Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Jesus taught us to measure our success in ministry in relation to how effectively we fulfill, upon individuals, the entire Great Commission. It is a combination of three distinct commands: (1) “teach all nations,” preach the gospel and lead lost souls to salvation by Christ; (2) “baptizing them,” baptize new converts through full-immersion in water as a symbol and public profession of their faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; (3) “teaching them to observe all things,” disciple and train new converts in the essentials of Biblical doctrine and practice, and bring them to maturity as consistent and faithful disciples for Christ.
To illustrate the success of the early churches, the Biblical author of Acts (Luke) would, at times, highlight the number of people who were “added to the Lord” (e.g., Acts 5:14; 11:24), the number of those who were baptized (e.g., Acts 2:41; 8:12), as well as the number of those who were “added to the church” (e.g., Acts 2:47). These three (evangelism, baptism, and discipleship) are the Biblical (particularly, New Testament) ways to measure the success or failure of a ministry.
JUMP TO:
- Overview
- A 3-Year Total
- Overview
- Battle Plan for Africa
- Preliminary Observations
- The Model for Complete African Evangelization
Ministry Methods
We believe that God has divinely ordained, greatly used, and eternally honored Biblical preaching to perform his mighty works throughout history, because it is the human manifestation of God’s word to the world.
Titus 1:2-3: In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.
It is God’s word which created the world (Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 33:6; see Genesis 1:3ff, “God said”), his word which upholds and sustains the world in being (Hebrews 1:3; see also II Peter 3:7), and his word which will destroy the world (again, see II Peter 3:7, 10-13; see also Revelation 21:1). He who is the Alpha and the Omega himself (Revelation 1:8; 21:6) has a word so powerful that it can spell out the beginning and the ending of all things created. God’s word is like a crushing hammer (Jeremiah 23:29), a cutting sword (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17), and a cleansing water (Ephesians 5:26). God’s word is like a life-giving seed (I Peter 1:23), a self-revealing mirror (James 1:22-25), and a path-disclosing light (Psalm 119:105). When we mark just how powerful the word of God is (see also Psalm 29:4; Psalm 19:7-9), we will see at once that the exclamation, explanation, and exaltation of the word of God is the key to a fruitful ministry.
Isaiah 55:10-11: For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
When so-called ministers/preachers “speak not according to this word,” the Bible says that “it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). They are “wind,” writes Jeremiah, “and the word is not in them” (Jeremiah 5:13). False preachers “pervert” (Jeremiah 23:36) and “wrest” (II Peter 3:16) the words of God; they “handl[e] the word of God deceitfully” (II Corinthians 4:2), speaking lies and the mere “deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah 14:14). These, through hatred of God and his word, “steal” God’s words from the people (Jeremiah 23:30). Still others may preach truth, but not God’s truth, because they do not use God’s word. They don’t speak in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches (I Corinthians 2:13), “as the oracles of God” (I Peter 4:11). They preach their own heart, not the heart of God (see Psalm 40:9-10), refusing to preach “the preaching that I [God] bid thee” (Jonah 3:2). The charge to God’s man is clear: “diminish not a word” (Jeremiah 26:2). Through fear, or self-ambition, or neglect, these hide and conceal the word of God from the people. Truly those preachers who keep back God’s words from the people, either through stealing or concealing them, are the cause of the people’s destruction (see Lamentations 2:14).
Soul-Winning and Bible Preaching
There are two pillars (a “Jachin” and a “Boaz,” as it were; see II Kings 7:21) on which this ministry, and any Biblical ministry, is founded: (1) clear, confrontational soul-winning and (2) doctrinal, dynamic Bible preaching.
Soul-Winning: “Preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15)
All believers in Christ are commanded to preach to the lost and dying world the glorious gospel of the blessed God. If we would be personally righteous, we must be like fruitful trees, and if we would be practically wise, we must be winners of souls (Proverbs 11:30). While it is true that our Christian walk can be a profound testimony of the power and truth of the gospel to unbelievers (see II Corinthians 3:2; I Peter 3:1-2; see also Acts 16:25), yet still we must have a faithful Christian talk—to “open” our “mouth” (Ephesians 6:19) and preach to others—if others are to trust Christ: “how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).
