Call to celebrate work of local evangelists

LOCAL evangelism in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea should be celebrated for its contribution in spreading the good news, head bishop Dr Jack Urame says.
Apart from the missionaries, the strong foundation of the church was set up by the local evangelists in the 19th Century.
Some of these evangelists settled among their fellow Papua New Guineans in the Highlands region.
Urame said this during a fundraising drive by the Kip congregation of the Kalasa circuit in Kottec district of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG).
Kip village, located in Sialum local level government in Tewai-Siassi, Morobe, would be commemorating its 100 years of local evangelism.
“Missionaries are strategists, they decided where to set up a station and where to move next, who to train to become pastors and evangelists,” Urame said.
“But the real people who have moved the church to different parts of the country are the local evangelists, who understood the structure of our communities back then.”
The evangelists from Kip village went as far as Chimbu establishing the Towandong circuit in Chimbu district and the Wabi (Kagua) circuit in Immanuel district, Southern Highlands.
Urame said the Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea grew because of such “special movement” of local evangelists.
“It is good that people commemorate the work of evangelists, so that future generations do not forget their past,” he said.
The Kip community were raising funds to complete a church, a congregation office and to set up a memorial stone to be launch on July 19 to commemorate the day.
Meanwhile, Urame said the ELCPNG logo should not be used in a disrespectful manner as it was an important symbol identifying the belief of the church.
He said it was not good to misuse the logo of the church.