Dave Adams, Advance Church Planting Course facilitator for South Africa, updates us on their activity in 2020.
2020 was the eighth year that ACPC has been running in South Africa. Despite the significant challenges that we’ve all experienced in 2020 with lockdowns that have disrupted so much of what we do, ACPC has continued to help equip those in our midst who are sensing God’s call to church planting.
Of course, the demands of social distancing have necessitated adaptations. Consequently, instead of meeting up for the three-day Intensives, we’ve had to conduct these online. Providentially, in 2018 and 2019 we endeavoured to film many of the presentations given by church leaders and church planters at the Intensives with the aim of creating a small resource library. This came into its own with the lockdown. It meant that participants could view some of these videos before an online Intensive and then interact online with the speaker during the scheduled Intensive. We’re so grateful that we had this option available.
Since 2013 when ACPC was launched in South Africa, we’ve seen a total of 138 people participate in at least one of the six ACPC modules. By the end of 2020, a total of 52 have participated in all six modules. In 2020 we’ve had 11 participants from Johannesburg, East London, the West Coast, and the Cape Town area. At the conclusion of 2020 three of these completed their ACPC journey, but the others will continue into 2021 to be joined by 9 new applicants from around South Africa in the new year as we recommence the two-year cycle for the fifth time.
Some of the participants are already serving in church planting contexts, while others are preparing to be part of a church planting venture. As a family of churches, it is exciting to be helping equip church leaders and church planters in this way. Despite the disruption of the pandemic, there is still momentum for church planting, and we can confidently look forward to fresh exploits of courage and faith as more in our midst equip themselves and step out in new church planting ventures in the near future.