Linda Cannell and Ted Ward, March, 2005

Strengthening Leadership for Theological Education in Africa

This proposal is currently under consideration by a foundation.  It seeks funding for specific efforts identified as important by African leaders.  The foundation is more likely to support this proposal if there are others involved in the funding.  If you wish to support certain aspects of this proposal contact Linda Cannell at lcannell@candospirit.org

 A.      What motivates this proposal?

 Purposes underlying this proposal:   

 1.         To change the way learning is understood in African education.

·        Expanding awareness that ministry training needs to include practical experiences.  

·        Utilizing social interaction in learning for context-changing and crisis resolution.   

·        Committing to the importance of non-residential learning contexts. 

2.         To mobilize African leaders in the transforming of theological education.

·        Assisting African educators in their exploration and discovery of appropriate procedures for ministry education.

·        Encouraging the African imagination to overcome tribal and denominational hindrances to social interaction and collaboration.

·        Establishing African leaders as inter-institutional teams to transform teaching and learning for Christian ministry.

B.      What is the basis for this work?

In June 2004, 75-80 leaders attended the Ward Consultation in Nairobi, Kenya.  The majority were African leaders in the church and theological education in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, and Liberia.  Other participants included Americans, Canadians, and Asians active in theological education and leadership development.

The context and endemic problems reflected in the Consultation:

·        Churches are growing rapidly in much of Africa.

·        Many, if not most, Christians lack biblical knowledge.

• Western patterns and concerns tend to subordinate African theological scholarship and literature, leaving unrecognized the African contributions to the global mainstream.
• Because Western-style schooling tends to benefit the individual more than the community, leaders who receive advanced degrees often have difficulty re-entering their local communities and serving the church.
• Given the vast distances, complexity of languages, and erratic communication systems in Africa, information and ideas are shared with difficulty. 
• A significant concern is the resistance of Africans to cross tribal and denominational lines in sharing information.  This problem makes creative processes difficult and limits educational development.

C.      What concerns of the African leaders emerged?

Participants affirmed that new models of theological education are emerging to address African and realities.  After more than a century of Western influence in administration, scholarship, and the curriculum, African leaders are identifying problems in theological education.  While they affirm the positive benefits of the work of missionaries, medical practitioners, educators, and others from the West, leaders are questioning the effectiveness of the traditional schooling brought from the West and adopted as the primary mode of theological education in much of Africa. 

Working in small study groups, Consultation participants identified the following as key issues and questions:  

• Reducing financial and material dependence on the West is necessary for future development in African theological education.  What sorts of income generating projects are appropriate and possible for formal and non-formal theological education development?  What value could these provide for ministerial students?
• Both formal and non-formal modes of theological education are needed because seminaries alone cannot provide sufficient numbers of leaders for the expanding church.

·    Christian theological education needs to respond to traditional African religion, and address family and societal issues. African realities are typically under-represented in the theological curriculum. Thus distancing of pastors from the church and local communities is exacerbated.  

• Accreditation patterns, usually based on models from the West, tend to emphasize cognitive excellence rather than service, thus hindering development.
• What can be retained from the present curriculum, and what needs to be changed in order to serve a generation in transition from the traditional past to today’s Africa?

Emerging hope for change:

The new generation of African leaders has received the benefits and increasingly recognizes the limitations of advanced education for Africans in a Western educational context.  Many of these leaders are now in positions where they are influencing the future of theological education for Africa—and the future of the mission of the church.

1. Africans are leading institutions that they inherited from the West. While appreciating

their Western heritage, these leaders are increasingly outspoken about the challenges they face in making their theological education institutions responsive to today’s African realities.

2. Africans are creating programs of non-formal education, especially for those who are evangelizing and nurturing new converts. 

3.  African educators searching for quality in theological education, find that imported approaches to accreditation are of limited worth; for example, evaluation focused on counting and statistical analysis has diverted attention from the mission of the church.  Africans value relationships and more natural nurturing of growth and development.    

D.      What learning experiences are Africans suggesting?

1.  Leaders visiting African theological education initiatives in context.

Visiting.  Consultation participants (June 2004) suggested that leaders be encouraged to visit selected sites where various modes of ministerial training are occurring.  These visits would provide African leaders and Westerners a breadth of awareness of what is happening in African theological education, both in established institutions and non-formal ventures.  Thus a variety of transformations of theological education from missionary to post-missionary leadership will be better understood by educational leaders. 

