Hope Baptist Church focus on becoming Missional
Hope Baptist Church is situated in Sunnyside, Pretoria. The congregation uses the facilities of the Pretoria Faith Community (formerly known as Bronberg NG Church in Bourke Street).
Pastor Julius Mbu and his wife Cintia are pastoring the congregation. Pastor Julius is originally from Cameroon. While at Tukkies (University Pretoria) he got actively involved with SLM (Student Led Ministry of CCCSA) during the years 2004- 2006. Previously, from 1995-1999, he was involved in student ministry at the University of Dschang in Cameroon. His passion and hart for winning souls for Jesus and discipleship is undeniable. He testifies that his calling from the Lord is Leadership Development and where better to do it than on campus.
Pastor Julius stayed involved with CCCSA ever since his first encounter. Since 2018 he also serves on the CCCSA Board and is still actively involved with SLM at Tukkies. It therefore flowed naturally for Hope Baptist Church to open its doors and taking hands with CCCSA to establish a Missional Church and Community in the inner city of Pretoria.
Hope Baptist Church previously officially partnered with CCCSA and as a result they invited us to their Sunday service of 19 March. Chris Dirks (our National Team Leader) was invited to preach and shared about discipleship. All our CCC ministries and strategies were represented and exhibited with banners and all.
After the worship service there were great and fruitful interaction over a nice cup of tea and a slice of delicious birthday cake. As part of the partnership, two Saturdays are set aside for follow-up training. On May 6 and 13, a team from CCC will train members of Hope Baptist Church. They will do GCM’s (Global Church Movement) Launch Training.
What a beautiful thing is this partnership with the sole purpose to establish a missional community where the body of believers are actively busy closing the gap between believers and unbelievers! To bridge the great divide is the heartbeat of a loving Creator and Father!
Here are a few gems from Chris’s sermon:
How did the resurrection of Jesus affect the disciples lives in the first 40 days? (John 21:1-14).
We can see the disciples had no plan to share the News about the Messiah with the world. Here we see Peter said he is going fishing. He decided to return to the past and have a normal life and the rest of the disciples followed. They had no mission, purpose or expectation for something to happen.
When Jesus met them later while they were busy fishing “They were so demotivated that the disciples did not even get it when Jesus said throw your nets on the other side. Only when they caught the fish did John realize it was the Messiah.”
The danger for us is “to do the same old same thing again and again.” But surely “The resurrection must change the same old same.”
How does the resurrection impact your day to day living? Jesus gave us a mission
(Matthew 28:18-20).
The resurrection gives us a message, a purpose, a mission, an expectation and joy for life. It will not be the same old same every day.