Back to the Basics?
by Safiyah Fosua, Director of Invitational Preaching Ministries, General Board of Discipleship

On any given day, it is summer somewhere in the world; and so it was this past February. Four of us left the United States on a cold winter day and stepped off the plane in Maputo, Mozambique, into the heat of the summer rainy season.

Within twelve hours of our arrival, we were on the road to Chicuque, an old Methodist mission with a school and hospital on the grounds. The next two weeks were an exercise in adaptability. Adapting to the climate, remembering that landmines still lay in the beautiful grasslands, and adjusting to an ever-changing schedule. Illness and unimaginable hardships prevented several of our Mozambican Methodist presenters from being present; another arrived ill after more than a thousand kilometers of travel on roads pocked with enormous potholes. Several others would not be able to return to their places of ministry until the ferryboat underwent repairs. As I observed the gracious undaunted way that our hosts coped with change, one thing became very clear to me — The United Methodist Church of Mozambique is committed to preaching the gospel. In spite of calamities and contingences, illnesses and dangers that would daunt even the most committed, the Church in Mozambique continues to grow in explosive ways!

In conversations with Bishop João Somane Machado, I learned that the Methodist Church in Mozambique had grown from around 33,000 in 1988 to well over 150,000 in 2000 A.D., and the church is still growing explosively. Without the benefit of scientific methodology, I have come to the following conclusions about possible reasons for the growth:

• Commitment. Nearly one hundred participants endured great hardship to be present for five days of instruction. Five of those present came from the Provisional Annual Conference of the Methodist Church of South Africa and had traveled for two additional days to be present!
• The inclusive nature of The United Methodist Church in Mozambique.
  • The church leaders in Mozambique are intentional about crossing ethnic, gender, and age boundaries. They began as a "southern church" clustered around the capital city of Maputo and extending up to the natural boundary of the Save (Saa-vey) River, which dissects the country below its midpoint. Now their witness extends to every border of their country — a country three times the size of California.
  • Their leaders are, for the most part, in the second quarter of life. I was amazed to see the level of authority and responsibility that these younger men and women assumed.
  • Three of the twelve district superintendents were women; and the bishop reports seventeen ordained clergywomen with an additional eleven women expected to join them in ministry next year.
• They are a church steeped in values that would make John Wesley smile with approval. They are committed to both personal piety and social witness. I heard enough preaching to conclude that both spiritual formation and evangelism are considered to be of primary importance. The Methodist Church in Mozambique is also very intrinsically involved in works of peace and reconciliation.

Bishop Machado was among the clergy who worked to broker Mozambique's lasting peace in 1992, and The United Methodist Church in Mozambique is known throughout the region for its work with Justa Paz (Just Peace). Their Justa Paz instructors and leaders are requested in many of the neighboring countries.

I am not the first to frame comparisons between the churches outside of American borders and those located in many of our neighborhoods. I am a firm believer that faith can never be quantified; yet, I could not ignore the differences in fervor. For me, looking at the two frames of references was akin to comparing autumn with summer, or flaming embers with ashen coals.

After sixteen days with our sisters and brothers in The United Methodist Church in Mozambique, my prayer for us is that we could relearn evangelism and church growth from their glorious example.

Posted 5-5-03.