Pivot

#114 How to Evangelize: What Western Churches Can Learn from African Christians

Dr. Harvey Kwiyani shares how African Christians are successfully reaching secular Western societies in ways that traditional Western churches haven't.

What if everything you think you know about how to evangelize is about to change? Dr. Harvey Kwiyani, a Malawian missiologist, shares how African Christians are successfully reaching secular Western societies in ways that traditional Western churches haven’t.

Discover why young people in the UK now associate Christianity more with African and Asian believers than with traditional Western churches. Learn how African approaches to prayer, spiritual transformation, and community engagement are bringing new life to Western Christianity.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why spiritual practices matter more than programs
  • How African churches are growing rapidly in secular contexts
  • What effective evangelism looks like in a post-colonial world
  • Why prayer and spiritual transformation are key to reaching others
  • How to move beyond outdated colonial patterns of mission

Dr. Kwiyani directs the Centre for Global Witness and Human Migration and is the author of the forthcoming book “Decolonizing Mission.” His insights will challenge everything you thought you knew about sharing faith in today’s world.

Show Notes:

Shift Ministry Models
Faithful InnovationJustice & Service

Featuring

Headshot of Harvey Kwiyani

Dr. Harvey Kwiyani

Dr. Harvey Kwiyani is African Christianity Programme Lead and Diaspora Centre Lead. He is a Malawian missiologist and theologian who has lived, worked and studied in Europe and North America for the past 20 years. He has researched African Christianity and African theology for his PhD, and taught African theology at Liverpool Hope University. Harvey is also founder and executive director of Missio Africanus, a mission organisation established in 2014 as a learning community focused on releasing the missional potential of African and other minority ethnic Christians living in the UK.

Meet Your Hosts

  • Terri Elton

    Terri Martinson Elton began teaching at Luther Seminary as an adjunct instructor in 2004 before becoming the director of the Center for Children, Youth and Family Ministry in 2008. In addition to her continued work with the Center, Elton accepted the position of associate professor of Children, Youth and Family Ministry in 2010 and associate professor of Leadership in 2014.

    Prior to her call to Luther Seminary, Elton served as an associate to the bishop in the Saint Paul Area Synod where her responsibilities included working with congregations, leadership development, First Call theological education and youth and family ministry.

    Before her work in the synod, she served at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minn. for 16 years. While at Prince of Peace she worked in various roles within children, youth and family ministries, as well as served as the director of Changing Church Forum, an outreach ministry of Prince of Peace. She also authored To Know, To Live, To Grow, a confirmation curriculum, and co-authored What Really Matters, a book for congregational leaders, with the Rev. Mike Foss.

    Elton holds a B.A. degree in communications from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. (1986). She earned both her M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2007) degrees in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary.

    Elton’s research and teaching interests include: congregational leadership, leading in the midst of change and conflict, helping ministry leaders craft a missional ecclesiology with an eye toward the First Third of Life, awakening a vibrant theology of baptism and vocation and reimagining faith and mission practices for children, youth, young adults and their families.

    Elton is a member of the Academy of Religious Leadership, the Association of Youth Ministry Educators, the ELCA Youth Ministry Network and the American Society of Missiology and is on the board for Real Resources. Elton spends much of her time working with congregations and congregational leaders and seeks out opportunities for enhancing ministry with those in the First Third of Life within the ELCA.

  • Dr. Dwight Zscheile

    Dr. Dwight Zscheile is vice president of innovation and professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary. His latest book is Leading Faithful Innovation: Following God into a Hopeful Future (with Michael Binder and Tessa Pinkstaff, Fortress Press, 2023).