Pastors urged to revisit priorities
Twelve pastors and ministry leaders from various denominations recently attended a weeklong training course of the Kairos program at Bossiekol, a family farm 170km south of the capital. The course was hosted by four main facilitators.Kairos is a Greek word meaning the right, critical, or opportune moment. The course, which originates from the Philippines, is facilitated by teams and encourages participants to work in groups as they listen to presentations, complete worksheets that explore their personal growth, watch videos and pray together for unreached people groups around the world.
The basic Kairos philosophy is that Jesus has given the church a mandate to preach “the Good News about the Kingdom through all the world for a witness to all nations” (Matt. 24:14). This mandate is also referred to as the Great Commission by Christians. The understanding is that God's appointed time for the church to fulfil this task is the period starting from Jesus' ascension until he will come the second time.
Missions
Reflecting on the commitment of their various congregations to fulfil this mandate, several pastors said that their congregations supported the Great Commission on paper by calling themselves missional churches, but in practice it was a different situation, as reflected in how little resources (people and money) is spent on missions. This observation was substantiated by the course material which highlighted that the global figure of Christian churches' contribution to missions was 0.1% (which translates into N$1 out of every N$100).
Ten of the participants attended subsequent training as facilitators in the capital. The idea is that these facilitators will receive additional training after which they will work together as a team to mobilize and train participants at various churches on the Kairos programme.
Two such courses are scheduled for November 2018. The first will be conducted at Youth with a Mission in Okahandja from 5 to 9 November, while the next one is scheduled for 11 to 18 November at the Followers of Christ church in Katutura.