Building Discipleship Amongst
The Servants In The Mission

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The lively and joyful worship and praise practiced in Africa is reflected in the servants who are able to contribute a great deal of enthusiasm to the service and demonstrate a great love for learning. “It is truly inspiring to see how the servants dedicate their whole life to the service and even walk many miles just to attend servants meetings or to serve the people.” ~Servant from America

The mission has a number of services in place dedicated to equipping the servants and providing them with the resources they need to bear much fruit in their ministry. In 2006 the theme for the service came from 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” The church incorporated this theme into every ministry, topic and discussion in order to emphasize that the world is in dire need of Christ-like examples, and not more preachers.

Weekly Servants Meeting

The church offers weekly leadership meetings for all the servants. The servants’ meeting has a well developed curriculum which takes them deeper in the understanding of church teachings, the bible and contemporary issues. The program aims to ensure continual spiritual growth and encourage creativity for each servant in order to equip them for effective service in the church. Periodically the servants get together for a servants' retreat which includes an all night prayer service, concluded by a Liturgy. “I had never before seen a church shake until I saw the Africans praise God.” ~Servant from Germany

Monthly Mama Leaders Meeting

Once a month, the Mama (women) leaders gather together for a spiritual meeting. As soon as they meet in the morning, they take time to praise the Lord in songs. Then they pray together, share in a spiritual topic (usually a female role model from the Bible) and have lunch together. The Mamas really enjoy this meeting because it gives them a chance to fellowship with each other, draw strength from the Lord and from one another and frankly discuss challenges that African women face in trying to live according to the Gospel. 

Yearly Servants' Conferences

The church holds two to three conferences per year to build up the leaders. These conferences are designed to create a learning environment which provides the servants with a different perspective to help them in the service. The conferences are three day conferences and are attended by about a 150 servants from several countries. During these conferences, the church invites guest speakers from abroad. Past guests have included Father Tadros Malaty from Alexandria, Egypt and Father Bishoy Andrawes Fr. Tadros spoke about “The Cross in the life of the servant” and Fr. Bishoy about “Pastoral love & care in the life of the servant” and “Leadership starts at home”. Besides their spiritual teachings, the speakers served as living examples for the members by their great love for Christ and the evident work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

St. Athanasius Theological School

During the early years of the Coptic Church in Kenya, some deacons were selected and sent to Egypt to train at the theological school in order to attain a deeper level of discipleship. Today, by God’s grace, the number of churches and deacons has grown significantly so it is no longer practical to send servants for training in Egypt. As the church fathers prayed about this issue, the Lord opened the way for a theological school to be started, named after the great scholar St. Athanasius. The main purpose of the school is to build future leaders with strong Christian character, equipping them with deep spiritual foundations, a profound knowledge of the Bible and a thorough understanding of church doctrine.

The two year curriculum contains three terms of three months per year. Every fourth month, the students go home to support the service at their churches while schools are closed. The church provides accommodations for the students and gives them an allowance for their families so that they can focus solely on their studies. The school started with twelve candidates who were nominated by the parish priests. As it progressed, it became a learning experience for both the educators and the students. In the Christian environment, the love and support the students receive is as crucial as the theological lessons given.

One of the students enrolled in the program seemed to be unusually quiet when he started the program. He seemed unable to comprehend some of the harder concepts of the course content and his exam results were always average. One of the supervising priests began to speak with him and they spent long hours in prayer and discussion. Today, he is a great leader in his church and extremely knowledgeable in church matters. At one point when a group of short-term missionaries came to visit the area, they went out on service with him and were amazed at his vast understanding of the church and of spiritual concepts. When they shared this impression with him, he said simply, “I learned all these things from the theological school. I read every single book available in the school library.” Such stories are an inspiration to all who participate in the program, and to those who reap the fruits of their labor.

The curriculum has been established in collaboration with the Diocese of the Southern United States, with the blessing of H.G. Bishop Youssef during his visit to Kenya. The curriculum includes:

1. Theology
2. Church history
3. Bible studies of the Old and New Testaments
4. Christian counseling
5. Church dogma
6. Hymnology
7. Patrology

Those who graduate from the program receive a certificate upon completion of the course. The success of the program can be seen in the students whose lives have been changed and whose service bears much fruit.

Learning from the challenges the school faced during its first phase, the church is now ready to begin a new era of discipline and leadership. The new candidates for the theological school will begin their studies in the New Year. Please keep this program in your prayers as we try to implement it at other churches in different countries.

Get Involved

Because the mission is continually growing, it is always in need of training for new servants. This process of discipleship requires much time, prayer and effort. The mission needs your help! If you feel that the Lord has given you a talent or a heart for this type of service, please contact us via the E-mail Contact Form.