Planting Vineyards, Praying for Manna: Africa’s New Financial Discipleship
Africa stands at a defining moment in the story of global missions. For decades, the continent has been celebrated as a vibrant spiritual powerhouse yet constrained by financial dependence on foreign donors. Today, a new vision is rising, one that reframes African missions through the lens of financial sustainability in kingdom business. This emerging paradigm recognizes that a mission is not funded by miracles alone but by wise stewardship, strategic enterprise, and the long-term cultivation of local resources. At the heart of this shift is the move from surviving on short-term “manna”[1] provision to building enduring “vineyard” [2] systems that generate consistent, mission-funding income. This is more than an economic strategy; it is a renewed form of discipleship that calls the African Church to think, build, and give out of its own God-given abundance.[3] [4]
In response to these challenges, the African Centre for Missions Mobilization and Research (ACMMR), in partnership with Kwiverr, convened a strategic seminar to address one of the continent’s most pressing needs: financial sustainability in Kingdom business. Rather than reinforcing old patterns of aid dependency, the seminar invited mission leaders to rethink how ministry, enterprise, and economics intersect in Africa. Participants were challenged to move beyond short-term relief models and adopt long-term, vineyard-oriented strategies that cultivate local capacity, accountability, and generative income streams. [5] [6] The vision was clear: to transition Africa’s mission movement from externally funded survival to African-owned, African-resourced, and African-led systems that can sustainably send, support, and multiply missionaries across the continent and beyond. In this new paradigm, Kingdom businesses are no longer side projects but essential engines of mission, platforms where faith, work, and financial wisdom converge to fuel the gospel’s advance. [7] [8]
“The Gospel is free. Jesus paid for it. But moving the Gospel across rivers, deserts, and borders is not free. Africa must continue building.” With these words, Rev. Dr. Johnson Asare ignited mission leaders across the continent during the Africa Centre for Mission Mobilization & Research webinar on 30 October 2025. [9] Speaking from Tamale in northern Ghana’s 95%-Muslim region, [10] Dr. Asare is a living demonstration of what happens when theology meets strategy, when prayer meets planning, and when African mission shift from dependency to sustainability. His life reveals that African ministries can move from perpetual receivers to strong, generous, missionary-sending movements. [11] [12]
When Dr. Asare first arrived in Tamale, poverty dominated the landscape. Instead of lamenting the hardship, he spent six months studying the local economy, who was thriving, and why. The answer lay in simple but strategic trades: salt, grains, and hospitality. With kingdom integrity and excellence, he entered the same markets. Today, his Radach Conference Centre hosts well over one million visitors annually, 95% of them non-Christians employs over 200 staff, and funds 90% of a vast ministry ecosystem. That ecosystem includes schools for 4,500 children, micro-enterprise support for 8,000 women, care for 1,500 widows, boreholes, radio stations, low-cost housing, and church planting across West Africa. All of this is sustained by self-generated income, with assets surpassing US$10 million. [13]
Research on similar Anglican business initiatives in Tanzania confirms that Business-as-Mission enterprises can achieve full financial sustainability while advancing evangelism and social transformation. [14] [15] The evidence is clear: African missions can fund themselves when biblical vision is aligned with economic intelligence.
Manna and Vineyards: Two Forms of God’s Provision
To understand Africa’s current moment, the biblical contrast between manna and vineyards is instructive. Both represent God’s provision, but in different seasons and with different expectations. Manna is God’s emergency supply, miraculous, immediate, and short-term. It is what God gives in the wilderness to sustain His people when they have no other option. Many African mission agencies have lived this way for decades: dependent on unpredictable donations, foreign partners, emergency support, and crisis-driven giving. This has been a real provision. It has been God’s kindness.
But manna was never meant to last forever. Vineyards, by contrast, are God’s long-term provision. They require planting, cultivating, pruning, harvesting, and wisdom. They demand responsibility. They produce lasting fruit year after year. Vineyards represent maturity. They reflect what God provides when His people enter their inheritance and must now build, grow, and steward.
The key insight is this: it is not that manna is bad and vineyards are good. Both come from God. But in seasons of maturity, God calls His people to plant vineyards, not remain in ‘manna-mode’. Africa now stands precisely in this transition. The continent is no longer in a wilderness season. God has provided land, people, creativity, markets, natural resources, and a globally influential diaspora. Continuing to rely solely on manna, external donors, crisis gifts and unpredictable support will not carry the African Church into its calling as a missionary-sending force. Vineyard thinking, long-term enterprise, structured giving, business-as-mission, and strategic stewardship are now essential.
Thinking between the gaps
Three life-defining questions for every leader:
- Where am I right now? (an honest baseline)
- Where am I going? (clear, measurable goals)
- How will I get there? (a dated, actionable plan)
Without written answers, Dr. Asare warned, “We will keep drifting… and keep begging”.[16] His call mirrors recent PhD findings showing that Ghanaian mission agencies receive 61% of their funding through informal relational giving and only 19% through structured church budgets, yet 64% of churches say they would give more if accountability and vision were clear.[17] Therefore, this is not business talk. It is spiritual obedience. It is stewardship. It is the cultivation of vineyards.
