Lausanne World Pulse – Urban Articles – Niamey—What Is Its Context for Christian Service? Part One
By Martine Audeoud
October / November 2009
A noteworthy event was the creation of the Eglise Evangélique de la République du Niger (EERN), the name given to the churches established by SIM in Niger. A couple of church groups split off from the EERN and formed their own church association. Meanwhile, the Alliance des Missions et Eglises Evangéliques au Niger (AMEEN) was started in 1998 “to create a greater sense of community and collaboration amongst the growing number of evangelical mission and church associations.” This association brings together all the evangelical churches in Niger, and its leadership is renewed every few years. By seeking to promote a sense of unity in the Nigérien Church, the AMEEN offers churches and church leaders several opportunities for training and development.
The Christian Church in Niger Today
Today, the Christian Church in Niger has about fifty thousand members with an annual growth rate of 5.4%.5 It offers about five hundred churches and preaching points around the country.6
Recent conversations with long-term missionaries9 have uncovered that church leadership training has been minimal in the country. This has often been due to misunderstandings among Nigérien leaders about Christian leadership, as well as their strong commitment to keeping power in one’s own hands. Church leadership has too often been assimilated with the traditional chieftaincy model of leadership. Furthermore, struggles among leaders within the evangelical Church body, and consequent denominational splits, seem to have stemmed significantly a concerted and visionary effort toward evangelism and church planting.
These internal leadership struggles have unfortunately prevented the Church from making a significant impact on its surrounding Islamic community (estimated to be between eighty and ninety-nine percent of the total population of Niger). Furthermore, constant pressures from the Islamic communities and from Islamic family members make for a very challenging environment for Christians, who often feel emotionally and spiritually drained by these unceasing pressures.
We have briefly looked at the historical background that influences church life in Niger. History has undoubtedly influenced the worldviews Nigérien Christians have adopted. In part two of this article will attempt to identify and characterize these worldviews.
Endnotes
1. 2007. Le Niger en Chiffres—Edition 2007. Niamey, Niger: Institut National de la Statistique.
2. Serving in Mission.
3. Schaaf, Ype. 2000. L’Histoire et le Rôle de la Bible en Afrique. Lavigny (Suisse): Editions Groupes Missionnaires, 59.
4. Ischei, Elizabeth. 1995. A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 171.
5. Johnstone, Patrick and Jason Mandryk. 2001. Operation World. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster Publishing, 485.
6. Evans, Gordon. 2003. “History of the Church in Niger.” unpublished.
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Martine Audeoud has served for over twenty-five years in Africa and Haiti. She has helped coordinate urban consultations in Abidjan and Haiti and is presently in Niamey (Niger) with her family. Beside her regular teaching job at an American school, she teaches and serves as an administrative consultant at the École Supérieure Privée de Théologie in Niamey. Her vision is to empower francophone African church leaders with contextualized tools that will empower them to respond effectively and creatively to the challenges of the twenty-first century urban francophone African context. |