Discipleship Training
Action Zambia’s Discipleship for Leaders is a one year program to equip Lusaka compound pastors and church leaders who are serving local churches. We seek to empower existing leaders through instruction on discipleship—specifically, how to make disciples that make disciples. We seek to do this through small group settings and weekly coaching sessions.
Church leaders meet on in a small forum to receive help and advice in their Christian walk. Topics of this forum include instruction in practical Bible study, Scripture memory skills, how to sharpen their devotional life, and how to be more effective in evangelism. We want to provide these leaders quality training in how to make disciples and how to train other church leaders to make disciples. Many of these men pastor poor churches and have limited resources. Most of them have part time employment to help support themselves in the ministry.
There are costs associated with this training that both we and they incur. The following are some of the financial needs of this program.
Participants travel across Lusaka using public transport. The estimated cost per student per month to and from class is $15. Students regularly walk long distances to save money but this uses up valuable time that could be used for employment or ministry. It also deters students from attending during the rainy season. Discipleship 2:7 meets nine months of the year. The average annual cost per student would be $135 at a total cost of $1,620.
Our Discipleship ministry provides books and other training materials for these pastors. In addition, we subsidize the cost of books for discipleship groups they lead in their churches. Basic books on discipleship include a self-produced study on the gospel and how one becomes a Christian, the Navigators 2-7 discipleship series, and a book on how to run effective small groups. Our estimated investment per student for the one year program is $396 at an annual cost of $4,752.
The total cost for supporting one participant for the Discipleship ministry is $531. The total cost of the program for 12 participants per year is $6,372.
To obtain more information about the discipleship pastors themselves or their testimonials: CLICK HERE
