17 March

• 1st QUARTER 2017 • THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL OFFICE Building no. 14, Central Office Park, 257 Jean Avenue, Centurion, Gauteng, Suid-Afrika P.O. Box 9450, Centurion 0046 Tel: 27 12 644-0490 | Faks: 27 12 644-0732/4 www.afm-ags.org https://issuu.com/afm_ags Dear Colleague,

CONTENTS • Dear Colleague - 1 • The AFM’s Position On The CRL Report And Hate Crime/Speech Bill - 2 • An Ecumenical Event: The AFM And The Latter Rain Mission (Spade Reën Sending) - 3 • Our Missional Strategy - 4-5 • AFM Spesialised Ministry: Judea Harvest Update - 5-6 • Wellness of Pastors - 7-8 • Conclusion - 8

It’s a privilege to greet you again in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Thank you for allowing me, through the means of this Pastoral Letter, to bring you up to date with all the important developments in our beloved church.

THE AFM’S POSITION ON THE CRL REPORT AND HATE CRIME/ SPEECH BILL The AFM’s position on the preliminary report of the Commission for the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (known as CRL) has been placed on the media page of the church’s webpage: http://www.afm-ags.org/media. Our position is a ‘NO!’ to regulation of churches by the State. Churches should be allowed to self-regulate. Churches should have policies that include internal mechanisms to deal with improper conduct of their pastors. Justice should take its course on church ministers that are found to be involved in criminal activities.

“Churches should be allowed to self-regulate.”

Our position on the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill from the Department of Justice is also available from the media section of our webpage: http://www.afm-ags.org/media. We have approached this matter from a broad perspective. Hate crimes, among other things, would include racist crimes, xenophobia, corrective rape and burning of houses of witch craft suspects. The AFM condemns and distances itself completely from these criminal actions. Our approach is the same when it comes to hate speech, however, we are of the view that the definition hereof is problematic.

In this regard our theological position is that all human beings are created in God’s image and their inherent human dignity should be respected. Having said so we strongly take a position that the Bible, which is our sacred text should not be criminalized. We should not be regarded as criminals when we quote the Biblical text as it is. Freedom of Religion, which is entrenched in the constitution of the country, should be respected. We conclude by stating that there is sufficient legislation to take care of the objectives of this Bill.

The Bill is therefore not necessary.

The AFM’s principled position is also available in a short video clip on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNqnVesp564&t=24s. The current developments are a wake-up call to us all. The issues are the Lordship of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Bible as God’s word. These two issues will, in the long run, be the areas of serious contestation. We must stand firm in our regard of Jesus and the Bible.

“Freedom of Religion, which is entrenched in the constitution of the country, should be respected.”

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AN ECUMENICAL EVENT: THE AFM AND THE LATTER RAIN MISSION (SPADE REËN SENDING) I would like to inform you about a remarkable reconciliatory-event that took place in early December 2016, which was initiated by the leadership of the Latter Rain Mission towards the AFM. The Latter Rain Mission and the AFM parted ways early in January 1928 under the leadership of Sister Martha Maria Fraser. The faction or break was mainly due to the degree to which the Latter Rain Mission stressed the role of visions and revelations by means of which secret matters, especially sins, were revealed through prophecy. They have always been very exclusive and were not ecumenically inclined at all. Dr. I.S. Burger (former President of the AFM) devoted a whole chapter to this split in the book “The Fire falls in Africa”.

A new and younger leadership was elected recently. Three of their Office Bearers met with Dr. I.S. Burger and Pastor Johan Steyn in Kempton Park last year. This was at their initiative. Dr. I.S. Burger described this meeting as one of the most moving and touching experiences he has ever had. It was a touching experience when these brethren one after the other confessed from their hearts the way in which their founders despised the AFM’s constitution and ethos and the harm they caused the AFM in those years. They confessed their arrogance and exclusivity and for considering themselves better than the rest of the body of Christ. They then requested that all should kneel as they collectively wanted to confess these sins of the past before God. They wept as they confessed before God and asked His and the AFM’s forgiveness. This was no cheap and shallow formality.

Subsequently they publicly and in a most responsible way made this confession and reconciliation known before a large crowd of their pastors and members in one of their gatherings.

We invited them to meet with the new Office Bearers of the AFM. The meeting took place on 22 February 2017 at the AFM National Offices in Centurion. The meeting was characterized by cordiality, a reconciliatory tone and acknowledgement of the need for cooperation in order to advance God’s Kingdom.

