Praising the Savior in Suva: Testimony of Apologia Baptist Church, Fiji.
A Conversation with a Fijian Church Planter, Wayne Areki.
Suva is the largest city in Fiji, with a population above 85, 691 (Source: Statistics from Government of Fiji).
Suva’s inhabitants are representative of all the major indigenous Pacific groups: it is sometimes referred to as the “New York of the Pacific” (Source: Wikipedia).
Suva is also the home to Apologia Baptist Church.
I have had the amazing privilege to befriend the founder, and interview him, very briefly about the amazing God is doing through this congregation in the beautiful country island in Oceania.
Please introduce yourself. Who are you and what do you do?
Hi! My name is Wayne Areki, I’m the National Director for Explain Fiji (an apologetics resource ministry) and pastor of Apologia Baptist Church, Suva. I am also an educator who works for the University of the South Pacific as the Discipline Coordinator for the Civil Engineering Programme.
How did you come to know the Lord? How did the Lord save you from your sins?
I believe that I only started to feel the pull of God towards Him during my undergraduate Studies in Malaysia in 2013. As an international student, student life provided me a new environment and culture. In the midst of the confusion, God graciously led me to communities nearby, namely, Nilai Baptist Church and INTI University Christian Fellowship. It was during my time here that God introduced me to a wonderful body of believers. This exposure strongly impressed upon me what it meant to be a follower of Christ through role models such as my pastor, his family and the staff workers from Fellowship of Evangelical Students Malaysia (FES). This journey led me to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and my subsequent baptism at my mother Church, Pantai Baptist Church in October 2014. I would say that as a young believer, I could understand that Christ paid the price for my sins, but it would not be until 2020 that I really began to feel the weight of this conviction.
I was very fortunate to have met wonderful people through my church at that time. Some of these beloved people had imparted to me crucial knowledge and truth for the development of my understanding of Christianity. However, upon my return to Fiji in 2017 and joining the workforce, I felt distant from the Lord — my faith was put to the test. When everything came to a halt due to the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, I would revisit these teachings that I had put aside years ago. During that time, I remember sitting on my bed during isolation, studying the Scriptures while working my way through “What is Reformed Theology” by R. C. Sproul. As I read through the book of Romans with the guidance of the Sproul, I felt the overwhelming fear of God coupled with the indescribable peace of knowing His sovereignty. I remember feeling broken to the point of tears over my sin but at the same time, assurance of my forgiveness. For the first time in my life, I felt what it was like to have my faith rooted in the Word. Since then I have built my Christian life on nothing else.
What led you to plant Apologia Baptist Church？ Are there not already so many churches in Fiji？
Explain International exists to serve the local church but we also believe that our members should be actively involved in a local church. There are indeed many churches in Fiji but there is a shortage of faithful churches that hold to the centrality of Scripture in worship and discipleship. Furthermore, through ministry we have been fortunate to reach many lost souls who are looking to be discipled. Explain International believes that we are not to displace the duties to others, but are to work alongside the local church. Hence, Apologia Baptist Church(ABC) is an essential part of the work of Explain International in providing new believers with a place to exercise their spiritual gifts for the ministry of the Gospel. Through Apologia Baptist Church, we have been able to slowly build a network of churches that share in our cause across Fiji.
What makes Apologia Baptist Church different? What stands out? Does it matter?
We are a church that holds firmly to the supreme authority, inerrancy, and infallibility of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15–17). We are committed to the theological training and equipping of all our congregants to evangelize and defend their faith because we believe that they are just as much a part of the building of God’s church as pastors, theologians, and seminary students (Ephesians 4:11–12). We believe that the church should actively engage the culture of the day as it is the duty of the church to confront every argument raised against the Word of God and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Love is foundational to our ministry, so we make every effort to be gentle, patient and compassionate in all our exchanges (1 Timothy 1:5). A manner that is suitable for the servant of Christ who professes Godliness (Titus 1:1).
We are confident that the stance we take is essential for the churches of Fiji in steering our country back to the Word as well as to confront the wave of false teaching and practices of the world which are gripping the country and more specifically, the pulpits across this nation.
They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. (Ezra 7:10)
What is the spiritual landscape likened to, in Fiji?
You will not walk along any street in Fiji and not see at least one bumper sticker, signage, or saying that does not convey something about the Christian faith. Believers in Fiji are also actively confessing their belief in Jesus Christ on television, social media, and in sports. However, these professions are sadly not met with equal commitment to holiness and serving actively in a local church community.
With the influence of the modern church movement, the prosperity Gospel, and easy believism, the views on doctrine such as salvation, sanctification, evangelism, and spiritual gifts have been greatly distorted. This deception continues to flourish because congregants have left all the study and teaching of the Word to pastors and leaders who they assume are speaking truth. The church landscape in Fiji is sadly riddled with churches where leaders are preaching from pulpits likened to stages in dimly lit rooms to a congregation with closed Bibles. In many instances, the preaching of Biblical truth has been replaced by mere human testimony in the form of inspirational talks, sound christian hymns by modern romanticized music intended to spark emotion rather than reverence for God. Moreover, youths are now leaving churches in droves not on the basis of Scriptural teaching but on the metrics of entertainment-seeking.
Evangelism is no longer the commitment but syncretism is. The churches have sought to pursue a distorted kind of love that involves being more accommodating of the beliefs of people at the expense of the truth. The local authorities, for instance provides a standard prayer that is recited by citizens. However, due to what is considered as religious tolerance, ambiguity is allowed in its construct. The inability of the local Church to defend its beliefs and stand firmly on the word has now made Fiji an ideal place for the establishment of international cults and new religious movements, the most recent being Grace Road Church from South Korea.
