"Sacred Roots: Beyond the West: How Africa Shaped Christianity" by Twijjukye Anan

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. This is Strength to Strength, and our goal here is to provide you with resources that will strengthen your obedient love-faith relationship with King Jesus and give you solid footing in a shaky world. And this morning—excuse me—this morning, our title for our talk is actually the tenth talk of our Sacred Roots series, and the title is Sacred Roots: Beyond the West, How Africa Shaped Christianity. And we have a nun joining us here from Uganda.

A nun, welcome here. It's good to have you. Thank you. Thank you, brother. You shared a talk on here maybe two years ago, I believe. So it's good to have you back. I'll introduce a nun here shortly, but at the beginning here, I wanted to read a couple of paragraphs from this book by David Brousseau, Secrets of the Kingdom Life.

Last evening, we have a monthly youth book study, and I got to be part of it last evening, and we were in chapter four here, and these paragraphs stood out to me. I'm just going to read this. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave us one of the most illuminating explanations of the Kingdom Life in his illustration of the vine, which we just read. Here, Jesus explains that the Christian life is one of an abiding relationship with Him. Salvation is not a once-and-done operation. Furthermore, it's not just any relationship with Jesus, but a relationship that bears godly fruit. Or to put it another way, it is an obedient love-faith relationship with Christ. According to Jesus, bearing godly fruit is essential, not discretionary.

The Kingdom Life can only be achieved through the power that Christ gives us. Yet that doesn't mean that we play no part in it ourselves. The first secret of the Kingdom Life is that it is built on two key spiritual truths.

Christ, without me, you can do nothing. John 15:5. Man, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Christ tells us that we will never be able to provide fruit on our own strength, let alone live the Kingdom Life. We need to maintain a close spiritual relationship with Him. Most Christians are aware of that. However, too many Christians think that Christ's words mean, "I can do everything for you," but that's not what Jesus says.

So an obedient love-faith relationship with King Jesus or with Christ, as Brousseau puts it here, I believe that's where I came across that idea, obedient love-faith relationship. And so we're so thankful that Jesus is our elder brother, that He has risen.

The grave is—the stone was rolled away. He is at the right hand of God. He is interceding for us. He cares about us, His body, His church, and He wants us to—He wants to empower us to be His hands and His feet. And that's some of the reason for this Sacred Roots series is to look back through history and be inspired by godly men and women who were striving to follow Jesus and be faithful in their time. And so welcome here. Let's just pause for prayer, and then we'll introduce our brother here, and we'll give him the floor. So let's pray. Father, we come to You in Jesus' name this morning.

We're so thankful, Lord, that we have Christ in us. We have Your Spirit within us. We're so thankful that we live in a new covenant where no longer are You in a temple in a certain part of the world, but in the way that You were there in the temple, You're within us in that powerful way, in that powerful presence through the Holy Spirit. And we have become Your temples in the world. And so, Father, we ask that You would again today empower us to be faithful to You.

Father, we ask that You would bless Brother Anan as he brings this message here to us, this talk this morning, that You'll bless him and give him a clear mind and give him strength and remove any fear that he might have and give him just confidence through Your Holy Spirit, Father. So bless him in a special way. I pray a blessing on the listeners that are here with us and the ones who will listen later. Lord, may Strength to Strength be just a tool in Your hands for the work of strengthening Your body in the world here. And may You receive the glory from it, Father. So go with us, and we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes, amen. So Anan and I have—I have had the privilege of getting to know Anan the last two years. Maybe it's more than that now, working together in marketing a lot. And so there probably isn't a day that goes by that he and I aren't messaging each other.

It's quite frequent. Anan does our website for our cafe, Sewer's Harvest. He also does the website now for an alliance of cafes, extend cafes that we're doing. He does some of our design here for Strength to Strength as well.

And I've seen Anan's work in other businesses that I interact with, his design work, and he's a gifted designer. And so if you're needing a little plug for his business there, I believe it's called Open Brands, right? Is your business—if you're looking for a designer, Anan does great work.

