Leadership Training For The Churches Of Christ In French West Africa

Notes from Meeting of June 8, 1994

Participants: George Akpabli, Andrew Gordon, Anthony Parker, Tod Vogt

George Akpabli has well stated the problem of untrained leadership in the churches of Christ in French West Africa in his proposal for the Institut International Biblique du B,nin. This meeting was held to discuss alternative or supplemental approaches to leadership training.

Needs

We agreed that, above all else, leadership training must be accessible and relevant. Accessibility Leaders must have access to the training offered. This is complicated in West Africa by the large geographic distribution of the churches of Christ and the relatively few personnel available to train leaders. To the geographic distance between churches is added cultural distance. There are hundreds of people groups with different languages and customs in the region; our prayer is that churches of Christ will be present in many of these. French is the lingua franca of the entire region, but many potential church leaders have a limited grasp of French. The cost of travel, food, accommodation, study materials, and family support limits the accessibility of many to some types of training. Relevancy Leadership training must address issues relevant to West African church leaders. It must provide the intellectual and moral base required for church leadership. The curriculum must be carefully designed to meet these needs. There exists the possibility of "over-training," training leaders in areas with little or no application to their ministry.

Possible Methods

In seeking to address these needs, we discussed three possible approaches.

Media

Various media could be used to reach leaders in West African churches. These could include the distribution of teaching tapes, literature, correspondence courses, and advanced leadership training courses. Though media can address the intellectual needs of church leaders, it lacks the essential personal element. For this reason, the group decided to table discussion of media approaches, agreeing that, if used, they must be supplemental to more personal training.

Centralized Training

Training may be centralized on either a national or international level. This approach involves the establishment of a school. Options include: --Long term training, requiring the relocation of the student for more than six months --Short term training --Academic training --Practical ministerial training --Supplemental vocational training

Decentralized Training

This approach consists of training in or near the leader's home area which does not require long-term displacement and allows the leader to continue to minister in his home area during the training period. Options include: --Leadership Training by Extension (LTE) --Inter-congregational workshops --Lectureships --A "traveling school" consisting of a mobile staff conducting localized training seminars throughout West Africa

Pros and Cons

We next attempted to name the benefits and draw-backs involved in the different forms of centralized and decentralized training.

Training Option

Advantages

Disadvantages

Supplemental Vocational Training

--Reduced need for support from local churches following training --Greater financial security for leaders --Logistical complications --Greater infrastructure required --Longer program required --Less Bible study

International School

--Less administration than for several national schools --Cross-cultural exposure for students --Fewer teachers required --Fewer physical resources required than national schools --Strengthens host church/area --Wider sphere of influence --Reduced accessibility --Fewer students --Culture shock --Less context-specific training --Weakens churches in sending nations during training period

National School

--More accessible than international school --More areas benefit from the presence of a school --Limited sphere of influence --Duplication of resources

Long Term Centralized Training

--Depth of study (intellectual) --More opportunity for feedback from supervised ministry, resulting in more mature leaders --Greater opportunity to evaluate character --Greater cost than decentralized --Reduced number of students --Less contact with home context, weakening sending churches and isolating student --Potential hesitancy to return to home area --Break in family relationships and financial hardship for wives, children --Potential for over-/irrelevant training

Decentralized Training This approach can be evaluated by, in most cases, reversing the advantages and disadvantages of international and national schools

Short-term Training

This approach can be evaluated by, in most cases, reversing the advantages and disadvantages of long-term training. The group concluded that in most cases long-term training offers greater depth, while short-term training offers greater breadth, that is to say, can be made available to more students. To help visualize and evaluate the issues raised, we constructed a series of continuums on which we plotted the three most likely approaches. In the chart that follows, the left-hand column contains a list of the issues raised. In the right hand column is a line on which the three approaches are represented (N=National schools; I=International school; D=Decentralized training). A position to the left indicates a negative assessment, while a position on the right indicates a positive assessment.

Administration/Logistics

-------N------------------------------------D------------------------------------

Number of Students

--------------------I-----------------------------------------------------------N,D

Sphere of Influence

--------------------------------------------D---N------------------------------------

Depth of Knowledge

-------------D-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Context Specificity

---I----------------------------------------------N------------------------------------

Impact on Local Churches

---I----------------------------------------------N------------------------------------

Maturity*

---D-------------------------------------------N------------------I--------------------

Cost of Operation

---N--------------------------------------------I---------------------------------------

Impact on Families*

----------I--------------------------------------N--------------------------------------

Danger of Over-training*

----------------------N,I---------------------------------------------------------------

Impact on Host Church

---D-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evaluation

Not all of the factors discussed carried the same weight in our minds. We did not consider "Impact on Host Church," for example, as important as "Number of Students,:" "Cost," "Administration/Logistics," etc. Thus, it is not sufficient to merely compare the number of negative and positive characteristics of each approach. An evaluation of the approaches must assign each criteria its appropriate level of importance.

We agreed that some combination of centralized and decentralized training is needed for the church in French West Africa. We also agreed that, due to cost, administrative, and personnel restraints, a series of national schools is not a realistic option for French West Africa at this time.

Decentralized training maximizes accessibility, but this depends on the availability of qualified teachers throughout the region, which is lacking at this time. In areas where missionaries or other qualified teachers are available, decentralized training should be encouraged. Efforts should be made in America and Europe to identify, train, and support missionaries to French West Africa who can conduct such training.

To supplement this and provide an option for areas in which qualified teachers are not available, a centralized, international program is needed. The major drawback of such an approach is its inaccessibility to many church leaders. We discussed various options for minimizing this drawback while taking advantage of the opportunities this approach offers.

We discussed the possibility of initially establishing a one-year program in order to impact more students and, hence, more areas, in a shorter period of time. Another suggestion was to increase the number of students that could be trained in a Cotonou school by encouraging Beninois students to live with family or friends.

Students who complete a long-term program will likely desire to be full-time church leaders. However, none of us felt that the school or American churches should be responsible for providing support. We agreed that students accepted for long-term training should come either with a guarantee of employment from a national church or with a profession/skill that would allow them to be self-supporting.

George Akpabli raised the question of the participation of the Bohicon missionaries in the centralized training. While making no guarantees, we discussed the possibility of coming to Cotonou to teach one to two week intensive classes which meet four to eight hours a day. This raised the possibility of establishing a school in which one course is taught intensively over a shorter period of time. When this course is completed, another course can begin. This enables both short- and long- term training to be conducted by the same institution. Those who come for a prolonged period of study may take continuous courses. Others, who are able to come for one or two weeks at a time, can take short courses and return to their home areas.

By reducing the length of each training period (either by reducing the length of the total curriculum or by offering courses within a shorter time frame), we could reduce the primary disadvantages of an international school while retaining its advantages.

Accessibility--The school would be tailored to the time constraints of more students and be able to train more than ten students in three years.

Cost--By shortening the training period, cost is reduced both for the student and for national and international supporters.

Relevancy--In the end, more students would be trained, only at a lower level, which could reduce the incidence of irrelevant training.

________________________

We did not have time during this meeting to continue our discussion regarding the relevancy of the training. This will largely revolve around the curriculum offered at the school. Perhaps we can meet later to discuss the development of a relevant curriculum.

This meeting was held only to explore options; concrete proposals were not drafted. We hope that the ideas presented will be of help to those who will structure whatever programs are developed and that the Lord will give wisdom to all involved.