History
In 1997 a team of Christian educators from Africa, Europe and North America was formed to meet two challenges. The first was to respond to an urgent call for basic pastoral training coming from thousands of protestant evangelists and lay pastors throughout Africa. The second was to promote economic sustainability within the churches and communities they serve. What resulted was a training program that is now called Timothy Leadership Training.
This church leadership 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.
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 Calvin Theological Seminary, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, and Christian Reformed World Missions and was renamed Timothy Institute.
As time went on, the team of Christian educators field-tested the curriculum in ten English and French speaking African countries (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia). Week-long workshops were held with pastors from the Anglican, Assembly of God, Baptist, Reformed, Independent churches and many other denominations.
Between the workshops these pastors engaged their lay leaders and other evangelists in the same training they had received. Training focused on pastoral care, Christian education, preaching, stewardship, the relationship between work and worship and violence in the family. After many revisions, a training manual on each of these 6 subjects was published.
The effectiveness of this training 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.
What is distinctive about this program? The Timothy Institute engages in an inductive method of teaching which fosters reflection and discernment. It is designed in such a way that leaders who have had little or no formal education can be trained. Each manual begins with a biblical foundation in which to build a theology of ministry. At the conclusion of each manual, trainees are required to write their own “Action Plans” to implement what they have learned through TLT. Most notably, the entire Timothy Institute program is designed to become self-sustaining and self-propagating within three years.
Results
Those who put Timothy Leadership Training into practice saw significant progress in their churches and communities:
- Pastors salaries were paid on time
- Churches were built using only local funds from tithes and offerings
- Sunday school programs were strengthened
- Agriultural and economic development programs were developed benefiting villages and urban neighborhoods
- A new spirit of evangelism and outreach enabled many new churches to be planted, even in predominantly Muslim areas.
Methods
Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) uses two educational methods integrated into each of the 5 training manuals.
- An inductive method of teaching.
During each lesson, participants read and reflect on Scripture together. Questions in the manuals help discover what this Bible teaching means and how to put it into practice.
TLT encourages Christians to search out God's will for their lives so they will grow in both obedience and maturity, like Berean Christians of Acts 17:11.
TLT trainers learn how to teach without doing most of the talking! - Action Plans.
Action planning teaches participants how to immediately put into practice what they learn during each lesson. Through their plans they develop a renewed sense of responsibility. They also learn to report to each other during the following lesson. They share their achievements and the obstacles they face in their Christian service.
Action planning teaches responsible and visionary Christian service!
The TLT team will do everything we can to help you benefit from this training. Write to us at: timothyinstitute@calvinseminary.edu.
