Insights from the lives of Olive Doke and Paul Kasonga for pioneer mission and church planting today

Abstract

In this thesis, the researcher observes that one of the most difficult phases in the work of church planting missions is that of the handover stage from pioneer missionaries to indigenous leaders. This is often fraught with suspicions and fightings, and hence tends to delay the work until such issues are finally dealt with. Having observed a different story in the relationship between Olive Doke and Paul Kasonga in the early years of the planting of Baptist work in Zambia, the researcher has argued that the key lay in their mutual respect and admiration. He, therefore, posits that where these two ingredients are nurtured in the early stages of missions there will be a smooth handover process. In order to show that this was not just a philosophical or pragmatic idea, the researcher began his work with a biblical interpretation of missions. Drawing from the way the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles went about their own handing over process to the next generation of leaders, he identified these same attitudes of mutual respect and admiration. He argues that these played an important role in ensuring a meaningful handover process. The researcher then entered upon finding as much information as he could on the lives of Olive Doke and Paul Kasonga, and about their working relationship. This was through unearthing various archived materials and conducting key interviews in the region where they once laboured. This formed the core of this research and, upon subjecting this to analysis, it proved the thesis that the success of their working relationship and handover process at the Kafulafuta Mission lay in their mutual respect and admiration. Finally, the researcher offers a model or strategy to ensure that what may have happened inadvertently between Olive Doke and Paul Kasonga is nurtured among missionaries and indigenous leaders. The researcher works these principles into all the stages of church planting missions—all the way from the training of the missionaries to the time when the work is totally handed over into the hands of local leaders and the missionaries have withdrawn from the work.