One Man's Journey to Equip African Pastors with the Good News

The Road That Lead 7,780 Miles from Home

Have you ever found yourself doing something you never thought you would do? Maybe you adopted a pet or moved back to your hometown. For Michael Sandberg, it was becoming a pastor . . . and going to Africa. Michael grew up watching his father as a pastor, but when the time came to choose a career path, Michael went down a very different road. “I was logging, cutting trees, and I was attending a little Baptist church in Tacoma, Washington.” After a few years of working in the woods, God put before Michael a career option much more similar to that of his father’s: an invitation from his church to become the Family Worship and Family Ministries Pastor. So Michael pulled off his logger’s hard hat and stepped into this pastoral role where he faithfully served the church for several years. But the Lord was still pursuing him for another work.

In 2007, 13 years after I became a pastor, we had a Kenyan pastor come to speak to our congregation. He spoke for about 15 minutes about what God was doing in Kenya through their group, and our congregation decided to start supporting them. About six months later, I was invited to go and see what the ministry was doing. I had always been one of those people who said, “Please, Lord, don’t send me to Africa.” A couple of days prior to the trip, I was informed that I would be leading a pastor’s conference while we were there. At the first conference, there were 16 pastors and that’s when God really spoke to me and said, “This is what I want you to be doing.”

In 2008, two other guys and myself formed a nonprofit called Agape Project International (API USA) to facilitate our work in Kenya. Since then, we’ve spread our reach out to Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan—countries in and around East Africa. We’re committed as an organization to sending our Kenyan associate teachers to train and equip Kenyan pastors to really effectively serve their congregations and communities to help them grow and reproduce the gospel inside of the church.

From medical clinics, famine relief, and water filter systems to providing local pastors with theological training, API diligently cares for their fellow brothers and sisters both physically and spiritually.

Crossway Global Ministry is grateful to come alongside API through supplying biblical resources which they utilize in training and distribute to pastors and church leaders who face significant barriers to accessing or affording them.

Through the faithful ministry of Michael and his team at API, church leaders in East Africa are indeed being biblically trained and as a result, the church is strengthened. The Lord calls all kinds of people with a variety of experiences, like logging, to further his church.

Give the Gift of a Bible

Crossway is providing Bibles to believers around the world who are unable to access God’s Word. Would you consider partnering with us in this effort to help a brother or sister in need? Learn More.

The Path to Training Church Leaders

Now, after a decade of serving the Kenyan church, Michael has gained significant first-hand insight into the major needs of believers in the church in Eastern Africa. He shared that

The church by and large in Kenya, and generally throughout Eastern Africa, is really into the prosperity gospel. It’s all over their televisions. . . . Probably 85–90% of the churches you go to will have that issue. And so the number one need for churches here, from my perspective, is solid theological training and resources.

To address this urgent need, API established ways to bridge the gap by offering conferences to pastors and church leaders. As Michael described, “We hold week-long conferences in mostly rural areas of Kenya. We typically will teach through books of the Bible, but we also do topical studies.” These conferences offer invaluable training for pastors by helping them to grow in their understanding of God’s Word while also learning how to support others in their walk with Christ.

API also provides theological training to refugees who have settled in Kenya—of which there are over 830,000.¹ Michael shared:

When the refugees get to these camps, they usually start a church. I think there’s about 250,000 refugees in one of the camps, and we’re trying to reach as many pastors as we can there. We’ll provide transport for them to come to our conferences. We don’t do that for any of the other locals, but these guys have literally no means of support. We’re bringing them to our conferences to train them. We also do training sessions on biblical counseling, which has proven really critical, especially for refugees. We are training these pastors up on how to counsel people from the Bible.

There is evidence of a hunger for God and his truth throughout East Africa, and through their ministry, the Lord is faithfully providing for the needs of his children for the glory of God and growth of the Kingdom.

A Way to Grow the Church

Through the generosity of our donor partners, Crossway Global Ministry recently provided API with copies of Conrad Mbewe’s book God’s Design for the Church to further equip church leaders. While this book covers a range of topics on ecclesiology from which churches all over the world can gain wisdom, it was uniquely written to support the specific needs of the growing African church. API distributed 15,000 copies in both English and Swahili in Kenya and throughout neighboring countries.

Michael explains that this book is essential for supporting pastors in Kenya: “Most of these guys have never gone to a Bible school or seminary or anything. So they don’t really have any background for what this book is saying. They’ve just picked up little tidbits of information along the way that may or may not be theologically accurate.” With a sound resource in hand, these pastors will be able to better understand God and his church and how they can serve both well. Michael shared the impact Mbewe’s book is having on a church in the capital:

One church in Nairobi, called Karura Community Chapel, is using this book to train their pastors. Last year, they planted several churches and used Mbewe’s book as part of training their pastors. They have a wonderful training system for leaders and pastors, who pastor these churches. And so that book has become part of their curriculum. It’s been an incredible resource.

Through the Lord taking Michael down a career path he never expected, pastors and church leaders across Eastern Africa are being resourced, discipled, and cared for. Crossway rejoices in the fact that the Lord has enabled us to join with dedicated ministries like API to support his people and spread his name further.

Pray that the Lord would work through API’s training to grow healthy, gospel-centered churches.

Pray that the Lord would raise up trainers who will be able to join with API in equipping fellow believers.