Group photo taken on the day of the launch

The vision of planting a church in Mumbwa was born a long time ago among the elders of the Lusaka Baptist Church (LBC). In the year 2008, two mission trips were made with a view of making a general survey of the land. However, in the providence of God, it did not seem to be the right time to plant a church.

The vision was again revisited by the elders in 2017. We want to thank God for keeping the vision alive after such a long time. In this report, I will try to share some of the things that happened before and during the church launch.

Important activities before the launch of the church

Two fact-finding mission trips were conducted from October 6 to 9, 2017, and from January 26 to February 2, 2018. The purpose was to look into a number of important areas

There was need to find a venue for Sunday worship. We wanted to know whether there were buildings or schools to be meeting in for worship. We also wanted to know if there were opportunities available for radio adverts. The strategy was to pass out invitation cards on the streets, door to door and through announcements on the local radio station.

When planning to plant a church, it is important to choose an area with a big catchment, a place that is easy to locate by most of the people. After understanding the geography of Mumbwa, it was clear that starting the work right at the centre of the town was the best choice.

Coming from LBC where everything is done in English, we wanted to know how the ministry in Mumbwa would be approached. We wanted to know the language that was most spoken, the people groups, and where they lived, so that we could be relevant to the community. We found out that we were moving into an area which was like a cosmopolitan city with different languages. This helped us to find the best way of communicating the message and the kind of hymns to sing. It was important to understand the growth pattern of the town so that the church could be planted strategically.

The pastor’s family moved to Mumbwa on April 26, 2018, to prepare for the church launch. Sending a missionary pastor ahead of time to a place where the work must be started is the best plan. This is because a passionate missionary will work intelligently to see to it that the work is started well; and the work begins to shape up quickly.

The missionary started conducting Bible studies almost immediately.Studying the Bible is very important to the life of the church which is about to be launched. It helps the missionary pastor to have people to work with and plan the launch together with. This Bible study can be done on any day that can be agreed on with the people who are willing to study with him. The studies were being held every Sunday at 10.00 hours at the pastor’s house. This group became the core group that worked so hard to put most of the things in place towards the launch. It is very important that a missionary pastor has such a group of dedicated people to work with towards the launch of the church.

Finding a church building which is rightly located is also key towards the launch of the church. The church building has a bearing on how people will respond to the invitation given out. If the building is difficult to find or is not beautiful in appearance or is located where there is a lot of noise, it might affect peoples’ reception of the invitation. Because a building was found that was within fairly good premises the people willingly accepted our invitation.

The day of launch

There were several things that took place during the launch of the Mumbwa church. We received many saints from the “mother” church (LBC). The team included three elders—Mr Milandu Dubeka, Mr Sylvester Hibajene and Mr Ernest Mwansa. We also had deacons, senior youth choir, and a team from the mission’s ministry. There were other ladies, men and youths. This was real demonstration of partnership in church planting in which LBC took a leading role in having the church planted. It was very clear that it was LBC planting the church and not the church in Mumbwa planting itself.

Pastor Mwango preached the first sermon which came from Matthew 22:1–14. It was entitled, “Will you enter the wedding hall?” The idea was that as we were invited to come to the launch of the church in Mumbwa, God is also extending the invitation to attend the wedding of the Son of the King and his bride. As the invitation cards were given to anyone to come, God has a garment of righteousness that he gives those who must enter the wedding hall.

Elder Hibajene gave the key note address. He introduced Pastor Simon Mwango to the Mumbwa congregation and charged him to preach the word faithfully and plant other churches all around Mumbwa.

Elder Milandu Dubeka dedicated the church building. He prayed that the Lord’s eyes and ears might be open to the prayers of his people. Thus, on July 22, 2018, the church in Mumbwa commenced and the Lord has been blessing it since then.

Conclusion

We give thanks to God for enabling us plant this church in this district, which is predominantly Seventh Day Adventist and New Apostolic. We also want to thank LBC for partnership in door to door evangelism on Saturdays.

Pray for conversions of those who attend our Sunday services. Pray that the process of constituting membership might go well. Pray for sustaining grace upon the church. Pray for spiritual and numerical growth. Pray for the work of door to door evangelism to continue every Saturday.

 Simon Mwango

LBC Missionary Pastor, Mumbwa