In December 2009 Next Gen was transplanted to North Kigezi Diocese, Uganda. Next Gen is a highly successful youth leadership-training program run by Katoomba Christian Conventions. North Kigezi is Armidale Diocese’s and St Marks Chapel’s partner diocese in far, remote south-western Uganda.
So what happened?
8 people from Armidale Diocese, including 6 from St Marks Chapel UNE, partnered
with 4 from KCC, including the head of Next Gen, to run this inaugural
Next Gen - North Kigezi. These were also joined by a dozen younger people
from an African Enterprise mission who participated as helpers alongside
the leaders. Each of the 72 parishes in North Kigezi were asked to send
along their youth leaders.
The team gathered in Rukungiri, North Kigezi’s main centre, on the Friday and were enthusiastically welcomed at a banquet reception. The Saturday was given over to planning, preparation and training along with the local leadership group intended to take on the running of the Conference in the longer term.
The Conference started up on the Sunday night with a welcome and introduction to the attendees - some of who had no understanding of what they had been sent along to and why! On the Monday anxieties were raised as the obstacles faced by the Conference became evident. Some of the parishes had not sent in representatives. Others had not sent in their youth leaders but younger youth representatives - some as young as 14! The cultural and language gaps loomed large and some attendees lacked ministry experience, much Biblical knowledge and even literacy skills. There was also the challenge of holding the local leaders back from their eagerness to explain and answer questions to let the attendees learn by grappling with the passage and working things out for themselves the hard way. That evening these challenges weighed heavily on the team.
The bonds of fellowship were also readily evident. Rapport was quickly established and friendships were being built. The team and the attendees persevered together at their task.
The Conference followed KCC’s Next Gen Strand 1 program. This trains attendees in the careful and correct understanding of a passage. (Stand 2 addresses Biblical theology - how the Bible fits together and how that affects its application to today. Strand 3 addresses systematic theology - how to use the skills from Stands 1 & 2 to bring together what the Bible has to say on a topic.) Strand 1 takes Peter’s confession and Jesus’ passion prediction and discipleship warning in Mark 8:27-38 as a case study.
Each day included …
1. A talk expounding a significant passage from Mark to provide the wider
context for understanding Mark 8 and to model good handling a passage.
2. Stand Groups, practical workshop groups in which attendees systematically
analyse Mark 8 and prepare studies based on it for use back in their churches.
They learn the principles and steps for rightly understanding a passage
and then practice these with Mark 8.
3. Christian ministry and leadership seminars, particularly focussing on
the development of godly character.
4. Question and answer times, when attendees asked questions of the team
members on good Biblical methods, theology and doctrine, and life and ministry.
The local leadership also inserted a number of extra instructional times
to fill out the attendees’ time. Sometimes the team enforced free
time to allow rest, mental recovery, reflection and relationship building.
By the end of the week attendees had moved on from analysing Mark 8 to
preparing Bible studies on it.
So with all these obstacles what was the outcome? It is perhaps best heard
in the words of one Armidale team member, “When they brought me their
prepared material to review, there were no suggestions I could make to
improve them.” Another member immediately echoed the same!
The team also attended and taught at regular church services, attended a 5 hour colourful ordination service and taught the Bible on radio to audiences in their millions!
As part of its ongoing partnership Armidale Diocese funded the Conference. Armidale team members received generous subsidies towards their fares from St Marks Chapel, a Wee Waa group of Christian farmers and St Peters South Tamworth. KCC appealed to the youth attending their KYC and raised the money to support their team members and to further generously support the Armidale team.
So why all this effort?
Uganda is a country with a strong Christian heritage. About 45% of the
population are members of the Church of Uganda (the 2nd biggest Anglican
Church in the world) and so the church is a major social influence. Over
60% of Uganda’s population is under 20. This generation faces new
pressures from less stable and less Biblical Christian movements and
groups, Muslim influences and most of all encroaching western secularism
and materialism. The Church is working hard to reach and hold this generation
and to maintain its influence for Christ and for the nation’s welfare
down into the coming generations. But their traditional methods of a
conservative oral culture are no longer as effective as in the past.
Mixing youth and children in with adults for long evangelistic appeals
is not penetrating to depth. They have recognised their needs to develop
skills in Bible based discipling and training.
After several friendship visits in support of youth ministry in North Kigezi, two youth pastors were brought to Australia for experience and training. They visited youth ministries in Armidale Diocese, where they gained mentoring and training, and attended KCC’s Next Gen. From these experiences they wanted to transplant the discipling and training models they had seen to their home Diocese. They invited KCC and Armidale Diocese to partner in running Next Gen at Rukungiri.
So what’s next?
All the team members unanimously support repeating the Conference as soon
as practicable. The outcome was startling given the obstacles faced.
But several matters need to be addressed.
1. The KCC curriculum is ideal and needs to be retained. The material needs
to be further adapted for the African context. Talking and explanations
need to be reduced and hands on practice increased. Abstract principles
need multiple examples before the practice of applying them to the case
study.
2. The attendees need to implement the skills they learn, whether amongst
large groups or one-to-one, whether in formal studies or Bible reading
with others.
3. North Kigezi Diocese needs to ensure that all parishes, and perhaps
all churches, are properly represented by the right people - the youth
leaders who will transfer what they learn back into their church’s
life.
4. The North Kigezi Youth Director needs to follow up the Conference with
tours of archdeaconries to run training days to reinforce the Conference’s
lessons amongst all the youth leaders. For this he will need support in
transport, advice and materials from Australian partners.
5. The North Kigezi clergy need to support the youth leaders in implementing
the discipleship and Biblical teaching skills they learned. They must give
opportunity and moral support to their youth leaders and model discipling,
training and good Biblical exposition.
6. The next conference should repeat strand one with all these matters
properly addressed.
And what else happened?
Team members also visited the Diocese’s archdeaconries (groups of
parishes and churches) to …
1. Encourage, teach and train clergy, lay-leaders and youth-leaders in
the ministry of the Word from 1 & 2 Timothy.
2. Promote the Next Gen conference and support for the youth leaders attendance
and their efforts back in their towns and villages.
3. Explore potential for agro-forestry development on church lands.
From these church land investigations, a proposal is being developed to
establish a demonstration agro-forestry project on diocesan land in Rukungiri,
where advice and oversight from experts in the Departments of Agriculture
and of Forestry are accessible and where church representatives can visit
glean insights and support for their own villages.
Martin Trotman - St Marks Chapel UNE Armidale
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