TEASA BGM UPDATE

The 2023 TEASA BGM was a long time in coming. Originally meant to happen in 2022, it was rescheduled to January 2023 due to unforeseen circumstances.

 

Opening Devotion

The BGM was opened by Rev Dr. John Maloma, drawing from Judges 9 story of Abimelek, with an exhortation of the importance of ethical leadership in a the nation.

 

From the Chair

The 2023 TEASA BGM was a long time in coming. Originally meant to happen in 2022, it was rescheduled to January 2023 due to unforeseen circumstances. Hearty thanks for all BGM delegates in attendance. Together we:

• Received a keynote address from the secretary of the State Capture Commission Rev Dr. Itumeleng Mosala, who challenged us to discern the spiritual state of our nation and contribute to its transformation.
• Received and adopted an organizational report from the General Secretary as well as some Commission reports.
• Received and adopted the Audited reports
• Received thematic areas for Resolutions, herewith submitted to members for comments.
• Held elections for a National Executive team to serve TEASA for the next two years. These were duly commissioned and prayed for.

 

Keynote address

It is hardly possible today to prayerfully reflect on the state of our nation without being confronted with the challenge of `corruption’. A theme that is spiritual and yet influences every other aspect of the nation.

Prof Itumeleng Mosala, Secretary of the State Capture Commission, addressed the BGM on the report of the ‘Zondo Commission’, inviting all South Africans to engage with it, with a view to becoming part of the solution to this endemic crisis. Some of the highlights of his talk were:

• The commission had close to 500 million pages of data on corruption to sift through.
• The ultimate commission reports came to 5000 pages and they used only one percent of the data to produce the final report.
• The key gap in the work of the commission is that it did not collect evidence on the soul of the nation and the spirit of the people
• There is a plan to identify a suitable place to house all of the accumulated data by the Commission. CSIR is assisting the Commission with the task as we speak.
• A theological reflection on the work of the commission is required going forward:-
– Once we start to reflect theologically on the meaning or implication of all the work and report of the Commission it will connect us with people.
– The theological task for churches is find and reconnect with churches to our people, our ethics and relationship with God

 

2021/2022 at a glance

The mission of TEASA is to foster
• evangelical unity
• building capacity of churches and ministries for
• Greater advocacy in society, evangelism and missions.

Pursuing its passion for Christian unity in mission TEASA undertook:

• A TEASA Theological Consultation exploring the impact of colonialism on evangelicalism, cohosted with UNISA. That Africa is home to the biggest number of Christians on the planet gives the church in Africa the responsibility to ‘decolonise’the faith.
• In light of the floods that wreaked havoc in KZN and elsewhere in the country, TEASA joined other church leaders to provide support for the 2021 flood victims.
• Meeting at State house in Malawi with President Lazarus Chakwera, were the general Secretaries of the evangelical alliances in Africa. This was part of a Confence on Serving Christ in the contexts of Religious Extremism. Leaders found sharing mission notes from touch contexts.

 

Building Capacity

Evangelism and Church Planting Commission

The vision of the Church Planting Alliance (www.cpa-sa.org) is to see a Healthy Church in Every Community. Research reveals that thousands of communities in Southern Africa remain untouched by the transforming presence of a healthy church. And at the current church growth trends, most will remain beyond the reach of a local church… unless the Body of Christ is mobilized for church planting.

Healthy churches – planted and growing right where people live – place Jesus in their midst.

A local congregation of believers – where men, women and young people live out the life of Christ in His beauty, power, compassion, and forgiveness – is a powerful agent of transformation in a community. There is no better way to disciple a nation and it is undoubtedly the strategy given to us in the New Testament.

TEASA does this in partnership with Church Planting Alliance, Go Movement, Disciple-making movements and One Challenge International.

TEASA members are invited and encouraged to actively participate in different Commissions and they include: Mission, Market Place, Health, Theology and Youth. Click here

 

Impact through advocacy

Building civil society capacity for advocacy in local government:

TEASA has started a training program to build capacity for churches and individual Christians to advocate for better local governance. The training program is a collaborating with the South African Christian Leadership Initiative (SACLI) and Gordon Institute for Business Science (GIBS) to offer a 6 week Online Course in 2021. Sixty-eight candidates across the country registered and completed the course. The intention is to continue, funding allowing, with the program toward building a critical mass for Civil society agency in and across the local municipalities.

Public Policy:

From time-to-time law makers develop policies and laws that impinge on Christian beliefs and religious liberty. Marriage laws is one such key area of concern. Government invited public comments on proposed policy to amalgamate the existing marriage laws into one. TEASA gathered an Ad hoc committee of lawyers and pastors to put together a TEASA submission to Home Affairs in consultation with TEASA Church leaders. A copy of our submission is available here

The government is also considering to regulate or decriminalize sex work in the country.
TEASA arranged a meeting with the experts from SA Law Commission and the DG of the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development.

Electoral Reform:

More recently, TEASA has supported advocacy for Electoral reform as part of a broad based Civil Society campaign.

Combatting Corruption and supporting Whistle blowers:

TEASA General Secretary addressed an anti-corruption memorial in honour of Ms Babita Deokoran, the whistleblower who exposed the corruption at the Tembisa Hospital.

International Advocacy:

As part of its advocacy, TEASA speaks to both the domestic and international environments where we have received Macedonian calls for help. In recent years, TEASA responded to the crisis of civil wars in Mozambique and including further afield on the African continent. Information sharing, prayer and solidarity was offered. West Papua and Palestine also sent appeals for help. TEASA responded:

• A TEASA delegation made reprentation to the Indonesian Ambassador about human rights violations on behalf of Evangelical Church delegation. On another visit to meet with TEASA leaders, in a more recent visit of West Papuan Evangelical leaders, they shared their story at the Radio Pulpit. ( Interview available on request)
• TEASA’s Rev Esme Bowers and Rev Moss Ntlha, along with a WEA delegation led by WEA General Secretary Dr Thomas Schirrmacher met with leaders of the Evangelical Alliance of Israel and the Palestinian Evangelical leaders. Purpose : to discover together how to strengthen the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land.
• Rev Moss Ntlha, Rev Dr Frank Chikane and Rev M Molo meet with two former Israeli Ambassadors to South
  Africa, namely, Ambassador Alon Liel and Ambassador Ilan Baruch of the Policy Working Group. Both are convinced that Israel practices Apartheid.

 

The 2023-2024 NEC

• NEC Elections were facilitated by Governance consultant Ms Denise Woods and the outcome is as follows:-
  The newly elected NEC Members are Rev Siphiwe Ndebele (Baptist Convention), Rev Steve Oliver (Vineyard SA), Rev Renier Pelser (Full Gospel), Mr Aaron Mokabane (Lutheran), Rev Hermy Damons, Rev Dr John Maloma (AFM), Rev Esme Bowers (Full Gospel)
• Rev Esme Bower is the duly elected Chairperson and Rev Dr John Maloma is the duly elected Deputy Chairperson.

BGM Resolutions

Five themes were identified around which resolutions would be developed. These were:

• Contributing to efforts to combat corruption
• Fostering evangelical unity
• Reconciliation
• Strengthening Discipleship
• Sustainability
• West Papua & Palestine

For a full statement on the resolutions: click here.

Financials

• The TEASA Audited financial statements for 2021/2022 were presented at the BGM and adopted. (They are available to paid-up members on request from office).
• TEASA is thankful for the generous donations of a members and the Motsepe Foundation. Without their enduring support, TEASA would not have been able to fulfill its mandate of fostering unity in mission in South Africa.