Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
Africa has seen the convergence of many remarkable evangelism efforts from across the globe. As a result, Christianity has shown incredible growth in the entire continent of Africa during the past 100 years, becoming the religion of the masses, especially in Southern Africa (Johnstone & Mandryk 2001:21). It can be stated that the growth and success of Christianity in Africa have been nothing short of a miracle. This remarkable growth can only be ascribed to the extraordinary evangelism efforts in Africa during the past 100 years, and the favour of God on this work. The evangelism explosion in Africa has surely influenced many people; however, the Church still has various challenges pertaining to evangelism in South Africa.
One of the problems that Christianity in South Africa is facing is that the quantitative growth of Christianity in a nation cannot be the only measurement of successful evangelism. The qualitative growth in a Christian‟s life is the sign of the strength of that person‟s Christianity. The long-term growth and sustainability of the Church and its potential to transform communities must therefore be carefully considered. Unless the Church deals with these quality issues, it could render all its evangelistic work worthless. Finding a balance between quality and quantity is imperative, as both are important to the development of the Kingdom of God.
In addition to this, the low priority of training and discipleship in South Africa has caused the Church to develop a lack of leadership as well. Leadership development for Pastors, Evangelists and Churchplanters is imperative, as a lack of well-developed leadership will inevitably lead to a weak and shallow Church. The problem is that Christian leaders and evangelistic ministries
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have not yet developed a comprehensive evangelistic approach that can present the Gospel in a relevant manner to the people of South Africa.This causes what I would term, the nominal “pre-Christianity” in Africa, and presents a major challenge to the Church in terms of evangelism and the completion of the Great Commission. I present the term “pre-Christian” as an expression of a person who considers himself a Christian without ever receiving the Saving grace of Christ, submitting that person‟s life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and bearing the fruit of the Christian life. Africa therefore has many “Christians”, but very few born-again believers following Christ.