Leading Africa Through Identity in Christ | Ep. 100

What happens when a young leader is called to guide others in a season of deep change? In this episode of the ILI History Makers Leadership Podcast, Norey Valthiran Daji sits down with Ludwig Schkempher, president and CEO of Multi Ministries in South Africa, for a thoughtful conversation about leadership, calling, and the future of the church in Africa. 

Ludwig shares his journey from growing up on a farm in Zimbabwe to stepping into ministry leadership at a young age. Together, they explore the real challenges facing emerging leaders, including questions of credibility, generational transition, mentorship, and the need for strong Christ centered values. They also discuss why identity in Christ may be the missing foundation for many leaders today, especially in cultures where external success, resources, and recognition can easily distract from the deeper call of God. 

This episode offers wisdom for pastors, ministry leaders, and anyone passionate about developing the next generation with humility, courage, and spiritual clarity. Tune in to gain insights on leading with conviction, building across generations, and staying rooted in what matters most.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Rural Zimbabwe Roots And Calling

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome again to the ILI History Makers Leadership Podcast. I am Norivald Vindaji, Vice President for Training at ILI. Today we have one more of our global leader interviews, where we have a conversation about leadership and about life with one of our leaders. And today we have our friend Ludwig Schkimper, as he taught me how to say his name somewhat, uh, from South Africa. Ludwig leads um a ministry that serves uh the body of Christ and helps to proclaim the gospel in the in the African continent. Um, many years ago, probably 15 years ago, uh one of our local pastors here in Carrollton, um, pastor of Midway Church, Todd Wright, uh talked about this ministry in Africa, introduced us to uh its president at the time, Steve Mann. And we have been walking um uh together uh since then, since back those days. And um Ludwig is um the president and CEO of the of the organization. And today we're gonna talk about leadership. You can see that he is young, like ILI's president. And so we're gonna, I think, I believe our conversation is going to be a little bit about the challenges of being a young leader in charge of an organization. But um let me stop talking and introduce you to uh Ludwig. Ludwig, tell us a little bit about yourself, tell us your life story, where do you come from in life, um, and um and all of that so that we get to know you a little better.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

And thank you, Norwell, just for your time and for all those that are watching. It's such a privilege to be here at the I'll i studio just to discuss a pressing need worldwide for young leaders just to rise up for where God has called them. So I'm just grateful to be here and spend this time with uh incredible ministry that we're grateful for. So, just for myself, a little bit, um, you getting my name right. That's that's just very good. Um, I'm that I'm not gonna say the Afrikaans way of saying it, because that is a bit sounds a bit harsh, Ludwig, but I'm grateful just to talk a bit about my background and a bit about myself. I was born in South Africa, that's why I'm South African. Um, but I grew up in Zimbabwe actually on a farm. This is where God formed me, it's where God called me, and um this this is where my background is in rural Zimbabwe, um, in the church there, on the farm with these people.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And your father um is a a solid Christian, a farmer, I yeah, and and a man with a passion also uh for the gospel and for those who don't know Jesus, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

That's great. Um, yes, I come from actually a lineage of people that are Christian. My grandfather was a full gospel pastor and um leader for the South African branch for many years. And my father did go to seminar, but then Quad called him to the farm, and he's been a farmer. My mom is also a dedicated Christian, where she's running an orphanage in Zimbabwe and a mission school, still to this day. So I am grateful for having a Christian heritage and um actually going to Christian homeschool, most of my upbringing.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

And when did you get a sense that God wanted you to be full-time in ministry as opposed to continuing to farm your father's uh property?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

It it was more of a journey, the calling. Um, I am an introvert by nature, and growing up in a farm and being homeschooled didn't help that really very much. I was confronted by God for my my spiritual state or my salvation when I was 15 years old at a youth camp. And this is where I dedicated my life to Jesus and discovered that God is incredible because he's not someone that you just read about. He is someone that you can speak to and he speaks back. I encountered that God is living and he's powerful, and that excitement, that fire then started to ignite within me. So I couldn't help it but start to reach out to the local church and immediately started to organize youth camps where I said, Oh, I can't preach, you know, I'm not very good at speaking in front of people, but what I can do is I can organize it and can bring people together, and that's where it started. And a journey that led me to later on when I was finished with school, when I had to answer the question, what am I going to do with my life? God then just impressed through different people and confirmations and stuff that, you know, this is what I'm calling you to do full-time, is reach out to people. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Have you pastored churches or are you pastoring a church right now?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Um, I am an ordained minister, so I have pastored churches, planted churches, been involved in different capacities and different ministries. Right now, I am not I am not currently leading or um or part of a ministerial team at a local church.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

So, family, you're married, I I know, and you have two beautiful children, and you can't wait to go back to them because you've been in the US for a while, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

That's correct. I am married to Leah, who is my wife, as well as two small kids. Uh a daughter who's two years old, and our son who is now turning seven. And uh, you told us your wife is Swiss. Yes, she's originally from Switzerland.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

From Switzerland. Tell us how you met her. I I I'm I was curious about it, and so I'll ask you on our podcast.

