A letter from Bob and Kristi Rice in Congo
August 2012
Our Future Leaders
I looked around the room at the small group of people gathered. I marveled that they were all finally together, concentrating for two days on the Presbyterian Community of Congo (CPC)'s rural pastoral institutes. Most of the men at the meeting were synod leaders—representing the 12 synods of the CPC, including the most distant, Katanga. Travel of any distance in Congo is arduous, and about half of these leaders had come from more than 200 km. away.
We were gathered to discuss the performance and future of the three rural pastoral institutes of the CPC. Each of these institutes gives three to four years of theological and practical training to men and women in preparation for serving as pastors. In one of the schools there is no library, and in the other two significant resources are missing from the meager library, such as an overview of the Old Testament and hermeneutics. The students come, usually with their spouse and children, without a way to support themselves and struggle to be able to pay the $5/month tuition. Once they finish, they are prepared and eager to serve in the needy rural parishes.
As we have learned more about the CPC and visited various regions of Kasai, we have been burdened by the challenges of the church and its pastors. Many churches within the CPC—approximately 25 percent overall—do not have a pastor. One significant limiting factor in the growth of the church is the lack of pastors and evangelists. Pastors, in turn, struggle to live on the meager salary that rural churches can provide—often about $5/month. In this environment of severe poverty and subsistence agriculture, young people are not willing to become pastors because of the hardship and expense of the training and the meager support of the profession. Yet these pastoral institutes play a pivotal role in providing accessible training to those called to be pastors in these rural regions of Kasai.
When these pastoral institutes were created they were led and funded by the Presbyterian Mission in Congo. Over the last 50 years both leadership and funding has gradually shifted into the hands of the local church. Within the last 10 years outside funding stopped and each synod in Kasai was given the responsibility of collecting local support for the functioning of their school. Of their target contribution of $200 per synod, the most successful synods give about $20/year. This is just one example of the severe lack of resources among the population in Congo. We, as the church in the U.S., want to come alongside the CPC and help where resources are weak while also strengthening local leadership and support.
We had been dreaming with the Department of Evangelism for a long time about how to hold a board meeting for these pastoral institutes. Lack of resources within the church and the challenge and expense of travel always seemed like prohibitive factors. We seized on the opportunity of the CPC General Assembly, when all of these leaders would be in Kananga, and decided to hold a joint meeting for all three pastoral institutes at once. You might be impressed to know that the total expense for the three-day meeting, including lodging, food, and a contribution toward travel for about 15 people, was a grand total of $1,300. We were grateful for this support from the PC(USA), which made the meeting possible and injected new life into these important training institutions of the church.
During the meeting the institute directors each read a report of the situation of their school. Synod and denominational leaders asked questions and discussed the issues each school faces. Then each synod leader gave a brief report of their synod and their efforts to support the pastoral institute in their region. The lack of support from the synods for these schools seems to be a combination of lack of contributions from local churches and also a weak structure for channeling funds from the local church up to the synod level and on to the school. The second day of the meeting everyone divided into three “work groups” that tackled specific issues related to these schools and made decisions. In the finance group a new budget and plan was made for encouraging local support from the synods and increasing the number of students. In the final session of the meeting the Evangelism Department through the PC(USA) gave a contribution of $1,000 to each school for the purpose of student scholarships, teacher salaries, and operating expenses for the 2012-2013 school year. We, along with leadership of the Department of Evangelism, emphasized the value we see in these schools and our desire to find additional resources, but also that the local churches must first demonstrate their commitment by providing a base of annual support.
We are hopeful that these key institutions, which serve the “grassroots” level of the church and population, can be a source of strength, truth, and hope. The grace and peace that Jesus gives is not contingent on institutions, meetings, or titles. We pray that God’s Holy Spirit would reveal His truth, heal those who need it, and satisfy many thousands more with the Bread of Life. The Congo is hungry for God’s truth and power, and these rural training institutions are important structures for training leaders to help Christians grow with a healthy knowledge of God and an ability to discern God’s ways.
Bob and Kristi
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 102
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