Africa Is Not Poor—Africa Is Under-Leveraged
The data is striking. Ghana imports over US$400 million in tomatoes annually. If African Christian farmers captured just 10% of that market, US$40 million could be redirected toward missions every year.[18] Africa holds 20% of the world’s arable land. [19] Diaspora remittances already surpass foreign aid and official development assistance combined. [20] Redirecting even 1–2% of these flows through well-governed mission channels could send tens of thousands of new African missionaries. [21] Africa is sitting on vineyards it has not planted. The soil is ready. The potential is immense.
A New Mindset for a New Mission Era
Dr. Asare’s final declaration at ACMMR’s webinar was unmistakable: “There is more money lying untapped in Africa than in Canada, the USA, the UK, France, and Germany combined. The only thing missing is the African mind that refuses to think and act poor”. [22] Scholars of Africapitalism and decolonized philanthropy agree: Africa’s future will be shaped by African-led, values-driven enterprises that blend profitability, community upliftment, and gospel advancement (Moyo et al., 2014; Amaeshi et al., 2018). [23] [24] The missionary future of Africa will not be imported; it will be cultivated from African soil. Africa is transitioning to financial discipleship. The era of the wealthy, generous, missionary-sending African Abraham has dawned. The continent that now hosts the world’s largest Christian population [25] is rising to become the continent that funds the world’s missionaries. It is time to stop praying only for manna and start planting vineyards. Both are God’s gifts, but one sustains for a day, and the other sustains for generations.
References
[1] Exodus 16:30–35 (New King James Version, 1982/2013).
[2] Genesis 9 :20 (New King James Version, 1982/2013)
[3] Wariboko, N. (2012). Pentecostal Paradigms of National Economic Prosperity in Africa. In K. Attanasi & A. Yong (Eds.), Pentecostalism and Prosperity (pp. 35–59). Palgrave Macmillan.
[4] Moyo, B., & Ramsamy, K. (2014). African philanthropy, pan-Africanism, and Africa’s development. Development in Practice, 24.
[5] Dorkuno, S. Presentation at the “Funding Indigenous African Missions” seminar (ACMMR & Kwiverr, Zoom, July 3, 2025). https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[6] Fowler, A., & Mati, J. M. (2019). African Gifting: Pluralising the Concept of Philanthropy. Voluntas, 30(4), 724–737.
[7] Tongoi, D. O. (2016). Business as mission and mission as business. UNISA, http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22687
[8] Game, W. M. (2020). The Role of the African Church in the 21st-Century Global Mission. (Case study on EECMY).
[9] Asare, J. (2025). Financial Sustainability in Kingdom Business. ACMMR Webinar, 30 Oct. https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[10] Ghana Statistical Service, 2010 Population and Housing Census: Tamale Metropolis Analytical Report (Accra: GSS, 2014), 17.
[11] Amaeshi, K., Okupe, A., & Idemudia, U. (Eds.). (2018). Africapitalism: Rethinking the Role of Business in Africa. Cambridge University Press.
[12] Zurlo, G. A., Johnson, T. M., & Crossing, P. F. (2020). World Christianity and Mission 2020: Ongoing Shift to the Global South. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 44(1), 8–19.
[13] Asare, J. (2025). Financial sustainability in kingdom business. Webinar, Africa Centre for Mission Mobilisation & Research, 30 Oct. https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[14] Tongoi, Dennis Obura (2016) Business as mission and mission as business : case studies of financially sustainable Christian mission ventures with a focus on Anglican diocese in East Africa, University of South Africa, Pretoria, http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22687
[15] GAME, W. M. (2020). THE ROLE OF THE AFRICAN CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY GLOBAL MISSION: A CASE STUDY OF THE EECMY GLOBAL MISSION VENTURE AND ECONOMIC MINDSET.
[16] Asare, J. (2025). Financial sustainability in kingdom business. Webinar, Africa Centre for Mission Mobilisation & Research, 30 Oct. https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[17] Dorkuno, S. presentation at the “Funding Indigenous African Missions” seminar hosted by ACMMR and Kwiverr (Zoom, July 3, 2025). https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[18] Asare, J. (2025). Financial Sustainability in Kingdom Business. ACMMR Webinar, 30 Oct. https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[19] Zurlo, G. A., Johnson, T. M., & Crossing, P. F. (2020). World Christianity and Mission 2020: Ongoing Shift to the Global South. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 44(1), 8–19.
[20] Njoroge, R. N. (2023). Effect of diaspora remittance on the exchange rate in Kenya (Master’s thesis). University of Nairobi.
[21] Dorkuno, S. presentation at the “Funding Indigenous African Missions” seminar hosted by ACMMR and Kwiverr (Zoom, July 3, 2025). https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[22] Asare, J. (2025). Financial sustainability in kingdom business. Webinar, Africa Centre for Mission Mobilisation & Research, 30 Oct. https://acmmr.org/seminar-media/
[23] Moyo, Bhekinkosi & Ramsamy, Katiana. (2014). African philanthropy, pan-Africanism, and Africa’s development. Development in Practice. 24. 10.1080/09614524.2014.937399.
[24] Amaeshi, K., Okupe, A., & Idemudia, U. (Eds.). (2018). Africapitalism: Rethinking the role of business in Africa. Cambridge University Press
[25] Johnson, T. M., & Zurlo, G. A. (2020). World Christian Encyclopedia (pp. 589-95). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
