Good News Of The Kingdom Of God: The 2010 Campaign In South Africa

Have you ever considered a five-year preaching plan for your ecclesia? Have you thought of the value of writing down a vision of what you would like to achieve if Christ remains away? Enjoyed putting together a strategy of how you will reach that vision by God’s grace? Thought of involving neighbouring ecclesias in that preaching plan, so that there is a consistent message to the communities around you? In South Africa, we are one year into a preaching vision and project to increase, by God’s grace, our numbers to 2,010 by the year 2010.

The need to put together this plan was really forced upon us. Since the failure of the apartheid regime in 1994, many brothers and sisters have left South Africa. Our numbers year-to-year were falling; with only 450 brothers and sisters left in South Africa we were feeling the acute pain of a dying fellowship. That pain brought about a united recognition that we had a problem, and that we needed a change. We needed to change the trend of brothers and sisters emigrating. We needed to change so as to bring in more converts, from every race. We needed to attract brothers and sisters to come and help us. We needed projects to channel the energy and passion of young people into preaching. We needed to change from slowly dying out to growing in numbers.

The first instruction that God gave to man was “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). Here are the two elements of spiritual growth that God is looking for. The first element is internal growth, each of us growing in spiritual maturity so as to produce the fruit of the spirit. The second element is external, numbers increasing and multiplying. God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). When we looked at our fellowship we could perhaps argue that we were progressing in internal spiritual growth, but as far as external spiritual growth was concerned, we all agreed that in South Africa we were not doing well.

The vision of the 2010 project was conceived at the annual winter Bible school at Hebron Haven in July, 2005. We then followed this with a full weekend of strategic planning in October, 2005, when principles and plans were developed. Campaign branding and a logo highlighting “The Good News of the Kingdom of God” were finally agreed upon by all ecclesias in January, 2006. This was born out of the realization that most Christian groups seem to focus on the ‘here and now’ to the exclusion of a message about the future. A lot of Christian books on the market have become self-help studies for ‘now’. We felt that the message of the “Good News of the Kingdom of God” uniquely differentiated us; and, looking at the New Testament, this is the clear message of the Lord Jesus and the apostles.

“Unless the LORD builds the house”

The first principle that we laid down for the project was that everything is subject to, and in the hands of, our Heavenly Father: otherwise we shall labour in vain. Psalm 127 tells us children are a heritage from the LORD. We had a vision to increase the number of our spiritual children by preaching, and so we felt confident that this was in line with the will of God.

Enablers for Labourers

We looked at why we are not growing and found that Jesus has given us the answer: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37,38). Lack of growth has much to do with lack of labourers, not lack of harvest. Within the scope of the 2010 campaign we wanted to attract brothers and sisters to come and help us here. We have a western way of life with all the comforts people are used to, but with the “real Africa” literally only 10 km. away. We also looked at our own labour pool and found that many in our ecclesias didn’t feel sufficiently confident to preach in the traditional style of billing and door-knocking. So we had to find jobs for people outside this paradigm. If we can do this we will have more labourers. “Enablers for labourers” is about finding the best and most focused skills members have to contribute to the campaign and then asking them to be involved. It is the opposite mindset to calling for volunteers.

Enablers for Ears

“Enablers for ears” is about ploughing the ground before sowing the seed. It aims to have ears that are inclined to listen before the gospel is preached to them. “Enablers for ears” is having a community outreach approach by investing first in people before expecting them to listen. It is God-manifestation in action, unconditionally showing love to the just and the unjust. The community outreach approach is setting up daycares that can look after children who would otherwise roam the streets, turning ecclesial halls into extracurricular teaching centres, giving AIDS awareness education, HIV prevention programs, food programs, supporting medical prescription programs, and the like. Through these activities we create relationships with people in the community and where there are relationships, there are ears that are softened to listen. “Enablers for ears” also creates jobs for “enablers for labourers”. Nurses can be used for nursing, teachers for teaching, builders for building, but all these activities are aimed at creating relationships that can be fruitful for teaching the “Good News of the Kingdom ofGod”.

