Equipping the Church for Renewal
Through Congo Initiative’s Center for Church Renewal and Global Mission, church leaders are finding new ways to serve their communities amid crisis.
In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the church is called to minister in a place where suffering and uncertainty are part of everyday life. For local church leaders, responding to those realities requires more than preaching from the pulpit.
Congo Initiative’s Center for Church Renewal and Global Mission (CCRGM) was created in response to a call from Congolese church leaders themselves: the church needs the tools and training to respond to the challenges facing Congo today. Through leadership development, peace and reconciliation efforts and theological formation, CCRGM equips pastors and lay leaders to become agents of restoration in their communities.
Rev. Mbusa Sinzimira is one of those leaders.
Through training he received from the Center and UCBC, Sinzimira says he has been better equipped to serve both his church and the people around him. One of the most significant changes, he says, has been the opportunity to bring ministers from different denominations together.
“UCBC is doing remarkable work,” Sinzimira says. “We see its impact in bringing together ministers from different religious denominations, which was not easy in the past.”
That cooperation matters in a region where division has often made it more difficult for communities to respond together to conflict and suffering. CCRGM seeks to help the church become a place where reconciliation is not simply preached, but practiced.
For Sinzimira, the training has also had very practical implications.
“Thanks to the teaching we have received, we have been equipped and have been able in turn to support our respective churches,” he says.
That support reaches into daily life. Sinzimira and his family have acquired a field and purchased a goat as part of their income-generating activities. He has encouraged others in his church to consider small projects of their own, particularly as violence and insecurity make traditional livelihoods more dangerous.
“We were encouraged to launch small projects at home, rather than exposing ourselves to danger by going far into the fields in this context of massacre,” he says.
In this way, church renewal extends beyond the walls of a church building. It touches families and the ways communities respond when normal life is disrupted.
Through its work in Beni, Oicha and Mangina, CCRGM has also supported the Tuka Pamoja 1 and 2 initiatives, helping local leaders serve communities facing ongoing hardship.
“Despite the difficulties, God is still at work,” Sinzimira says.
He and other church leaders continue visiting members, preaching and serving their communities, drawing on the training and support they have received.
“We are well trained, well equipped and supported by UCBC,” Sinzimira says.
His hope is that the work will continue to expand so more church leaders can receive training and communities can experience the church as a source of comfort, restoration and hope.
