Conference in Goma
February 23, 2009

Today the conference started early in the morning at 8:00am. The meeting began with a short introduction by Javier and a half-hour devotional which Mark asked me to lead. As mentioned earlier, the theme of the conference is nominalism. Many Christians in the Congo subscribe to tribalism, which causes segregation in churches according to ethnic groups. Old Testament passages where God instructs Israel to kill enemies are taken out of context to imply a church of an ethnic group should kill their enemies from another ethnic group should kill their enemies from another ethnic group. Ultimately, the church loses its voice of the gospel in society and become like the society around them advocating violence. The question the conference addressed was: what does it mean to be a born again Christian?

As I thought about these issues the verse in Romans came to mind: do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve the will of God.

In the course of my talk, I mentioned personal experiences I have had in my own life when I felt God was transforming me by renewing my mind. Each of these moments in my life involved God removing goals, dreams or persons who, according to my better judgment, should be in my life. I told the audience sometimes our plans involve patterns of the world, which once taken away renew our minds to God’s will. The process is painful, but for our good.

As an example of a painful process of transformation in the Bible, I discussed how the Jews were sent into exile because of their disobedience. For many years the Jews wondered why God had forsaken them to their enemies. Over the course of their captivity and even into the time when Jesus was alive many years later, the Jewish leaders tried to obey the Mosaic Law according to their own understanding of traditions. Over the course of time new laws were written by Rabbis to define the original law to make sure obedience was complete. Jesus eventually identified these added laws and traditions as burdens neither the Rabbis nor the people could carry. As a result of their zeal according to the patterns of their worldly traditions, they missed Messiah and the blessing of the spirit once Jesus ascended into heaven.

God disciplined his people so they would listen and obey him. As Hebrews says: God disciplines those he loves. If he didn’t we would be illegitimate children. The process of God removing our dreams and vision to show us his will can be a painful process; transformation is not easy.

The application I tried to draw from the passage was emphasizing God’s desire to fill us with his spirit so that we may live in a dynamic, transformative relationship with God. Living according to our traditions and our judgment even with great zeal absent of God’s voice in our lives leads to frustration disappointment maybe to success in the world’s eyes, but ultimately to death.

I acknowledged the Christians in Goma have suffered much under natural disaster of volcanic eruption as well as political violence from Lauren Nkunda and the Tutsi rebels. Whatever the reason for these trials, I emphasized God could use these events to renew the minds of Goma’s believers and bring true transformation to the church.

At the end of our tour to Goma, Pastor Kivi told me the passage I talked about was one preached on many times by pastors in Goma. He said he appreciated the added insight into the process of transformation and understanding into God’s will.

Later in the session, Mark talked about Godly leadership by comparing and contrasting Saul and David: one decided to lead according to his own understanding and the other sought after the heart of God even when he sinned. Mark emphasized a leaders attitude toward God will affect the people’s view of God. He encouraged the pastors of Goma to seek God as David did by serving under God’s authority and not usurping God’s will as Saul did. The consequences could mean having eternal blessing as in the case of David or losing everything including the peace God gives through his spirit in the case of Saul.

After a short break, Kevin led the second session by talking on Galatians. Kevin’s emphasis of teaching was about Christians not returning to the law for salvation through works, but instead trusting in Christ’s sacrifice for justification and atonement. Kevin did a great job reviewing again how one becomes a Christian in contrast to misunderstandings that may arise as young believers mature in their Christian walk.

At the end of the session, the Pastors broke into groups to discuss review questions on the presentations given by the American guests; it was a time for the Congolese to respond with their comments.

Overall, the impression our group received from the pastors was one of thankfulness and gratitude. I trust God will work in the hearts of the Congolese to transform them into witnesses of the gospel that can display the fruits of the spirit to their society.