Gift explores the importance of high quality theological learning to the future of the church in Africa.
Gift’s journey
Originally from Zimbabwe, Gift felt a call to ministry after he found Christ as a young adult. He then moved to Kenya to pursue his BA in Theology at Africa Nazarene University in 2002 and continued with an MA in Religion also at ANU.
In 2008, he was part of a team to plant a church at ANU for the surrounding community. There were chapel services held at the campus when school was in session, but when the students were gone on breaks, there was no church body for the community. Gift serves as the lead pastor of the congregation which averages close to 200 people for worship. He also joined the ANU faculty as a lecturer in the religion department in 2007.
In 2012, he joined NTC his MA in Theology (Biblical Studies), which helped him adjust to the British educational system before jumping into his PhD. “Solid, well-grounded theological education is critical to the future of the church in Africa,” he says. That’s his motivation for teaching and studying in higher education.
“If the church is actually growing in Africa as the missiologists say, my question is what kind of Christianity will that be? Is it going to be biblical Christianity or something else?”
Gift says that syncretism is a problem in Africa – people mix different pagan rituals and beliefs with the gospel. There are also cults which have taken root and deceived many.
I want people to embrace biblical Christianity rather than Christianity mixed with traditional beliefs that are not centred on the Bible. I want to train people to read the Bible and to teach it to their communities, and have their lives changed and those that they teach as well.
Whilst at NTC, Gift took part in our Three Minute Theology ministry. Here’s his video on why we have four Gospels:
