Time flies and God mission continues as CETO-CIL completes the second most important training of church leaders in Cueibet Lakes State in South Sudan. The training started on 27th through 31st December 2021 and final dedication of trained leaders and certification on 1st January 2022.
Leadership training has just been concluded in Cueibet Lakes State in South Sudan where over 70 church leaders (pastors, youth leaders, women leaders, and other key lay leaders) were train in various skills mainly with focus on leadership development and spiritual aspect of its in relations to other main areas. During the training, the following topics were covered; Basics of Anglicanism, Basic Homiletics, Spiritual life of a leader, Prayer, Agile church in modern era, Community as a mission field, Servant leadership and power, Church history and foundation, Pastoral care and counseling, Principles of effective leadership, Church government and structure, Stewardship and church finance, and Developing leaders and Reconciliation.
One of the key strategy used by facilitators during the training was to provide time of isolation and prayers to the leaders to deepen their communication and listening to the voice of God. All sessions offered in the course of one week usually starts with fellowship in the morning and closes with evening fellowship as part of instilling the spirit of fellowship of the Holy Trinity in the heart of leaders.
Another invention was the fire gathering at night that usually last for 3 hours, this is the gathering where leaders converge in the compound at night around the big fire to share the testimonies and life journeys and together the facilitators will lead the leaders to explore the life and development of leaders throughout the Christianity and biblical leaders from the old testament. Such sessions would also calls for night prayers, praying for key issues in the region as well as putting emphasis on the plans ahead and leaders mentoring.
A great appreciation to the Anglican Diocese of Cueibet that hosted the event and supported it materially and also financially. It would have not been possible with their unwavering support and hosting. We continue to pray that, God blessings will make it possible to have other trainings coming and possible establishment of the training center during the year in the region to enable us provide highly needed training for church leaders and possible literacy education through English course to enable church leaders read and write in English and comprehend the bible deeply.
Key challenge:
In Africa, the main challenge remains the leaders training especially in the churches where most of the pastors are not educated and have not attended any formal theological or biblical training. At CETO-CIL, we believe that, offering mobile training would provide some key knowledge and enable the church leaders to get a better direction toward leading the church through spiritual and humble hearts. However, more is needed to be done and as Jesus did, the one time training of a week is not enough, our main vision as we have assessed is to provide two-fold training that would provide the wholesome changed needed.
English course:
Most of the church leaders if not all especially in the rural areas of South Sudan have no formal education, hence could not speak or read in English. Most of the leadership books and training materials are in English and the Holy Bible is also in English as the local translation is not yet all over except for few languages hence not adequate to rely on. Starting with this would enable most leaders to read, write and comprehend the biblical stories, leadership training materials as well as enhance their capacities in leading and upgrading their education system to provide a better service to the church and contribute effectively to God mission.
Leadership Development Programme (9 Months)
Though we started with the mobile leadership trainings that are bringing leaders from different areas to converge and share knowledge, skills and learn together, the timeline has proven not easy to cover the materials and provide adequate training to the leaders, exploring the materials, sharing experiences and follow up with each other and mentors in any case.
As such, CETO-CIL is developing a programme that would bring leaders for a nine (9) months intensive learning and development for the leaders to have ample time to deepen their understanding and be immerse in the course materials, bible study, experience sharing, learning from each and working on their leadership plans for the churches and mission.
This is going to be possible only if CETO-CIL is able to obtain the needed assistance and financial support from the people of God across the globe. One of the key outcomes of the recent training in Cueibet was to establish the Leadership Training Center of which the hosting Anglican Diocese promised to secure a land together with the authorities in the Area who are very supportive of the programme.
With the aim of establishing the center, the CETO-CIL team is putting together few resources to develop and have the materials ready but challenges related to the construction and establishment of the center as well as maintaining the facilitators and mentors remain the major challenge.
We pray that, God works through you and us to enable his mission go through. Any support be it financial or material will highly be appreciated and we pray that God restores to you abundantly anything you would contribute for this mission.
God bless you all.