Training Pastors - Winter 2025 update
We have just returned from Kenya where we had a training seminar that was attended by 63 pastors from the nomadic rural county of Kajiado.
You may not be aware that there are over 495 million Christians in Africa. Most of these Christians have never heard the Word of God in full, while many pastors have never had any formal training. There is a great need for pastors to be trained. Many churches, especially in rural areas, are led by men who have very little understanding of Scripture. I grew up in Africa, I have seen the church growing and the gospel of Christ spreading like a bush fire. I have also witnessed pastors teaching heresy.
My passion to train pastors grew when I was a schoolteacher, which led me to resign from my teaching job in Kenya to go to Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, so that I can help African pastors to handle the word of God correctly. After serving in Africa for several years, my experience showed me that the greatest need in the African church is for the thousands of local pastors to be equipped with biblical knowledge to enable them to preach and teach the word of God in the right way. In many cases false teaching by untrained pastors has poisoned the spiritual life of believers. It is therefore imperative that those who teach and preach the Word be trained to expose error, expound the truth, teach sound doctrine and exegete the Scriptures accurately. African church leaders have been urging African Transformational Leadership to meet the crying need for increased Bible-based Christian work across the continent.
In our most recent trip and in previous training seminars we have seen our students’ hunger, thirst and unending enthusiasm for the Biblical training. We are encouraged that our former students are now training and teaching their fellow pastors. The great advantage that these local trainers have is that they already know the language, they understand the culture and idiosyncrasies of their students and they are naturally able to build trust with their students faster by their shared experiences and background. The training materials that we provide make it easy for the trainers to multiply our initial work by reaching many people with the gospel and the principles of servant leadership.
A class of 63 students in our training..
Our trainers leading a Bible study in their local village.
Out of these leaders we have seen such beautiful fruit as the gospel takes hold of their communities. For example, a pastor went through our training and came away with a renewed love of his community and a deep conviction of duty. He and his congregation have become a safe haven for young girls fleeing female genital mutilation. As these young girls flee, some as young as 11, they run to the church. Their family disowns them and the church provides housing and pays their education tuition.
Not only does African Transformational Leadership train pastors, but we also respond to the felt needs of the communities where we train pastors. During our last training trip we drilled a well for a Masai community that has never had clean water in their entire lives. Women had been walking for miles and miles to get water which in normal cases is dirty and unfit for human consumption.
I asked one lady in her 80s who came to get water at the new well why she was limping, and she started crying and said, “God has heard my prayers. I have been suffering from arthritis and my knees hurt badly. It has been impossible for me to walk for a long distance to get water for my family but see what God has done!! What can I say to God? Thank you, thank you!! Now I can just walk for a few feet and get water.” There was joy, singing, and celebrations when water gushed out of the ground. We hope to supply clean water to hundreds of families in this region.
ROBERT & ALICE
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES
Sponsor pastor training- $350 to train one pastor.
Fund the printing of 1000 Swahili training manuals -$5 per piece.
Pray for our next mission trip to Kenya- May 30th – June 8th, 2025
Gifts can also be mailed to
African Transformational Leadership
P.O. BOX 110792
Nashville, TN 37222