“The meeting was characterized by cordiality, a reconciliatory tone and acknowledgement of the need for cooperation in order to advance God’s Kingdom.”

Front row: From left to right: M.G. Mahlobo (AFM President) & Bert Peters (Spade Reën Mission President) Back row: From left to right: J.J. La Poorta (AFM Deputy President); Dr. H.J. Weideman (AFM General Secretary); B.P. Petersen (AFM General Treasurer); H. Du Toit (Spade Reën Mission General Treasurer) & D. Rossouw (Spade Reën Mission Assistant General Secretary)

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OUR MISSIONAL STRATEGY At this stage we are both pleased and excited to see more and more of our local AFM assemblies engaging with our missional strategy. We also acknowledge the continuous leadership input of our Regional/Non-geographic Committees and Departments’ Committees in ensuring that our Local Pastors have the opportunity to engage strategically with the One AFM Game Plan. During our NOB Regional Empowerment visits the Office Bearers continue to emphasise the importance of implementation. We are now encouraging all our Pastors to not only understand the meaning of the drivers or theory, but to transition to implementing the drivers in a practical manner. Or in other words “from the wall to the hall” and “from the head to the feet”! Practical implementation is now the focus of our missional strategy.

“Practical implementation is now the focus of our missional strategy.”

However, practical implementation cannot and should not take place in isolation. The importance of quality relationships, especially between leaders of committees (regional, network, departmental) and their Local Pastors or Leaders, will become a vital driver of successful implementation.

Relationships is one of the core values of the AFM and an essential ingredient to being church.

Through quality relationships we can get to know each other better, we can provide care, we can listen and coach towards growth and performance on various subjects and issues. In essence, we can invest in each other’s lives. Dr. I.S. Burger wrote a striking paragraph in this regard in one of his previous Pastoral Letters: “We cannot keep everyone at arms-length from ourselves and try to avoid in-depth relationships. It

will be to our own detriment. We cannot ignore the fact that Jesus had a 24/7 relationship with His disciples and even more so with three of them. In the early church everything was contingent upon relationships. Even good preaching and teaching alone cannot produce mature followers of Jesus. True leaders come to the fore when individuals are led to spiritual and emotional maturity by long-term mentoring and peer-coaching.

I am of opinion that the AFM should announce a season of focusing on developing these kinds of relationships in every aspect of our ministry. The fact is that most of our problems as church and country can be resolved once genuine, quality relationships come in place.”

“Relationships is one of the core values of the AFM and an essential ingredient to being church.”

NOB Regional Meetings 2017

We are so serious about this issue of quality relationships. By the time you read this Pastoral Letter we shall have already facilitated a 2-day practical empowerment session with all our NLF -4-

OUR MISSIONAL STRATEGY cont.

(National Leadership Forum) leaders on this subject. During the past week the first NLF Meeting of the year, hosted in Cape Town, focused on preparing our leaders to think about how they are going to intentionally grow quality (coaching) relationships in their own regions, networks and departments. We would like to see that every Local Pastor in the AFM is presented with an opportunity to stand in a quality (coaching) relationship with a member of their committee or another identified experienced leader. These types of relationships are critical to achieving the missional purpose of our church.

“During the past week the first NLF Meeting of the year, hosted in Cape Town, focused on preparing our leaders to think about how they are going to intentionally grow quality (coaching) relationships in their own regions, networks and departments.”

AFM SPESIALISED MINISTRY: JUDEA HARVEST UPDATE Judea Harvest is one of the AFM’s spesialized ministries. Recently they have achieved a huge milestone that I would like to share with you. Here is a short article written by Dr. Louis Blom, President of Judea Harvest:

Dedication of Tent 3000 Three men came together in 1998 and received an incredibly large task from God. The Word was: “Gather the Harvest!” The vision became clearer after much prayer, and it was decided to build a harvesting machine that could reach one million people for Christ. Past Hansie Henning, the first and now retired President of Judea Harvest brought the idea of doing this through blue and white gospel marquee tents. We would need to deploy 3 000 tents to be able to reach our one million goal. After deploying tent number 1 500 Pastor Hansie Henning retired and Dr. Louis Blom became the President. Since then Dr. Louis Blom and his wife Thea Blom and their team continued deploying 20 to 30 tents per month, relentlessly chasing the goal, one million people for Christ.