Anan also cares a lot about the church, and he does a lot of work for their resource, the Antioch Resource Center, I believe it's what it's called, right, Anan? There in Uganda. He does a lot of discipleship there in a resource center they have right next to the university in Uganda, a lot of discipleship and teaching, as well as they have a YouTube channel where Anan puts up teachings around—actually, he has a message on there or a talk on there about how Christianity was African, was very African back at the beginning.

And they're on their YouTube channel as well, other teachings. Also, Anan recently kicked off an initiative there where he's helping people fight the plague, the sin of pornography. And so, Anan, you have a lot going on. And also, last but not least, Anan is engaged to be married at the end of this month. So Anan has a lot happening. He's engaged to Dustin, a sister there in the congregation there. It's been safer for me to read your bio here, but I feel like I know you so well, even though we've never met. We've never met. We look forward to that sometime. I did get invited to his wedding, and I would have loved to have went, but unfortunately, it's not going to work for Lynelle and I to go.

But our hearts and prayers are with you, Anan. So again, thanks for being willing to come on and talk about this this morning, even in a busy month here. So Anan, over to you. God bless you.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm really honored to be here. I've been following this series and greatly honored that I can get to participate in any way possible. Thanks for the kind words and the prayer. You've been very encouraging, yeah, throughout ever since you told me about this talk.

So to start off, I would love to share a short story. So this is about a group of 12 Christians from a small town of Sila where we were brought before a Roman proconsul. And this happens to be one called Vigilia Sataninus. They were charged with being Christians, a crime, of course, as many of you know, by then it was punishable by death under Roman law.

But when given the opportunity to renounce their faith and swear allegiance to the Roman gods, they unanimously refused. And their leader, who happens to—he was called Separatus, famously declared, "We hold to the Christian faith and we cannot do evil." And when pressed, Father Spiritus added, "I do not recognize the empire of this world, but rather I serve that God whom no man has seen nor can see." Then the proconsul offered them 30 days to reconsider their statement, but they all stood firm. And as a result, they were sentenced to death by beheading.

But can you guess their final words? Some of their final words were, "Thanks, thanks be to God." That was their unanimous message together. But who are these? Who are these people? It turns out this is in the year 180 AD, and it is in a Roman province of Africa, modern-day Tunisia.

Surprisingly, very, very few people, very few Africans today around Campana, just like globally, are unfamiliar with many of these stories, like some of these early Africans that understood the faith and that they were willing to die for the message that they had. They had refused. I mean, they had received from the apostles.

And it is a narrative that runs deep in various places. In 1877, a British explorer called H.M. Stanley, he landed in Uganda. This is by then the predominant kingdom was the Buganda Kingdom. And when the king of Buganda had interest, like he was very excited, he decided to tell this explorer to write a letter towards the Church Missionary Society in Britain so that he could send missionaries that would come to Uganda and spread the faith. But of course, he had some other interests. He saw that these guys had firepower, they had some other technologies, and he wanted to have a fair share of that. So within the same year, later on, still in the same year, 1877, this group of missionaries landed in Uganda.

And this was a Protestant group of missionaries. After that, about two years later, another group of Catholic white fathers also arrived in Uganda. Remember, we used to sing a song. I went to Catholic school, singing about how Lord Real Mapera and Brother Amans landed in 1879 and kind of spread Christianity.

But with the help of these Christian missionaries in Uganda, later on, Britain declared Uganda a British protectorate in 1894. But there's a lot of complex opinions about colonialism here, of course. But what is clear is that because of this partnership with colonialists and kind of spreading the British rule within Uganda, as time passes, it created a huge misunderstanding about Christianity. And since many think that it is at this arrival of these Christian missionaries, that is when Christianity came into Uganda, or even in Africa generally, because that is the major understanding of the spread of Christianity, they have ended up branding Christianity to be a white man's religion. Of course, there are many, many other things that went on, some brutality and some, like I said, some complexities around colonialism.

There's been this resentment against and towards Christianity. But now what ends up happening is they end up doing this. They are now throwing out the baby with the bathwaters, which is a very huge misunderstanding. The first arrival of Christianity in Africa can be pushed back to dates much earlier than Western historical skepticism has typically allowed.

