About Us

The International Christian Assembly (ICA), a local church under the Assemblies of God in Malawi, began as an attempt to reach out to a specific group of people that was being sidelined by the great church planting movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Malawi Assemblies of God (MAOG) experienced exponential growth during the last fifteen years of the 1900s. The church, which averaged 150 congregations in 1989, grew to 1500 churches by 1999. Simply click on the small pictures below to view the larger image.

The leaders recognized, however, that the growth was more among a specific group of people and areas. Despite the multiplication of congregations in the cities of Malawi, the growing movement avoided certain groups of people such as Asians, international groups, and those from the highest rungs of social strata.

The leadership of MAOG felt this was very unfortunate and unbiblical. A need for a deliberate approach to reach out to the groups left out by the revival became apparent. Towards the end of 1995, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera felt led by the Lord to lead in the development of that type of congregation. The ICA started during the Easter period of 1996 by Dr. Chakwera and Family supported by a few of people from Kawale Harvest Temple, where he previously pastored for at least ten years. Over the years two other congregations were begun in Blantyre and Mzuzu.

The beginning of the ICA was both providential and challenging. It was providential in the sense that the Lord guided and supplied the resources necessary for the beginning of the congregation. It was however, challenging because of its expressed goal. Was there any need of beginning another church in the city, while there were thirty others? To make it worse, this proposed church was to target groups of people that looked like they had “more money than others.” Thus, ICA began with confrontational challenges both within and outside the denomination.

Is there any justification of targeting a specific group of people for evangelism? The issue of targeting bothers many for it tends to be debated on moral grounds instead of strategic reasons. The MAOG realized that despite the great evangelistic strides of the 1990’s, the church unwittingly avoided specific groups from its efforts. What could have led to this type of picture? We cannot deny the fact that evangelism is guided by specific strategic, theological and cultural assumptions held by the people involved. Thus, the leaders of MAOG deliberately, decided to appreciate other sets of strategic and theological assumptions that desired that all peoples come to the saving knowledge of God.

Every church must desire to reach the whole world. This is the goal of the Great Commission and should be the prayer of every church, but in practice there is not a local church that can reach everybody. “No single church can possibly reach everyone. It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.” Despite its affront to our consciousness the practice of targeting specific kinds of people for evangelism is a biblical principle for ministry. Jesus targeted his ministry. Remember the Canaanite woman who came with a demon possessed person to Jesus? What did he say? He publicly declared that he did not come for her, but for “the lost sheep of Israel.” (See Matt. 15: 22-28). Earlier in his ministry, Jesus sent disciples to a targeted audience. Matthew 10:5-6 says, “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.’” We are also told that Paul targeted his ministry to the Gentiles, and Peter targeted his ministry to Jews (Gal 2:7). Both ministries were needed. Both were important. Both were effective.

The practice of targeting is built into the Great Commission. The church is supposed to make disciples of “all nations.” The Greek word "ethne", from which we derive the word ethnic, refers to literally to “all people groups. Each of these ethnic groups needs to have the gospel communicated to them in ways their specific culture can be understood.