Not by Bread Alone – Study Notes on Church Growth in DR Congo & Francophone Africa

Session Context

• Meeting chaired by Daniel C. Peterson (Interpreter Foundation President).
  • Opening joke: professors are “glib” and crave applause.
  • Purpose: introduce a film-based project on the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter “the Church”) in Francophone Africa—specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
• Key presenters:
  • Jeff Bradshaw: Interpreter Foundation vice-president, cognitive scientist (PhD University of Washington), long service with Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition; twice a senior missionary in Francophone Africa.
  • Junior Banza: Congolese Latter-day Saint, translator, narrator, and “heart & soul” of the film series.

Film Series “Not by Bread Alone” — 10-Minute Preview

• Title source: Jesus’ teaching $"Man\;shall\;not\;live\;by\;bread\;alone,\;but\;by\;every\;word\;of\;God"$ (Luke $4:4$; Matt. $4:4$).
  • Resonates with African Christians who face poverty, disease, war, and exploitation yet draw sustaining power from Christ.
• Thematic thesis: Congolese Saints express faith collectively, likened to a “thundering waterfall of power and emotion,” rather than as solitary contemplation.

Geographic & Natural Setting

• DR Congo = 2nd-largest African nation, roughly the size of the eastern United States.
• Located in Central Africa, bordered by the Congo River—deepest & most powerful in the world.
• Biodiversity highlights: mountain gorillas, okapi, bonobos (high intelligence), large insects.

Church-Growth Facts (film)

• French-speaking Africa covers a large, populous chunk of the continent.
• DR Congo already holds the 2nd-largest African Church membership.
  • Growth & retention are labelled “phenomenal,” outpacing many peers.
• Spatial diffusion: membership radiated from 5 original “centres of strength” to “dozens” of remote outposts.
  • Specific examples:
  • Likasi — once a handful in a rented room; now multiple stakes.
  • Luputa — first stake organized before any full-time missionaries arrived; now $112$ missionaries serving from its two stakes.
  • Batake Plateau — Saints harvest family-history info from tribal leaders.
  • Kisangani — grew from single branch to district of six branches within a few years.

Vignettes of Faith & Sacrifice

• Cedric Chiamwe
  • Rode a bicycle town-to-town selling bananas for $4$ years to earn $\$250$ (passport cost) before serving a mission.
• Mathieu Kalume Abiloa
  • Born to unbaptised but believing parents who met missionaries in the $1970\text{s}$.
  • Remote villages maintained Sunday School & Book of Mormon study for nearly $50$ years without official Church structure.
  • At $25$, walked/travelled $600\,\text{km}$ to Lubumbashi for instruction, baptism, priesthood ordination, and mission call.
  • Testimony highlight: first time ever taking the sacrament.
• Elder Willie Benene Sabway (Area 70)
  • Survivor of ethnic violence; met future wife Lily via a prophetic dream.
  • The couple launched a school and led a community to hand-dig an $18\,\text{mile}$ water trench through forest over $3$ years.
• David & Josephine Munza
  • Live in a one-room Kinshasa dwelling; David totally blind, wife physically handicapped.
  • Dreamed of a tailoring school for people with disabilities; realised via charitable ripple-effect.
  • Sealed later in Kinshasa Temple.

Temple Momentum (since $2019$)

• 5 temples dedicated or announced for the two Congos.
  1. Kinshasa (dedicated)
  2. Lubumbashi (under construction)
  3. Kananga (site selected)
  4. Mbuji-Mayi (announced)
  5. Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo, across the river)
• Temple portrayed as “oasis of peace” for logistics crews, gardeners, youths, families, and seniors alike.

Meta-Goals of the Series

• Counterbalance media focus on war/humanitarian crises by showcasing faith narratives.
• Serve the “rising generation worldwide” with African examples of resilience.
• Website (fully bilingual): notbybreadalonefilm.com — hosts previews, articles, and forthcoming episodes.
• Tie-ins: Will feature prominently in forthcoming Saints Volume 4 (publication expected later $2024$), especially the Benene story.

