Dear Gospel Partner,
Greetings in the most precious name of King Jesus.
If I say life and ministry have been busy here, it will be an understatement. We have hardly had a breather the last two months and it does not look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. I am actually learning that I use God’s time better when busier than when I have tons of “free” time on my hands. Below are some of the happenings in the last two months.
ACBC
We (Reformation Bible Church hereafter RBC) sent a team of five to participate at a conference on the sufficiency of the Scriptures hosted by Lynnwood Baptist Church, Pretoria, South Africa. Two of the five are nurses and are bombarded with psychology and psychiatry in their line of duty. The five returned back fired up. They were taught of the reliability of God’s Word and that we are not to look to man-centred resources. I believe biblical ignorance will continue to rise if the sufficiency of the Scriptures is not upheld by the church.
RBC’s 5 flanked by elders of our sending church
African Pastors’ Conferences
This year’s theme was Christ building His church in Africa. The Zambian pastors, Lichawa Thole and Raphael Banda, served us well. We had a civil audience in the three locations save Lilongwe. The audience in Lilongwe responded negatively to the conference. Of course, I do not believe the negative response represented the majority’s stance. Most delegates found the conference helpful. Those who murmured were against the speakers’ rejection of motivation speaking as Christian. Also, the roles of men and women were tackled with one woman storming out of the conference venue in protest of what the speaker said. The speaker in response to a question said that the office of pastor/elder is for men not women.
APC Lilongwe 2016
Courtship Seminar
During the African Pastors’ Conferences, we took advantage of one of the speakers, Raphael Banda, who has written a few books on courtship and sexual purity. He exhorted us to relate in a God-honouring manner to the opposite sex. This is a landmine for the majority of our members as most of them are young adults and single. It was great for all of us to hear someone address the subject with a depth of understanding of our context.
Zambian Annual Reformed Conference
Thirteen of us from RBC attended the 27th annual Zambian Reformed Conference. The theme was “The Issues Facing the Church in Africa.” Homosexuality (Voddie Baucham), abortion (Naphtali Ogallo), gender roles in the church (Tim Cantrell), neo-Pentecostalism (Conrad Mbewe), Racism (Doug Van Meter), religious pluralism (Isaac Makashinyi), etc. were the subjects tackled from a biblical perspective. This conference gave the thirteen of us much to talk about and interact on.
The Zambian conference was a great opportunity of catching up with old friends and making new ones. The conferences reminded us that we are facing a cultural shift which necessarily is a battle for the soul of the Bible. Will we adapt to the changing cultural shifts or will we confront these unbiblical shifts?
Reformation Bible Church and two elders of Living Hope Church (Donavan Drew and Nixon Pasipanodya)
Sola 5
The Conference in Zambia this year was combined with the annual Sola 5 conference. Sola 5 is an association of evangelical and Reformed churches that hold on to the five solas of the Reformation like dear life. I have always admired the association since I got introduced to it. I have attended their conferences and my admiration continues to grow. It was at a Sola 5 in Namibia, three years ago, that I was graciously afforded an opportunity to share about plans to move to Malawi. So, it was a great delight to report back that there is now a church in Malawi. Yes, a Sola 5 church. We were accepted to membership of this association at this conference.
Christ Seminary graduates at the Zambian Conference
Newton, introducing RBC at the Sola 5 meeting. On the left are Chris Woolley and Chikondi Phiri.
Gospel Conferences
On 7–8 September, RBC hosted a Gospel Seminar. We addressed pertinent subjects like: What is the Gospel?; The Cost of Discipleship; Justification by Faith; and others. Speakers were Jason Dohm, Pastor of Sovereign Redeemer Church, North Carolina, USA; Michael Templeton, USA; our leadership of three: Emmanuel Mpeni, Kennedy Kachingwe and yours truly!
A few days later (14–17 September) the five of us travelled to Blantyre to join other speakers for a Knowing God Conference hosted by our sister church, Antioch Baptist Church. We expounded on the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.
Vanessa’s Health Update
Last update, we mentioned of Vanessa’s need to do an MRI scan to determine if she has a tumor in her brain. Due to funds, we did a CT scan not the MRI. The good news is that the result came back favourably. She has a normal CT brain. But she remains unsure as the symptoms persists. The next step is seeing an endocrinologist (internal medicine specialist).
Vanessa and Chisomo
Wedding Officiation
I was in Johannesburg, South Africa last week, to officiate the wedding of a young couple that is dear to my wife Vanessa and I. We discipled them for several years and have remained close friends. They were part of a youth group I led in Johannesburg, South Africa. I had expected one of their pastors to officiate their wedding but they insisted that they wanted me to do it so I joyfully obliged.
Caleb, Newton and Mwewa
We are grateful for your partnership in the gospel.
All for Him,
Newton, Vanessa and Chisomo