New WRF International Director

March 03, 2015

Dr. P.J. (Flip) Buys

On March 23-27, Rev. Dr. Peter Lillback will travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to participate in the General Assembly (GA) of the World Reformed Fellowship (WRF). Westminster is a member of WRF and, through the organization, Dr. Lillback has been able to partner with brothers and sisters with a commitment to Reformed doctrine across continents. He will attend this year’s GA to celebrate the appointment of Dr. P.J. (Flip) Buys as the new international director of WRF.

Dr. Buys was born in South Africa in 1947. As an ordained minister in the Reformed Churches in South Africa, he is an experienced pastor, cross-cultural missionary, church planter, and initiator of community development projects in the midst of the challenges of poverty and HIV/AIDS victims and orphans. He is also an adjunct professor of Missiology at Northwest University in Potchefstroom.

Dr. Buys visited Westminster in the Fall of 2014 to meet with Dr. Lillback. In this interview, Dr. Buys talks with Dr. Lillback about his connection to Westminster, the value of theological education, and the importance of WRF.

Lillback: Tell us a bit about your connection with Westminster through the years
Buys: I’ve read so many of [Westminster’s] materials that I almost feel like an alumnus! When I was a student at Northwest University, studying for the ministry, I read quite a lot of Meredith Kline. That helped me to understand the character of the covenant. Regarding biblical counseling, I’ve learned a lot from Jay Adams. He was invited twice to South Africa to teach a workshop, first on biblical counseling with Dr. John Bettler and the next year a workshop on preaching. I had a very good relationship with Palmer Robertson. I visited him last year in Uganda. I have been blessed by many of your professors through their materials, and some of them I’ve had the privilege to meet personally. Also, because of my interest in missions, I have learned a lot from Harvie Conn. I’m still using some of his materials for my own students. I have been blessed through the years by what God has done through Westminster.

Lillback: What are some of the opportunities that are before higher education and theology to use technology to advance our message?
Buys: Let me start by saying that there is such a vast need for theological education in Africa. Research has estimated that every Sunday there are still maybe two million preachers, stepping into pulpits, who haven’t had one day of theological education. Because of poverty and distance, it’s almost impossible for them to go to full-time residential training. If you have to train them through traditional residential training, you will only reach about 10% of those who really need it. We have seen ourselves that the Internet is becoming available all over in the world. I have been in the most remote places in Africa, in the Congo on the border of Rwanda, and I could stand there and phone my wife on my mobile phone. You can have access to the Internet there. It’s becoming more and more popular, that I myself am supervising five master’s degree students and seven PhD students who are doing their degrees all online. Some of them are from countries in Africa, so it is exciting that this has become possible.

The challenge is Africans have field-dependent learning styles. That means they function best when they work in groups; they don’t learn so well when they are doing it on their own. So, we need to become very creative to help them to study in groups.

Lillback: Is there anything you’d like to share as the new WRF international director?
Buys: I have seen through the years I’ve been involved with WRF the value of networking, making needs known, for instance, in theological education that allow churches and organizations to work together. Let me give you an example. We had in South Africa at our small training college, Mukhanyo Theological College, some refugees from South Sudan. They wanted to go back to South Sudan and do training there. Then at the WRF meeting in 2010 in Edinburgh, some people from a large church in Washington came to me and said they would like to get involved with theological education in South Sudan. So, together, Mukhanyo Theological College and Fourth Presbyterian Church in Washington are working together setting up theological education in South Sudan [facilitated by WRF].

By making needs known, in terms of poverty and community development, it happened that young people approached us and said they want to take a gap year and give their life to help somewhere with teaching or community development. We have had young people coming from all over the world, and we can facilitate their work for a year with orphans and basic education, for example.

Another thing is how we can enrich each other coming from different contexts and worldviews. I was part of the theological commission that designed the statement of faith of WRF. What a blessing it was to sit there with people from Asia, Kenya, Europe and so on. We discussed, “What are the real issues of the Reformed faith that are not really properly taught in the existing confessions?” It might be there in essence, but the church globally is facing problems that are not so directly addressed in the existing Reformational confessions. Eventually, after working six years together with people from all over the world, we came up with a statement of faith, with which we can take the richness of the Reformed faith and apply it to new problems that churches and Christians are facing today.

Would you pray for Dr. Buys in his new leadership role with the World Reformed Fellowship, working to advance the gospel throughout the world?