This practice has various Biblical descriptions. It being so common to many in Kampala, Uganda, to see us and those we have trained explaining the gospel individually, they often say, in their local languages one to another, that we are “preaching the gospel,” a thoroughly Biblical way about it (see Matthew 9:35; Luke 9:6; Acts 8:25; 14:7). Paul wrote, “I am ready to preach the gospel” (Romans 1:15). Probably a more formal term would be evangelism. Others have understood it as a gracious giving out to others what we have ourselves received, and therefore call in sharing your faith. Yet still, it can be construed as a bold testifying to what God has done for one’s own soul (see Psalm 66:16), and what he can do for others, and term it witnessing (see Acts 1:8). But we best like to call it soul-winning, where we “labor together with God” (I Corinthians 3:9) in winning a soul to Jesus. In this way, we see a strong imperative for the Christian: “Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 23).
Anybody can, and everybody should, win souls. It doesn’t matter if you had been a promiscuous, pagan woman (like the woman at the well; see John 4), nor if you were a cowardly, carnal Christian (like Peter), nor even if you were the most notorious persecutor of the people of God (like Paul). The word of God is the same to you as it was in Jesus’ parable: “Son, go work to day in my vineyard” (Matthew 21:28)! It is therefore a heavy and prevailing influence of this ministry, to always be doing the “first works” of evangelism (Revelation 2:5). We ought to set apart time in our life to regularly, thoughtfully, and personally tell the gospel to others. This is better learned by experience soul-winning with a mature soul-winner, and it is our sincere desire that you would learn and live the life of a soul-winning Christian. May the example and teaching of this ministry be a help and encouragement to you as we “strive together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).
Bible Preaching: “Preach the word” (II Timothy 4:2)
Throughout redemptive history, God has prepared and called particular men to fully devote themselves to the public proclamation, exposition, and ministration of the word of God. The apostles’ early decision to “give ourselves continually to the ministry of the word and prayer” (Acts 6:4) is a good preoccupation that this calling entails. God’s usual New Testament means of propagating his truth to the world and inculcating his word in the believers is through the office-gifts of evangelists and pastor-teachers, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (see Ephesians 4:11-13). The churches of God are expected to be, above all else, heralds of and instructors in the Bible (see Jeremiah 3:15; Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:1-3).
God has appointed (or, ordained) gospel co-laborers and Biblical under-shepherds to increase his church in its quantity and quality, to grow the kingdom of God and to feed the sheep of God. If it is the engrafted word which saves (James 1:21), then it is also the sword of the word that reforms (Hebrews 4:12), the washing of the word that cleanses (Ephesians 5:26), and the milk of the word that grows (I Peter 2:2). A sober charge to keep have all servants of the Head, Christ Jesus, who are given the solemn duty to “preach the word.” They have the awesome responsibility, week after week, of providing a well-balanced and much-needed spiritual diet to the children of God, among whom and to whom they minister as servant-leaders. This has the most familiar expression in the preparation and preaching of sermons in a church setting, without which the people of God have nowhere to turn for corporate Christian worship, continuous Christian growth, community Christian fellowship, and committed Christian service. This pillar of a successful ministry, then, is also paramount in this very ministry, where a high emphasis is put on the continued preaching and teaching of the Bible.
Ministry Results
Because Baptist for Africa’s mission work initially began and currently consists exclusively with the immediate, measureable effects of the local ministry conducted by the McPhaill brothers in Kampala, Uganda, it is this particular ministry that will, in whole, be examined. It is expected that this work will slowly grow over the next few years, and will, God willing, blaze abroad a mighty and massive movement for Christ, and that this will give occasion to broaden the “results” beyond what is here noted.
A 3-Year Total: August 2019-August 2022
Although the McPhaill brothers arrived in Uganda in June of 2019, it took a couple months to become acclimated to soul-winning in Africa and to develop effective follow-up, discipleship, and soul-winning training methods, which have been further refined over time. Largely ignoring the preliminary soul-winning (a couple hundred professions of faith), church-attendances (approximately 11 persons), and evangelistic training (a few persons once or twice instructed out soul-winning) which occurred June-July 2019, then, here is a succinct summary of the past 3 years of work. Future results can be learned about through our monthly letters (please email your request to receive them), and this webpage will be edited yearly to reflect the ongoing total (4-year total in August 2023, 5-year total in August 2024, etc.). For a glimpse into the contexts these labors were accomplished in, see the About the Evangelists page.