Thomas Odden continues saying that this will require further examination of archaeological and textual evidence. The early Alexandrian tradition may indeed go back to the 60s, 50s, or possibly even 40s. So despite this thought that Christianity came into Africa in the late 19th century and some of those years, it is far, far away from what history tells us. That if you ask a question, when I take out Africa from the Bible, what am I left with? And that is kind of what we are going to be looking at. Yeah? If Africa wasn't in the biblical story, what are we left with?

So from the stories of Joseph to Moses to the Exodus to the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt to the Ethiopian Eunuch, these are African events that define the whole subsequent narrative of the salvation history in the Christian view. Like from the very beginning, from the life of the patriarchs, Abraham himself landed or stepped in Egypt, and that is, of course, on the African continent. Otherwise, as the story progresses throughout history, Jesus and the Holy Family, they go down to Egypt, of course, when they're fleeing from the Herodian persecution.

One guy that helped Jesus carry the cross on his way to Golgotha, Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene, that is in Libya. Yeah? And so with all of those people, the ones that now later on went with this faith, of course, way, way early before the birth of the Messiah, there was already a huge Jewish community down in Egypt that had done already a lot of preparation, introducing people to the God of the Hebrew Bible. And that later on, when Christianity starts spreading, it is not a shock. They're already familiar with this. So many, many Africans, and not only Africans, there is, like I've been saying, this misunderstanding. As a result, Christianity has been excluded from the definition of traditional Africa.

And according to this stereotype, Christianity cannot be African simply because it came from the Europeans. So that is something that is kind of adapted by those who look at the coming of Christianity by these missionaries, the Western European missionaries that come in the later centuries of history. But if 20 centuries don't make a religion traditional, what will? Actually, if you're to think about the early ethnic movements, like the Zulus, I mean, the Bantu and these major ethnic groups in Africa, the last ethnic group to settle in South Africa, and these are the Bantus in Zululand, didn't settle there until the 17th century. And yet they are regarded traditional. They are regarded like kind of native to that land.

But if you look at history, Christianity has been in Africa for over 20 centuries. But today, there's kind of this talk about, hey, let's kind of abandon this and go back to the African traditional religion. But this Christianity that has survived for 20 centuries even surpassed the ancient Peronic religions that are known to have stayed for a long time, but Christianity still stands to this day. So this mishaped memory has branded modern Christianity as the oppressor.

Hence, to many people, to be truly African is to resent Christianity. And of course, that is totally wrong and totally false. So by talking about this, Africa, Christianity is not that Christianity was early in Africa just for that, but it had significant contributions. Africa had very deep contributions towards Christianity. And I want to give you five reasons here that are rather earlier that the idea of a university is something that was anticipated within Africa. And I'm going to briefly explain about this, that African thinkers shaped Christianity's historical and scriptural exegesis.

They are the ones that also shaped very many early Christian dogmas that also many ecumenical decisions followed African conciliar patterns. And then lastly, I'll talk about how spiritual formation was heavily influenced as well through early monasteries that spread in the interior of Africa. So what about this idea of universities? So for five centuries, many of us know about the unrivaled Library of Alexandria. And it had a huge, huge influence down in Egypt and, of course, spreading to the coastal towns of Africa and also having influence farther north. Yeah? So you may say maybe we shouldn't say it was born. The idea of universities was born in Africa, but most certainly it was conceived in Africa because of this.

There was a various learning community of philosophers, scientists, and writers and artists and educators that were surrounding this Alexandrian library. So in later universities in the medieval times, this is in Italy, in Spain, Oxford, they followed these patterns of text examinations and circular patterns of what are they going to teach, how are they going to teach, and philosophical imperatives that were refined in second-century Christianity. Like I talked about how our surrounding, the huge library in Egypt, of course, in Africa, there's this influence of books and reading and writing and developing practices of studying not only scripture alone, but various literature. And when further universities, of course, are created, they are looking at already traditions that have been established.

And many of these find a lot of influence from the Alexandrian library. And of course, surrounding that library as well, there's also a lot of Christian scholarship that started here. We know of many Egyptian Christian thinkers, origin, some other Alexandrian writers as well. So this idea of university, it was anticipated within Africa way, way before we see it spreading in various parts of the known world by then. So I've talked about how also early Christianity in Africa shaped Christianity's historical and scriptural exegesis.

