Thread by @ArthurGDavis

It’s staff recruitment time again in TAFES Tanzania 🇹🇿 a local NGO for Christian leadership development among higher education students & part of @ifesworld #CampusMinistry. The new applicants are diploma and bachelor graduates in their early 20s. Thread 1/10

@ifesworld All describe themselves as born again. I have previously talked about this in terms of ownership, or as someone described it, ‘I am not under the salvation of my parents’. meetjesusatuni.com/2017/10/09/int… 2/10

However it is more than that. ‘Born again’ is a new identity and belonging. It means adopting a stance of learning, not only in relation to God and faith and oneself, but also the wider world. ‘Everyone born of the Spirit is a leader,’ explained one. 3/10

Sometimes becoming born again comes along with a special experience, like prayer resulting in healing, or a voice telling you to enter a church. Sometimes it is more of a conscious decision or the result of an intentional process. 4/10

Each of these people already belonged to a Christian community, but began to recognise this belonging as parochial and potentially tribal. In the words of one, ‘We have come to serve Christ Jesus and not our backgrounds.’ 5/10

So ‘born again’ means coming into a more global, transcendent sense of belonging, belonging to One who is beyond human forms. The ‘interdenominational and nondenominational’ nature of TAFES is closely connected with this. 6/10

They can truly say, we merely happen to worship in this or that form; we are not defined by the form. (That said, it is a mistake to equate denominational belonging with ‘nominalism’ as it is understood in the Anglophone world.) 7/10

One woman described all of this as ‘relationship with Jesus’. What does that mean? ‘I learn so much about myself and about God. I have also come to understand my purpose’ (a unique direction in life). 8/10

How did this happen? ‘I spent time alone, learning about God’s feelings and desires, not just my own. This gave me new confidence and value. Now I can pass this on to women who don’t have this.’ 9/10

Most applicants are committing for 1 year, which is for them a thanksgiving offering to God and/or a chance to gain experience. We hope they will also come to consider the vision for #CampusMinistry and the more substantial time investment this calls for. 10/10

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