1  The need 

The need for training church leaders in Africa is legendary. Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk make the following comment: "Leadership training is the critical bottleneck. . . . Leadership is limited at every level" (Operation World, 2001, p.24). This we have seen at first hand. For example, one of our Sola 5 partnership projects is to support Harare Reformed Baptist Church in the planting of new churches. Pastors are in the field and doing a good job, but there is need for training. Again, a Malawian pastor recently shared his plans to go to the USA for two or more years without his family to get some formal theological training. When told about the possibility of training here in Africa he said, "Well then I don't need to go to America." And so we could go on recounting the need for adequate theological training in Africa.

Apart from the need for pastors to undertake the task of church planting, most of us are aware of the tremendous need amongst our own churches. Even now there is more than one church in need of a full time pastor, yet there are so few men available. Some time ago, a member of the call committee of one church asked me, "Where are all the Sola 5 pastors?"

Apart from the human dimensions of the need, we surely require no greater motivation for training preachers and fellow-workers than the vision of Christ's headship over all the nations—including the nations of Africa: "The Lord will extend your mighty sceptre from Zion" (Ps 110:2), and "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession" (Ps 2:8).

2  Open doors of opportunity

With these challenges in mind, it was a great blessing to spend time discussing a concrete opportunity for theological training at the Annual Conference in Windhoek. This opportunity is a partnership between the churches of Sola 5 and a new university, called the University of Africa.

The University of Africa is a private and independent university. Its founders are Christian men who have a vision to contribute to the upliftment of Africa through accessible and relevant tertiary education. Education is already being provided in the field of teacher training, and other fields that will be addressed are criminal justice; public management; infrastructure, mining and minerals; health services; and general management studies. A number of senior African leaders—including presidents and cabinet ministers—have grasped the vision of the university and are expressing great interest in its work.

After preliminary discussions going back to 2005, the founders of the university approached Sola 5 in May this year with a proposal that the churches of Sola 5 set up a theological seminary which would become the theological faculty of the University of Africa. Naturally, this is a massive undertaking which requires a great deal of planning and negotiation. Some preliminary work was done by a theological education committee appointed at the 2005 conference and this resulted in a proposal that was discussed and accepted by the churches of Sola 5 at this year's conference.

The main elements of this proposal, which will provide insight into the proposed theological seminary, are outlined below.

3  Aims

The need for church leaders has been mentioned, and this need must be understood in Scriptural terms. According to Ephesians 4:11-16, the church of Jesus Christ must be built up in her most holy faith through the regular teaching of God-centred, Christ-focussed and Scripture-based truth. The seminary will therefore have the following aims:

1. 1.First and foremost, we wish to train men for preaching and pastoral ministry. There is a tremendous need in our day for pastor-teachers who will, like John the Baptist, be "burning and shining lights" (Jn 5:35, KJV) – and if we can be instrumental in forming such men we will be eternally grateful to the Lord.
2. 2.We are also aware that many believers desire a knowledge of God and His word which is deeper and more comprehensive than what is available from the regular teaching ministry of the local church. We therefore believe that we can further serve the church of Jesus Christ by providing for the needs of such brothers and sisters. Not only will they be personally enriched, but they will also be better equipped to serve God as believers.

These two aims are not mutually exclusive, nor in competition with each other. Biblical examples and contemporary experience show that a man often develops gradually in his awareness of a divine calling to preach the word. Very often someone who seeks to enrich his own walk with the Lord through further study develops, in the process, a clear sense of God's call to ministry. Thus we wish to provide training to men who are already called as well as to believers in general.

4  Teaching model to be used

The University of Africa seeks to take education to where the people are, rather than moving people from their places of residence and employment for the duration of their studies. This is accomplished by using a so-called "blended mode" of delivery. The "blended mode" is a combination of distance learning (correspondence, internet, etc.) and one or two weeks per semester of contact teaching. Because the contact teaching involves only one or two weeks per semester, it is possible for the lecturers to travel to different centres for the contact teaching periods. Thus it is possible to serve a number of countries without having fully-fledged campuses in all of them. The main requirement is a good infrastructure for transmitting teaching materials from the various centres to the place where the staff are located, and the facility to present classes in different centres for a short period each semester. The university already has offices in eight African countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.

