Over 300 Christian leaders, organizations and Church denominations are expected to attend the AEA Theological consultation and Jubilee Celebrations slated for November 15–21 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The event will have seven main themes that include promoting peaceful and prosperous Africa, accountability in mobilizing resources and will be a great opportunity for policy influencing and societal engagement – given the Church’s interest in the well-being of the African peoples in a holistic and transformative manner.
The consultation would be open to key national alliance leaders and other leaders from the Church, Seminary/Bible colleges, civil society, women leaders, youths and Christian African diaspora and global partners. It will also be the highlight of AEA’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations that would culminate with the launch of an AEA branded African Study Bible.
Fifty years ago, the evangelical church in Africa saw the need for sound theological education and biblical fidelity as the biggest need of the Church. Today, biblical illiteracy and heresy is number one challenge in the global Church (WEA 2014) and at a time when the greatest growth of the Church is in Africa. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of AEA.
This gathering will be a great event for the Church to meet and reflect on its impact on society in the last fifty years of AEA’s founding.
Africa is stereotypically said to have a short range vision and incapable of long range plans. If the African Union’s Agenda 2063—a vision of ‘The Africa We Want”, in the next fifty years after the founding of the Union— is anything to go by, then that assertion cannot be true.
“The Africa We Want” – is an approach “to how the continent should effectively learn from the lessons of the past, build on the progress now underway and strategically exploit all possible opportunities available in the short, medium and long term, so as to ensure positive socioeconomic transformation within the next 50 years” (agenda2063.au.int). While this document may appear to be a political piece, the spirit of its aspirations is critical to the formation of a Christian community.
Further the approach of the Union to the Africa we want resonates in its principles with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Thus, AEA seeks to influence the Africa We Want with a biblical vision of the ‘Africa God Wants’.
Recognizing the reality that Africa belongs to God, it is more appropriate for the Association to talk about the Africa God wants, as it works within a biblical framework to render the voice of God in the “Africa we want.” To this effect, the Association of Evangelicals in Africa will host a continent-wide theological consultation and has chosen as its Jubilee theme: THE AFRICA GOD WANTS.