So in the early years, in the first century, the normative Greek and early Latin version of the Bible were largely products of Africa. Of course, if you know about the Septuagint translation, where does that happen? It is down in Egypt during the Ptolemaic period, the story of how 70 scholars go down to Egypt and they end up translating this highly influential text that Jesus and the apostles relied upon for decades and decades. It was the major version of the Bible that was being used by the early Christians. So when people think about early, should I use the term church fathers, they'll think about the famous Cappadocian fathers like Gregory of Nyssa and Asianzus. But these are later on, but they are ones that also heavily relied on African works.

Yeah? People like Origen were already defining these doctrines of Christianity. So when later on, people like Gregory of Nyssa and these Cappadocian fathers are trying to keep on kind of formulating and solidifying the triune nature of God, they are relying on work that has already been created for centuries before them. Yeah? And also around when we're talking about scripture exegesis. So this idea also of a verse-by-verse commentary on the Bible, many of us here are familiar with Brother Bussell's work on the dictionary of early African beliefs. Like we see that these thinkers, Tertullian, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, to say the least, many of whom were Africans, were already kind of looking at scripture, doing verse-by-verse commentary.

Of course, it's a practice that has gained popularity as history keeps on progressing and going ahead and ahead. But it is also something that started within many of these early African thinkers. So how did it shape early Christian? How did early Christianity in Africa shape these early Christian dogmas? Of course, discussions and conversations about Christology and the triune nature of God, these are things that we already, these guys are thinking about. They're pondering, they're spilling a lot of ink, trying to make sense of how God has revealed himself in scripture. Tertullian, living in Carthage, North Africa, famously known to have been the one that coined the term Trinity.

No Christian today doesn't know about that time, even non-Christians. But if you trace the roots of that, it all goes back to Tertullian. When you think about the early major heresies in the church, they were first battled in Africa. So in an attempt to try to solidify, like to enforce Christian dogma, they were doing a lot of work. We know of kind of battles against early Gnosticism that was spreading inside the church, Arianism, Manichaeism, and many, many other heresies. But within Africa, within mostly North Africa, they were already having these debates and these conversations. Early apologists are writing a lot of work about this topic. Of course, talking about Arianism, we know that one of the things, one of the major reasons for the Council of Nicaea is to kind of settle this dispute of the Arian controversy.

So it turns out that Arian and, of course, Athanasius with the Nicene Creed, these were both Africans. Before that council was called upon, already these conversations were in the background. They are steaming up in the continent of Africa. Athanasius is kind of like reaching out and trying to correct this heresy. And then later on, it comes on a global platform. And then those conversations then go further and further. So we're seeing that kind of clarifying dogma, what is orthodoxy? What did the apostles teach? These early African thinkers were really seriously battling with these ideas. So there's also this idea that many ecumenical decisions followed African conciliar patterns. So today, you'll hear talks about, of course, these ecumenical councils, especially the major ones, the seven ecumenical councils.

But that idea of kind of gathering together to sit down and figure out what is the consensual view of this passage? What is the consensual view of such and such a doctrine? It is something that was actually already within Africa. Like when they're having this conversation, they have small synods and small meetings. And then that idea, let's scale that up, of course, leading to these major councils, like the Council of Nicaea, kind of getting, let's call upon all bishops, let's call upon all church leaders and see what is the consensual reading of this, what is the consensual understanding of such and such a passage. It is something that was ready that you see in early African.

These early African thinkers were already doing that. So how did it also shape various forms of spiritual formation through monasticism? So following the suffering matters, we see Mark in Alexandria and Cyprian in the Maghreb. So these are major regions in North Africa. Monasticism was already in Africa way before it was in areas like in the rest of the world.

Due to there was a lot of persecution and a lot of suffering. So many of these guys went into the interior and they started up various monasteries, living alone and trying to live out their faith. Of course, the Markham tradition was already kind of recognized. So you have these two major places. You have Mark down in Alexandria and then another major place in Carthage. So those were kind of the hotspots of Christianity, but it didn't stop there.

