MISSION SENDING GROWS IN LIBERIA

By Gene Brooks

The Evangelical Church of Liberia (ECOL) hosted its second annual national missions conference from May 21-22, 2021, at the ECOL National Headquarters. The conference drew about 80 pastors, church leaders, missionaries, and local church people from across the country.

The conference focused on sharing the gospel among oral learners. Speakers included Rev. Tom Stout, SIM Ministry Point Person for Orality from California, Dr. Rick Calenberg, President of the Evangelical Seminary of West Africa, and Rev. Musa Sheriff, a former Muslim.

Plenary presentations and breakout sessions included Bible storying for evangelism and disciple-making among oral cultures and the importance of the Great Commission.

Musa Sheriff’s rousing presentations compared the person and work of Jesus in both the Qur’an and the Bible. He also gave an astounding testimony of his journey from preparation in a madrassa to be an imam to a believer in Jesus Christ with a passion for those who are seeking God within Islam.

ECOL General Overseer Rev. Moses G. Paye says, “We began our national mission conference in 2019 to raise awareness of the importance of the Great Commission among our 115 churches. We want our churches to understand the importance of supporting missions cross-culturally within our own country as well as outside our own borders.”

ECOL has seven church planting missionaries deployed cross-culturally across Liberia and beyond.

Following the conference, Tom Stout spent a week training ECOL missionaries and ELWA Radio’s tribal language broadcasters in oral Bible storying. Then the missionaries visited villages in a day-long practicum in Bible storying evangelism.

ECOL has seen growth in response to the mission conferences. Proceeds of the offerings help fund the monthly stipend for ECOL’s missionaries. Each missionary has planted multiple churches and started primary schools where none existed in villages within and beyond Liberia.

In the last two years, ECOL has planted five churches in Sierra Leone.

Tom Stout, SIM Ministry Point Person for Orality on far left, with trainees in oral Bible storytelling.