A couple years ago Dr. Louis Blom founded Judea Hope, with the vision to develop a network of child care centres that utilised and maximize the same evangelism tents deployed. Today Thea Blom is the leader of our Judea Hope work, making a very real difference in the lives of thousands of children in terms of food security, nutrition, education, care and Salvation. To date hundreds of tons of high nutritious warm cooked meals have been distributed through our million meals project. Many of our ECD’s “Early Childhood Development “centres are founded in our tents, however as the church grows, a building is built for church and ECD classes.

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AFM SPESIALISED MINISTRY: JUDEA HARVEST UPDATE cont. the glue is Jesus, our Love for Him and one another.

It became evident that the evangelists and Pastors working in the tents had a dire need for Training. Dr Blom subsequently founded Judea Training, bringing affordable, practical, ministry skills training to much of the one million untrained African pastors. In Partnership with TEN, Judea Training currently under the leadership of Dr. Danie Reynecke we have more than 20 000 registered students that have completed in access of 50 000 life changing one day courses.

We also thank or friends and partners and donors who entrusted us with the million upon millions of rands that made all this possible.

As Judea Harvest kept developing the Lord led us to create the concept of Judea Harvest Group with the three divisions, Judea Hope, Judea Training and obviously, Judea Harvest that continues to focus on the initial focus of evangelism and church planting, currently under the leadership of Past Kola de Klerk that joined our team a couple years ago. Past Kola also went ahead and developed our three year old Snap Church program. The Snap Church is a pre-fabricated building that can be assembled on site within 10 days. This building program provides in the great need for churches planted with tents, and have grown to the next level of acquiring land and building a permanent structure. To date we have built more than 70 snap churches and plan to build 1000 in the next season, as God provides the resources. Our Snap Churches are also used as Hope centres reaching children.Judea Harvest Group continues to enjoy the favour of God on our work. We celebrate the reaching of our first goal, 3000 tents, and we have proven that you can have big goals for God, as long as you give yourself enough time, 18 years to reach them!

We will continue to gather His great Harvest in Africa and are humbled by the privilege that our team has to do this work. We salute all our Three Trees Staff, our Regional managers, Country directors, Training Deans, ECD educators, Evangelists and Pastors working in our network of tents and Churches. We have more than 10 000 Pastors and leaders in our network that we developed during the past 18 years,

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WELLNESS OF PASTORS In 2006 I proposed to the leadership of the church that we need to prioritize the wellness of our pastors and their families. In 3 John 2 we read: “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul” (NRSV). John prays that Gaius would be well in all aspects of life. Some of the factors that generally have an impact on pastors’ wellness include, inter alia: • Expectation gaps • Conflict • Health challenges • Financial stress • Emotional stability • Family relations and pressures • Conflicting demands between ministry and family • Dysfunctional Governing Bodies • Fatigue and burnout • Coping with change • Access to resources The difficulty of dealing with challenging situations is depicted below:

Changes in Environment Pressure to do more with less

Loss of internal control

Challenging Situations Uncertainty about the future

Work-life out of balance Increased pressure

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WELLNESS OF PASTORS cont.

We can all agree that when pastors find themselves in “unhealthy situations” ministry gets affected in a negative way. One of the best investments that the church can consider is to invest in the wellness of its pastors and their families. We need to bring in to life the program that addresses this issue. The primary purpose of such a program should be to address problems encountered by pastors and their families at ministerial, educational and curative levels through a simple and a prompt intervention.

“One of the best investments that the church can consider is to invest in the wellness of its pastors and their families.”

The program should also be aimed at facilitating a lifestyle change and promotion of wellness in the context of improved productivity and performance. It should be undergirded by the principles of professionalism, confidentiality, neutrality, accessibility, voluntary participation, dignity and respect.

CONCLUSION I trust that you have found this Pastoral Letter insightful and helpful. We are looking forward to a promising and fruitful season in our church.

Blessings!

M.G. Mahlobo

THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL OFFICE Building no.14 | Central Office Park | 257 Jean Ave | Centurion Gauteng South Africa P.O. Box 9450 Centurion 0046

Tel: 27 12 644 0490 | Faks: 27 12 644 0732/4 | www.afm-ags.org Newsletter Editor: Past. M.G. Mahlobo (President of the AFM) mmahlobo@afm-ags.org Additional Enquiries: Chantalle Schutte (Internal Communication Specialist) chantalle@afm-ags.org

The WHOLE church taking the WHOLE Gospel to the WHOLE world.

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