(I probably should apologize for the picture I chose to steal from your blog - it was just too funny to pass by)
Thabiti serves as Pastor of the First Baptist Church Grand Cayman, is married to Kristie & they have three children.
At the outset I'd like to thank Thabiti for doing this and pray that you the reader will be blessed by seeing, not just a bit about Thabiti but also of Christ.
G.B. - For those who haven’t heard of Thabiti Anyabwile could you tell a bit about your background & calling to Christ, as well as your ministry?
T.A. - Well, there’s not much to tell about Thabiti. Really, the story is about Christ—as it always is. I grew up in the southeastern United States, a region with broad patches of nominal Christianity. My family was nominally Christian and rarely attended church.
I was a quite angry and depressed teenager. My father left when I was about 14. A couple years later, I was arrested for doing some really dumb things. It was a minor offense, but the arrest taught me some valuable lessons about friendship, and eventually taught me that my sins were not just private but public as well.
I went off to university an angry young man. There I met some very disciplined, clean, and upright men who talked a lot about the importance of family and community—important themes for me given the absence of my father. I was drawn to them. Turns out they were Muslims. In my second year of college, I converted to Islam. I was zealous for Islam and threw myself into a faithful Muslim life.
About 4 years later or so, a series of events shook my confidence in Islam. First, I overheard a co-worker saying to a colleague that I was the most righteous person she knew. This shook me because I knew my heart and was growing increasingly aware of the sin that lurked there despite all the outward religious observances. Secondly, I was noticing contradictions in the Qur’an. Over a period of time, I turned away from Islam.
For a year, I drifted between agnosticism and atheism when my wife and I became pregnant with our first child. We lost the baby three months into the pregnancy. We were humbled greatly. The Lord in His kindness brought my wife and me to faith in the preaching of the gospel a few months after losing that child. A few years later, I was headed toward full-time pastoral ministry thanks to the encouragement and training of a couple faithful pastors and churches.
G.B. - In Swahili, what does your name actually mean? (Or what does it mean on this occasion?)
T.A. - It’s a name with “wide semantic range.” Truthfully, “Thabiti” means stern, upright. “Anyabwile” means “God has set me free.”
G.B. - You were recently at the Bangor Missionary Convention in N.Ireland, now that it’s over and you’re home what are your hopes & prayers for those who were there?
T.A. - What a tremendously sweet time in N. Ireland with the Bangor Missionary Convention! I don’t know that we’ve ever had warmer fellowship or a more encouraging missions convention experience. I pray that the Lord continues to use the convention in the next 72 years to bear as much fruit as he did the last 72. It seemed that 3 out of every 4 people we met were either long-term missionaries or recently back from short-term efforts. Young and old, there was great passion for missions and the peoples of the world. I pray the Lord would preserve that. And I pray that more cities and communities like Bangor would “own” the work of missions in this unique way. Our experience there has been formative in many ways, and I hope our upcoming missions conference at FBC will benefit from our time there.
G.B. - You were here ministering to others, did Christ minister in any particular way to you while you were here?
T.A. - Yes, definitely! We were strengthened spiritually from the fellowship. We were stirred with a renewed vision for the work of missions. The hospitality was instructive in many ways. And much was done in the spiritual life of my family as we worshipped together with the saints there. It was probably far more a blessing to me than we were to the people there.
T.A. - Yes, definitely! We were strengthened spiritually from the fellowship. We were stirred with a renewed vision for the work of missions. The hospitality was instructive in many ways. And much was done in the spiritual life of my family as we worshipped together with the saints there. It was probably far more a blessing to me than we were to the people there.
