Advancing Apologetics Across Africa
—Dr. Stephen Van Horn
Before joining Apologetics on Mission in 2025, I served as a pastor for 25 years, 1981-2005. During that time, I also spent five years as a part-time adjunct professor at a seminary in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2003, I founded a missionary organization focused on providing informal Bible and theology training for African pastors who might not otherwise have access to formal education.
Over time, however, the Lord began to place a new burden on my heart: the need to equip the next generation of church leaders in Africa through apologetics. With that vision growing clearer, I passed the leadership of my mission to a younger man at the start of 2024. Then, in January 2025, I joined the team at Apologetics on Mission. Recently, I returned from another trip to Africa, where I spent time in Zambia and Rwanda.
My time in Zambia built on connections from a previous visit in July 2025, where I spoke to two groups at the headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ Zambia. Those initial events were met with enthusiasm, with the national director noting, “This is exactly what we need.” That response led to the recent two-day seminar attended by sixty staff members from across the country.
Just before the seminar began, Ben Clifton who joined me in Zambia, led a Leadership Summit, designed to explored the possibility of forming an Apologetics Zambia team, similar to those already active or forming in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, with another emerging in Zimbabwe. Encouragingly, there was unanimous agreement to move forward in that direction.
Looking ahead, there are promising opportunities to deepen this partnership. One possibility includes returning to Rwanda in September to speak at a gathering of Campus Crusade directors from across Africa. Another is the potential to participate in a continent-wide youth conference in 2027, which could bring together up to 5,000 students. What makes all of this special to me is that my wife and I served on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in the early 1970s. Then I was part of the first graduating class of a seminary Campus Crusade started in 1978, and the seminary I taught at in Nairobi was a Campus Crusade seminary.
Following the seminar, I traveled to Ndola in Zambia’s Copperbelt region, near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, I spoke during a Sunday service to a combined group of adults and youth, and later to students at Northrise University. The response was very encouraging. Two of the school’s leaders invited me to return for a larger weekday event that would include both students and faculty. We are now looking toward January as a likely time for that visit.
From Zambia, I continued on to Rwanda, where I have spent significant time over the past two years working alongside Emmy Nshima. Emmy is leading the development of Apologetics Rwanda with support from AoM, and he has also been selected by Ratio Christi to establish a chapter in Rwanda. Ratio Christi is an evangelistic/apologetics ministry on over 150 campuses in the United States and is now looking to expand internationally.
Through Emmy’s efforts, we’ve had opportunities to engage with thousands of students. At the University of Rwanda’s engineering campus in Huye alone, I have had the opportunity to address over 2,000 students multiple times. In addition, there have been numerous smaller gatherings in both Huye and Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.
During this most recent visit, I spoke to about 150 students from five universities in Huye, as well as three separate groups in Kigali, including meetings at the University of Rwanda’s science and technology campus. These seminars continue to reveal both a hunger for truth and a need for thoughtful, well-equipped Christian voices.
Looking ahead, my next trip is scheduled for July and will include three stops. First, in Kenya, I will work with the Apologetics Kenya team, helping them develop conversational approaches to answering difficult questions, or using questions to uncover underlying beliefs and guide others toward truth.
From there, I will travel to Nigeria, where existing relationships are opening new doors. This will be my second apologetics-focused visit, and there is strong interest in forming an Apologetics Nigeria team. Plans are underway for two seminars with approximately 200 attendees each, along with a strategic gathering of potential team members to begin laying the foundation for this work.
Finally, I will return to Uganda to partner with the Apologetics Uganda team. Under the leadership of Dr. Moses Ndagano, an itinerary has already been arranged that includes three events in three different cities.
All of this work is set against a significant backdrop. Studies suggest that by 2060, as much as 42% of the world’s Christian population will be in Africa. At the same time, a mix of traditional beliefs and Western influences is raising complex questions among emerging leaders, questions many current leaders feel unprepared to answer. This makes the work of establishing apologetics teams, and training others to engage thoughtfully and confidently, both urgent and essential.
If you share a desire to see the next generation of Christian leaders equipped to stand firm in their faith and engage the world with clarity and grace, I invite you to consider joining Apologetics on Mission in this mission as we help raise up Christ-centered defenders of the faith across Africa and around the globe.