So there was a lot of trade from the coast down to the interior, especially around the Magadda River. And then there's the Nile basin as well. You have ideas as goods and ideas are going to the coast. So Christianity also followed those paths and you find communities deep into the interior of Africa. And so practices of monasticism before it went up to the north and then to Europe later on. So like I've said, it started deep in the deserts away from busy lives of the cities where monks would have their solitude. They needed to pray and to contemplate. So when these Africans started going up to the north, so this was kind of the movement, many ideas are going from south to north.

Actually, when you read, you find that some major leaders in the northern part, this is going out of Africa, were sending people down to Africa to inquire, how can we teach, how can we interpret this? And then some of these thinkers would go up, would go up to further parts of the world.

So let me get back here. So in his book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, Thomas Odden adds this quote when he's kind of exploring this topic. He says, "Thus far, I have set forth some preliminary examples of evidence of crucial African influences in the shaping of scripture, especially in integrating the two testaments, the formation of early Christian dogma, the rejection of non-consensual readings of Christian scripture, the fostering of a method of ecumenical and conciliar decision-making on contested issues, and the intensification of spiritual formation that prevailed among communities of monks and nuns seeking holiness in the deserts." In his book, he goes ahead to kind of explore deeper and a deeper ways in which Africa went on to shape the Christian mind.

But there's just so much that could be talked about this. But all of this is to make a point that Christianity isn't just a Western import into Africa. And by many people taking on that understanding, especially Africans, I see that a lot in conversations that I'm having. You won't have a conversation or a discussion before someone raises their hand, "Hey, how do we trust that? That is a Western religion." It is just by a mere look in scripture, from the very first book of the Bible to the end of the Bible, they already story after story after story.

Places like Ethiopia, places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria. Today, like Thomas Odden talks about how there are even many, many places that are still awaiting for archaeologists to go and discover because of these kind of deep roots that were already formed. Of course, as time progressed and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslims keep sweeping, they kind of slowed down the spread of Christianity. But that didn't happen until about five centuries. So for all of that time, Christianity was spreading. It was forming deep roots within Africa.

So there are many that are ignorant of this point, both in Africa, also in some of the Western cultures. But even those that are aware of this, they end up creating a sort of a division, this idea of one faith, but two Africas. So there are some Africans that try to look at North Africa. It's like, "Okay, so how African were these thinkers really?"

Because now they're trying to make a lot of it about skin and, "Oh, did they actually look like we that are living down in Sub-Saharan Africa?" That is entirely missing the point. So they end up excommunicating the north. Yes, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and all of these, mostly now these days, they're dominated by Muslims and some Arabs. But we shouldn't excommunicate the north. These thinkers, Athanasius, Origen, Tertullian, they were as African as the rest of the Africans are. So instead of trying to push this away, we should try to embrace these ancient roots that are actually grounded in our continent here.

And like I said earlier on, that it wasn't just a coastal phenomenon. Like when you look at Carthage, where Carthage was located, and then in Alexandria, you might be like, "Hey, it seems like these guys were just at the coast."

Was there a disconnect between the interior of Africa? No, that isn't the case. Like I've mentioned that, yes, Alexandria was the key city that gained a lot of respect since it had a first-generation apostle. That happened to be Mark. Mark is known to be, he went there, he establishes the diocese there, Mark. And then together with Carthage, not Carthage, Carthage as another hotspot of Christianity. But these were the hotspot of Christian thought. Christianity went deeper into the interior of Africa. Actually, when you follow how the River Nile keeps flowing, it goes through even some kind of Nilotic tribes. Actually, in Uganda, I'm not saying that by then it went deep down in Uganda. But we've had some ethnic groups that are part of those Nilotic people that later also went and moved down into Uganda.

So yes, it centered around these key cities. But then along these major river systems, the Magadda and then the Nile basins, it went on spreading southward. So we as Africans, and not only Africans, but also just the global church, trying to appreciate the roots of our faith, that indeed it is something that finds actually a lot of influence from these major African thinkers. Instead of talking about, so there are these terms, the black washing and white washing of history. It shouldn't be looked at either of those terms.

