KITENGALA, KENYA (May 3, 2017) – Most pastors in the Evangelical Covenant Church of Kenya (ECCK) have no formal theological education, but last week friends and family packed an auditorium to watch 14 students become the first graduating class of a new program using material from a world away—Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos (CHET), the ECC Hispanic leadership training center in Compton, California.
The students completed the Pastoral Compendium, which focuses on the book of Matthew and the book of Acts. Completion of the Compendium requires six twelve-week courses plus six workshops including the Covenant Affirmations.
“Whoever could have dreamed that a Hispanic Bible school in the United States would be instrumental in helping Christian brothers in the continent of Africa to start their seminary?”
The program, the Africa Covenant Theological School (ACTS), operates under the auspices of the ECCK and CHET. Students came from Eastern Congo, Burundi, and other parts of Eastern Africa.
“Whoever could have dreamed that a Hispanic Bible school in the United States would be instrumental in helping Christian brothers in the continent of Africa to start their seminary?” said Ed Delgado, CHET president. “Perhaps encouragement and guidance from one ethnic group to another may be the best working model for developing theological education.”
Melvin Ardon, a CHET graduate who helped develop the Africa program and has taught several times there, said, “When we first dreamed this, the idea was that Latino leaders and churches associated with CHET would pull together to give back, but God had bigger plans.”
In addition to receiving support from Hispanic churches, two other congregations, Centennial Covenant Church in Littleton, Colorado, and Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Rolling Hills Estates, California, have provided financial support as well as several instructors, said Ardon, who is director of Hispanic ministries at Rolling Hills.
Delgado knows how big things come from small seeds. CHET started in 1989 with 14 students. It now serves an average of 600 full- and part-time students per semester. It has graduated more than 9,000 students from its various programs.
Delgado says he expects ACTS to far exceed those numbers. “Without a doubt, the commitment by the ECCK to develop leaders and commit to the whole mission of the church, its effort to serve multi-dialect, multi-language, and multi-tribal gatherings will bear fruit way beyond all our imaginations.”
