I had connected with Gift Kabwe at the European Leaders Forum in 2021 (which was on zoom because of COVID). Gift was a leader from RhemaFaith Church (RFC) in Ndola, Zambia, and I was part of the Relational Mission (RM) team. We continued to connect over zoom from then on, and I soon realised that he was a gifted leader who was seeking New Testament church values and support and encouragement from others with similar values. Over the next couple of years there were many calls, training with RFC leaders, and even preaching at a conference, all over zoom! Both Gift and I believe that God connected us together for purpose and started to talk about RFC joining the RM family of churches. It soon became very evident that a trip to Zambia would be a great next step to build on our partnership for the gospel and pursue the RFC connection with RM further. So on Tuesday 13 June we set off from London, U.K. to travel to Ndola, Zambia.

My friend Nick West, from the Church in Bassett Street, a RM church in Kentish Town, London, joined me on this trip, which proved to be a great blessing from God! His gifting and ministry made up for my many shortfalls, and we were able to share seamlessly the preaching and teaching. Nick was well received by the church, and it was so good to see him connect with members of RFC, and very quickly he was everybody’s friend!

We arrived in Ndola on Wednesday 14 June, and were warmly greeted at the airport by Gift and Emmanuel. After only seeing them on zoom for the last couple of years it was great at last to meet them in person. The very first thing that we did, before we left the airport was to pray, giving thanks to God and committing our time together to the direction of the Holy Spirit.

We started our time with our brothers and sisters that evening as we met with 15 leaders from RFC. We got to know them all over a lovely meal together, and we enjoyed our time so much we never got to the planned teaching session that was supposed to follow the meal!

The next morning it was time to visit the chickens! This project had been started with a £2,000 seed fund from RM Business Link and has been running for nearly a year. There were about 270 chickens there when we visited, and they are currently looked after by students who are part of RFC. In return for their labour, they receive accommodation, and financial support for their schooling. Their prayer for this project is that it will grow and multiply to provide resources for more students, and to bless the church and community.

That afternoon we spend time with the RFC team of leaders (about 20 people) and started to explore the culture or DNA of the RM family of churches, then some of the biblical values of a New Testament church. It was great to see everyone studying the word as we split into three’s and did a Discovery Bible Study on the plurality of elders in each local church. The discussion after that was very fruitful!

On Friday we had the joy of meeting other pastors at the Twapia Pastors Fellowship. Both Nick and I were both able to share and particularly explored the verse from Philippians 1:27 which says:

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (ESV)

We were pleased to see the receptiveness of these church leaders and were blessed as they stood and prayed for each other in a visible demonstration of church unity.

Deeply impacting upon us was the opportunity to visit two homes of members of RFC. We visited Granny Judith who had adopted her grandson, Blessed, and others into her home. Blessed is a student at North Tec college and now lives in a house with the chicken project which is nearer to the college. Granny Judith is not able to get to the church gathering anymore, so it was a privilege to be able to spend time and pray for her. We then visited the home of Shalom, who is a student at Evangelical College. She lives with her mum, Sabrina, and younger sister, and while we were there her older sister was visiting. It was great to meet them all and pray with them.

Saturday was the day of the conference, which was called “Church Impact” and was held at the Twatasha Primary School. Our theme for the day was the filling, transformation, and overflow of the Holy Spirit. I was unwell so was not able to join first thing, but Nick did a great job in the morning teaching on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. God strengthened me enough so that I could join in the afternoon, and I spoke on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the church, into our communities and to the nations. It was a great day with the church and the presence of God was with us as we worshipped and prayed.

On the Sunday it was time for the church to gather as they usually do at the Twatasha Primary School. It was telling that as we gathered in one of the classrooms of the school, there were 4 or 5 other churches also gathering in other classrooms. This reflects the importance of the church in Zambia, a Christian country, where around 80% of the population are regular church attenders.  It was wonderful to see RFC together passionately worshipping Jesus with such joy! Nevers, Emmanuel and Gift, all took turns in leading through the morning and Barnabas led our worship. I spoke on our partnership in the gospel from Philippians 1 and encouraged us to have a big God sized vision to reach our families, communities, and the nations for Jesus. What a wonderful time we had together, the praise, the enthusiasm, the passion for Jesus was infectious and was a blessing to be with our brothers and sisters.