From Introvert To Ministry Leader

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, that is uh that is a longer story, but the short of it is that uh her parents were traveling in different locations in Africa and um working with mission hospitals. So their mission hospital that they were working with uh in in the early 90s happened to be very close to the farm. And so our families then became family friends and it just grew from there. She is a physician, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yes, she is a practicing medical doctor, magical doctor. Wonderful. Uh, what a beautiful testimony. And so uh you also told me in another conversation that you became involved with multi-ministries in Zimbabwe and became uh one of the leaders of the organization, maybe the leader of the representative of of multi-ministries in Zimbabwe. But um, what is multi-ministries? Tell us a bit about the uh uh about the history of this organization. What is it that you do, or historically, what is it that uh multi-ministries uh did? And and and then we're gonna talk a little bit about your tenure as the the executive director of the organization.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So all right. So multi-ministries was started by Harold Peasley in 1993 in Cape Town, along with um Dr. Team that he had with him that had a passion to see young leaders, or I wouldn't, I don't know if the emphasis was necessarily young leaders, but leaders in Africa so that God can send them out to evangelize and disciple and plant churches. So they started out there and they started to grow and work from there. Um, Reverend Peasley then gave over to Pastor Steve Mann, um, who then later on handed over the baton to me in 2024.

What Multi-Ministries Does In Africa

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yes. Uh Steve Mann is the man who introduced us to uh to uh to multi-ministries. On a practical sense, what were some of the activities that were uh the most significant that multi-ministries historically did and and maybe does it to this day?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Historically, I think multi-ministries has gone through different phases where different aspects of ministry were focused on in those periods. There's always been a part of evangelization of mobilization of Christian um resources to help with that. There's always been an uh outreach arm for relief for helping with people that are homeless or food. Orphanage has always played a big part of that. There's always been a part of leadership development or encouraging the saints, as it is like that. But I think just before we go further on, um it might be relevant also for me to mention how um I started with multi-ministries, and um I think there's something interesting then for Al I in there in that from the very beginning that I started the journey with multi-ministries, um, I stepped into helping to organize stuff for Al I when I started. So Steve Mann approached me in the late 2014, early 2015 through a mutual friend. Um, it's incredible how God, you know, can connect things and people where you you might not realize the importance of that connection or that person, and many years later, God just weaves things together. So that was one of those stories where I did not know Steve Mann from before, and through a mutual friend, he just called me. And I happened to be in South Africa, in Lutrichart at that stage. Um, and he called me and said, Can we just meet? And we started to talk about it, and that's where he then asked, Can you just then become the Zimbabwe coordinator for multi-ministries? I then accepted that, and one of my first tasks was to organize a history makers, a national history makers convention um in 2015, uh-huh. Where we had a number of people come, and um that journey then led forward and till till today.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

And that's one of the reasons you're here. Uh, we are having conversations about continuing to equip leaders through the history makers training in the context of uh of the countries where multi-ministries operates. In fact, last year uh we had uh we you you promoted a significant event with leaders from several countries in Africa. Um, right? And tell us a little bit about that. How how what was the impact of that in that the that you um that you believe for the leaders?

