Lay Leaders: Trained and Dynamic, or Untrained and Dangerous?

by Mark Volkers

It’s Sunday morning in Kagimba, a densely populated village in Kenya near Lake Victoria. Ben Koyo, a church elder, takes his bicycle to Kagimba Church to wait for the pastor. He waits patiently but knows that, like most other Sunday mornings, he will wait in vain.

THE WAITING GAME
It’s Sunday morning in Kagimba, a densely populated village in Kenya near Lake Victoria. Ben Koyo, a church elder, takes his bicycle to Kagimba Church to wait for the pastor. He waits patiently but knows that, like most other Sunday mornings, he will wait in vain.

WHERE IS THE PASTOR?
The Africa Inland Church (AIC) in Kenya—the nationalized church begun by the Africa Inland Mission (AIM)—is desperately short of trained pastors in western Kenya. Despite a half-dozen excellent and well-staffed Bible colleges in the country, the shortage persists.

Soaring school fees are one of the reasons, but so are challenges that crop up for students when they attend a Bible college in a different tribal area. Language is another hurdle. Some of the most qualified men who feel called to the ministry are eliminated because they’re not fluent in either English or Kiswahili, the national language of Kenya.

Some make it through the hurdles. Each year, Luo men and women from western Kenya graduate from AIC institutions. And each year, only a few of these graduates trickle back to their homeland to take up the work. The rest are offered higher paying pastorates in other parts of the country. It could be argued that they have every right to go to healthier climates than the Lake Region, and a worker is worth his wages.

Yet the church in western Kenya wanes. Ben Koyo will wait in vain again on Sunday morning, because the pastor in charge of Kagimba has a whopping total of nine churches to look after. Rev. Kutte is committed and hard working, but even the most talented pastor becomes more of an administrator than a pastor when he is expected to care for nine local churches. The pastor won’t come today because he’s busy making the rounds to all the other churches.

Into that vacuum step lay leaders like Ben Koyo.

LAY LEADERS FILL THE GAP
It’s 10:30 a.m. and no pastor. Ben takes over. One of the youth members is appointed to read the Scripture. The choir sings praise songs while Ben frantically throws a sermon together. His finger traces out passages from his worn, dog-eared Luo Bible. A familiar passage comes to mind—one that he’s preached on three times in the last four months. It will have to do.

The choir is done singing, the deacon has given all the announcements to the congregation, and all eyes look expectantly to Ben.

Ben clears his throat, steps behind the pulpit in the small mud-walled church, looks out at the eager crowd, says a silent prayer for help, and begins.

THE URGENT NEED
Kagimba Church is like churches all over Africa, and Ben Koyo is like lay leaders across the continent. The characteristics include fast growth, excited congregations, lack of trained pastors, but plenty of willing, eager, and woefully untrained lay leaders.

The results of this mix can be volatile. Like a bad chemical reaction, the mix of eager worshipers and untrained leaders often leads to an explosion in cults and borderline sects and denominations. The Luo area of Kenya is plagued by such groups as the Legio Maria (Legions of Mary), Roho Maler (Holy Spirit Group), Nomiya Luo (He Gave to the Luo), and many more.

Genuine Christians are lured into these groups because they’re not sure what the truth really is. Others who haven’t accepted Christ but are open are brought in and confused to such a point that, humanly speaking, they’re beyond salvage.

The fault doesn’t necessarily lie with the lay leaders. In western Kenya, these men and women are willing to work hard and sacrifice out of love for the Lord. The AIC can look back on 100 years of solid doctrine, solid teaching, and many capable leaders. The AIC and the AIM together have seen the gospel penetrate many of the most remote areas of East Africa.

One of the greatest reasons for the alarming growth of sects and the increase of African Traditional Religions (ATRs) is a lack of trained leaders. The saying that “The church in Africa is a mile wide and an inch deep” takes on new meaning when one realizes thatdepth will only come with teaching and instruction.

But how can it be done? If it is too expensive to train pastors, there are too many linguistic hurdles, tribal differences bring hesitation, and the few who graduate don’t come back anyway, what can be done?

A PARADIGM SHIFT
One solution is to accept the reality and form a new alternative: a paradigm shift.

Church leaders in western Kenya saw the writing on the wall in the mid-1980s—no money to send young men to Bible college, few graduates, fewer still returning to the Lake Region to work.

On the other hand, they saw an abundance of mature, hard-working men and women giving sacrificially of their time and talents, without much clamor for wages and recognition. The weak spot in the whole scenario, however, was their lack of training.

Theological Education by Extension (TEE) had been tried in the Lake Region over several years, but it never took off. In some parts of Kenya, TEE has had tremendous success and fruit, but not here. Though there are several reasons, two will suffice:

1. Lay leaders found it difficult to take their studies seriously when the instruction was presented “at home.” The Luo people found it difficult to take the instruction seriously because they didn’t go somewhere else to receive it. With thoughts of the farm, the cattle, and relatives right outside the hut, learning in the home area didn’t work well.

2. Lay leaders found it difficult to discuss issues honestly while surrounded with family and clan members in the home area. Occasionally, Christianity and culture will clash. Polygamy, wife inheritance, funeral rites, and other thorny cultural issues were difficult for aspiring church leaders to discuss honestly while clan and family members listened.