After the service the church shared lunch together, and this was an opportunity for us to be with members of the church that we had not yet met and to talk and forge friendships with many people. It was also an opportunity for many photos, which proved to be a good way to connect with everyone.

Monday was our final day before we travelled back to the UK, and as it turned out, was a relaxing day with Gift, Emmanuel, and with Dalitso. We found a nice coffee shop and shared over lunch, answering their questions and bringing some impromptu training.

The evening was with Gift reviewing our week, and making sure we understood more of the details of where the church is in leadership and church planting, and just enjoying each other’s company.

We left Ndola on the Tuesday, after an emotional farewell at the airport, and began the long journey back to the UK.

Reflection – David

Having worked with the church for a couple of years over zoom, this was an opportunity for me to get to meet everyone in person, and really see what the church was like. What we found was a church filled with the grace of God, with a love of the Word and with sound bible teaching and knowledge. Although there is not an official Eldership Team at the moment, there was real evidence of shared leadership in the church. Gift has the ability to raise up young leaders, grounding them in the Word, and giving them opportunity to minister according to their gifting. They have a vision to plant churches and have two church starts in Lusaka.

I felt that they identified with our vision and values and we saw many of them already present in the church. They are in a nation where the church culture is of a single leader who is revered and set above the church with special seats set apart for the leaders, and the anointed man of God leading from the front. RFC are trying to break this culture and working towards a biblical vision of church, the priesthood of believers, servant hearted leadership, and every member ministry. We felt very at home in the church! 

Reflection – Nick

It was a great privilege to travel with David and together serve this wonderful group of (mainly) young people. From a personal point of view, I learned SO much from being around David for the week and appreciated his wisdom, humility and intentionality – especially in the area of evangelism, discipleship and church planting. It was clear from the outset we were one heart and mind in purpose and understanding.

While David carried most of the teaching, I was able to spend time getting to know the members of RFC. I received a great deal from Gift and his team. Their zeal for God, humility, hunger for the things of God, desire for truth, love of the Bible and care for each other and the poor was an inspiration.

Clearly Zambia has an extraordinary Christian heritage with 80 percent of the nation regularly attending church but would seem to be limited by the lack of understanding of the nature and functioning of church as the Body of Christ and the shortcoming of the widely practiced pastor/people concept. Rhema Faith Church already model a humble, praying, loving, Bible believing, Holy Spirit dependent community with a heart for the poor and a focus on preaching the gospel, making disciples and church planting. As they formulate their desire for a plurality of elders, and with the encouragement of being part of an apostolic group of churches – the outlook would be even more encouraging.

Reflection – Gift

I had no better joy than to see in reality what David has been sharing with me since 2021 during the week they spent with us. I was encouraged to see their passion for souls and building a family of God through relationships. David and Nick demonstrated the life of Christ to us the whole time, this gave me confidence to trust them more. Being a sceptical person, I became so convinced and safer with David and Nick by their life style of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and understanding about His Church. This was my prayer answered because I have been looking for Christian leaders whom I could trust my life and the Church with for the growth. I don’t believe in monopolization and the tradition of papalism (all looking up to one person; a top-down leadership model) of leadership that have been adopted in most of our African context of the Church.

I have always encouraged our members not only to listen or belong to a Bible believing Church, but the Gospel believing Church. I say so because even leaders or Churches that are misleading people claim to be Bible Believing Churches and manipulate Scripture. But the Church that is Gospel  based promotes Jesus and makes people reconciled to God. I remember in one of our sessions David quoted Paul’s passion for the Gospel where he said that even if it is preached with wrong motivates, as long as the Gospel is proclaimed (he never meant to promote wrong motivates). I don’t mean to annul the significance of the Old Testament Bible. I have come to understand that the whole canon Bible both OT and NT carry the absolute Gospel that leads to Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

I loved the Scripture-Based approach in all the teachings David and Nick shared. They allowed Scripture to interpret itself that everyone was able to witness and see in them the life of what they taught. If what I saw in the two servants of God is what Relational Mission is all about, then I am fully convinced that it is the right place to commit RhemaFaith Church to. I don’t believe in a dying vision because I know that God’s vision never dies. This is why I would never monopolise my leadership or associate with people whose visions of the churches are centred on individuals. I have witnessed churches collapse simply because the visionary died. On contrary, I have encouraged my fellow RFC leaders to understand that the church will not die till the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why I was thrilled by the understanding David and Nick shared with us about what and how the Church should look like. I was so comforted to have found people and a family RFC would belong to, a family that would father our leadership for continuity of the Church even if its pioneers would be no more.