Partnership With ILI And Conventions

Core Values That Anchor Leaders

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Absolutely. That was about two two years ago, and um that was the end of 20 about you know one and a half years ago. And we came together as a leadership of multi-ministries right after I took over from Steve Mann. And multi-ministries then was at the 30-year time period of existence, and was face we were facing the question of should multi-ministries exist and why should multi-ministries exist. After some soul searching, we came to the answer that we definitely feel that there is a need and a space for a platform for young leaders to be equipped and to be sent out for where God has called them. So once we answer that question, we started to build on the how that is supposed to look. Naturally, um, with my exposure and my work with um ILI, I was impressed by the core values that ILI champions and believe that multi-ministries going forward really needs these core values to be at the core of what we do so that we can stay the course and stay true to what Jesus has called us to be. I believe that this is um one of the big things in Africa, maybe in the world, is that you have a lot of leaders with a lot of skills and anointing, and you know, there's a lot going on, but not everyone has the right kind of core values that anchors them to what Jesus needs to do in the communities. So that's when we um then organized at that national convention that you were mentioning, where we brought together all the people that were in multi-ministers as leaders, potential leaders, or ones that we were raising up, and just everyone that we could get from the different countries to sit down and you know instill in them the core values that were important to us, as well as taking advantage of the vision casting element of the history makers' journey so that it can help multi-ministries as a whole, but also each individual leader to identify so that they run with what God has called them to do. And there's incredible testimonies just from that one. We have a young leader from, if I can just mention just the testimony from that specific event, we have a young leader from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania that was there, that that was the turning point in his ministry. He um, you know, he got things right with his family, family priority. He focused more on intimacy with God so that God could fill him up. And from there on, he has had an incredible growth, seeing the power of God, baptisms, and just God is preparing him for a big season that is to come from that event.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

What a blessing. But you mentioned something that that has been a conversation here at ILI. This we call it um Daniel kind of coined the term the leadership gap, or he heard it somewhere, but we are using it. There is a gap, not a gap, not a lack of persons. You mentioned you said something, you know, there are a lot of leaders. People, um, maybe we need more leaders, but there are leaders. The issue is, and and a lot of times they are skilled or they are uh charismatic. What what is lacking is Christ-like character, is that foundation of uh of core values. Um now we have been having this conversation. Is that something uh uh is that a is speak a little bit about that in the in the in an African context, and particularly in a South African context, because one of the unique things about you and you multi-ministries is to see a ministry of Africans for Africans, right? Um so a lot of our audience is in the West, and so we're used to uh from our part of the world to the African context, but you are Africans to Africans, right? Is that a challenge? Is that something you see in Africa? Speak a little bit about the major challenges of leadership in Africa. Um, what does the gap look like in the African context?

The Leadership Gap And Identity

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I think if I have to think in that way, the challenges that leaders, not just young leaders, but all leaders in Africa face, um, not just in ministry, but just Christian leaders that are in Africa. Um for often when when people think of Africa, you think of poverty, you think of, you know, maybe there's some big things, of course, we need more leaders, of course, there are definitely there's terrible poverty, of course, there's a lot of ministries that could do with more finances, but some of these challenges are worldwide. And I believe that the greatest challenge that that leaders in in Africa face, and this is this is part of if you go into our website and stuff, this is part of what we want to try and address is that there is an orphan spirit that the leaders face in Africa. That through circumstances, through the prevailing spirit in Africa, um, they have forgotten their identity in Jesus Christ. They have forgotten that uh I am doing this before Jesus, in Jesus, because of Jesus. And so that that losing that focus of who they are causes leaders to start preaching a gospel that is self-focused or focused on you know finances. Uh so there is a lot of that going in in Africa where leaders think, you know, if only I can build a bigger structure, if only I can have a little bit more money, then I can buy a better sound system. If, you know, if only I had this, if I know, if if only I had a bit more degrees or qualifications, you know, somehow forgetting that all these other things, uh and some of them might be good and their tools and resources, but the most important thing that many, many miss is that I am a child of God and I anchor myself in Jesus. And when I run with that, even when I don't have the finances and even when I don't have necessarily the skills or the resources or the connections so much, I can be victorious in the community and the calling that God has called me. So I would so I would single now that that is the biggest challenge for me personally, what I've seen, is losing sight of who I am in Jesus Christ as a leader.

Orphan Spirit And Self-Focused Ministry

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Wow, that is that is incredible. Because a lot of times you talk, I I've I've heard what you're saying. We talk to leaders in Africa, and the challenge is they don't have resources. Um it's difficult to connect, uh, it's difficult to do this or that. Um, but what you're talking about, you're talking about something that is in me, that is that and it has to do with my intimate with intimacy with God, it has to do with my um my experience of God, of of of knowing God, not about God. So wow. Um, I think that is a a very impressive insight. Now, um, we were we we need to address the elephant in the room here. You are you are a 34, 35-year-old leader, 36-year-old leader, um, assuming leadership in an organization that is older, much older than you, uh twice your age, right? Well, no, no, twice, almost, almost as old as you. You're 30, you're you're 36 organization is 30 years old. So um you were in probably in primary school by the time when when this organization was started.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