THE AHERO BIBLE TRAINING CENTRE
Recognizing these realities, national church leaders began rethinking how to train these important lay leaders. Experienced AlM missionaries and the AIC leadership created the Ahero Bible Training Centre (ABTC).

The ABTC is a leadership training institution directly under and responsible to the AIC. It is patterned closely after Sitotwet Training Centre, the only other center of its kind in Kenya.

1. User friendly. The Ahero Bible Training Centre functions completely in the Luo language. To be admitted, students must read and write their mother tongue. No one is disqualified for a lack of fluency in either English or Kiswahili. Some of the most spiritually qualified lay leaders are not linguists. By putting student notes and everything else in the local vernacular of the 3 million Luos in Kenya, many more people are suddenly eligible for training.

Teachers must also be Luo speakers. The Luo community has produced a host of gifted and educated leaders willing to come to Ahero to teach a course in their mother tongue to their own people.

Before the ABTC, there were only a handful of Bible studies in Luo for the AIC people. Now, through necessity, the center has produced more than 50 Bible studies and class notes for 24 courses, all in Luo. Now even those who don’t study at ABTC can get Bible study material, or notes on everything from homiletics to New Testament survey in their mother tongue.

2. Unique two-year schedule. Because lay leaders have farms, jobs, and families to take care of, they can’t be expected to attend a four-year course of study in a college setting. At ABTC, students come to the small town of Ahero—in the middle of Luo land—for two weeks of instruction. Then they return to their homes and churches for approximately six weeks. Then they return to Ahero. This cycle of two-in, six-out continues for two years. Students come to ABTC for six of these two-week terms a year, 12 terms in two years.

3. Hands-on training. Each week at the center is an entire course. So each two-week term gives students two courses. Students meet in class for four hours each morning, giving them 20 hours of class time a week. In two years, they have 24 courses. The curriculum and course list weredesigned specifically for the unique needs in this part of the world. Some courses, such as the one on cults, focus exclusively on the local cults and sects that each of these lay leaders encounters every week. Other courses include Christian family, doctrine, Old Testament and New Testament surveys, eschatology, Holy Spirit, worship, Romans, evangelism, discipleship, counseling, and many other courses that help meet the Luo church’s felt needs.

4. Variety. Students get a respite from their morning classes with a break for chapel and tea. Afternoons are spent in a variety of electives. Students learn how to type and play guitar. There is an ABTC choir, and each student learns how to lead the singing. Small group Bible studies give each student a chance to lead the study, skills in Bible study methods, and a deeper understanding of God’s word. Local speakers, such as politicians, judges, police officers, AIDS workers, and more, share their knowledge. After two years at ABTC, these lay leaders have been exposed to a host of interesting and valuable discussions and events.

5. Affordable. Each two-week term costs approximately $12. That amount, plus a yearly collection by the entire Luo community, allows the ABTC to function self-sufficiently. It does not need money from overseas to survive.

The church that sends the student is required to pay the fees. This ensures that the student will use the training to help the church that paid the fees. It also means churches will pick people they recognize as important and capable leaders.

6. Practical. At the end of each two-week term, students receive assignments directly relating to the two courses they have completed. Returning to their local churches, they immediately start implementing what they have learned. When they come back to the center, they bring written reports of their efforts. Those papers become part of their final grade.

7. Close supervision. Perhaps the best part of the principal’s job is visiting students during the six weeks they’re away from school. On Sundays, the principal goes to different churches to spend the day with a student. During the visit, the student’s preaching is evaluated, the financial records of the church checked, and the Sunday school program examined. It’s also a chance to meet the believers in that church, the family of the student, and get to know the student in a way not possible at school. Difficult situations in the church are also worked through together and help is given to implement various ideas taught at the school.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The vision must come from the church. The church knew it needed to do something about the leadership gap. And it knew the solution was within the ranks of the lay leaders. The exact “how” of it all was discovered through the efforts of both AIC and AIM. However, the impetus right from the start has been from the national church.

Cooperation. The AIC church in the Luo area of Kenya is split into three regions. Each region has a chairman, secretary, treasurer, and so forth. Because the ABTC was established to address the leadership needs among the entire Luo church—not one region—it was crucial that all regional leaders get on board as quickly as possible.

Ahero is in one of the regions, the one that had the initial burden in the 1980s. For the first three years, ABTC was more a regional affair than a tri-regional affair. However, the school was open to students from any region, and the principal took every opportunity to make the other regions a part of the exciting things happening at ABTC. The Board of Governors, though initially all from the same region, voted in the third year to disband themselves so that a new board with equal representation from each region could be formed.

In 1994, the new board was formed with four members from each of the three regions. Of the four, two are clergy, two are lay people. ABTC is now controlled by the three regions, with each having equal input. Students come from each of the regions, and the principalcontinues to spend time in each region.

THE RESULT
It’s Sunday morning again in Kagimba. Ben Koyo, now a graduate of the Ahero Bible Training Centre, cycles to the church. Knowing the pastor won’t be able to come again this week, Ben has a prepared sermon tucked into his Bible, and he has a new air of confidence.

There’s a difference to the service this morning. The hymns are sung with more gusto. There’s a feeling of worship and expectation. And when Ben steps behind the pulpit, his sermon is grounded on the word and is applicable to the lives of these people.

In the back row sits a young lady who has never been in church before. The Holy Spirit has been tugging at her heart, so she went to the first church she could find.

She hears the truth. And this morning, the truth sets her free.

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