Timothy Leadership Training

Rev. Mbithi's Story

Rev. Gideon Mbithi is a pastor at Deliverance Church in Machakos, Kenya where he serves with his wife, Pastor Mumbi Mbithi (pictured above). Rev. Gideon also oversees 60 churches in the Machakos region. In recent years, Rev. Mbithi has become involved in Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) through Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) . Now he's a TLT Master Trainer and implementing TLT in his personal life and church while also facilitating trainings for other area churches. Rev. Mbithi has reported many exciting changes from TLT: 

Church Development: 

• TLT is being implemented in 14 of the 60 churches he oversees in the Machakos region
• The number of new believers in his church has increased by about 5%
• Tithes and offerings have increased by about 8%. 
• Church members have volunteered and are preparing the land outside the present church building to expand the church to accommodate new growth

Community Development

• A nursery school that has been stagnant for years is now a fully fledged primary school up to grade 5. The number of students has increased from 5 to 50 and there are now 7 teachers
• 100 mango trees have been planted to prevent erosion and to provide food
• Cow milk production has increased and small scale dairy farming has begun
• A trench has been dug to trap and store water as a way of mitigating drought
• A poultry project was initiated to produce eggs
• Growing vegetables for food and to sell has started, as well as fruit farming
• A microfinance project is underway and 100 church members are registered 

Why Timothy Leadership Training?

One of the great needs of our day is leadership training that is affordable, doctrinally sound, and effective. The Church is growing rapidly in many places around the world. However, leadership to sustain that growth is often lacking. Christian Reformed World Missions partners with the Timothy Leadership Training Institute to bring affordable, biblical, and effective leadership training around the world.

TLT Statistics

• TLT is in over 50 countries 
• There are around 1,100 TLT trainers from numerous denominations
• An estimated 11,000 participants are currently going through TLT though this number could be significantly higher as participants have the freedom to train others without reporting back

Results of TLT Training

Those who put Timothy Leadership Training into practice see significant progress in their churches and communities:

• Pastors' salaries are paid on time
• Churches are built using only local funds from tithes and offerings
• Sunday school programs are strengthened
• Agricultural and economic development programs are developed, benefiting villages and urban neighborhoods
• A new spirit of evangelism and outreach has enabled many new churches to be planted, even in predominantly Muslim areas.

Effectiveness Factors 

1.  Every seminar requires each pastor to formulate a specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) action plan.
2. Each seminar provides accountability, encouragement and problem-solving from within the group setting.
3. Each seminar builds on the previous seminars, with the same group of people, so that the subject matter become ingrained in the hearts and minds of the participants. 
4. Each manual begins with scriptural teaching and builds a theology of ministry on the Bible, so that participants are interacting corporately with scripture.
5. Built into the TLT program is an integration of all aspects of ministry, so that no one ministry subject (i.e. Stewardship) is handled once and then dropped.
6. The entire program is designed to become self-sustaining and self-propagating within four years; seminars are held in churches, participants lodge with locals, after the first year trainers begin training others and multiple aspects of sustainability are addressed during the seminars.
7. The TLT manuals can be used to train leaders who have had little or no formal education and they have been translated into several different languages. 
   

Timothy Leadership Training Institute

Some of the information on this page is used with permission from the Timothy Institute. Christian Reformed World Missions works  in partnership with the Timothy Institute and several other organizations to provide TLT sessions and funding. Many CRWM missionaries are using TLT to train leaders around the world.