So in these modern times, there is a huge movement of Africans that are really, really trying to push away Christianity. Everything is all about the Europeans, their white washing history, they're making us forget about our history. And as a result, yes, there is at times some truth to some of those claims. But this temptation of swinging to the far extremes, our aim should be to find what is the middle ground, what is the best explanation that values the truth. So it should be made about looking at history as, oh, it's been white washed or it's been black washed. But we have to look at how diverse the Bible is and appreciating that God is working through a diverse group of people that just like we see the Tower of Babel, the scattering of the nations.

But now that God, through Christ and through the church, is uniting people, is bringing us together under one umbrella. And that is the kingdom of God. We see that in the Great Commission, the Lord says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And look, I am with you always even to the end of the age." So what you see many times in these conversations, I had to kind of spend time looking at how what various people are talking about this topic, what they're thinking about this.

And you find that various people just wanted to make it about certain groups. And in the West, it's more like more in forms of Christianity is a European infringement on Africa. So keep your religion away. This idea of moral relativism, it is true for us, it's not true for them. Don't take your religion to those places. And then here in Africa, people just want to push that away in ignorance, out of ignorance of the rich history of Christianity in Africa. And actually, the more you read from what these scholars have to say about this is that there's even still a lot more to figure out, to excavate archaeologically about how much Christianity has spread in Africa.

So instead of trying to find things that we can identify with, people want to identify with a tribe, with a race, with a nation. We should realize the diversity, like I've said, within scripture and that God is reclaiming all people. And many of these early Africans, many of these Christian writers showed that they were surpassing their boundaries and they're extending the kingdom to whomever and wherever.

And what you see as one of the effects of Africans forgetting about this is that we end up losing our ground for even defending the faith, I would say. Now, what happens a lot is that many of what we see in the African church and how Christianity is spreading in Africa, it is always almost modeled by what people see in the West.

But we end up not appreciating these ancient values, like values on modesty. How did these early Africans, early African Christians think about modesty, entertainment, teachings, and practices on biblical non-resistance? And so I believe that if we appreciate that, and it has been helpful to me, the more I've been kind of doing courses and kind of studying on the historic faith, per se, and looking at these early Christians, many of them are African, it makes you even kind of feel like this is home, like you connect more and more to it. So instead of looking at Africa as one that took a backseat in the growth of Christianity, we have to realize that indeed Africa played a huge role in redemptive history.

And it's a huge part of rediscovering this ancient faith that Strength to Strength is doing now, this idea of sacred roots. And many of these roots also go back in Africa. But overall, we have to surpass this idea because it's kind of on the debate front that is it about white, is it about black? No, the call in scripture, we as Christians is to surpass that and find out this idea of a global brotherhood and the global church that the Lord is spreading all throughout the world.

And right now, it is something that I'm trying to instill where I go in the conversation that we have in the Bible studies that we hold, is that trying to make fellow Africans appreciate this and taking that unnecessary barrier towards receiving the gospel. And by missing that point, we are already starting at the wrong place, not looking at Christianity as a 19th-century thing. So what ends up happening is, so what did we do before that? What did we practice before that? But knowing that for 20 centuries, Christianity has prevailed on the African continent as well. Of course, also that's part of the promise that the Lord makes that he is building a church that neither the gates of Hades shall be able to prevail and to prevail against it.

So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about. I don't know whether there is a question or a comment, but I will pause it there for now. Yeah, thank you, Anan, so much. Yeah, brother, thank you so much for sharing.

The story of the Bible is the story of humanity. It's just the word of God written over a thousand years by many different authors, writers, is just such an incredible story as you get into it and understand it.

And obviously, a lot of different areas as well. And yeah, the idea that some of those early church writers were African is something that just doesn't you kind of think of Christianity as you're trying to help us understand, it's a wrong idea. But you kind of think of Christianity as kind of that Middle East area and up into Eurasia, right, and Europe. But it's way beyond that and right out of the beginning.

So that's, yeah, so powerful, so beautiful. And I can see how that gives you so much inspiration to kind of draw from that in your teaching there and taking the kingdom message to your people and pushing back against some of those false narratives of colonialism. And of course, how that can be quite a turnoff for so many people, especially in the last number of years as some of those things become more and more evident.

