Story number 2 for 26 Apr 2001

(Nigeria)–In related news, the largest Protestant denomination in Nigeria is the Evangelical Church of West Africa, or ECWA, with nearly four thousand congregations. With so many involved in evangelistic outreach, and with scores more responding to the Gospel, a crying need has emerged for trained leadership. SIM’s Rod Kastner. “There’s getting to be a great influence of cults and other negative influences. The people don’t have the education, the background, to really know what they believe.” Due to the poverty many Nigerian church leaders live in, getting training and resources can be difficult. However, SIM is looking to the future. Kastner describes his role as a theological educator as one that prepares pastors and future ministries. “They have two seminaries and four Bible colleges. Each year, we graduate students, and within a year, all of them have been placed in various churches and it’s really great to see how they’re getting out and discipling the people in the churches that they’re working in.”