Mukhanyo urgently needs an ICT Administrator. We are looking for a gifted Christian to lead all information and communications technology (ICT) developments at the college.
 
Mukhanyo Theological College has grown considerably during the past decade.  The need for technology has also rapidly expanded, especially as newer technologies are becoming available.  We feel there is great potential to expend in so many areas: additional support for staff, improved information systems, better student services, etc. But we need an experienced person to guide us in all areas of technology development.
 
Mukhanyo’s ICT needs include maintaining the existing computer systems, supporting staff and students, providing guidance for development, and improving present systems for better service to our students. As the Mukhanyo ministry grows, we also need to upgrade our student information system (SIS) and expand with a better learning management system (LMS).
 
So Mukhanyo is looking for a sincere Christian who feels called by God to serve with us in this ministry for the next few years.  We need a capable person who is gifted with ICT skills and is looking for an exciting challenge to grow with us in order to take the college ministry to the next level in all areas of information technology.
 
There is a reasonable budget for ICT and this position, but Mukhanyo will not be able to provide a competitive salary for this two year or more assignment. We are praying the Lord will motivate and send the right person to Mukhanyo.
 
Has the Lord given you these gifts/experience and are you interested to serve this way in Christ’s kingdom?  Then please contact the Principal, Dr Brian de Vries (bdevries99@gmail.com), or the Operations Manager, Mr Jan Pelser (mukhanyoops@gmail.com), for further information and discussion.

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To get a detailed description of this position, please download the file.

No fewer than 90 students graduated at the Mukhanyo campus on Saturday, 24 February, an all-time record. These students are now qualified to spread, proclaim and explain the gospel to thousands of people all over South Africa and beyond. Can there be a better way to serve, honour and please our Father in heaven?
The ceremony took place amid much rejoicing, happiness and thankfulness. The key note address was by Rev Celumusa Zulu who emphasised that the greatest challenge the church has always faced and still faces today, is deviating from the truth of the gospel. Therefore: don’t quarrel about words and irrelevant arguments which does no good. It also ruins the hearers (1 Timothy 2:14). But proclaim the true Christ. And the only way to do this, is through the correct knowledge of the Word of God. So continue to study the gospel!
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The principal, Dr Brian DeVries, promised the graduates that Mukhanyo will continue to pray for them, as Mukhanyo has done through the years of their study.
The chairman of the Mukhanyo’s board, Dr Lusani Netshitomboni, thanked everybvody who assisted the graduates through their studies: lecturers,  parents, family, etc. Graduates must remember that they live in a society full of problems.  While most people are only interested in serving themselves, graduates must remember that the most important thing in life is to serve – not themselves, but God and the society.

After the graduation ceremony, there congratulations all round. Pictures were taken and lunch was served.

• “ . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I send it (Isaiah 55:11). God’s Word and only His Word bears fruit and yields (Matthews 13:23, Hebrews 4:12).

Mukhanyo’s Johannesburg campus is operating in its third year as a campus. Previously, many people, by God’s grace, have partnered to prepare for this important part of Mukhanyo’s ministry.
 
Mr Jons Flentge was one of them, working with Dr Flip Buys and Dr Brian de Vries, to shape the initial vision for this campus. Because of this vision, the church building in Johannesburg was donated to Mukhanyo by the Good News Community Church. By faith, Jons started with a group of six students in 2010. He and his team of lecturers worked very hard to establish what was at first a distance learning site for Mukhanyo that operated almost full-time.
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In 2015 a task team consisting of Rev Celumusa Zulu, Mr Jons Flentge, Rev Michael Marsland and Rev Michael Rogers overseen renovations of the facilities and prepared for the enrolment of students for 2016, in both a diploma in theology and Mukhanyo’s BTh programme.

By the end of 2015, Dr Japie Malan was added to the team as campus manager. In 2016 Johannesburg, now officially registered as a campus, opened its doors to three Diploma and eight BTh students. The three lecture rooms were adequate, with the devotions being held in the fellowship area. Several students could not continue, so the number were lower by the end of the year.  But the ministry had started!

