Themba Shabang was born in the Northeast of Swaziland, South Africa. He started to take some Bible classes as a hobby but as he learnt more about the Bible, he began to develop a rich understanding of the Gospel and a desire to pursue further studies of the Bible. At age 62 he has recently graduated with a diploma from Zion Bible College, and is now an Assistant Pastor at his local Assemblies of God Church.
Themba has also attended the Level 1 Preaching Seminar with Langham Partnership, which teaches how to study and preach God’s Word faithfully. Since his studies and Langham training, he has become aware of the altered Bible teaching within South Africa as they continue to face ongoing challenges in their post-apartheid society. He shares “Going to the school of theology has helped open my eyes. It was so beautiful that when I started to learn about Langham, they introduced to me this expository preaching. With the expository preaching, it makes somebody tell something, not to be biased, not to be up, not to be down, but to state the Word of God. Not to add, not to take something from the Word of God.”
He continues, “I’ve learnt that if your preaching is straight, if everything is extracted from [the Bible] or is biblical, you don’t add some things just to create interest or to draw people’s attention, but it should be the Word of God. And it should be the Holy Spirit that should speak to the people or convict the people, not through our strength, but the Lord himself that has to do His work.”
Teaching, Preaching and Discipling Others
Themba has also developed a passion for teaching young people at college and university that there is more to their education; that they need God. He shares, “It comes from some of the children that I’ve seen and some of the students that I’ve been with at the university. Some of their parents are pastors, but when they go to university, they think they are clever and they don’t care about the Word of God. And so my passion is that people who think they’re educated and they think they have everything, they have not started to know about their life. Old as I am, I feel young. I wish to spread the word of God much better… my desire is to open a school, especially to introduce Langham to most of our people.”
Through his training with Langham, Themba was particularly impacted by the story of Jonah. He shares, “Through Langham, they’ve taught me from the book of Jonah. He was a man of God, and was asked by God or commanded by God to go to Nineveh, but he decided to go to Tarshish. In Jonah 3:10 he says, God does not go against his word. Whatever he says, he does it, but you can change God’s mind by doing one thing. If you repent from your wrongdoing, He forgives you.”
The Langham training equips and resources those that are called into leadership over a three-part program. The program gives pastors what they need to minister to their communities to reach more people with the Gospel. Themba is thankful for Langham’s training, he says “there are so many people… even though they’ve preached the Word of God, it’s not the right Word of God…. Once you’ve accepted Langham’s preaching, you never go wrong. Amen.”
Prayer Points
- Thank God for Themba and that God has given him the opportunity to study the Bible and be part of Langham’s training to learn how to read and preach the Bible accurately.
- Pray that God will open doors for Themba to reach young people with the message of the Gospel and be able to share the Langham training so others will also know the truth of the Bible.