History of the Methodist Church in the Central Congo

This study analyzes the efforts of the Methodist missionaries to establish a mission among the Atetela ethnic group in Central Zaire from the visit of Walter Lambuth and John Gilbert to Wembo-Nyama in 1912 to the decline and fall of the Central Zaire Episcopal Area during 1996. The primary goal of the Methodist missionaries was the establishment of a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating Church. To reach this goal the missionaries created schools to train Atetela personnel and hospitals and dispensaries for medical care. These institutions were successful in training Atetela teachers and nurses, who later held leadership positions in the Church and public institutions during the post-independence era, and in bringing many Atetela under Christian influence. However, success in education and medicine failed to make the Methodist Church in Central Zaire an African institution.