Help Form African Lutherans to Be Teachers of the Faith
And Jesus said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." (Luke 10:2)
The Need
- There Is A Severe Shortage of Trained Pastors In Africa
In Tanzania, for instance, there is on average 1 pastor for every 3,500 members. The Lutheran Church in Tanzania alone has over 10 million members, but the struggle is to provide each congregation with a trained and ordained pastor.
- Most Pastors/Evangelists Have Little Or No Theological TrainingThe average pastor serves 12 parishes but only visits one each Sunday. The other eleven are served by evangelists who have had little or no training. Even those who are trained have few books and limited opportunity for further formal study in the Living Word and doctrinal theology.
- On Site Theological Training Seminars Spread Across 20 Different Countries Was Not SustainableEach month, Rev. James May, the director of Lutherans In Africa (LIA), was traveling to other African countries to organize training seminars. Over time, several bishops repeated the same comment,
"These seminars are great but they are not long enough to train pastors. You need to come back three of four times a year."
Since Rev. May was already working in 20 countries across the continent, this just was not possible. So the bishops made the motion at the annual board meeting of Lutherans In Africa (LIA) to establish a faithful, sustainable, and accessible seminary in Nairobi, Kenya.
This is how and why the Lutheran School of Theology was founded.
A School That Forms African Lutherans to Be Teachers of the Faith
The Lutheran School of Theology
- faithfully teaches God's Word
- is centrally located to reduce travel expenses
- is united by the Lutheran Confessions
- is sustainable and self-sufficient in design
- provides longer, in-depth theological training
- shows a long term commitment to the community
- gathers around the historic liturgical practice of the Divine Service
- equips students in their service through translation work
On the eve of the celebration of Reformation in 2024, the Lutheran School of Theology received a congratulatory letter from the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). It stated that the Lutheran School of Theology (LST) now meets the requirements for an accredited institution and has been awarded its provisional recognition for accreditation.
When people learned that the LST had been accredited, they posed two questions:
- The first question was, why did we seek accreditation?
- The second question was, what does accreditation entail?
For answers to those questions and more information about the accreditation process you can go to the following page at the Lutheran School of Theology ...
Forming African Lutherans to Be Teachers of the Faith
Founded in 2010, Lutherans in Africa (LIA) equips Africans to be teachers of the saving faith in Christ Jesus. This is done through training pastors, evangelists, deaconesses, and Sunday school teachers in the pure doctrine of the Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions as contained in the Book of Concord, and the liturgy and hymnody of the historic Church. LIA also translates key doctrinal resources into African languages.
By training Africans to be teachers of the faith, Lutherans in Africa (LIA) is able to help fill the need for pastors and further spread the Gospel, allowing God to work through His Word. Lutherans in Africa does that work all over Africa.
When we bought our new property in 2015, students showed up immediately asking to be taught even though we had not announced classes nor constructed any buildings.
They are still coming.
(Rev. James May, Executive Director of Lutherans in Africa)
We began by teaching under a tree but, thanks be to God, many people joined in the building project of the Lutheran School of Theology. They helped with their prayers, volunteer work, and donations. We now have a more secure and sanitary mission center, offices, library, dormitories, cafeteria, seminary, classroom building, staff housing, and animal shelters. We have laid a foundation for generations to come as we are teaching even more students effectively.
That was the vision of our Director, Rev. May more than a decade ago. Thanks to your generosity, the first three of five phases of the building project are complete. It is now time to take the next step in forming African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith and move onto the construction of a sanctuary. The plan is to build a chapel that will serve not only the Lutheran School of Theology, but also the Maasai community around us.
Training pastors at the Lutheran School of Theology (LST) is the primary vision of Lutherans in Africa right now.
We are still doing seminars around the whole continent in addition to conducting classes on the seminary campus. We also have few buildings yet to build. God has been richly blessing us with your gifts to make this vision a reality.
The LIA Partner Pathway
Our desire at Lutherans In Africa is to provide a way for everyone, no matter what age or stage of life, to help us form African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith.
To do so, we've created an intentional partner pathway. We want to help move anyone interested in the work of LIA from ...
- Unaware of the work of LIA to Aware
- Aware of the work of LIA to Action
- Action and service with LIA to Advocacy
- Advocacy of the work of LIA to those who are still or yet Unaware
- And then … by God's grace and provision, the process repeats.
Our prayer is that many will volunteer to serve with LIA for the sake of the Gospel, share their unique LIA story, and then, enlist others to partner with LIA so that through all of the Triune God's gifts we can form African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith.
We've outlined some ways that you can serve with LIA in the "Pray + Volunteer + Support" section of our website.
If you would like to learn more about how you can help form African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith, or, if you would like an LIA ambassador to present at your church, school, or group, you can contact us here.
How Can I Help Form African Lutherans to Be Teachers of the Faith?
Lutherans In Africa
PO Box 1230, 00208
Ngong Hills, Kenya
| 254-710-660-670
Lutherans in Africa - Australia Inc
C/O PO Box 6094
Shepparton VIC 3630
| 0402950596
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