But really going back to those roots. And of course, to that understanding of the faith once for all delivered the saints, right? And the word of God, of course. And then those early church writers kind of using them as commentary on how to live this out is really, really powerful. And I would love for you to kind of talk a little bit about kind of how you do that there with you have the Antioch Christian Resource Center, which I find really intriguing. I would just love to come and spend a week with you, Anan, there at your center and kind of how you interact with university students and what that looks like. And maybe you could just tell us a little bit about how so you have this kingdom message and how are you taking that to your people?

And maybe how did you even come? You've shared your testimony here, but maybe just in a nutshell, how did you come? How did the kingdom message impact you and get into your heart and into your soul and into your life? Maybe a little bit of a personal story there, I think, could be really meaningful here. And then I would put it up for other brothers to ask questions or give encouragement here. So yeah, so maybe just unpack a little bit how you got introduced to the kingdom message and then kind of how you're working that out and teaching that there, specifically with the Antioch Christian Resource Center that you have right next to the campus.

Yeah, yeah, thank you. So still, I think it also ties into this whole idea of forgetting these deep roots of Christianity. Many teachings in the Bible, specifically in the New Testament, like these teachings of Jesus on the summit on the mount, separation from the world, biblical teachings on radical enemy love and non-resistance, there are things that have been very, very forgotten, and that is to say the least. So for me, it was like a combination of seeing, of course, first of all, a community of people leave that out, but also seeing that in scripture together with the testimony of these early Christians. One of the very first books that I read, and it was a recommendation from a brother here, the very first book was, "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?"

And that was way before I was kind of even thinking about joining the church here. And I kept asking questions. Remember, we had call after call, and this was with Brother Jim. I'm like, "How come I haven't seen this? How come I haven't done that?

How come I don't see this anywhere?" But just seeing the testimony of scripture, I mean, seeing these teachings in scripture and also seeing testimony of people that have actually lived this out historically and also presently, it is something that really challenged me and that started my journey to kind of seeing, so how can I follow the kingdom road?

And when it comes to how we teach this, it is the approach. Usually, what I do, we have a course called Creation to New Creation. It's more of like an overview course that we teach around here. But it just keeps on building and laying a thread and tracing the kingdom. And then reaching in the New Testament, pulling out these forgotten practices and Jesus' ultimate call to an obedient, love, and faithful relationship, just like you said at the introduction. And also, we kind of keep going back to the testimony of those that received the faith at the beginning. Jude says, "Containing for that faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints." It's like using that as a test.

So how do we know what was delivered down? How do we know what was practiced at the beginning? We have this huge time that has passed. It is 2025. The church started in the first century. So how can we walk confidently that we know that this is what the Apostle Paul handed down, and this is how it was actually practiced? So we get to consult these quotes and these writings. But yeah, but right now, even now, reinforcing this idea that many of these writers, that many of these early thinkers weren't Europeans is not what we see in what is depicted in various images. Because many times when you see Jesus painted anywhere, he's really a white, glowing European guy with long hair.

And to some, they find that a bit, especially those at the beginning that I said that have a lot of resentment towards colonialism and the Western infringement of African values. It is challenging. It has caused many to have maybe not generally denying the faith per se, but they take on a wishy-washy approach. It's kind of like cultural Christianity. Over 80% of the population here are professing Christians. But to dig deep and have deeper conversations, yeah, we go to church, but we have our ancestral worship. We have all of these that we do. Because they feel like they don't have a deeper reason to go farther. But now, when you look at scripture, what the New Testament teaches, you see that this is what was practiced in the early church.

Actually, many of these early Christians were Africans. They were leaving this out. They were leaving out the kingdom. The kingdom journey, I believe it is a powerful thing. It has been powerful for me personally, the more you keep kind of studying this. But it's also powerful to those who are, of course, honest seekers and are ready to follow the truth where it actually leads. But these are things that I had almost never seen growing up. I had never seen practiced until recently, about it's coming to four years. So four years ago, when just getting to sit down, slow down, look at what does the New Testament teach in its entirety. And it really, really, like scripture says, it turned my world upside down.

