Rev. Samuel Silungwe

My name is Samuel Silungwe. I am a United Reformed Church minister, appointed to the churches at St. John's, Stone and Trinity, Stafford, working closely with the Methodist Circuit in Stafford.

I started my ministry with the United Church of Zambia in 1988. I had a short spell of service with the United Reformed Church in the early 1990s as a "Special Category" Minister through the Council for World Mission. Twenty years later I received a call to serve as a URC minister in the Rockingham Forest Group in Kettering. My testimony is that God surprises! From my experiences, I believe that God works in the ways that the human heart, mind and spirit cannot easily comprehend. God still speaks. I argue that the "Church" should explore how to listen for and interpret God's voice amidst the noise of daily life. For many years my theological position has been centred on church, theology and public life, particularly the the role of religion in public life. But in the last few years I have been wrestling with the concept of "Missional Discipleship". I believe that local churches are being called into a time when they must learn again what it means to be a community of disciples, who follow Jesus and are engaged in his mission of transforming the world into the Kingdom of God.