I want to appreciate the help David suggested of training us in forming an official eldership team of the Church. We have believed in the plurality of eldership according to Scripture and what our Constitution declares. Thank you to RM for making it possible for us to know more about this network of Churches through the visit of David and Nick.

Feedback from RFC

“My life has been transformed by the teachings we received especially the meaning of leadership and how a leader should be.”

“The training was a life changing experience and a confirmation of things I have been learning from RFC.”

“I was inspired by the DNA of Relational Mission; how it was explained to live as one family (Hebrew 12:14), bringing people together in unity by building relationship as one family even the manner of resolving issues between leaders by confrontation in love (Ephesians 4:15).”

“The entire training was so amazing to me; it was a life changing.”

“It was amazing having learned about the Relational Mission’s doctrine and values. Under doctrinal values I was inspired on how much they believe in the Word of God, and that the Bible is inspired by God, this was very comforting to me in the sense that, it is what pastor Gift is labouring to see established in all the leaders through his teachings.”

“They helped me realize more clearer that humility is the foundation of life, which is knowing who Jesus is and understanding that everything we have is given by God.”

“… from what I have learned I will put all effort and make sure I practice humbleness in everything I do and in my leadership I will apply the principle of teamwork always. Lastly, I will always elevate the name of Christ in all my works.”

“When they started teaching us about leadership, their emphasis was most on humility, living a life of Christ. And among their teachings what stood out most for me was the love for the church and how believers are ought to be one in the body of Christ.”

“I learned that the church is based upon the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the on Word of God, which is inspired by God and is truth, clear, has the final authority, sufficient and necessary for the growth of the church and good leadership.”

“The love for the Gospel. David and Nick did not only preach or teach the Word, but they demonstrated it, which proved to me that the Word of God is what transforms people.”

“… their message that centred on cross and God’s Kingdom, they did not preach about themselves or promoting their opinions or what they have achieved in life, no! But instead, they taught about what Jesus Christ did on the cross.”

The Purpose of our Visit

Having connected with RFC on Zoom for the past two years this was an opportunity to meet and seek God through prayer and His word so that the Holy Spirit would show us what our future partnership would be like. We committed to explore vision and values, relying only on the word of God, and to enjoy each others company by hanging out and eating together.

There was also opportunity to visit some of the projects that we had partnered together in through the RM Business Link Seed Fund and the Community Church Christmas offering.

Programme

• Wednesday – Meal with RFC Leaders (evening)
• Thursday – Visit the Chicken Project (morning) then RFC Leaders Training (afternoon)
• Friday – Pastors Fellowship at Twapia (morning) then visiting church members homes (afternoon)
• Saturday – RFC Conference at Twatasha School (all day)
• Sunday – RFC gathering at Twatasha School followed by lunch with the church
• Monday – Time with Gift Emmanuel and Dalitso (over lunch), then time with Gift for a debrief and planning (over dinner)

Teaching Covered

• Relational Mission – A way of life – with RFC Leaders
• A Word based church – with RFC Leaders
• Plurality of Elders – with RFC Leaders
• RFC Vision – with RFC Leaders (Gift led this session)
• The Mission and Manner of our life – with Twapia Pastors Fellowship (including some RFC leaders)
• Doctrine of the Holy Spirit – at RFC Conference
• The Overflow of Transformation by the Holy Spirit – at RFC Conference
• Partnership in the gospel (Philippians 1) – at RFC Sunday gathering
• Ephesian 4 Ministries – RFC Leaders (Gift, Emmanuel, Dalitso)
• Three Thirds Discipleship (including DBS) – RFC Leaders (Gift, Emmanuel, Dalitso)
• Vision Casting – RFC Leaders (Gift, Emmanuel, Dalitso)