As part of our ongoing look at what has happened since The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization: Cape Town 2010, we’re pleased to present this report from Donovan Case, President of African Americans For Missions.
A year ago today I was part of Lausanne III that constituted 4,200 delegates who were gathered at the Conference Center in Cape Town, South Africa. The delegates came from 192 countries, and we met each day in small groups. What had happened since then?
Influence by Lausanne III our organization, International Christian Ministries, changed its name to AAFM (African Americans for Missions) to focus more energetically on the need for greater involvement of the African American Church in global missions. The mission of AAFM is to boldly recruit, train and launch African Americans into global and domestic missions to expand God’s Kingdom for His Glory. Our dream is to put 500 African Americans on the field within the next five years. This more focused approach has been done in response to discussions in Cape Town of our big idea of re-igniting the African American Church to become more involved in global missions. We embrace the complete commission of Acts 1:8 to be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
We have made progress in planning and networking with a few global and domestic ministries who are partnering with us. We’re in the process if developing an interactive global website that would serve as an information networking center for all those who desire to be involved in missions and those already involved in missions.
Post CT2010 gatherings in the US have allowed us to expose many Church and ministry leaders to the history of missions among African Americans. We honor George Leile as being the first African American missionary to leave the shores of the US to serve in Jamaica in 1783.
Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2011 we were part of a historic event in Scottsdale, AZ when two large missions organizations, The Mission Exchange and Cross Global Link, merged to become one. They now serve 190 organizations representing, 35,000 ministries. This experience was very eye opening as we saw how the landscape of missions has changed with the changing culture of technology and the urgency of need among the world’s un-reached populations. The entire conference was built around “RESET,” Responding to Deep Change.
The way forward is in real Partnerships built on John 17:21 where Jesus prayed to His Father saying, “That they all may be one, as You Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me”. Together we can accomplish so much more than we can do by ourselves.
AAFM is doing all that it can to facilitate these kinds of partnerships. These kinds of partnerships allow us to far exceed our dreams and visions for the African American Church and to rightfully take her place in the Global Kingdom Building process. These kinds of partnerships will enable African American men and women to be used to reach populations who have never heard the Good News of the Gospel. However, in order to be most effective the African American Church must include the lost and needy people both domestically and globally.