This pastoral training program was born out of a series of pastoral seminars in Kenya focusing on stewardship and community development. These continuing education seminars were attended by pastors from the four presbyteries of the Reformed Church of East Africa and from sixteen dioceses of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
A picture of Kibera, a famous slum of Nairobi Several years later these Kenyan seminars became re-organized as "Project Africa," a program of lay leadership training. The focus shifted from continuing education to the development of a curriculum for the training of evangelists and lay leaders who were leading congregations of their own. It then became a collaborative ministry of the Mission Institute of Calvin Theological Seminary, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Partners for Christian Development, the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Reformed Churches of East Africa.
For the next three years, twenty-four pastors attended two-week seminars on stewardship, pastoral care, preaching, and Christian education. These pastors worked with the four seminar leaders to prepare manuals designed for use by these theologically trained pastors for teaching evangelists and lay leaders in the basic skills of Christian ministry.
Ven. Gerald Thuku (Diocese of Mt. Kenya Central) and Melvin Hugen (directory of the Timothy Institute Data about what happened in the parishes served by these pastors continues to grow. The effectiveness of this program is measured by changes in the life of the congregations, not by what seminar participants remember or even by what changes they make in their ministry. Both of these are important but the true test of the program's effectiveness is whether the life of the congregation is changed. For example, the effectiveness of a stewardship program is measured by how church members change their use of all their resources, including the amount they give to the church. So too, the effectiveness of a pastoral visitation program is measured by its impact on church attendance, family reconciliations, and tithing.
Pastoral reports of such changes are well documented in the case files of the Timothy Institute. Some report astounding changes, some more moderate, and some the great obstacles encountered in implementing change. These reports are typical of the twenty-four or more reports received annually from both rural and urban parishes in Kenya. All of these parishes are in a country that is plagued by drought, high unemployment and limited educational levels.
What is distinctive about this program? Training seminars are common in Kenya and in other parts of Africa. Many pastors attend several each year. The participating pastors and the leaders of this program have tried to identify those feature of this program that make it different and that have been factors in its proven effectiveness. Click here to see our best hunches.
