Hope Africa University
...facing African realities...
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Hope Africa University ...facing African realities...
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HOPE AFRICA UNIVERSITY, A LEADERSHIP STRATEGY THAT CAN REPRODUCE by Gerald E. Bates Hope Africa University is part of a comprehensive leadership strategy thought out by African leaders for the betterment of society in sub-Saharan Africa and the long term health of the church. Leaders in Africa agree that hope for this part of the world rests in large part on an infusion of leaders of Christian principles and integrity who are equipped to serve Africa in places of influence. The barrenness of shortsighted visions of church leadership is becoming more and more apparent. The dominant models which gave birth to Hope Africa University come from Jesus Himself: ‘salt,’ infiltrating the systems of this world as bearers of the Kingdom of God, and ‘light,’ bringing the truth of Christ to shine in the marketplaces of the world, to present salvation to lost souls and to work toward God’s peace and justice. Hope Africa University is preparing targeted leaders, both lay and clergy, with these goals in their hearts. The university regards its present concentration of refugee students as a strategic opportunity because these are exactly those who will return to their countries to make a difference. A supporting mandate for Hope Africa University is the projected rapid growth of the Christian population which has grown by 25 million in the past three years to a total of 360 million people. The sheer rate of growth of the church, even in times of trouble, demands attention providing to well prepared leadership, lay and clergy. Traditionally, missions organizations have invested mainly in preparing pastoral leaders for the churches. This is totally proper and needed. There are today many levels of training including correspondence schools, periodic seminars, theological education by extension, modular training programs, Bible schools and Bible colleges. Most of these are purely pastoral in their training and do not offer an opening to graduate education and do not provide the liberal arts foundation for leadership. This means they do not produce professors and therefore the programs continue to be, even in independent Africa, highly dependent on missionary and other expatriate teachers. With the increasing global sensitivities of today’s world and the concerns for contextualization (cultural accountability) of education there must be places where indigenous leadership can be prepared in ways necessary to carry on the leadership cycle at the professor level in Africa, i.e. produce instructors who are properly credentialed and who can train others without a steady dependence on imported expertise. This reflects the exhortation of the Apostle Paul to Timothy with clear reference to indigenous leadership, "What you have learned from me...entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well." (2 Tim. 2:2) Following this command, Hope Africa University expects to begin within two years a Masters program in theology for the express purpose of preparing professors of theology in the Wesleyan tradition. Such training at the graduate level is virtually non-existent in east central Africa, and in fact is scarce all over the continent. Most graduate programs, while many are evangelical, are in the reformed or Pentecostal traditions. The undergrad programs at Hope Africa University provide the platform for gifted graduates to go on to Masters and doctoral level studies. These are the realities which press us onward in developing this school founded by African initiative to engage African needs with African solutions. We are thankful to donors who have seen the vision and taken it up as their own. We are, all of us, honored to have a part in such a grand Kingdom enterprise whose horizons of potential are beyond our ability to imagine and whose potential will, by God’s grace, multiply until our Lord returns.
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