In 2017 eight new students registered for the diploma and three new full-time students for the BTh as well as six part-time BTh students. The Lord was very good to us and everything went well. The limited facilities were still serving their purpose, although the fellowship area had to be used as a lecture room as well. Seven diploma and six BTh students successfully completed the year. In addition, renovation upgrades and other improvements were completed.
Now 2018 has started with five new diploma students and four new BTh students as well as a number of part timers. Altogether there are about 30 students in this location. Further renovations and expansions have become necessary and will, God willing, be implemented this year, including:

• Computer centre for the students. Many of our students do not have such facilities at home. So for a start five workstations with a server and an ADSL line for internet connection need to be installed.
• Offices for lecturers. Three offices for lecturers to work and to interview students are coming. The current library will become the campus manager’s office.
• Lecture rooms. In the sanctuary of the current church building, three spacious lecture rooms are planned to add up to five spacious lecture rooms and two small ones. 
• Library. On top of the three lecture rooms, we plan to add the new library to comfortably house many volumes and students.
• Marketing. Batile Rhoda Moloi, a marketing expert, compiled a marketing report.  

 
Request: Pease continue to spread the word about Mukhanyo Johannesburg in your areas of influence, and pray that God will increase the numbers of students that He desires to be here. With gratitude, we lift our thankful hearts to the Lord. He planted a mustard seed in Johannesburg and it is growing slowly to become a tree that blessed many. We believe that God will use this campus to be a big tree that will faithfully serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Our thanks to all who ran with the vision; those who endured and persevered! May the birds, by faith, make their nests in this tree! The first fruit of the Johannesburg campus was on 24 February 2018 when the first diploma student, Sharon Sampson, graduated. She persevered to the end and we are proud of her.

In January the General Synod of the Reformed Churches in South Africa took place in Potchefstroom. Mukhanyo has been for decades involved with the denomination in a number of ways, and as a result of the synod’s decisions, we hope to be even more involved in future.
Firstly a number of points on the agenda involved Mukhanyo directly or indirectly. For example, serious note was taken of the increasing shortage of reformed ministers and church leaders. The theological curators and senate of the Theological School in Potchefstroom (TSP) were instructed to come up with concrete proposals on how to address this problem in partnership with Mukhanyo.
Mukhanyo’s chairman, Dr Lusani Netshitomboni, as well as the principal, Dr Brian de Vries, addressed the synod. They briefly presented the work of Mukhanyo, some of its present needs, and areas of new growth.
It was obvious from the discussions and also from informal talks between delegates that Mukhanyo experienced much goodwill, far more than at previous meetings. Everybody realises that additional and alternative ways of training ministers, elders and other church leaders are urgently needed in the light of the existing and increasing shortage, especially of faithful well-trained ministers. The only question is that of what to do about it. The next synod – in 2021 – will have to take concrete steps.

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To serve more than 50 distance study sites with their many students – coming from churches and communities all over the country and beyond – is no small task.  Therefore Mukhanyo this year has introduced additional support services:

• Due to the growth in distance learning, Ms Tunize Bezuidenhout, the distance coordinator, will work together with the academic office staff members to enhance the service to our distance groups.

• The academic records office will now provide administrative support to all students such as applications, processing and posting of study material orders, also the sending of documents, assessments and exams with memoranda as well as the receipt of exams and their moderation, enquiries from tutors, etc.
• The finance office will handle all financial matters related to distance site accounts such as invoices and monthly statements and related questions.

These additional support measures will enable Ms Bezuidenhout to undertake more site visits, evaluate sites, provide training and give support to study groups, and also assist with the starting and setting up of new groups.

Mukhanyo, like the rest of the world, has benefitted from Martin Luther’s audacious action that become public in 1517 when he nailed 95 statements to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. One can even say that one of the results of this action is that, by God’s grace, Mukhanyo Theological College exists today in Luther’s slipstream.


