just 1 or 2 bad apples in a pack of good ones but this is a norm in our townships.  I have to look long and hard to find good teachers and churches, thank God there still is that remnant out there.

Oh, how our townships need faithful shepherds who will stand boldly to proclaim God’s Word, defend it and live it. Men who will preach the Word, ready in season and out of season, reproving; rebuking; and exhorting with complete patience and teaching. Men who will faithfully give themselves to teaching the whole counsel of God, rightly dividing the Word of truth. Men who would boldly teach the roles of men and women in the home and church, according to the Scripture. Men who would be Christ centered in their exposition of Scripture, exalting Christ as our only sin-bearer, wrath-bearer and curse-bearer. Men who will give God His proper place as our Holy, Sovereign Father, who will accomplish all His purposes for His glory. Men who would take 1 Peter 5:2 -4 seriously.  Men who are diligent in cultivating a pious life in themselves first. To constantly see moral failures of men with titles like ‘Apostle’ or ‘Bishop’ is not something that the church of Christ should be used to. The township needs men who will understand that by their piety, they will be setting a godly example before the flock over which God has made them shepherds.   

By God’s grace, there has been resurgence, though small, of young men who are committed to cultivating these qualities. There are a growing number of young men who have resolved in changing the status quo of the church in our townships. Some of them have even taken an initiative of intensive study in different seminaries around the country so as to better equip themselves for ministry. We need no stay on our knees for the Lord to raise more of these men, the welfare of our township spiritual state depends on it.

So to answer the question, Do our townships need more church plants? The answer is yes! Church plants that would be a beacon of light in our townships. Church plants that would be marked by the centrality of God’s Word being preached faithfully and expositionally.  Biblical theology being the foundation of that church, only sound theology can lead to right worship and obedience. Every church should strive to believe, confess, and live in light of a truly biblical theology and sound doctrine. Townships need more churches that are committed to prayer, evangelism and discipleship. A proper understanding of the gospel should be an important mark in our township churches.  A biblical understanding of the gospel should inform every sermon, every act of baptism and communion, every song, every prayer, every conversation.

Our townships not only need more churches, they are desperate for more churches. Churches that are biblical, confessional, and faithful. Not tossed to and fro by any wind of doctrine blowing in this land. Let us pray earnestly to God to raise a new generation that would plant such churches. Also, let us support brothers who are in process of planting or have already, by Gods grace, planted such churches.

‘There are other important causes in the world, but in God’s providence He raises up people and organizations to take of those causes. The church must not be turned aside from her most important work. Members of political parties will support their parties’ political work, let God’s church support gospel preachers. Doctors build hospitals and practice medicine, let Gods church build churches and practice missions. Moralists will struggle for moral issues, let the church struggle for the furtherance of the gospel. Educators will teach children the 3 R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic, let the church teach sinners the 3 R’s of gospel truth: ruined by the fall, redemption by the blood and regeneration by the Spirit.’ Don Fautner

 Soli Deo Gloria!