To understand these results, one must know the following. First, “professions of faith” means persons to whom an individual gospel presentation of 10-20 minutes was given, and who decided to put their faith in Jesus and prayed to trust him as the Savior. Second, “baptisms” are people who, having coming to church and (usually) many discipleship lessons, and who evidence a belief in the true gospel by clear and sound profession, are baptized by immersion before many witnesses. Third, we use attendance of “discipleship lessons” as a measurement of the third part of the Great Commission because it is only then that we record who and how many people came (i.e., church services have a total number recorded each time, but it is impossible to know who all came to them, thus complicating any attempt at estimating effectiveness). Also, using a standardized teaching system (for us, ten “discipleship lesson”) allows both us and outsiders to see the amount of content new converts are getting before they (as most) stop attending church. But of course, just because we no longer see them in church does not mean they are not believers, nor that they are entirely inert. Indeed, we often learn of people we have significantly ministered to who are faithfully serving Christ elsewhere. Thus, instead of a simple number of church members, which can be highly misleading, one gets a better picture of these labors in Africa.
Some might object to quantifying and counting these results, and wave it off as arrogance and pride. But setting aside the fact that the authors of the Bible do essentially the same thing we here have done in recording and displaying numbers (see Acts 2:41; 4:4), there is simply no other way to reliably and objectively measure the effects of a ministry. There is not the least bit of pride or any other vice inherent in our relaying of this information. We are sure those who become genuinely acquainted with our service in Africa will have none of the evil perceptions that attend so many hostile persons to the work of God. Of course, as with anything we do for God, we give all thanks and praise to him, who has worked in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Psalm 115:1: Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Table of the 3-Year Result Totals
Evangelism
- Total Persons Personally Presented with the Gospel: approximately 45,000
(This number is estimated from statistical averages)
- Total Professions of Faith: approximately 31,000
Exact Numbers:
- Of Full-Time Evangelists (Jesse and John): 8,775
- Of All Trained Soul-Winners: 22,362
Baptism
- Total Baptisms of New Believers: 554
Discipleship
- Total Number of Persons Which Began Discipleship Lessons: ~2,000
- Only one lesson: ~40%
- Some lessons: ~35%
- Most lessons: ~10%
- Completion of all lessons: ~15% (or, about 300 people)
- Total Number of Persons Trained to be Soul-Winners: about 115
About 50 (or, nearly half of all) of them were currently still faithfully attending church and soul-winning with us, as of August 2022.
Beyond all of these definite labors in the Great Commission, insofar as it is able to be diagrammed, there is a strong, stable church which has been officially congregating and operating since December 2021, Bible Baptist Church. The countless lives which have been transformed by the spiritual service of the leaders and servants in the church is truly breathtaking, and ultimately defies quantification. What is the value of a soul? What would one be willing to give to turn another to righteousness? Of what cost can a life-changing sermon be valued at? Who may estimate the instruction, prayer, guidance, and love that a Biblical leader regularly has for the sheep of God in his care? In all these things, may God be the more and more glorified, and may he be pleased to “increase the fruits of” our “righteousness” (II Corinthians 9:10), that the light of gospel in Africa may be as “the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).
Ministry Projections
We pray and hope to be used by God to begin and finish a continent-wide evangelization of Africa. Despite the fact that a high volume (many hundreds) of missionaries who profess the true gospel have been and are currently working in countries all over Africa, the experience and investigations of Baptists for Africa have found that very few Africans believe, or have even been reached with the true, Biblical gospel. Therefore, most of Africa is currently in darkness spiritually, and has great need (and presents great opportunity) of missionaries/evangelists to bring the gospel of eternal salvation by faith to them. We have made it our life-goal to see to it, as much as lies in us, that this is accomplished.
Acts 20:24: But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Ephesians 3:8-9: Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.
Battle Plan for Africa
II Chronicles 16:8: “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand.”
How exactly does one go about evangelizing an entire continent, the size of which is greater than the USA, Europe, and China combined, and the population of which is projected by 2050 to be at 2.5 billion people? It certainly does not help matters that Africa has historically proved a formidable challenge to missionaries the world over, with its estimated 1,000-2,000 languages, its extreme poverty (Africa is statistically the poorest continent on the planet) and, therefore, lack of education, and its panoply of debilitating, often fatal diseases (e.g. malaria), which have successfully barred a large percentage of expatriates attempting to labor therein. It is said of the European colonization of America that the Native Americans could not endure the guns nor the diseases of the colonists—a vast swath of their population was decimated by colonization and U.S. expansion. But what a wonder that Africa has largely withstood the colonial tide on its own turf, and is still mostly, south of the Sahara, “Black Africa.” Africa is very much the continent that killed its colonizers. Who can stand before the children of Cush!
