Equipping the church in Africa for difficult times: A pastoral training program from the book of Revelation

The central purpose of this project is to develop a training program for pastors on how to utilize the book of Revelation. This program seeks to apply Revelation in equipping the church for living faithfully during difficult times.; "Difficult times" is employed to indicate those situations that threaten one's relationship with Jesus Christ. Revelation was given to equip the church to survive many kinds of crises throughout history. The message of Revelation needs to be made clear to the church, which is living in perilous times today, especially in Africa. Not all of these difficult times are apocalyptic in nature such as the genocide of Rwanda. Africa is seemingly continually rocked by violence, pestilence, plagues and persecutions. There are other difficult times that are subtle in nature. The believer in Africa is often in conflict with traditional values. There is continual communal pressure to maintain traditions and religious practices. All of these difficulties present a challenge to the church that can be addressed by the book of Revelation. This is the reason for the title of this project.; This material is intended primarily for the churches in Africa. However, it is hoped that these concepts will be applicable anywhere in the world where the church is experiencing faith threatening events.; Chapters one and two of this project evaluates the contexts of the first century church and the church today in Africa. Chapter three draws together these two contexts to show why the book of Revelation is used in this project. Within both contexts there are events, crises and situations that give rise to the need for the application of the book of Revelation.; Part Two is a training manual. It presents six lessons from Revelation addressing these issues. This basic entry level into the study of Revelation uses only those verses that are free of symbology or are self-explanatory. Each lesson contains illustrations from Africa. These examples may be changed to make the lessons applicable to other societies and contexts. The objective of these lessons is that the church can have victory in facing difficult times.