Training in a mobile phone

175 people. 37 countries. Antalya, Turkey. Four days. Exploring how to use the internet media of today to share the gospel and follow up new believers.

Wait! Hold on! That’s coming soon. That’s the next trip. I’ll share more about that later. I’d like to tell you about what happened on my recent trip to Africa.

There are 4 billion mobile phones in use around the world … and 6 billion people.

Mobile phones are enabling African countries to leapfrog generations of communications technology as they spread rapidly.

Mobile users on Facebook are 50% more active than non-mobile users.

Recently, I met with Dr. Emmanuel Bellon, Vice Chancellor of Nairobi International School of Theology. Emmanuel sees distance education as the only effective way to increase theologically-trained leadership. He is implementing a plan to expand distance education.

There is an urgent need for trained leadership to guide the exploding church membership in Africa. Our training institutions do not graduate enough leaders to supply the new churches planted each year in just the city of Nairobi alone. It’s fairly normal for a church to see its trained pastor preach once every 3 months. The interim times are led by lay leaders and women, mostly untrained. There is an urgent need for trained leadership across the African continent. Dr. Emmanuel Bellon.

But in Africa and many other places, the “last mile” is the hardest. Few have internet in their homes. But millions have mobile phones.

So, what if we could provide theological training to 20,000 pastors through a mobile phone? What if we could train thousands in how to share their faith with their friends? And follow up the hundreds of thousands of new believers?

We think we can.

We will run a pilot project in Africa next summer with a focus on training CCC staff in several countries. We will learn much about the possibilities of training millions through a mobile phone.

Now, back to the future. Kay and I are in Turkey for 2 weeks hosting conferences. We’ll tell you about that in a few days.