Stories of Impact
From Impossible Places
By Katie O'Malley | December 9, 2024
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (MNN) — Good luck identifying one group responsible for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chaos. More than 100 armed groups are operating in eastern Congo today.
“Congo has been a chaotic situation for decades now, but really one of the big origin or triggers of it goes back to the Rwanda genocide in 1994,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. He explains that after the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people, tens of thousands of the Hutu crossed the border into the Congo and “caused havoc.”
He continues: “Congo is the size of the eastern seaboard of the United States. Think of the capital (Kinshasa) being in Dallas, Texas, and the eastern part — where a lot of the atrocities are taking place — in New York, with zero infrastructure in between and dozens of people groups in between. So there’s not unity, [and it’s] not cohesive. It’s like India from the standpoint of [having] all these different languages. It’s being run by warlords.”
Different groups from within and outside of the DRC plunder its rich natural resources, with little to no consequences. The Congo is the fourth most impoverished country in the world, according to one global finance organization.
There’s also lack of spiritual depth in the Congo. Although the nation is over 90% Christian, Kelley says, “It’s the old adage in Africa where they say ‘Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep.’
“It comes back to the original instruction [Jesus] told us. He [didn’t tell] us ‘Make converts.’ He said, ‘Go and make disciples’! That’s depth, and that’s what Congo really lacks today. If you were to say, what’s the one issue, it’s that the church lacks disciple-making.”
Pray for that deeper walk with Christ!
“We really need to come alongside the churches that are serious about it (discipleship), and really empower them with the tools they need.”
“You become a product of your environment, and if the leaders who are equipping (the church) aren’t really serious about it, then they’re going to produce a bunch of shallow Christians. It’s no different than anywhere in the world. It really starts at the top. It’s passion for the Word of God. It’s sharing faith with others. It’s not being distracted,” Kelley says.
“Until the main thing becomes the main thing, Congo will continue to struggle. So we really need to pray that there would be unity, and pray that there would be seriousness and creating transformational discipleship.”
Header image of church in the DRC is a representative stock photo courtesy of Johnnathan Tshibangu via Unsplash.
Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/discipleship-gap-holding-the-church-in-the-drc-back/