The Great Commission in Africa

Tite Tiénou presupposes that African involvement in fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28 began soon after accepting the gospel. For this presentation, Tiénou limits his scope to the evangelistic efforts on the African continent by select African individuals in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and the spread of that work to the rest of the world in the latter part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Thus, he presents the modern African Evangelical vision for missions. His paper serves to correct the stories of Africa’s evangelization often told by Western sources, which regularly exclude or diminish the prominence of the participation of native Africans. Tiénou provides numerous examples in support of his claims.

Biography

Tite Tiénou wears many hats at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School including Co-Provost, Senior Vice President of Education, Dean, and Professor of Theology of Mission. He holds degrees from Nyack College (B.S.), Faculté Libre de Théologie Evangélique Vaux sur Seine, France (Maltrise en Théologie), and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A., Ph.D.). Dr. Tiénou has served as president and dean of Faculté de Théologie Evangélique de l’Alliance Chrétienne in Abidjan, Côte d’lvoire, West Africa. He has taught at the Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York. While pastor of a church in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, he founded and directed the Maranatha Institute. Dr. Tiénou’s areas of expertise include mission, theology, and the church in Africa. One of his more relevant books for the present conference is The Theological Task of the Church in Africa. He and his wife, Marie, have four children.