The Multi-Church Pastor Institute

Books and Seminars

General Information

I.            The issue of the Multi-Church Pastor has been recognized since at least 1965: 

· In 1965 the Africa Inland Church (A.I.C.) in Kenya had about 1,000 congregations yet only 45 ordained pastors and 66 missionaries.  The ratio was 1:20 churches or 1:750 members.

· In 1965 in Central Uganda the Anglican church in Acholi, was divided into 15 parishes, with 16 pastors and about 100 congregations.”  Thus the average pastor had six to seven congregations and almost 3,000 members under his care.¹ 

· By 1987 the situation in the A.I.C. in Kenya was that a pastor had on average about five churches under his care.²

· In 2001 the A.I.C. in Kenya had a shortage of approximately 1,200 pastors throughout the denomination.³

(Though the examples given are from East Africa the multi-church situation is common in many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world as well.)

        

2.           What does the future hold?  Philip Jenkins points to the nation of Uganda as one example whereby the population could grow from 23 million in 2000 to between 65 and 84 million by the year 2050.  The Christian population could grow from the present day figure of 17 million to a projected figure of between 43 to 55 million.⁴  In light of this it is difficult to see how the number of pastors will be able to keep pace with the establishment of new congregations.  We can expect this may also be true in other countries in Africa.

     

3.           What can be done strategically to meet the reality of the African context where many pastors minister are in a multi-church situation?

          

· Help raise awareness of the contextual reality of the multi-church pastor situation.  I believe we from the West have had an educational and methodological “blind spot.”  We have often (mostly?) been operating and teaching from a western “one church-one pastor” model in relation to the church in Africa.  In January 2000, at a theological consultation I asked the educators who were present from Kenya, Tanzania, Congo and perhaps other countries if any one was training their students with the reality in mind that many pastors were responsible for caring for more than one church? There were none.  I asked if they knew of any materials that were written to address this issue and again there was no one. This book was written to raise the level of awareness of this issue among the missions and national church communities.

· Provide a resource to pastors who are ministering in the multi-church situation.  This book provides materials and specific training to help pastors develop elders and leaders in their local churches to care for the flock in their absence.  The eighteen training sessions in this book addresses practical areas of servant leadership, preaching, planning and leading worship, visitation and counseling. These materials are affordable and practical to use.  They can be used in a variety of settings such as seminars, Bible colleges and assorted training opportunities.

· Provide training institutions with a resource to train and encourage students who will be multi-church pastors so they can equip local church elders and leaders to carry on the work of shepherding the flock.