President's Message

Our organization, the Togo Baptist Convention, is the fruit of the fervent prayers and many sacrifices of great men and women of faith whose only concern was obedience to the Lord Jesus — an obedience that means embracing the Great Mandate, the Great Commission and the Great Commandment for the salvation of the peoples of Togo. In 1964, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptists came to Togo at the invitation of a few Nigerian Baptist Christians who had already been living there for several years.

The churches that were planted first came together as the "Association of Baptist Churches of Togo" (AEBT), officially recognized on 12 November 1964 under the associations law 040-484 of 1 July 1901, registration No. 2002/INT. On 26 October 1989, the AEBT became the Togo Baptist Convention (TBC), a non-profit, non-political religious association headquartered in Lomé.

Through the intense work of local churches and missionaries, the TBC today has 629 local churches, of very different sizes from urban to rural areas. These churches are grouped into 17 church regions called Zones. The TBC is led by an Executive Committee of seven (07) members. It has eight national departments currently in operation, run by qualified women and men wholly devoted to serving the Lord Jesus.

The TBC remains faithful to its original commitment: "Winning the nations for Christ and equipping the saints", Ephesians 4:12. Our vision is therefore to extend the kingdom of God on earth and to provide the guidance our members need to flourish in every way, leading each person into the fullness of life, mature in love, peace and the practice of Christian values, through who we are and what we do, as a missionary church of Jesus. To sum up our mission, we reaffirm that the TBC is called to reach the whole person by proclaiming the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. The TBC seeks to be an agent of the Great Mandate (Gen 2:15), the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20; Eph 4:11-16) and the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37-40). The TBC exists to glorify Jesus, to worship Him and to serve Him until He returns.

To this end, the churches of the TBC and their partners build their plan of action around four main areas: institutional development, mission and evangelism, social ministry, and the defence and promotion of human rights (justice and peace).

We are committed to strengthening our institutional, organizational and operational capacity to build a strong institution with an effective and sustainable administration. Mission and evangelism are in our DNA. That is why we are determined to revitalize our Mission-Evangelism department, to mobilize resources and open more mission fields, to challenge local churches to plant more churches, and to prepare for effective mission beyond our borders. This is made possible by the witness of the Word, by prayer and worship, and by bearing witness to God's love for His creation. Promoting Bible study, training ministers of the Gospel, revitalizing action group programmes and mobilizing resources are all essential. As the Lausanne statement puts it, "Evangelism and social action are [twin] brothers, and love is their mother": our social work covers education and vocational training, community health promotion, sustainable agriculture and environmental protection — all of which we call integral mission. God wants us to care for the soul for His kingdom, and also for the body for well-being here on earth. The final goal of the TBC follows the example of Jesus, as of the Law and the Prophets: "the fruit of righteousness will be peace" (Isa 32:17).

I therefore invite all Baptist brothers and sisters in the faith, and all partners of the TBC, to an unshakeable love for the Lord and His work. The harvest is still plentiful, and we must wake up to plan, pray and mobilize human and financial resources wherever they are, so that we can accomplish the task with far greater speed and missionary zeal. Let us also pray that God will awaken our spirit to do His work.

Together, we can go further and faster.

Rev. Kokou AYADOME President of the TBC