Agenda 1 in Mali for two years

Agenda1 has now been in Mali for two years. We have three learning communities with twenty-six participating churches.

Our dream is to help the leaders of these churches so that they can lead their congregations to make a difference in their communities. In a country where so much appears hopeless, where the authorities have no control over the violence, massacres and poverty, we believe God has a plan for His church to spread light and hope.

20 new Christians‍

During feedback from one of the areas in Mali we heard that the local Christians are spread in small villages across a wide area. They don’t have a church building, nor do they have a pastor. Through Agenda1 they have realised the importance of meeting together to pray and encourage one another. They shared with us how they had started to regularly pray together, and they have seen 20 people become Christians in the last six months! They shared this in a manner that led us to understand that for them this was the most natural thing in the world.

Local fellowships

They have told us that they know how to share the Gospel and that everybody can do it. Through Agenda1 they are learning how to form and develop local fellowships. Sometimes Agenda1 is a catalyst which helps congregations to focus on going out in mission, while at other times church leaders choose to focus inwards towards each other as God’s family.

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We do not want Agenda1 to be a “Western project”, rather that it should be integrated locally, sustainable and be able to reproduce itself. In October we took new steps towards this goal including:

I: Only leaders from Mali teach Agenda1 here now. We have created a learning community for them so they can have a “dummy run” at their teaching and receive constructive feedback from other teachers before they teach in the learning community.

II: We have created a national committee which will train the main leaders who are gradually being given more responsibility for Agenda1 in Mali.

III: Some new ethnic groups have recently joined us. They come from areas which are unsafe and very difficult. These groups represent a single-minded focus and breath of fresh air in Agenda1. Their lives are hugely challenging, yet they are on fire about communicating the Good News to people around them. This helps the other Agenda1 participants stay focussed on what is most important.

Blog by Svein Høysæter