Page 251 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

Gregory Mvula and Enson Lwesya have written an excellent history of
the Assemblies of God and Pentecostalism in Malawi entitled Flames of
Fire. They describe the coming of Pentecost from the north (Tanganyika)
and from the south (South Africa) and its development in central Malawi:

But Kalamule can be credited as the catalyst in growing the first
Pentecostal church in central parts of Malawi. The church that
came to be known as the Full Gospel Church, led by Kalambe
and a host of other African leaders, grew and impacted both the
central and the southern regions of Malawi starting in the 1930s,
years before any Pentecostal foreign missionary stepped foot on
the soils of Malawi. (77)

The Assemblies of God began to focus on Nyasaland as an extension
of the work in Tanganyika in 1943. However, as Mvula and Lwesya
contend, “The Full Gospel Church did not…affiliate with the Assemblies
of God until 1947” (80). Fred Burke, an Assemblies of God missionary,
made frequent trips from South Africa and exercised an influence on
the early development of the Pentecostal work there. In addition, Morris
and Macey Williams arrived in the 1940s and spent many years training
African leaders.

Mvula and Lwesya describe the work 1947–1962 as Fanning the
Fire—Developing the Indigenous Church. I recall hearing Gideon Bomba,
General Superintendent of the Malawi Assemblies of God, speak at a
convention in Springfield, Missouri in 1964. He was the first African I
heard articulate a vision for the Pentecostal church on the continent. As
missionaries, we also had the privilege of entertaining Gideon Bomba
in our home while we labored in Arusha, Tanzania in the early 1970s.
He was a gracious, dynamic African leader. Reverend Maxwell Chapola
followed Bomba as superintendent and helped in developing and
defining the mission.

Under the leadership of Lazarus Chakwera, the church in Malawi has
implemented a clear strategy. The Decade of Harvest was productive;
as a result, the church grew from a small number of local assemblies
to hundreds. The goal of the Malawi Assemblies of God was to have a
church “wherever a post office is located.”

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