Theological Education Network Meetings

 By Anthony:

About two or three times a year, I have continued to host theological education meetings for bishops, Bible college principals and teachers, and pastors involved in informal theological training programs. You can read about it in this previous post - Theological Education Network. 

We had two meetings in 2022 with Odeng Francis from Uganda Christian University. He has spent many years consulting for both government and faith based organizations and institutions. He led two separate meetings for us about governance and leadership. Many of the small Bible colleges are still wrestling through how to structure their leadership and how to create boards and recruit board members to oversee the schools. These issues might seem a bit boring or tedious, but they are tremendously important. Issues of authority, conflict of interest, and unclear leadership structures cause many colleges and churches in Uganda to divide or fall into mismanagement or corruption. 

At recent meetings we were able to give the participants theological books donated by Crossway. This publisher has been very generous to try to equip African pastors with helpful books for ministry. Various titles have been given, but below they had just received the book by Conrad Mbewe: "God's Design for the Church: A Guide for African Pastors and Ministry Leaders."

We had fewer members attend the recent meetings, but those who came found it valuable. A few pastors, however, were discouraged that their bishops did not attend since it will be challenging to try to change some of the leadership patterns and structures when their leaders did not get to hear the important discussions.

Our most recent meeting in February 2023 was facilitated by Atuheire Boaz, from Living Word Uganda. This may have been the meeting with our best discussions yet. Boaz is a gifted facilitator and he led the participants through the topic of partnerships. What does healthy partnership look like? How can it benefit theological schools? He taught about partnerships between Bible schools in Uganda and local leaders, foreign partners, churches and denominations, local institutions, and other Bible schools.

There was discussion about the challenge of working with other cultures, other denominations, and having different visions. But he made a great case for how we can accomplish a lot more if we are willing to work with other leaders and institutions in partnership.