Our Strategy
The Strategy of the Barnabas Venture
By Dr. Peter W. Dunn (Summer, 2005)
A young man was sleeping on the porch on a dry hot evening in his remote village of the Sahel. A voice called out his name, “Elisée!” waking him. Then the voice instructed him, “After you finish high school, I want you to study theology in a seminary.” But Elisée was worried what his parents would think, since for Africans the obligation to stay near and provide for parents is still very strong. After four years of struggling with this call, Elisée finally decided to obey God and informed his parents. His father and his mother, who were among the first converts to Christianity in the region, responded with joy. Unbeknownst to Elisée, they had decided years before his birth to name one of their sons Elisée (Elisha) and to dedicate him to the Lord’s service, which they did when he was born. Now their hopes for their son were being fulfilled.
I met Elisée in 1998 when I went to Africa for the first time to teach a three-week graduate course at Bangui Evangelical School of Theology (BEST). My objective was not merely to do a good job teaching but to identify and encourage students who were capable of doctoral work in theology. Elisée was a student in my course on Acts, and I found him to be both capable of and interested in doctoral work. I told him that if he would return to BEST with his doctorate, then I would no longer be obliged to go there to teach New Testament. Elisée has now finished his first year of a PhD program in New Testament.
Ouoba Family in 2000: Essita, Elisée, and Michaella
The evangelical churches in French-speaking Africa are for the most part in their first or second generation. Many converts from animism or Islam have yet to learn what it means to be a Christian. Even though the majority of people in some of countries are Christians, many challenges remain: frequent wars, ethnic violence, corruption, AIDS, Islam, cultism and extreme poverty. Solid leadership is what is needed to lay down a foundation of good theology and to set an example of good living. If God wills, Elisée will return to BEST and spend many years equipping sound leaders for the church in French-speaking Africa. And since he himself is an African, he will be much more effective than I or any other missionary could ever be.
But the most gifted African leaders cannot respond to the call of God without our help, since they themselves come from remote towns and villages whose churches suffer from chronic shortages in resources. Named after Barnabas who helped the Apostle Paul (see Acts 9.27; 11.25f.), the Barnabas Venture was launched in May of 2004 to aid the development of theological education in French-Speaking Africa by contributing resources that African leaders need to fulfill the call of God, whether they received it by audible voice or in some other way. For example, at present the Barnabas Venture is providing four partial scholarships to doctoral students, including Elisée, who will return to serve on the faculties of French-speaking Africa to train a new generation of church leaders.
Dr. Peter Dunn is the director of the Barnabas Venture.
This article first appeared as “Good Work! Ministries in Profile: the Strategy of the Barnabas Venture”, Incourage 17 (2005) 16-17.