But will the harvest be past, the summer be ended, and they still be not saved? It is beyond sad to report that Africa, for all the fanciful, dreamy, and traditional representations of it as the neediest continent (spiritually as well as economically), and for all the drummed-up missionary fervor about it, has largely stood ominously and endlessly, eyes failing with longing, having arms widely outstretched in earnest, as it were, which beckons with mournful pleas to all of true Christendom, “Come over into Africa, and help us.”
It is God’s will that there would be believers in heaven who form “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9). The heart of God goes out to all people, willing their salvation (I Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9). As children of God, we ought to share our Father’s vision (Luke 2:49), and have a big spiritual goal for our lives. Caleb expressed his zeal for God in both his confident statement about the Israelites being “well able to overcome” the Canaanites (Numbers 13:30), and in his bold claim on the land promised him of God: “Give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12).
Isaiah 7:11-13: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
As Christ’s soldiers and ambassadors, we ought to have a view to spiritually “conquering” the world in our generation with the truth of the gospel message (see Psalm 71:17-18), to extending the gospel’s saving influence to all people.
The Model for Complete African Evangelization
DEF. “Complete evangelization”: Every person in a designated area (e.g., the continent of Africa) and time (e.g., the second and third generations of the 21st century) has been personally offered the gospel at least once by an able soul-winner.
To better see how to bring the gospel to all of Africa, we must understand the current situation Africa is in, and, from this data, make observations about the viability of such a plan. We must sit down first, and count the cost (see Luke 14:28).
African Demographics
- Africa’s population and population distribution
Africa in 2022 has an approximate population of 1.4 billion people. By 2050, it is estimated that Africa’s total population will be approximately 2.5 billion. There are apparently five “population clusters” in Africa (in the north, north-east, south, east, and west) where the majority of the inhabitants of the continent reside. Three of them lie
within the Sub-Saharan region. With urbanization and better development of cities, we can expect population growth to largely center on these clusters, and, indeed, to make them more concentrated with people to preach to.
2. Africa’s population age
Africa’s inhabitants are predominately young: age 0-14 (~40%); age 15-24 (~20%); age 25-64 (>35%). This means that, at the present time, the greater majority of Africans are at (or will soon reach) a receptive age.
3. Africa’s religiosity
While the northern regions of Africa are predominately Muslim (and devout Muslims are greatly unreceptive to the gospel), most of the countries that lie in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa are predominately Christian. This makes them more open to the true gospel, and therefore very opportune fields for evangelism. For example, consider the following charts of a few countries of Sub-Saharan Africa:
The Receptive African City Evangelization Model
There are a few problems that present themselves with evangelizing a continent. Keep in mind that we are assuming a ground-zero, grassroots starting ground. One problem, already discussed, is the population problem: how do we get the gospel to a widely disbursed people? Another is the language problem: how do we preach the gospel to people with diverse and difficult languages from our own? Yet still another, often overlooked, problem is the religion problem: how do we effectively convert people of other religions (e.g., Islam, animism, etc.) to Christianity? Interestingly, all of these problems are, to a great degree, solved by what we will here call the Receptive African City Evangelization (or, “RACE”) model.
Note first that whatever happens in a big city has a more significant impact on the entire population of, say, a nation than what happens in more remote areas. Jesus’ death was all the more known, and “not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26), partly because it transpired in the renowned and ancient city of Jerusalem. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, brethren who, by his admission, he, for the most part, had never met, he seemed greatly acquainted with them as if he had been their close friend. It might have something to do with the fact that their church was located in the very capital of the Roman empire, that “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8). The Thessalonian believers (congregating surely in that large city they are named by) had also a godly testimony which “sounded out” from them and “spread abroad” to many others (I Thessalonians 1:8). A notable evangelist of the nineteenth century, D. L. Moody, when theorizing how to best evangelize all of the U.S., proposed that revival campaigns be held in the biggest cities. He reasoned like this: “Water runs downhill, and the highest hills in America are the great cities. If we can stir them we shall stir the whole country.”
The evangelization of the first-century world presumably proceeded on this assumption. The apostles early on spent a great deal of time in Jerusalem, which afforded them countless opportunities to preach to the many pilgrims (especially at feast days) and merchantmen who would visit or pass through/by the city in the droves. We observe Phillip conducting his great revival in Sebaste of Samaria (see Acts 8:5), and it doesn’t take long for the apostles at Jerusalem to hear about it (Acts 8:14). And we see none other than Paul pleased to spend most of his time in big cities (Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, etc.). It seems that it is best, if we are to evangelize this mighty continent, that we succor them out of the city.
