MRN is working to see the Reformed faith flourish again in Malawi, but how? What is our strategy? Specifically, we are praying for a faithful, reformed confessional church in every city and village in Malawi. Our developing strategy currently has three parts.
Part one – Raising up and training men to plant churches and preach God’s Word:
We are praying for young men who are called to preach God’s word, train them in reformed theology here in the US. Give them both solid theological training as well as a vision for what a solid, elder-led church and presbytery looks like, and then send them back to Malawi to plant a church, maybe more than one.
We will be giving a small stipend to men who will work with Confex for a year or two in his church plant in Blantyre this fall. Confex will be working with three men initially. We have four applications now, one of which has been accepted. The two in-country internship positions will be filled soon, Lord willing. Our hope is that this Malawi part-time internship will give us a solid prepared pool of men for the more intensive 30-month internship in the U.S.
We believe that the main limiting factor in the spread of the gospel through the planting of faithful, reformed, confessional churches is the cultivation of God’s call to godly men to preach His word and to walk faithfully before a congregation of people. Buildings, support staff, even the money seem always to follow a faithful solid courageous preacher.
We believe that the main limiting factor in the spread of the gospel through the planting of faithful, reformed, confessional churches is the cultivation of God's call to godly men to preach His word and to walk faithfully before a congregation of people.Tweet itSo, first, MRN wants to promote what only faithful churches can do faithfully – preach the Word of God to the elect of God.
Part two – Support these men with a pastors’ conference in Blantyre each year.
In 2021, Spring, Lord willing, we will be hosting our first annual Blantyre Conference on Reformed Theology. This annual conference is designed to support the pastors we have been working with and also to fan into flame the call to the ministry that young men may sense is there.
One of the reasons church plants and pastoral training programs fail is because of the lack of a support network after seminary. This causes these men to seek support where they can get it, often the mainline denomination, or, to fold. Our presbyteries and general assemblies are a great support to our pastors and elders. Until we have that in place, MRN wants to help Confex and the other church planters give support through this conference in form of: books, letters, and any other means we can come up with.
One of the reasons church plants and pastoral training programs fail is because of lack of support network after seminary. This causes these men to seek support where they can get it, often the mainline denomination, or, to fold.Tweet itPart three – Prayer
This annual conference also holds another possibility, which is the third piece to our strategy and is mostly a prayer strategy. We are praying that like minded men who are currently leading churches in Malawi might come over and join our work. The word inside the word encourage – is courage. We believe that there are many men who, because of pressure, and lack of encouragement in the truth and because they lack resources like good books and good training, have been silent until now. We believe and we are praying that men will come to us and want to get involved.
If they say: “I believe, help my unbelief!” We want to help.
So, raising up men and training them, encouraging them with an annual conference and praying for others to join our work is our three-part strategy in Malawi. Thank you for reading and would you take a moment to pray for this work?
Proverbs 18:10 “The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe!”
Evan Vanderwey
Chairman of the Board