MANI 2011 CONSULTATION

ABUJA, NIGERIA, SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2011
Reuben Ezemadu, MANI Continental Coordinator

The MANI 2011 Consultation is the second continental consultation of the Movement for African National Initiatives following the first one in March 2006 which was tagged The Post-African Millennium Consultation. After the MANI 2006 consultation, a series of activities, events and programs were carried out at national, regional and ministry focus levels across the continent. MANI reached out to, and interacted with our counterparts in the other continents and made significant contributions in the ongoing global dialogue between the older mission forces and the emerging ones. By 2009 and as we contemplated the second continental consultation, we decided we were going to focus effort on validating existing data on the status of Africa’s least reached peoples, using the Joshua Project list as the base line. The findings of this process are going to form the background of all the deliberations at the consultation.

Under the theme AFRICA: THE BLESSINGS, THE CHALLENGES, THE OPPORTUNITIES, we want to review God’s dealings with, in and through the African people and particularly the Church, celebrate His faithfulness in every ramification, identify the challenges the African people and the Church in Africa face as we try to respond to God’s dealings and carry out our own part of the global mission task, and explore the various opportunities that are there for us to step up our contribution to the global effort of the Church in carrying out the Great Commission.

We will be reviewing the global context, which shapes and impacts the witness of the African Church. We will be looking at the nature and the dimensions of the missionary task of the African Church within and outside Africa. We will be examining the methods, strategies, tools, networks, resources, etc, that are available and could still be developed to ensure creative, sustainable and impactful ministry among our people and beyond our borders. We will nurture and deepen existing friendship and partnership between us and our global friends and partners, as well as explore new horizons of relationships and patterns of networking within the global context of the Body of Christ.

There will be incisive plenary presentations on facts, figures and case-studies on the critical issues facing the African Church today and in the future, multimedia articulation of these facts, figures and cases; table and breakout group discussions, great uplifting worship sessions, wonderful times of fellowship during the corporate meal times deliberately planned as such, break times, in the hotels and bus rides, as well as during the special times of deliberate interactions between African leaders and their global contacts.

We hope and expect that fresh insights into ministry principles and effective strategies will be gained. We expect that new frontiers of ministry will be discovered. We hope that new strategic ministry partnerships will evolve. We pray and hope that new ways of doing ministry and relating within the Body of Christ will emerge. We anticipate a great shift and a definite repositioning of the Church of Jesus Christ for greater impact and more strategic engagement of the remaining task.