I was four years old when it was started.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Four years old when it was started. And uh just yesterday, I told you this before we started recording. I had a conversation uh with um a Mosambican leader who uh sought he sought me for for mentoring. He just got married. Um, he is 32, 33 uh years old, and he's the pastor of a church. Um, and I believe his church is uh is an assemblies of god church. I think it's a it's it's a pretty good sized church because um every church that I've been in the cities in the Mozambique are are significant. They're not huge, but they're they're large. And it could be that he has more than a thousand leaders. So you have this young man uh leading, and he said, Um, and I asked him, I said, what is your biggest challenge? What what do you want us to talk about? He wants me to be a mentor to him. And he says, Oh, my greatest challenge is is he calls the adults, the older, the older members of my church. If if I'm doing a wedding or if I'm doing a funeral, they all look at me like, what is this kid doing here? He doesn't have any white hair. Uh, he is too young for the for and in in and there is, and I've I've been in Africa enough to know that um a white beard like what I have or gray hair is very much valued in the African context, which is good, but to the detriment of a of younger leadership. So is that something that you that you face uh in in your leadership? And how what can you tell us about what it means to be a 36-year-old leading in a country where 72 years old are uh considered more respectful or than than than younger?

Being Young In An Age-Honoring Culture

SPEAKER_00 20:41

I think for myself, um, first of all, for myself, of course, there is always the challenge when you step into a role like that um of expectations. So often expectations uh are set by what people can see and what people can you know measure, but not realizing the call of God in our lives. Like like I mean, like when um Samuel was setting expectations when he was looking at the brothers of David according to what he could see. And sometimes what we see is right and sometimes not, but with myself, I think I'm grateful to Pastor Steve Mann for um being part of the transition uh of multi-ministries from myself from him to myself. I think the unique position that multi-ministries found itself had its challenges in the and its advantages because um there was very little leadership that was there, many personnel and people, uh, just because of the unique situation that we found ourselves in. So we built a lot from scratch, which has its advantages because then you don't face so much. Pushback from this is what how we used to do it, you know, this is how we should do it. The challenge then was more for me to build it from zero, if I can put it like that. Although there was, it was more the transition that God was in building in multi-ministries. Um, on the wider ministry level, when you talk about young leaders facing um the challenges of being accepted or believed in or given space to run, of course, this is then what multi-ministries sees a lot. I saw this in my upbringing in the church I grew up in. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, uh African Pentecostal church. I speak Shona fluently, which is the local, one of the main local language in Zimbabwe. And this is where I did definitely see it. This is part of what inspired me to do the work I do in multi-ministries, is that you have young leaders that have been called by God, but um you don't have senior leaders or intentionality in this in the structures to believe in them, to build them up. Um, and I think that goes both ways, is that young leaders need to be open to mentorship. They need they need there can be a spirit of rebellion, of course, where they don't want to listen to advice, but then there can also be the senior there's a big part of the senior leaders where they for different reasons don't invest and build up and give the space, you know, for young leaders, like that one in Mozambique.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Yes. Absolutely. I love the idea of generations working together. One of the things that that I appreciate most about uh about our president, who is your age, by the way, yeah, uh, is is that uh respect and that he he he and I work very well together because I am all I'm all about passing um the baton to the next generation, but I'm not ready to quit either. So I want to have a voice. And he on his on his side wants to hear my voice. So I think I I think that's the the secret sauce is is is maybe in my relationship to Daniel and your relationship to Steve is to to be able to work together uh to build up an organization. Um obviously uh you not only you're not only a younger younger leader, but you're also a leader that is bringing significant change. Um was that your initiative, or was that uh like a joint initiative of different generations to rethink um uh as you did do the soul search as you call it?

Mentorship Across Generations

SPEAKER_00 24:55

I think I think a large part of some of the practical stuff and technical stuff Steve Mann was already setting up uh because he he took over from someone else. And um it was a combination of preparation, the timing of God, and then being obedient in the new season. So what a lot of what's in multi-ministries right now was initiated by myself and the team that I work with, where I think God wanted to strip strip multi-ministries to a point where it was to the to the foundation and then rebuild it from there on. So I I need to give credit to where credit is due, where um Pastor Steve Mann did put almost like David put some foundational stuff prepared preparate preparation. Um, but when I came in, then it was at such a point where we could restructure and rebuild it completely to what the next season of multi-ministry should look like.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Wow. I love I love the that comparison. David, because David that's what he did, he prepared um um everything for the building of the temple, and Solomon was the one the one who executed it. And in a way, I see that the two generations working together. Um, so what is what is what does the future look like for you for multi-ministries and and in in a broad sense for the church in in Africa? How do you see it?