Sharing.  Six to ten sites in various countries will be identified where Africans are in key leadership roles in formerly missionary-led schools and programs of non-formal education. Observing, questioning, comparing perspectives, and noting the consequences of transformations will be the intent of these interactions. 

2.  African leaders collaborating with international leaders

Networking.  To broaden international conversation and planning about the future of theological education, African leaders will be invited to join their counterparts from Eastern Europe and the Americas in dialogues about the future of theological education.

Partnerships in education.   To broaden mutual perspective and to reduce regional bias, African leaders and their counterparts in Europe and the Americas will work together in selected formal and non-formal contexts. 

E.      How will these things be done?

1.         Leaders visiting African theological education initiatives in context.

Following the procedure recommended in the Consultation (June 2004), two phases of activity are proposed.

In June 2004, 75-80 African and Western leaders participated in the first Ward Consultation in an international venue. Some of those who attended the Nairobi, Kenya consultation will be with us in Chicago and I would like to include insights and challenges from the Nairobi conversations to inform our conversations in Chicago. Note that two westerners compiled the summary. They were able to wander from group to group and gather data from the groups that were all facilitated by African leaders who were too busy to take detailed notes. Linda

The purpose of the conference in its first year was to define the issue of developing leaders for the church in relation to the experience of African leaders. Year two in Prague will be given to an exploration of “What can/ are we doing in response to the issue?” Year three in Brazil will focus on “What has happened because of what we have done?”

Participants could be classified into three groups: 1.) Africans from across sub-Saharan Africa who are leaders in the Church and theological education in their respective countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, and Liberia. 2) Internationals who live and work in Africa in the field of theological education: An Eritrean who teaches Biblical studies at NEGST; A Korean who directs a Leadership Training Center in Nairobi; An American who teaches at a theological school in Nigeria, and 3.) Americans involved in theological education and leadership development.

Small Group Discussions

Wednesday, June 9 Challenges in Developing Leaders for the Church

On the first day of the consultation large and small group discussion revolved around the question “What are the challenges facing you today in developing leaders for the church?”

The discussion centered around structural issues inherent in the schooling model of education brought from the West and adopted as the primary mode of theological education in Africa. At this point, most participants are operating under the assumption that developing leaders for the church means that individuals will leave their church contexts and go to an institution of formal theological education where they will receive the knowledge that will prepare them for ministry.

In the experience of African participants, the schooling model fails the church in several ways, the greatest being the distance between what people learn in residential schools and what they encounter in local church ministry and other ministry contexts. The separation of theory from practice, of school from the world, of learners from their churches results in pastors who don’t have the skills to do ministry.

Small groups identified a number of challenges posed by their experiences with theological education:

1.         Absence of African literature

2.         Educated people do not return to serve their communities/ churches

3.         What we do in the academy does not prepare pastors for what they will confront in the world

4.         Our curriculum is not structured around African realities

5.         We need to get beyond dissemination of content through lectures to teaching more effectively

6.         Accreditation is a barrier to change.

7.         We need to define what theology means

At this point in the consultation participants are not yet ready to ask the question “What assumptions do we need to let go of?” Questions focus on “How can we fix this institution?”

Thursday, June 10 Responding to African Realities

Day two began with the challenge to think more broadly about the concept of theological education, moving away from a programmatic definition. Linda defined leaders as “those persons who assist the people of God to understand their identity as the people of God and to live faithfully in response to that identity.” The question for the church then becomes “What is the appropriate way to form, shape, or develop those kinds of leaders? How many different models can we imagine for doing theological education for the whole people of God? If you were crafting theological education for the whole people of Africa, what would it look like?”

Small groups convened around the questions, “What are the social, political, economic and educational realities confronting the church in Africa? How will these impact the shape of theological education?” Lively discussion followed and major themes were consistent across groups:

The next logical question was “How do we move from listing concerns to determining real needs and then to doing something about them? What kinds of steps can you take within your context and constraints to bring new initiatives into being?”

A new initiative by Reuben Sitati, a graduate of NEGST, served as a case study for developing new models of theological education within the African context. Reuben served in a ministry to college students in western Kenya. Out of this ministry grew a church and with it the need to develop leaders for the church. In response he has developed a college that trains pastors in their local contexts based on the ministry needs of the participants. Highlights of Reuben’s experience included:

·           Need: lack of biblical knowledge in churches

·           T.E. must be linked to income generating projects

·           Participants must be in ministry

·           Train people where they are

·           I started where I was able to start

·           Diploma level curriculum. Should we offer some type of certificate?

