Johannes Mtumo Mngomezulu lives in Eswatini in Southern Africa, and is the leading pastor at his local church. He is the National Chairperson for Langham Preaching.
Johannes was introduced to Langham by his brother, and after learning about the ministry he was “hooked” straight away. He shares, “ I had just completed my Bachelor of Arts in Theology, and then as he was explaining about Langham, I was so hooked by the fact that they actually teach on how to preach biblical truth from the Bible.”
The need for biblical truth
“What we see here in Eswatini is that more emphasis in the pulpit is the healing gospel and also the prosperity gospel…Langham brought back the biblical truths in the pulpit that should be preached, rather than making emphasis on the prosperity and the healing gospel.”
In Southern Africa, there are challenges within the church of pastors teaching on different biases based on people’s desires. Johannes explains “Based from my own observation, people here in Eswatini, some of them are heavily burdened, they’ve got many needs. Some of them are looking for promotions, they want money, they want so many things. So when these guys bring forth the prosperity gospel, to them they feel like, ‘wow, we shall have cars, we shall have all these sorts of things’. And many people here are sick. And when somebody comes forth to say, ‘I can heal you with a healing gospel’, everybody stands up. Those that are now lying on their beds,they’re being brought forth because the one man who has said, ‘I’m coming with some healing gospel, everybody will stand up and be healed.’”
When Johannes had finished his theology training, and learned about Langham, he was encouraged by the simple training within the Levels that was streamlined around what he had studied. He shares, “We were learning as evangelical students, expository preaching was the key. Expose the whole Bible as you preach. Don’t just take a few verses, and then preach them out of context.”
“When I was doing Langham level one, I realised that Langham is actually bringing a simple model that enables you to just get the right message from the passage.
As a pastor in his local church, Johannes uses the expository preaching method, and uses what he learned through the Langham training, “I employ much more of the model that I learned from Langham rather than what I learned from college, because with this model from Langham, it’s a shortened version of what I learned in the college. It’s more practical,” he explains.
Teaching and equipping
Johannes also works for the Faith Bible College, and has introduced Langham Partnership to the students. Over 200 pastors have completed various levels of the training, and are in local Preaching Clubs. He shares, “That’s where we keep the fire…so that after doing level one, they don’t go back home and they forget about everything…We meet every first Sunday of the month, we have literature that we get from Langham, and sometimes we read through the books…Or we get into a passage from the Bible where we read the passage together and then we look into what God is saying in the passage.”
Johannes is passionate about helping pastors be trained to teach the Bible faithfully and relevantly. He shares, “Our main dream is that as we preach here in Eswatini we need to preach one message from the pulpit. We have seen Langham help us through that, because we bring pastors, as many pastors as possible for Langham training. Our feeling is that the product thereafter will be a product that will be preaching basic biblical truths. That truth has to actually help the people change their way of living, change their character, change their behavior. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Prayer Points
- Thank God for Johannes and his role as a pastor and trainer of pastors in Eswatini.
- Pray that God will continue to raise up church leaders in Southern Africa to teach the Bible faithfully and relevantly, and for more leaders to participate in Langham training.