The name BUILD stands for ‘Biblical Understanding for In-service Leadership Development’. As that suggests, BUILD’s aim is to grow local leaders in the midst of their ministry, through bringing them basic biblical, theological and practical education.
The local leaders BUILD is aimed at are those who lead, teach and care for congregations, along with those who lead local ministries within them. BUILD is particularly effective in reaching those at the grassroots, those that other forms of training struggle to reach. Those local level leaders are known by different names in various places, but include lay readers, church teachers, evangelists, catechists, church planters and others.
BUILD achieves this by training trainers to use a full, modular, locally-developed curriculum, which they then use to deliver training to church leaders in the context of local learning groups in their own settings. As the trainers are trained and pass on the training to others, they too grow in their leadership. The result is that BUILD provides a cost-effective, appropriate and sustainable way to build leadership capacity in churches.
BUILD is therefore a non-traditional approach to training, which means the usual terms surrounding theological education, church and ministry do not always apply, or apply differently, and fresh terms and approaches come into play.
It is helpful to know what BUILD is not. BUILD is not a college or institution nor is it just another training course. BUILD is not a non-governmental organisation (NGO), a community based organisation (CBO), or an international NGO (INGO). Although it does integrate and cut across these categories. So what is BUILD exactly?
The three most significant ways of describing it are these: an initiative, a programme, and a course.
BUILD is an initiative
BUILD is perhaps best described as an initiative, with ‘initiative’ used in the sense of an intervention designed to bring about change and transformation. BUILD is a training initiative, one designed for the training of local church leaders. BUILD has been designed and developed in East Africa, with its roots in the Church of Uganda, but it has spread further afield in the region and beyond. As an initiative it has a vision for fresh approaches to theological education, particularly with a view to reaching the multitude of local church leaders at the grassroots. And as an initiative it encompasses more than those usual categories do. BUILD is not a college or institution… but it does serve and incorporate colleges and institutions within the network. BUILD is not just another training course… but it does have its own courses which are core to it. BUILD is not an NGO or a CBO or an INGO… but it does have registrations and entities within its network.
BUILD is a programme
Second, BUILD is a programme implemented in different settings. Each BUILD programme has four clear elements to give it structure, with multiplication built-in. In a thumbnail those elements are as follows:
- Coordination and curriculum is the force behind any BUILD programme.
- The formal training-of-trainers is the foundation for a BUILD programme.
- The non-formal equipping of church leaders in local groups is the focus of a BUILD programme.
- The informal learning and other outcomes is the fruit of a healthy BUILD programme.
This clear structure for implementation gives the initiative traction. So important are those four elements that they are described at a number of places on this site, beginning here.
BUILD is a course
Finally, BUILD can be described as a training course. After the descriptors of initiative and programme, a training ‘course’ is an even simpler and more concrete concept to grasp. The BUILD course, or in reality courses, plural, guides the training and provides the content. BUILD trainers are trained to use a locally-developed curriculum which they use to deliver training to church leaders in situ. The core course has ten modules with fifteen learning units per module, with each module based around a book of the Bible, its group of books, a theological theme and a leadership issue. The integrated learning units move between tools for understanding the Bible, encounters with Bible passages, reflection units, and practical skills. As the trainers are trained and pass on the training, they too grow in their leadership. The course is described in more detail here.
What is BUILD? An initiative, a programme, a course. While those are the most significant ways of describing BUILD, there are additional ways of thinking about it. The document ‘The nature of BUILD’ in the Trainers’ area gives more information for those with access.