“Arete”

This is the Greek word for excellence. It includes in its meaning: “being the best you can be, fulfilling the full potential ofthe skills and character you have been given, reaching the heights of your dreams, giving your best”. It is a key word in the New Testament. Peter uses the word in 2 Peter 1:5: “Add to your faith arete.” In other words, once you believe in the gospel, then give of your best. It is an attribute of God. He says in verse 3 that “God has called us by his own glory and arete.” Paul has arete in his list in Philippians 4:8, among the things about which we should continually think.

So the 2010 “Good News of the Kingdom ofGod” campaign aims to be run by arete. It means we want to give of our best, to run it with excellence. It means using the best leadership, management and marketing skills we can find and applying them to preaching rather than to secular activities. It means taking to heart Malachi 1:6: “If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?” Giving arete is the highest respect one can give. It means eliminating any half-hearted or amateur effort. As God says later about sacrifices that were less than the best, “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he respect you?” (Mal. 1:8). We want, in the 2010 project, to give God better than we give our employers. We want to give Him our arete.

What has been achieved in the first year?

Our first year has largely been one of planning and promoting. Many of us have experienced the gracious hand of providence in the activities we have undertaken. These are the highlights:

  1. Strategy and planning weekend in October, 2005.
  2. 2010 promotional video: A short video expressing the ideas and principles underlying the 2010 campaign was produced and has been used throughout the year to encourage labourers to participate in the campaign.
  3. Standard “branding” and logo for “The Good News of the Kingdom of God” were overwhelmingly supported by all participants; they have already proved to be extremely effective in preaching.
  4. Original 2010 song with an African flavour: James DiLiberto (Echo Lake, NJ, USA), with the help of our brothers and sisters from the Candu (Eastern Cape) Ecclesia, wrote our very own “2010 x 2010” campaign song which has already been used at a number of internal and external events.
  5. Project Beracah: This international project was aimed at encouraging and enabling musicians to write original African-oriented music with clear, simple lyrics expressing the message of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
  6. Active promotion of the “2010 Good News of the Kingdom of God” by various brothers throughout South Africa and other major Christadelphian centres, including the USA, Australia, and UK. We are particularly geared to hosting young people who may want a “gap year” in South Africa.
  7. Formation of a 2010 Trust (i.e., “Community Outreach Program Trust”): The official 2010 Charity has been established and registered during the first year. This provides an effective vehicle for sustained management of projects and the acceptance of various donations.
  8. In the first year we have already enjoyed visits by a number of young and older volunteers from Australia, USA and UK, to help our efforts.
  9. First 2010 Youth Weekend: The first 100%-sponsored youth weekend was held in April 2006 to ensure that local youth were well informed about 2010 and the opportunities it offers for young people in our community.
  10. The Community Outreach Program, a key aspect of2010, gained impetus during the first year. Various project proposals were reviewed and presented at the April

A final “preferred projects” list has been agreed by the trustees based on the input of all participants. Some of the projects that have made good progress during this time include:

  • the Candu ecclesial hall and children’s daycare project;
  • Fiffakids AIDS education program;
  • finalization of venues for three Bible Education Centres, one in Johannesburg and two in Durban, in August, September and October, 2006; (d) draft plans for conversion of the Margate ecclesial hall into a community centre; and
  • Food Scheme ministry, established and operational.
  1. Internal website up and running (gnotkog.org), which all Christadelphians are welcome to view for further information.
  2. Launch of a coffee cafe concept for bringing back “lost sheep”.
  3. New outreach seminars in local townships — “Learn to Read the Bible Effectively” seminars have been conducted using the church facilities of other denominations in Verulam and Lamontville.
  4. We have secured over R350,000 (US $50,000) in funding locally, in UK, USA and Australia.

We thank our heavenly Father for the growth experienced in this project, and we pray that He will send us labourers from around the world to assist us (and to take back to their home ecclesias the lessons they have learned and the experiences gained). Please visit the web site www.gnotkog.org and give serious consideration to visiting South Africa.