| Almost 2 000 years ago, our Lord
Jesus Christ told His disciples to “go and make disciples
of all nations….” It was the trumpet call to evangelism,
and, throughout the ages, Christians have responded to that command.
Michael Cassidy was one of them, a young man full of the new
joy of knowing Jesus, who decided to accept the Great Commission.
He had a vision to evangelise the continent of Africa.
In August 1962, Michael Cassidy and a group of young students
of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, in the United States,
at the invitation of a ministers’ fraternal in Pietermaritzburg,
undertook what was virtually a prototype of inter-racial, interdenominational
city-wide evangelism in South Africa.
That was the launch of African Enterprise, an organisation
totally committed to evangelism and transformation.
Today, 40 years after his first outreach to Pietermaritzburg
in 1962, Michael still heads African Enterprise, the international
evangelistic organisation he started. It is now a team of men
and women of all races and denominations, headquartered in
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
AE today covers the whole of Africa through its 10 evangelistic
teams in the democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Supporting these teams are solid structures in Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland,
United Kingdom and the United States.
AE’s international Mission Statement reads:
“To
Evangelise the Cities of Africa through Word and Deed in Partnership
with the Church”.
We in South Africa follow this route, faithfully applying
it specifically to the local situation.
OUR COMMITMENT
TO EVANGELISE: This is our primary calling, and assumes the
proclamation of the Good News that God wants all people saved
from their lostness, and that, in Jesus Christ, He provides
the means.
THE CITIES OF AFRICA: From the outset we have been called
to minister to the cities. One of the main is that a country’s
leaders are invariably found in the cities, and if AE can reach
into the hearts of those leaders, they, in turn, will influence
for good the lives of their followers, and bring about the
transformation so needed on our continent.
THROUGH WORD AND
DEED: The Word is the proclamation of salvation
through Jesus Christ, and the Deed envisages a holistic approach
to the Gospel, working on the assumption that, as in James
2:14-17, if we do nothing about humankind’s physical
needs we will have fallen short of God’s calling.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE CHURCH: Our missions are clearly community-based
and church-driven, and include a major training component aimed
at equipping and enabling the local churches to continue the
mission themselves. We rely strongly on mission participation
and follow-up by the local churches.
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