Interdenominational Faith Missions in Africa

Book excerpt: It was not the European and American churches which evangelised Africa, but the mission societies. The missions from the Great Awakening such as the London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society, or the Holy Ghost Fathers and the White Fathers, which started the process of Sub-Saharan Africa becoming a Christian continent are well known and documented. Less known, and less documented are the interdenominational faith missions which began in 1873 with the aim of visiting the still unreached areas of Africa: North Africa, the Sudan Belt and the Congo Basin. Missions such as the Africa Inland Mission or Sudan Interior Mission gave birth to some of the big churches like ECWA in Nigeria and Africa Inland Church in Kenya. It is the aim of this book to describe faith missions and their theology and to present an overview of the early development of faith missions insofar as they touched Africa.