    
Look at the following points:

• Luther saw the importance of making the Bible accessible to everyone. That is why he translated the New Testament in 1521 when he was kidnapped and held hostage in the Wartburg Castle (see picture), and later also translated the Old Testament, as well as many other books and sermons. As a result of his work and that of many other Reformers, Mukhanyo’s work is to open the Bible to all people, teaching church leaders and teachers to do so to wherever possible.
• Why is it so important to open the Bible? Because Jesus Christ gave His Word to teach His children, all believers, to believe in Him and to serve Him, an approach that Luther and the other Reformers rediscovered. So does Mukhanyo.
• To spread the Word and serve Him the way He wants to be served, and to grow in faith, believers must read and study the Bible continuously. That is what Luther started teaching and this is what Mukhanyo teaches.
• Luther saw the light as it is taught by Paul in Romans, which is the only way one can be saved, through God’s grace. Through his insight, Mukhanyo is teaching the same Reformed biblical truths today.
• Bible teaching, mission work and evangelising, all over the world and also in Africa, are done as a result of the work of Luther and the many other Reformers, not only in the 16th century, but ever since, also today and also at Mukhanyo.

 Mukhanyo’s students were privileged to learn from no less than ten highly qualified and experienced theological guest lecturers during 2017. They came from many parts of the world, including four from Africa, and of course a number of locals churches.

They taught a large number of modules, many of which were recorded in Mukhanyo’s modern studio, with DVDs produced for distribution to Mukhanyo’s forthy some study groups all over the country and beyond.

Many of the lecturers stated that not only did they enjoy lecturing, but that they also were impressed with the academic standard of Mukhanyo and its students.  Mukhanyo’s own lecturers, as always having to carry by far the largest lecturing load, were also able to benefit from this international interaction.

One of the visiting lecturers, Dr David Galletta from the USA, has been lecturing at Mukhanyo regularly over more than ten years. He doesn’t know many times, but this could have been his tenth visit.

Other guest lecturers in 2017 were:

• P Houtman from the Netherlands
• D Kawanga from Malawi
• P Krüger from Potchefstroom
• J Klapprot from Pietermaritzburg (twice)
• V Naidoo from Durban
• E van Alten from Ukraine
• M Kamnkhwani from Malawi
• B Kasera from Namibia
• J Bell from Zimbabwe

It is expected that there will again be a number of guest lecturers in 2018, starting in January with Prof Dr William van Doodewaard from Canada.

Interview with Dr Brian DeVries, principal of MTC, recently published in a local magazine
 
Why is it important to train up pastors and leaders for ministry?
The Apostle Paul gave his spiritual son Timothy the following instruction: “… train yourself for godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). This requires the careful study of God’s Word under the guidance of experienced pastor-teachers. Some church leaders do not have the opportunity for such study. But whenever possible, all pastors and church leaders should take every opportunity to get further biblical training. In fact, much false teaching among the so-called “churches” today is a direct result of pastors who have not seriously studied God’s Word. A lack of knowledge and careful application of God’s Word has created many dangerous false teachings.

How is Mukhanyo relevant for modern-day Christian living and ministry?
Mukhanyo has for more than 25 years been providing pastoral training that is biblical, contextual and designed specifically for African church leaders.  All Mukhanyo lecturers believe that the Bible is God’s Word to us today and that it is the final authority for all situations in life.  Mukhanyo trains students to study the Bible for answers to the pressing questions that we face today in our churches, families, communities and nation.

What is your prayer for 2018?
We are praying that God will continue to use Mukhanyo to train the next generation of church leaders for faithful service in His church within all areas of southern Africa.  We are praying for the Holy Spirit to work a great revival among all churches, a revival that results in a total reformation of our society.

Barely eighteen months since the Braamfontein campus officially opened its doors, Mukhanyo is reaching out to the churches in the Greater Johannesburg area by providing courses and open days to help equip pastors and other church leaders to reach their full potential for the Kingdom.

Over the past three months, three events have been held at the campus.

The first was an open day on 27 July where some key church and ministry leaders, as well as distance group facilitators, were invited to hear about Mukhanyo, meet some members of our faculty and discuss ways for us all to work together. Much positive feedback was received with some good ideas for future events and partnerships.

Then on 19 August and 2 September the campus hosted the Financial Skills Seminar including practical skills related to handling cash and working with statements. Also some godly principles on how we are to view and handle money. God is the owner of everything, and we are merely stewards and managers of all the possessions and finances that we have been given. 

The Ministry to Muslims short course was held during the first week of October and the Church Leaders’ Conference will be hosted later on Saturday 4 November.