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While Africa’s church is among the world’s fastest-growing, and the 10-40 Window of unreached peoples lies partly within its boundaries, taking part in global missions hasn’t caught on as a burden for Africa’s Christians. Aiming to enthuse evangelical African youth to reach the world for Christ, the triennial conference Commission 2000 hosted 2,000 college-aged students and professionals from around the continent.

African evangelicals largely view themselves, not as missionaries, but needing missionaries, and to them missions is a new thing. Timothy Wachira, general secretary of Kenya’s student ministry Fellowship of Christian Unions, or FOCUS, said that he wanted Commission 2000 “to mobilize people to issues of missions (and) to start seeing that they are called by God, not just to live and wait to go to heaven.”

Run along the lines of the United States’ Urbana conference, FOCUS hosted the fifth Commission December 26-January 2 in Kenyatta University near Nairobi.

The high point of the week of prayer, sessions on mission, and exhibits from Christian sending agencies came when Commission 2000 director Oliver Kisaka called for those willing to be missionaries, support missions or to pray for missions, to stand. Around 800 conferees stood, later signing commitment forms. Church leaders in the home countries plan to follow up with each pledger.

Events such as Commission are rare in Africa. Information about Africans on the mission field is more anecdotal than statistical. The Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association reports that it has 400 African missionaries. South Africa’s Overseas Missionary Fellowship for years has recruited and sent missionaries. The Ghana Evangelism Committee emphasizes reaching the unreached people groups within its own boundaries. At the continental level, groups such as the African Evangelistic Enterprise reach the continent’s cities but also have programs in other continents.

Muslims are a natural mission field, presenters said, because 13 African countries are either Islamic republics or have large Muslim populations. Ahmed Adeji of Ghana, himself an Islamic convert, said that while Muslims number among the most resistant to the gospel, that doesn’t diminish the need to minister to them.

Delegates didn’t need to be told that obstacles abound to their serving as missionaries. Apart from Lebanon and perhaps Egypt, it is very difficult for a vocational missionary to go to the Muslim world. And in a continent where many Christians earn less than $2 a day, missions resources are scarce. Oscar Muriu, pastor of Nairobi Chapel, said that Africa’s church is poised to partner with wealthier Western churches that can provide funding for them to reach the world. “(Would) that the church in the West would partner with the church in the Two-Thirds World, because together we are involved in God’s harvest field,” he said. In a context where poverty is a big hindrance for missions, such partnerships could harness Africa’s potential.

Securing visas, even within Africa, makes travel difficult. Nigerian delegates waited five weeks for visas to Kenya. Some countries don’t have embassies in African countries. For the average African to travel to advanced Western countries takes a miracle. And, helping participants live out their commitments can be a problem. Structural problems abound. Mail is slow. Phones sometimes don’t work. A potential missionary’s enthusiasm can die in frustration.

Some Africans who enthusiastically have left for the field ended up returning early for lack of preparing. “We ought to ask ourselves what skills we need on the field,” said International Fellowship of Evangelical Students-English and Portuguese Speaking Africa (IFES-EPSA) regional secretary Femi Adeleye. “We need to do some biblical studies maybe for the short-term program. You will probably need to learn another language.”

Still, Adeleye told delegates there are no closed doors. Opportunities exist for those who want to do missions. “There are ways to go to so-called closed countries as students (and) professionals,” Adeleye said. “If I go to Tripoli as a student or Morocco as a student, I do not carry the label of a missionary, but I still can share the good news of the kingdom.” This concept is nothing new, but remains one that presenters want all African Christians to adopt. Studying and doing business abroad brings opportunities to share their faith in other lands. An Operation Mobilization missionary spoke on tentmaking: “You can go as teachers of sports, basketball, football, music and English,” said the missionary, whose safety could be compromised were his name printed. “You can go as tourists, or as students in the universities there.”

Tentmaking remains the most viable way for Africans to enter missions. Then, professionals don’t have to struggle with raising support, which has hindered many willing Africans from the field. Most Commission presenters pushed for professionals to consider missions. But there’s still a place for traditional missionaries, such as through Kenya’s Sheepfold Ministries, which formed after Commission ’91.

Representatives from 25 national and international missions agencies and organizations set up displays and reported that interest among conferees was high. Several agencies said they had run out of literature.

Said Mission Frontiers’ missionary Pete Hammond from South Africa, a Commission 2000 presenter: “Africa has received so much. It is her turn to give in return.’