APPI Africa 2025 by Pastor Jon Friedt
An entrepreneur, a salesman, and a philosopher get on the same airplane. The salesman asks the entrepreneur, “So where are you headed?” “Where opportunity is knocking”, said the entrepreneur. “Sounds like we are headed to the same place.” A young boy sitting nearby chimed in, “Of course we’re going to the same place. We’re in the same plane”. The philosopher chuckled and then softly added, “Where we are headed is known. To whom we are headed is anticipated. But why we are headed is foreordained yet still to be discovered.”
Why does God put different people together? Why does He connect an evangelist with a pastor? A teacher with an apostle? Or any of the 5-Fold Ministry Gifts together with another or all? Why? For perfecting the people to which they are called (Eph 4:11-12). God desires His people to be well equipped for all opportunities or oppositions that come their way. He is perfecting His Church and He uses people to sharpen people. People can be so very different. So many different likes and interests, insights and expertise, ambitions, and experiences. No matter how different we might be, there is something in you that is needed by me and something in me that is needed by you.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
This was the theme of the All Pro Pastors International Africa 2025 Conference. About 150 pastors from several nations gathered just outside of Nairobi, Kenya for 3 days to be challenged, equipped, and sharpened. Paul Pickern, founder of All Pro Pastors International, Evangelist Eric Casto of Four Smiles Ministry, and myself, Pastor Jonathan Friedt of Believers’ Fellowship, traveled together from Orlando to Nairobi. 4 Bishops and Pastors from various nations of Africa joined to conduct this conference and the establishment of the APPI Africa Office directed by Pastor Joshua Gwara. Several very different people from different nations, different societies, different cultures, even different callings that God saw fit to bring together for a common purpose: help pastors win in life.
There is an unwritten, incorrect expectation that ministers should be without fault or maybe even the potential thereof. We know it’s not possible, yet it seems to be the expectation. I’m certainly not offering an excuse for unrighteous living but I’m offering a commonality of all that are called in Christ no matter the calling. Pastors may be shepherds, but they are sheep too. They are not exempt from life’s issues just because they are a pastor. Even Jesus, the good shepherd, was touched with human weaknesses. No person is exempt, but not all people are followed as a spiritual role model in life. Pastors are whether they like it or not. When pastors fall, many others are affected. This is the same from America to Africa; all over the world, every generation, every people group, every denomination. Who can a pastor go to for help when they are struggling with a personal issue? The members of a church can go to each other or to their pastor for Biblical help and advice but who does a pastor go to?
One of the missions of APPI is to help keep pastors from falling. The primary way in which we do this is through The Champion’s Table: Four ministers of different denominations that develop a relationship of accountability, trust, and encouragement. This is iron sharpening iron. A table of shepherds that hold each other up in prayer, hold each other up in the instruction of the Word, and hold each other up in love and the bond of peace. The Champion’s Table through APPI is now set into action in Africa. Praise the Lord Jesus. Pastors will flourish and thus the people will flourish.
Every minister I have met in America or abroad has had at least this same thing in common; they love God and they love people. Certainly, there are ministers out there somewhere that don’t, but I have never met one and I hope I never do. Even though the callings on a minister’s life may be different from another, the one who called them is the same and the ones they are called to is the same. We ministers are meet for each other whether we like or not. We need each other. We need each other to succeed. I don’t just mean that I need you so that I might succeed or that you need me so that you might succeed; I need you to succeed. I need you to win. When you win, I win. When I win, you win. We are on the same team. Part of the same body. We are not competing, we are completing.
Eric, the evangelist, Jon, the pastor, and Paul, maybe the apostle, brought together by God in a special bond for each other but also for others that are just like us. Called of God for a purpose. A husband. A father. A lover of God and of people. A minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet still human. I thank my God through the Lord Jesus Christ that He is able to keep me from falling and I thank my God that He has placed brothers alongside me to help. Surely, I will win. Win with me. I need you to.
By Pastor Jon Friedt, Believers Fellowship, Lakeland Florida
