Ken Onywoki
Eremias Bekele
Johnathan Todd
For the past two years while conducting Romans Project conferences and challenging pastors to read the book of Romans 20 times and write it out once, I have heard these same pastors ask one simple question, "What's next?" Over and over again I heard that question. Then in March 2015 while at a Romans Project country directors' meeting here in Nairobi, Ken and Eremias approached me one afternoon and said they had large numbers of pastors who were pleading for more training. Ken was in contact with 2,000 pastors in Kenya and Eremias with 1,500 in Ethiopia. They both asked me, "What can we do about this?"
That was the impetus God used to bring Ken, Eremias and me together to seek God in meeting this incredible need. Pastors living in rural Kenya and Ethiopia greatly desiring training and yet unable to obtain it. We spent a day in prayer and planning and came up with the Pastors Training Program.
The Church in Africa, generally speaking, is 100 miles wide and an inch deep. I've read that repeatedly and heard it time and again from my African brothers-in-Christ. In fact, Alex (one of the translators from Uganda - see earlier blog post) related that very statistic at dinner this evening. Are there groups seeking to address this need? Certainly there are, but Eremias and Ken have not been in contact with them. However over the past two years through the Romans Project, they have been in contact with me. So, we have joined together for the purpose of addressing the need of these pastors with whom they are in contact.
We wrote up a proposal in March 2015 to train 24 pastors in western Kenya and 30 pastors in Ethiopia during this year in the basic skills and knowledge needed for pastoring God's people. We plan to meet these two groups four times from now until August 2016. Each time we will spend three full days in training - imparting to these men not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. They will receive assignments to work on between our training times. We seek to train them in the skills of how to study the Bible, how to preach the Word, and how to apply the truths of God's Word to people in their congregations. We also want to help them understand the Bible's message as a whole and in its parts along with the major teachings of the Bible.
We presented our proposal for the Pastors Training Program to Grace Evangelical Church in Germantown, TN where Johnathan Todd is missions pastor. "Grace Evan" has supported the Brown's ministry for many years, and Johnathan came on a Romans Project trip a year and a half ago. They as a church had been looking for a ministry venture in Africa and the Lord brought us together for such a time as this.
I know it seems like we are barely making a dent in the need with this first year's pilot program, but we believe that if we start small and seek to personally impart the basics that pastors need for ministry, then perhaps God will bless our efforts. The basics of teaching others to feed on God's Word for themselves and then to feed others with God's Word can make a huge impact over time.
PLEASE PRAY with us and for us as we, by God's grace, launch this program to train pastors in rural Kenya and Ethiopia.
- Our training time in western Kenya will be from Thursday October 1 through Saturday October 3.
- Our time in Ethiopia, south of Addis Ababa an hour and a half, will be from Wednesday October 7 through Friday October 9.
- Travel days will be before and after those dates.
- Pray that the men will come ready to work hard at learning the skill of how to study the Bible. Johnathan Todd will also be taking the men through Paul's letter to the Philippians as an example of how to communicate the fruits of what they learn from their study.
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