Building leaders, building churches, building the kingdom. This is a strapline of BUILD Partners which has been partnering with RDIS in the training of church leaders together since 2011, with a focus on equipping evangelists and local church teachers. This journey continues with a training of more in the five dioceses owning RDIS (Butare, Cyangugu, Kigeme, Nyaruguru and Shyogwe) and the Missionary Diocese of Karongi. This started by a Training of Master Trainers held at Ubumwe Center Hotel in Kigeme Diocese from the 27th to the 31st May 2024 which was attended by two people appointed by Bishops to be trained to coordinate the Programme into their respective Dioceses, one being a Head of Evangelism in the Diocese.
These Master Trainers will train eight pastors who will train together with them 100 evangelists/local church leaders from 50 local churches in each diocese, especially for those local churches which have not yet benefited from this programme before. From this year 2024 till 2026, 600 more will be trained (100 in each diocese). The training was attended by Félix Ndoubahidi and Mr Benjamin Guiryambaye respectively an Ordained Pastor and a Lay Minister from Chad in the Anglican Diocese of North Africa, within the Province of Alexandria. BUILD is being used in two other dioceses of Alexandria. It was facilitated by Revd Dr Jem Hovil from the United Kingdom, and Revd Canon Stephen Kewaza together with Revd Daniel Muwanguzi from the Anglican Church of Uganda.
BUILD (Biblical Understanding for In-service Leadership Development - www.buildpartners.org) is an East African initiative that delivers biblically faithful training to local church leaders at the grassroots. It began in the Church of Uganda (COU) and has been shared with its neighbouring churches including the Anglican Church of Rwanda. BUILD’s charitable arm is ‘BUILD Partners’ in the UK (charity no 1153715). The pattern a typical BUILD programme follows is to train-trainers through a formal course, with built-in implementation of follow-on training. Those trainers train local leaders in BUILD learning groups in a more non-formal way, following the BUILD curriculum in situ. Those local leaders then go on to impact their churches through informal training and ministry.
The main focus of the BUILD activities in these coming three years with RDIS will focus on:
- Developing and supporting the central coordination of the work to ensure the effective implementation and running of the programme.
- Strengthening and growing the teams of trainers to create an overall team of approximately 60 trainers to draw on, with 6 teams operating, drawn from those members.
- Facilitating and overseeing the training of more local leaders so that a total of around 600 local church leaders are equipped serving in approximately 300 local churches, this will include those who are frontline evangelists.
- Furthering the translation of the ten BUILD modules into Kinyarwanda so that all ten modules of the curriculum are available in the main local language.
- Exploring accreditation for the formal element of the programme in order to provide a firm foundation for the future of the training in the dioceses.
BUILD’s aim is to build God’s Church through helping to grow and multiply healthy local churches. That ambition to build God’s Church is endorsed and encouraged by our anchor verse, which is Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says: “I will BUILD my church”.
BUILD’s vision is to see a multitude of well-equipped leaders at the grassroots building healthy churches across Africa’s Great Lakes Region and beyond.
BUILD’s mission is to enable churches to train their own leaders with a practical understanding of the gospel, Scripture and theology.
BUILD has five values and each is a conviction about Christian learning that is rooted in one of the words BUILD stands for and a verse in 2 Timothy it is linked to in our teaching:
- Biblical – BUILD believes in learning under Scripture. The word ‘biblical’ (and “Scripture” in 2 Tim 3:16-17) reminds us that our learning must come under the authority of God’s word. The Bible and its gospel must be central to our training if personal development and local church growth is to be genuine.
- Understanding – BUILD believes in learning with integrity. The word ‘understanding’ (and “handle” in 2 Tim 2:15) reminds us that our learning must be conducted with integrity. Skillful and godly use of the Bible and its gospel are essential for the development and growth of true leaders.
- In-service – BUILD believes in learning in context. The word ‘in-service’ (and “reflect” in 2 Tim 2:7) reminds us that learning is best done in the midst of ministry and mission. The training of local church leaders is to be done in partnership with their churches. BUILD was developed locally, which reflects this.
- Leadership – BUILD believes in learning and leadership. The word ‘leadership’ (and “entrust” in 2 Tim 2:2) reminds us that leadership and learning belong together. Leaders who understand the gospel deeply and identify and invest in others are essential for healthy churches. This assumes teamwork and learning together.
- Development – BUILD believes in learning for life. The word ‘development’ (and “continue” in 2 Tim 3:14) reminds us that while every training course comes to an end, Christian discipleship does not. Learning is for life and so our training must equip leaders to be life-long learners.