·           What in existing curricula is useful? What is not useful?

·           How to respond Christianly to traditional African culture

·           How do we address family/societal issues

One example of accommodation of the curriculum to African realities is a course on entrepreneurship.

A concluding anecdote by one participant helped to reframe the issue from a list of shortcomings of traditional models of theological education to envisioning new models that are appropriate to the culture, undertaken in local settings and supported by local resources.

Friday, June 11            Shaping an African Theological Education

Day three discussion generally revolved around the questions: “What are the opportunities and challenges for developing theological education in Africa that reflects African values and addresses the realities of African life?” and “How do you package education to meet needs at different levels in different contexts?”

NEGST is an example of an institution that grew out of an African vision for theological education but was built on a Western model of education. It is challenging to work in an institution that was established with Western values while at the same time addressing African needs. Question: How do we craft a curriculum that speaks to those who are typically African, but modern? We are a generation in transition from our traditional past and values to aspirations of the future. We need to define terms such as “African initiative.” What are our assumptions about what it means to be “African?” Who is an African? Who is Africa today? Until we define the “Africa we have now,” we may be crafting irrelevant things. There are many external pressures on NEGST as an institution: Financial sustainability will always shape theological education. Accreditation is a perceived hindrance to changing policies and practices. Government demands on schools will affect NEGST’s policies and viability.

Reuben Sitati’s college is an example of an educational initiative led by an African attempting to address the needs of the church in Africa incorporating African values. It was observed that this T.E. initiative was birthed out of a Western model as Rueben was educated at NEGST. Present challenges include: These are such new ideas, can this really work? Can students proceed to other levels of study? Where will we find the needed staff resources?

Other concerns raised in small group discussions included:

·           In the generational shift, personal ties are disappearing all over the world. We are at a fragile period and part of the fragility is loss of personal relationships.

·           Institutions that begin as Christian can lose their moorings after several generations.

·           As teachers and administrators of T.E. schools we face the danger of forgetting our rolesof helping facilitate people growing in the Lord. We can easily forget our main reason for existence.

·           If we respond only to today. . . what will the Africa of tomorrow be? What are our assumptions about Africa tomorrow?

·           We can’t do away with Western theology, but we can learn from history. Don’t reject everything Western, but embrace the good parts.

A final topic that ran through the entire conference was resource allocation. The need for time, money and people, and the appropriate sources and means of allocation arose as an issue in many discussions. Mike Henderson offered a perspective that he has adopted in developing partnerships with African churches: It is not about money. The first thing must be deciding what action to take. Look for people who are willing to give something to you so there is a mutuality in the relationship God gave everyone gifts and every church has something to contribute to the church world-wide. Africa has much to share. Money is not the only currency. Knowledge is a currency. Look at people rather that structures as resources. It is detrimental to contribute to operating funds. These need to be locally funded. We fund “breakthrough projects.” We ask “What one thing will bring your ministry to the next level, either in terms of inside efficiency or outside effectiveness?” Move ahead by envisioning the future, not focusing on problems.

Future Research

The Consultation did not get to the point of formally stating “What more do we need to know as we think about acting on these things?” However, it would be profitable if a number of areas of research could be pursued and presented at the next consultation. In addition, this conference raised many questions that could result in fertile dissertation research.

The Shortcomings of the Western Educational Model

Though we did not get this far in our deliberations, participants might find it profitable to pursue the following line of investigation: What if we turn the question around and ask “Within your community of origin, ethnic group, tribe what are the traditional ways of identifying/selecting leaders for the community and developing/preparing them for leadership roles?” Describe the attributes and skills the community desires in leaders. What processes does it uses to develop them? In what context? What would it look like if these were used in the local church? How might these values and practices shape formal theological education in Africa? What do Africans have to teach the church worldwide about developing leaders?

What is an African?

The move from traditional societal structures, values and practices to a more modern/postmodern worldview was identified as a significant concern for the future shape of theological education. What are the characteristics of traditional African culture? What are would Christians view as the positive aspects of traditional culture? What aspects pose challenges to the Christian? How are things changing? What is being lost? What positives are being gained? How must theological education change to address the New Africa?