Rebuilding Multi-Ministries For A New Season

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Wow, uh that those are some very big um questions to answer. But for multi-ministries, definitely our our future is in continuing to build out the vision of God. Um a lot of work has been put into, like I said, in the restructuring. So the the theory part was a lot of work went into how this should look. And now the future is now doing that, getting stuff done. Uh, a number of initiatives that we're launching, number of projects, collaboration, so much that it's now starting to spin off from that, starting in southern Africa. So that is definitely the future for us at Multi-Ministries, is now definitely continuing to build the theory side and the foundational stuff, because the vision is very big. For us, if we are to raise up generations and um change the narrative of leadership in nations across the whole continent of Africa, there should be a strong foundation to do it. So we'll continually be building on the practical and foundational stuff. But now going forward is just to accelerate uh as the maturity of the leadership, as the vision is um caught by the different leaders as we build relationships going forward. I think the the church in Africa itself has a number of issues it faces, it faces um resurgent um Islamic jihadists that are increasing, um, highly financed from the oil-rich countries in the Middle East. You see um animism or witchcraft that is definitely making a comeback, as some people mix Christianity with witchcraft, and I I have uh a deep knowledge of where the way I grew up and the churches are planted with the power of witchcraft in Christianity. So the church in Africa definitely faces a challenge when it comes to that. Uh, there definitely the church of af in Africa faces a big challenge from I think the word prosperity gospel is is bashed too much by the world, but there is an element where the church is losing focus of the main thing and making blessings and um you know a good life, the main thing, too much. Um, and there's that's a whole discussion for another time. But these are some of the elements I believe that's creeping in and trying to get a hold of the young generation, and the young generation is susceptible to these because of the challenges in the economies and the countries and politically that is happening.

Future Plans And Church Challenges

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Okay, well, um, thank you. It it was really it was a real good conversation. It's good to understand better uh what you do, and in understanding what you do, um understand the challenges of Christianity in Africa. And I go back to what you we what we talked about in the beginning, that identity issue. Yeah, um, to me as the is the biggest takeaway for me is that issue of identity in Christ as the major crisis of leadership uh today. Thank you for uh sharing that. Is there anything you would like um to else to say? Anything we didn't say that you uh feel compelled, or maybe uh a message to a young leader like you um out there uh wherever they are from uh from an emerging leader from southern Africa.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

You have yes. I if I if I could speak to someone today that is watching this, and um you are an emerging leader, you are called by God. We invite you, of course, to go on to the website and follow us on social media. We believe that leaders are people of influence, and this could be in ministry, this could be in the marketplace, this could be in the community, wherever God has called you. We welcome you just to connect with us and see, you know, how we can help you. But if I can say something, is root yourself in Christ. You don't need um everything that you see on YouTube, you don't need everything that people that you think you do, you already have everything that you need in Jesus. And run with that. Don't don't don't necessarily listen to the lies of the enemy. Who you are is not what they say, but who he says that you are, that is Jesus Christ. But be open to advice. God is God is calling you for a time like this. Africa's time is now for to stand up on the world stage and be a voice of truth and light in changing times. God's calling you for this time, rise up and be a blessing of change in your community.

Final Encouragement And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Wow. Thank you for this message. Oh, okay. Um, all the information about multi-ministry, their their social, uh, their website and everything will be on the show notes. Please check it out. Um, it is worth it. I've been there. There's a contact form. You can uh you can drop them a note uh saying you're interested in knowing more about what they do and how they do it, particularly if you are in Africa, then the connection will be uh will be made. And uh who knows, maybe some people that are watching us today uh or in the future uh will be able to sharpen their uh their tools and their identity in Christ by participating uh with you and with history makers. Um thank you, uh Ludwig. Thank you for uh being with us. It was an honor to talk to you. Now, if you are interested, if you are a leader and you want to um to develop yourself, uh you have that challenge. You want to build your identity in Christ. Uh the eight core values that God has revealed to ILI many years ago can help you do just that. Uh go to ILI team.org and get in touch with us. We uh we will be glad to direct you wherever you are in the world to our leaders that may be able to equip you and uh and challenge you and mobilize you for to lead like you like you've never led before, but under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to accelerate the spread of the gospel. Thanks for watching. See you next time.