Junior Banza — Personal Witness & Historical Perspective

• Born Kinshasa; resident of Utah >24\text{ years}; multilingual translator (clip of him quoting Luke $4:4$ in four languages).
• Testimony anchor: Isaiah/Daniel prophecy — “stone cut out without hands” filling the earth.

Family Conversion Timeline

• Parents in Switzerland on Presbyterian-funded scholarship.
• Missionaries contacted; family converted Oct $1979$.
  • Scholarship cancelled; returned to Zaire (now DR Congo) where no Church presence existed.
• $1986$: Government authorises official entry of the Church.
  • President & Sister Hutchings = first missionaries assigned.
  • Junior’s baptism (age $?$) became first recorded baptism in DR Congo and likely in all Central Africa (photo dated June $1986$).

Contemporary Metrics (as of Feb $2024$)

• Stakes in DR Congo: $\approx30$.
• Membership: $\approx100{,}000$ (country only).
  • Annual baptisms $2023$: $18{,}000$ ⇒ $20\%$ yearly growth.
• Missionary force:
  • DR Congo = #1 African missionary-producing nation.
  • $60\%$ of missionaries originate from Kasai/Central Congo region.
• Languages & Scripture:
  • Official language: French; English widely studied; $\approx450$ local dialects.
  • Book of Mormon now in Lingala; freshly completed in Tshiluba; Swahili edition exists but under review for dialectal adjustment.
  • Hymns under translation into Lingala.
• PathwayConnect (Church education):
  • One Kinshasa stake: $\approx1000$ enrollees (half non-members).
  • Area-wide retention: $60{-}75\%$.

Audience Q&A Highlights

• Why a “missionary passport” requirement?
  • Church funds most expenses, but candidates contribute by obtaining their own passport—needed because calls may send them anywhere in Africa or beyond.
• Primary obstacle to Church growth?
  • Not government or militias; rather poverty, which complicates infrastructure, schooling, and travel.
• Political landscape
  • First democratically elected president was sworn in $2018$, signalling gradual stabilisation.
• Cultural alignment factors
  • Congolese are overwhelmingly Christian ($95{-}98\%$).
  • Ancestral reverence meshes with Latter-day Saint temple doctrine; performing ordinances for ancestors “makes sense” locally.
  • Hospitality norm: virtually no one refuses missionaries a hearing.
• Meetinghouse & leadership dynamics
  • Average convert age: $\approx19$.
  • Bishops often $25{-}30$; stake presidents $\approx35$.
  • Demand for buildings is outpacing ability to construct (terrain, cost, distance).
  • Worship marked by enthusiastic congregational singing; every ward forms a robust choir without coaxing.
• Family-history collection
  • Lack of written records mitigated by oral-history projects; Church contracts local teams to document genealogies village-by-village.
• Music styles
  • Official meetings use the standard hymnbook; cultural music permitted in non-sacrament activities.

Connections & Broader Significance

• Prophetic fulfilment: Presenters frame African expansion as tangible evidence of Daniel $2:34{-}35$ (stone filling Earth).
• Ripple effect model: Acts of charity (e.g., Munza tailoring school) illustrate how initial aid multiplies when recipients bless others.
• Interdisciplinary note: Project bridges media studies, religious education, and development sociology—using storytelling to reshape global perception of Africa from deficit-based to faith-rich.
• Ethical implication: Emphasises dignity and agency of African Saints, countering narratives that reduce them to beneficiaries of external aid.

Practical Takeaways for Exam or Teaching

• Memorise key statistics: stakes $30$; annual baptisms $18{,}000$; $20\%$ growth; $5$ temples (list them).
• Understand cultural congeniality factors (Christian baseline, ancestor worldview, hospitality).
• Recall exemplar stories: Cedric $\$250$ passport, Mathieu $600\,\text{km}$ trek, Benene $18\,\text{mile}$ trench, Munza inclusive school.
• Be able to articulate why “Not by Bread Alone” reframes African discourse from crisis to covenant.
• Recognise educational and genealogical efforts (Pathway, oral histories) as infrastructure for sustained growth.