Because it is a journey of growth. There's still a lot of room for me to grow and kind of crucify my flesh and submit my will to the leadership of the Lord Jesus. But it's been a very illuminating journey to say the least. And many times, I'm very hyped and I'm passionate about talking about these things. And at times, you feel like there's this sense of shock when you tell these. Many people, it doesn't take a lot of rocket science to know that Christianity was in Africa way before it was in the West.

Just open a few pages in the Bible. I mean, really, it's just kind of the response that you get from various people here. But anyway, that was a long answer to your question there. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you, Anan. That's great. I really appreciate that.

Your passion, brother, is such a blessing. And keep pressing on with that passion. I know that you're living very counterculture there, Anan. You're part of the Fathers of the Way congregation. You have a lot of you gather a lot, which is African.

You have a lot of community, which is wonderful. I would just love to come and hang out there in that side driveway where you guys have a fire pit. And I see some pictures sometime of you all there.

But you have a cappella music in your services. You don't have a loudspeaker with a drum set, as African churches do.

You're not wearing jewelry or women are covering their heads, dressing modestly. Non-resistance, all these things is all these things are countercultural around the world. But some of those aspects are very countercultural right in your part of the world. And how do you yeah, how does that work for you? So counterculture, how did you learn to accept those things or do those things still feel kind of strange to you yet?

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't actually easy for me personally. I had a very active background. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Yes, yeah. Yep. Now your video is going again. Go ahead.

Yeah. So I was saying many of these things were very shocking, very different. And me personally, I had a very active background before I joined the church. I worked in the entertainment industry. I was a dancer. So leaving all of that and kind of taking on a new lifestyle was fairly challenging. But I even would say it's a lot harder for our sisters here having to really oppose that kind of force. Many of them have never seen people who are practicing this biblical modesty, like the Christian head covering, especially that it's been very, very challenging. There's just lots of derogatory statements that are being made. They are calling it a cult, and they want to ban the head coverings.

You're being bewitched. Many things. So it's been very actually encouraging personally, me as a guy getting to see our sisters really stand strong and shine a light in this culture here. And another thing is that with our church here, with our church, most of us are first generation. These are all entirely new. And so you get to know that it takes a lot of growth. And of course, as in churches, every day that passes is a moment. It's a moment of growth. But it's been very, very great. And I'm really grateful for the work that Christ is doing in his church, in his bride here in Canberra.

Thank you. I'll let you open it up here. Any questions? Any words of encouragement for our brother here?

Anan, did any of the apostles go to Africa? You mentioned Mark. But did any of the apostles actually take the gospel to Africa?

So I didn't encounter anything about apostles, any of the apostles going to Africa. I know for sure Mark. Yeah, Mark was there. But I don't know about any of the other apostles. Did Mark do his work in Northern Africa? What part of Africa did he take the gospel to?

So Mark was kind of his birthplace. He's from Libya, I believe, also in Libya. But he takes the gospel in Alexandria. So mostly, he establishes kind of the bishopry in Alexandria. And then that becomes kind of the major place in Africa. Because if you have a first-generation apostle going down there, then that spreads to the rest of the places. But his evangelistic work, what I've seen and what people have been writing, is mostly in Alexandria. I don't know whether he goes and spreads to other places as well.

One more question.

They say that Africa had its own tradition of four-part singing before the West came to Africa. Is that true? Do you know anything about the development of music in Africa?

Tradition of what? Just to get that. Singing in parts, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

Not just unison singing. I read John Bell. He said when the missionaries first went to Africa, they found them singing in parts.

Oh, hey, brother, you hit your mute. There we go. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Brother John, no, I don't think I'm knowledgeable about that. I haven't seen anything around that line as well. Well, Anan, Brother John helped compile a songbook. You're probably actually singing from that book.

Do you have a purple songbook that says Hymns of the Church on it?

That's the one we use. Yeah, yeah. So Brother John compiled that songbook. You look at the front, Benchmark Press, John D. Martin. So Brother John has a passion for a cappella music and what we call four-part. So soprano, alto, tenor, bass, which is what a lot of the Anabaptist churches would practice today here.

And that's very interesting. So maybe you need to do a little research on that when John's saying potentially Africa was quite influential or held on to that or developed that idea, that practice. That's neat.