Vince Bantu knew God called him into ministry, but he first needed to learn a thing or two. This desire for knowledge led him on a journey of reconciling his background and culture with what he thought the Christian life was, and a passion for understanding how context, culture, and racial justice influence the way we go about sharing Christianity with others. It wasn’t until he discovered early church traditions and teachings outside of Europe that he found the missing puzzle piece in the conversation.
Guest Bio
Vince Bantu is the Ohene (president) of the Meachum School of Haymanot and is assistant professor of church history and Black church studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. Vince’s assignment from the Lord is to proclaim that the bisrat (gospel) of Yeshua is for all nations, tribes, and tongues and to do this by teaching on the earliest history of Christianity in Africa and Asia. Vince is the author of A Multitude of All Peoples (IVP), Gospel Haymanot (UMI), and The Bisrat (Jude 3 Project).
Vince is also the Ohene of the Society of Gospel Haymanot (SGH), an academic society of theological Gospelism—Afro-rooted theology committed to the universal Lordship of Jesus, biblical authority, and the liberation of the oppressed. Vince also serves as the Katabi (editor) of the publication of SGH—the Haymanot Journal.
Vince, his wife Diana, and their daughters live and minister at Beloved Community Church in St. Louis and they love to travel, watch movies, and bust some spades.
Notes & Quotes
“Because I grew up in a white church, I did not have any context for Black Christians. I knew Black people and I identified as a Black person, but nobody in my neighborhood went to church. Nobody in my family on that side or either side really went to church. … It wasn’t like I thought all white people were Christians, but I felt subconsciously that all Christians were white because that was my little microcosm world.”
“I think that reconciliation needs to go both ways. It shouldn’t just always be like people of color going into white platforms to help diversify them, but it should also be white Christians going under Black platforms or Hispanic or Asian or indigenous.”
“We need to know that Christianity is not just from the West to the rest, but it’s always been in Africa and Asia and taking diverse forms. And so, that was really when I just knew I had to dedicate my life to learning about that and sharing it with the world.”
“The word Haymanot means faith, but it actually means a lot of things. It means theology, it means faith, it means doctrine, it means lifestyle conduct. It speaks to how in an Ethiopian mindset, action is not divorced from belief, but right belief and right action have to go together, and practice and orthodoxy go together.”
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