The "blended mode" of teaching also lends itself well to theological education. Apart from saving students huge relocation costs, it facilitates a productive and biblical cooperation between a theological seminary and the local church. On the one hand, the seminary has the facility to develop and provide specialized and comprehensive teaching materials which any single pastor would not be able to develop. On the other hand, students, wherever possible, can benefit from the mentorship of an experienced pastor and be involved in practical ministry in a local church. This combination of benefits is not easily realized when students have to relocate to a seminary or when a single pastor tries to undertake all the training himself.

5  An autonomous faculty/seminary under the oversight of the churches

Another distinctive of the University of Africa which suits the purposes of theological training very well is the nature of the "faculties" as independent colleges, each seeking to provide education in a specialized field. For example, one of the faculties is the Goldfields Academy, which provides education relevant to the mining industry. Each of these colleges provides oversight of its own academic curriculum and utilizes the administrative infrastructure of the university. Each college is also free to adapt the training in a manner suitable to the needs of its own field of knowledge and practice.

In the case of Sola 5 and theological education, it is most important that the spiritual oversight of the theological seminary will be the responsibility of the churches of Sola 5. In the past, many theological faculties have wandered into error because they have been answerable more to secular authorities than to the church. We trust that this danger will be pre-empted under the current model.

From the point of view of Sola 5, a model for oversight has been sought which gives practical expression both to local church accountability and to effective cooperation between the churches. We believe that the Lord has guided us to the following model:

1. 1.There will be a board to oversee the teaching programme and activities of the seminary. The members of this board must all be members of and accountable to biblical churches. Members of the board will be ratified by the churches of Sola 5 at the Annual Business Meeting. In this way, board members will have a mandate to act on behalf of all the churches. Needless to say, board members must subscribe to the Sola 5 Confession and Core Values.
2. 2.Lecturers will be appointed by the board. Each lecturer must subscribe to the Sola 5 standards, and must be a member of and accountable to a local church. All lecturers must meet the standards of biblical eldership set out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Although church discipline is the responsibility of the local church, the board will have the power to remove a lecturer from his teaching position, should it be necessary to do so.

6  Spiritual and academic standards

It goes without saying that we believe it is essential to maintain biblical standards in this ministry. This means that the programme of the seminary must lead students to a greater love for God and a greater competence in practical ministry. Academic standards are also important since we are to honour God with our minds. The second Core Value of Sola 5 is relevant in this regard:

God has created human beings as rational creatures in his own image. Therefore we affirm the necessity of logic and reason as tools for the correct understanding of truth, which is not contradictory. We deny that faith is illogical or irrational; we further deny that logic apart from revelation or reason apart from the Holy Spirit's illumination is sufficient for knowing truth.

One of the aims in the curriculum will be to integrate exegetical, theological and practical aspects so that students learn a theology which is practical and a practice which is theological. There will be some flexibility in the curriculum to cater for students with different needs (cf. point 3 "Aims" above).

7  Implementation

The University of Africa will provide a budget to the theological faculty/seminary that will cover the employment of lecturers (probably two to begin with) and a secretary as well as other costs. It is envisaged that this budget will increase as the university and theological seminary expand so that additional lecturers can be appointed to meet the growing needs.

Student fees will be significantly lower than those of the commercial faculties, in recognition of the fact that gospel ministry is not a commercial enterprise.

The churches of Sola 5 will not, at this stage, be expected to contribute directly to the running costs of the seminary. It will, however, be important for the churches to establish a bursary fund so that men who are called of God to the work of ministry (and perhaps other students) but don't have the necessary funds will not be excluded from this opportunity. Bursaries will be needed to assist with costs like fees, books, transport to centres for contact teaching, etc..

Jacobus De Koning and Bruce Button are preparing to begin working full time in the theological seminary from January 2007. The first six months will be spent in curriculum development and the first students will, DV, be able to register for July 2007.

There will be a need to appoint further lecturers as the work develops.

8  Conclusion

This is a most remarkable opportunity which the Lord has set before us. Indeed, it appears that the planned seminary and partnership with the University of Africa are vehicles which the Lord is providing for the extension of his kingdom in Africa.

Please pray specifically for the Lord's guidance and provision in this ministry:

• Pray for Kobus Du Plessis and the other founders of the University of Africa.
• Pray for the appointment of the right board members.
• Pray for Jacobus De Koning and Bruce Button as they make concrete plans and begin preparing study material.
• Pray for effective partnerships between the seminary and the local churches in the training of pastors and church leaders.
• Pray for prospective students—for the provision of all their needs; for the Lord's guidance and enabling.
• Pray for the development of the necessary infrastructure.
• Above all, pray that the Holy Spirit will use this initiative powerfully for the glory of Christ in his church.

-- Bruce Button