Ep. 32 / From Orphaned to Ordained: A Story of Evangelicalism in Africa ► Goodwill Shana

Against all predictions, Africa has become the world's fastest-growing center of Christianity. Rev. Dr. Goodwill Shana, Executive Chair of the World Evangelical Alliance and prominent Zimbabwean pastor, brings us inside this remarkable transformation while sharing his own unlikely journey from orphaned boy to global church leader.

Growing up fatherless during Zimbabwe's colonial period, Dr. Shana initially pursued law driven by a passion for justice. Despite the injustices around him, a white Baptist missionary became his spiritual father—teaching him early to separate systemic problems from individuals. This perspective would prove invaluable as he reluctantly transitioned from legal practice to church leadership during Zimbabwe's turbulent political history.

Pastor Goodwill offers fresh insights on several critical issues facing global Christianity. He challenges misconceptions about evangelicalism, arguing that its political associations in Western contexts shouldn't define the movement worldwide. "Evangelicalism is not the same as being politically right-wing," he explains. "Evangelicalism really is about Judeo-Christian values that are enunciated in the New Testament." The term itself, he believes, remains valuable: "Evangelical is in the Bible. Evangelical is good news."

As Executive Chair of an organization representing over 600 million Christians through approximately 140 national alliances, Pastor Goodwill sees the WEA providing crucial stability in what military strategists call a "VUCA world"—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. While many institutions and relationships fragment, the evangelical movement offers certainty, dependability, and global community.

Perhaps most powerfully, Dr. Shana's personal testimony embodies hope for anyone feeling insignificant or overlooked. "God is a God of grace and He's a God of the improbable," he shares. "Our God can touch and use and transform anyone from anywhere to be anything in the world, because people's value is not defined by where they come from, or what they weigh or which family they belong to, but which God they belong to."

You can learn more about Rev. Dr. Goodwill Shana and the World Evangelical Alliance through their website and Facebook.

And you can share this episode using hashtag #Evangelical360 and join the conversation online! 

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