Kabwata Baptist Church(1981-1985)

A paper given at the 20th anniversary celebration of the church on 24th January 2006

OUTREACH WORK:The period from 1981 to 1985 was the genesis of Kabwata Baptist Church as that was the time when outreach work in the area started by Lusaka Baptist Church. Towards the end of 1980 the elders of LBC proposed to the church that there was need to establish an evangelical witness in Kabwata. This was after having established Emmasdale Baptist Church.

The senior youth fellowship called Christian Action Group (CAG) that comprised students from University of Zambia, colleges and nursing school as well as young working adults that met every Saturday afternoon spearheaded the work. Among the weekly activities of the group was outreach in the vicinity of the church area.

Since the outreach work that was starting in Kabwata area was of a greater scale than that the group was used to, the pastor Rev J M Simfukwe organized special training sessions for the group. This was intended to prepare everyone for the daunting tasks that we were going to face as we embark on the outreach. Among the things that were stressed during the training were:

How to approach people with the gospel message
How to avoid controversies during witnessing
How to handle cult beliefs and avoid being sidetracked
How to use scriptures during outreach

This training proved very useful to all the participants and built a lot of confidence as we were unleashed into the area.

The outreach work was handled in two ways. The first exercise was to distribute invitation letters for the work starting and talking to people briefly about Christ. This was done in pairs and covered the whole area in a number of weeks. The second exercise was to start sharing the gospel with the residents and this was the major task in the work.

To make the work easy, we were paired fairly in order to make everyone have the confidence, i.e., male/female, and young/old. This brought a lot of strength to all the team members as time went on. We had many challenges along the way, but the work went on. We also had times of depression, as some of the residents were hostile to the gospel message. This only encouraged the team all the more as we knew that spreading the good news to mankind is not an easy task at all.

THE CHURCH SERVICES

After the blanket visitation was completed, the first service was held at the Kabwata Community Hall on 8th March 1981. The humble beginnings were quite an experience for many of the team members who had to sacrifice the comfort of LBC and meet in the hall that did not boast of any good sitting arrangements. Such were the beginnings of KBC that no one ever envisaged that 20 years down the line, we would look back and testify of the Lord’s goodness in the way He led His church to its present state.

There were times when this communal hall would be locked at the time we were supposed to have our services, and that meant we would meet outside sitting on anything that would qualify for a seat. This worked as a discouragement to some visitors who could not bear such discomforts, but the church soldiered on.

We had a good team that ensured that the meeting place was ready before visitors arrived and we had to clean the hall thoroughly to make it habitable. This made the work more enjoyable as we had to be involved in everything together unlike what happens in our established churches when people just come in time without knowing the amount of preparatory work done prior to that.

FOLLOW UP WORK

One of the most difficult things to do whenever a new work starts is following up visitors. There is always a danger of some disappearing when they are not followed up. This proved to be one of the most challenging tasks as the church was starting. We tried and worked hard and what proved advantageous was the consistency in the team, there was a high level of commitment.We would often times spend a whole afternoon with talking to one or two people, depending on the spiritual needs. The initial training obtained came in handy as we were able to contain and weather the storms that came our way.

REASONS FOR THE GOOD START

Admittedly, the work started on a good due to a number of reasons among which were the following;

The training that was given initially helped team members to be equal to the task and this helped in making us ready for many tasks in the church
The consistency of the team members also accrued to the great success in the beginning. The people involved with the work always made it a point to be there and if one was not present, others would enquire – it was not easy to backslide!
The direct involvement of the church elders ensured that the work had proper direction from inception. This was a two way approach, having leaders to lead and the team accepting to be led. There were no difficulties experienced that could derail the work.

A challenge to the young people is that the church looks forward to seeing them 20 years from now to be able to stand and attest to the work they will have done.

Truly, the Lord has brought us this far by His Grace, He has led by fire and by cloud, He will bring us to Zion to look on His face, blessed be God, blessed be God