Like the distinction between the rural and the urban in societies, Africa retains a strong bifurcation of its populace between city-dwellers (urban) and village-dwellers (rural). In and around big cities, there are massive populations often in the millions, groups large enough to reach and train up for work in outlying, smaller areas. This solves the population problem. Those who are near to or who reside in a city (as opposed to a simple village), and those who are younger (those who grew up in or slightly before the 21st century), are more likely to be educated and effectively able to communicate with ease in a Western language (e.g., English), with a Westerner (e.g., an American). Thus, people can be won to Christ and trained in, say, English, and many of those same people (being native Africans) can bring the gospel to those of their countrymen, whose native language they speak. This solves the language problem. And if we restrict our scope (at least for the first couple decades) to Sub-Saharan Africa, most urban centers there are highly Christian (though, of course, unsaved) by proportion. This solves the religion problem.
The Spiritual Future of Africa
For every soul to hear the gospel in Sub-Saharan Africa, it would take many, many millions of soul-winning hours. But because the labor is gradated by an ever-increasing labor force, the hours accomplished each year grow, not in a direct proportionality, but exponentially. The “experiment of ministration” to reach all of Sub-Saharan Africa with the true gospel, therefore, after just a few years of preparatory gospel work, does not merely add, but multiplies. This “multiplication” is indeed what the early believers in the book of Acts experienced (see Acts 6:1, 7; 9:31), and it is what should be expected after a relatively brief (5-10 years) incubation period of growth. Jesus famously compared the kingdom of God the kingdom of God to “a grain of mustard seed,” in that it begins very small, but within a little time, and under the right conditions, can grow into something quite grand.
Matthew 13:32: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Illustration of Exponential Growth
To get a glimpse at how a massive task (e.g., evangelizing billions of people) can be accomplished in a relatively short window of time (e.g., 50 years), consider the following thought experiment. Suppose that we begin a 50-year time frame with just 2 evangelists that are actively soul-winning, discipling, preaching sermons, and training others in soul-winning (which is actually what we have right now). And suppose that these 2 evangelists are only able to make 1 other person each just like themselves every 5 years, to make someone who does what they do, in the way they do it, and with the zeal that they do it—others who themselves, in five years of time, will be able to make 1 other person like themselves.
This replication model follows an exponential equation. After 5 years, there would be 4 evangelists (4 total: the 2 we began with (ourselves), and 2 more made). After 10 years, there would be 8 (each of us 4 made 1 evangelist each, equaling a total of 8). After 15 years, there would be 16. After 20 years, there would be 32. After 25 years, there would be 64. After 30 years, there would be 128. After 35 years, there would be 256. After 40 years, there would be 512. After 45 years, there would be 1,024. And after 50 years, there would be 2,048. Observe that we are using a very moderate and excessively conservative scale—contrast with how most people who theorize in this way do so in a ridiculous and unrealistic manner; e.g., 1 new person added every year, per person. In fact, we have permitted so wide of a buffer range that it may seem we are being far too pessimistic! For instance, is it accurate to believe that after 10 years of our labor here in Africa, there will only be 6 other full-time evangelists like ourselves, when, in reality, after only about 3 years we have foretastes of perhaps double that in the next few years? Only time will tell.
Let us assume this is precisely what will happen, though. All of this is to say, then, that by having a ministry devoted to the Great Commission, and intentionally training people for evangelistic work (and all the skills and experience which is requisite for it), it is not unreasonable to suppose that within a couple generations of time, if God spare our lives and bless our work (as we hope he shall), and if he tarry his second coming, within 50 years, we can expect to see well-over 2,000 full-time evangelists running about that many churches in all of the major cities and high population areas of Africa. This is probably far more than enough for “complete evangelization.” And of course, just like Bible Baptist Church in Uganda currently, those churches will be soul-winning powerhouses, with dozens to hundreds of soul-winners, who, as individual churches, see tens of thousands of people led to Christ each year. Consider the hundreds to thousands of soul-winning missions such churches must at that time (in the hypothetical 2070s) be leading each year, and the innumerable multitude of persons they will have trained in soul-winning who continue the work of evangelism in Africa quite apart from them (like we experience in some sense even now). How could Africa not be evangelized in our lifetime?
Psalm 67:1-2: God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.