All in all, contrary to the world’s perception of the Christianity in Fiji, the spiritual landscape of Fiji is in fact, very dry. However, for those of us choosing to serve faithfully where God has placed us in our beloved country, we trust that there is a revival of the Gospel on the way!
What challenges has Apologia Baptist Church, Fiji faced upon its inception in 2021?
Our major challenges as a church can be summarized into three areas.
Firstly, perception. As a reformed church there are a lot of misconceptions about our beliefs that we must address. It goes without saying that the doctrinal stance of the reformed faith, while biblical, has been controversial amongst brothers from other denominations. As such it has been a difficult challenge to encourage partnerships with sister congregations for gospel ministry.
Secondly, Pacific culture. Church is very much tied with culture in Fiji and the pacific. Oftentimes it can often dictate the functions of the church and in many ways church is seen more as something that comes alongside family culture. Hence, for family members, especially children, to attend a church that is different from their family can cause a lot of internal tension. As such while we have many believers interested in being in our fellowship their commitment is often divided or they are disallowed from fellowshipping with us. These are one aspect among many of the cultural challenges that we wrestle with as a church.
Thirdly, finances. It was recorded by the Fiji bureau of statistics in 2021, close to a third of Fiji’s population is living below the poverty line. This, coupled with the current increase in taxes has made it costly for families to travel to church and made procurement of church resources very difficult. Furthermore, as a church that is predominantly youth orientated, the majority of financial support is carried by a small number of our church members who are working. This has limited our capacity to expand and implement ministerial projects.
In spite of these challenges, we are grateful for the body of faithful believers God has given us. We have been running for over 2 years now and have grown immensely as a church. We are assured of God’s faithfulness through our journey and that is what fuels our ministry into a future known only by Him.
What do you see in Apologia Baptist Church in 5–6 more years’ time?
In these early years our aim as a church is to establish amongst our members a strong doctrinal foundation that accords with the teachings of Scripture. Following this it is our dream to see that our ministry extends beyond the walls of our church and permeates the surrounding cultural landscape in four ways.
Firstly, with theologically trained professionals in our church who are accountants, engineers, biologists who are involved in evangelism and worshiping God through their vocation while serving actively in our church ministry.
Secondly, within the next 3 years we would have established a primary school dedicated to training the next generation of believers who from an early age have learnt to love God and His Word.
Thirdly, with our members who are undergoing seminary training we hope that upon their graduation we would be able to open an institute for the training of believers from around the country who wish to explore a formal seminary education.
Lastly, we believe that Fiji is the hub of the south pacific with a diverse cultural ecosystem, as such Apologia believes that missionaries who are best trained to share the Gospel in the pacific are those from the pacific.
Our location makes us an ideal place to train missionaries who are able to interact effectively within our part of the world and therefore hope to begin mission trips across the pacific to preach the Gospel and plant more faithful churches in God’s timing.
A word from James Mackenzie, lead pastor and teacher of Hope Reformed Baptist Church, Gold Coast, as he recounts a visit made by Hope Reformed Baptist Church, Queensland in March 2023:
urUpon arrival to the beautiful island of Fiji, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat disheartened on our 4 hour journey from Nadi to Suva. The reason for this was because of what appeared to be a lack of Biblical churches as we surveyed the roads. Mormon buildings, Jehovah Witnesses, Roman Catholic Churches, and hyper-charismatic churches seemed to be of popularity. But once we arrived in Suva, my mindset changed. Upon meeting and fellowshipping with the saints in Suva from Apologia Baptist Church, I knew God would begin His work in Fiji. I reason this purely because of what I perceived to be the love of the Word of God from the saints. As we all know, it is the proclamation of his Word and Gospel in which has the power to save (Romans 1:16), but not only to save, but to transform. This is the mission for all saints, and the prayer for Fiji, that the Gospel would transform and that there would be a growing love for the Holy Scriptures across the island nation.
How can we pray for the church?
(1). Please pray for our plans as mentioned previously.
(2). Pray also that God would raise up more faithful men and women in Fiji who are driven by the Gospel to see Christ glorified all throughout the Pacific.
(3). Lastly, please pray that our brothers and saints across the world to support the ministry work here.
Please tell us the Gospel Message.
All of us have sinned against God (Romans 3:23).
All of us have come under His wrath (Romans 1:18) and condemnation (John 3:18; Romans 8:1).
But God loved us and sent His Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life (Hebrews 2:10) by fulfilling God’s law for us (Romans 8:3–4).
He died for our sins as the Scriptures predicted, was buried and raised to life on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4).
The forgiveness of sins and eternal life is promised to all who believe in Him and repent of their sins (John 3:16; Luke 24:47).
Have you already submitted to God by believing in Jesus?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
Do you have any parting words to the readers?
I only have three words that have been the command of faithful men of God through the ages. Their obedience to these words have been what has made me the believer I am today, “Preach the Word.”
“For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea.
(Habakkuk 2:14)
If you are in the Islands of Fiji and are looking for a solid, biblical and reformed church, there is presently, a community of believers that are gathering every Sunday to worship the King, sit underneath the preaching of His Word, and joining in mid-week Bible studies.
A local church called Apologia Baptist Church. A church that administers the truth, built on the Gospel and contends for the faith.
On 8 Selbourne Street, Suva, Fiji, look for the Fiji Arts Club. Near to Mana Cafe, seen here: bit.ly/46PvIWR is where Apologia Baptist Church meets. They are a church that strives to administer the truth, is built on the Gospel, and contends for the faith. They meet at 10:00 AM on Sundays.
Facebook Page: bit.ly/46RRhpY
YouTube Channel: bit.ly/476Y7r6
Contact Person: Wayne Areki (+679 274 0887)
E-mail Address: apologiafiji@gmail.com
Vinaka Jisu Karisito
