Africa has many problems when it comes to practicing Christianity. Are Christian politicians bringing the bible to bear in areas such as fighting corruption and stewarding resources? Has traditional religion still got a grip on the African Church? Is the Gospel influencing “every sphere of life”?
These are just come of challenges that Langham Graduate Samuel Sarkodie-Addo, from Ghana, is seeking to address as a result of his PhD from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He graduated in 2023, receiving financial and pastoral support from the Langham Scholars programme.
Now a lecturer, author, speaker and church administrator, Samuel has been using his platform to urge Christians across Africa to “bring the Bible into everyday practice”.
Good practice needs strong theology
But, he accepts, “we cannot have good practice if we don’t have strong theology.” That’s why Samuel spent time working on a theological PhD. He wants deeper theology to result in Christians “bringing their faith to bear” in public life.
Samuel, who also completed the three levels of Langham Preaching training and became a trainer himself in 2011, is hugely thankful for Langham’s support.
He highlighted the unique pastoral care he received as a Scholar:
“The support for my family; praying with me, encouraging me, and always checking up on how the family was doing was very helpful. I don’t think we have that in a lot of scholarship schemes and it is unique to have that kind of pastoral counselling, advisory and supporting role from the scholar care, I think it is extremely important.”
Sought-after speaker
When Samuel started his PhD, he also started work full-time at his church as an administrator, which he continues to do today. In 2021 he was offered a lecturing role in Christian Leadership and in 2023 was appointed to teach Ethics in Communication Practice.
Samuel has written and published 11 books, and gets invited to speak at conferences and churches. He also recently started an initiative in ‘Stewardship Advocacy’ and hopes to engage the whole country and continent of Africa about being good stewards with resources.
Samuel explained the main challenges he wants to address in African Christianity:
“Miles wide and then an inch deep… as a practical theologian, I see that Africa has a lot of problems with regards to practice. The understanding of the gospel is also defective because if we were to have a better understanding, we should see that reflecting a better practice of how the gospel influences every sphere of our lives.
Bringing the Gospel to bear
“If you also study African traditional religion, you could see that it’s still a strong presence affecting African Christianity. The influence of African traditional religion is very strong, so you see people holding those views and not able to decipher and separate and come completely to the gospel.”
“I think Africans have not brought the Gospel to bear in our daily lives. Therefore there is an issue of theology; wrong theology, wrong foundation, which is influencing wrong practice. So for me that is what I seek to challenge.
“That is what I seek to do; how to bring the Bible into everyday practice, politics, governance, in management, institutions and everything… we cannot have good practice if we don’t have strong theology.”
‘Langham is very important in the scheme of God’s mission’
And Samuel sees the necessity of Langham’s programmes:
““Langham is a very strategic ministry; very important in the scheme of God’s mission. If you look at the three key areas of scholarship, preaching and of literature, these are very helpful. And I have benefited from all three, and I’ve been involved with all three.
“I would say that anyone who has the opportunity, should get involved whether through the training, through literature, and then through the scholarship or partnership, and also those who are willing to support so that Langham can continue.
“We are reaching a lot of people across the continents and the nations of the world, and I believe that a ministry that has integrity, that has credibility, and has a history of impacting, is worth supporting.”