Mwanza Pastors Meeting

We are attending the annual meeting of pastors of Mwanza Diocese today. Mwanza is the second-largest city in Tanzania, located at the south end of Lake Victoria, a scenic area. Many of the towns and villages outside the cities do not have churches. So the Diocese is taking seriously the challenge to do evangelism and form faith communities in these rural areas.
This is the first we have presented our proposal to a group of pastors. Overall the plan has been received well, but we took some time to answer questions they had. This is a different approach in some ways from the TEE (Theological Education by Extension) that we did in the 1980's. The earlier program depended heavily on teachers and funding from overseas for travel and books, and that resulted in the program stopping when missionaries were no longer involved. So it is a bit difficult for some to visualize how it will be possible without that assistance, without books, and using people who are not trained teachers.
Our proposal is to train local pastors to be instructors, so they will have only their local group and it does not involve extensive travel or additional salary. We plan to use the Bible as the primary textbook and provide them with outlines, so few books need to be purchased. The proposal also focuses on training in character for leadership and for the tasks of leadership, rather than focusing mainly on intellectual learning. So the leaders will be mentors, not only teachers. This is entry-level training, and some will then go on to further training. But the need is there and we hear it everywhere we go, that the lay leaders usually have no training, and their leadership suffers as a result. Some are afraid the training will be too elementary, but we are trying to work within the economic and educational realities.
Keep Mwanza Diocese in your prayer in their efforts to develop churches in rural areas. Pray also for us as we are developing the curriculum and helping them implement a training program.

Bishop Albert Randa, second from right, with some of his leaders in front of  Mwanza Mennonite Church