Church Planting and Discipleship is our main focus in Uganda. We are discipling leaders from the 200+  churches that have been established across Uganda. These churches were planted but are in need of further leadership development to grow deeper in faith. Our prayer is to disciple leaders to become faithful followers of Jesus who are then equipped to make more faithful followers of Jesus. We want the Ugandan leaders to lead self-sustaining ministries so that the message of Jesus will continue to spread throughout the country, and lives are transformed by following Jesus’ ways in all areas of life.

The Discipleship Journey
Beginning in January 2015, JP Robinson and Dennis Okoth began meeting with a group of 9 pastors from various districts in and around Mbale. From that beginning, we have now grown into having multiple discipleship groups, most of them pastors. We set meeting times with these groups based on the availability of each group, but it’s typically once or twice a month for several hours a day. The environment is completely relationally oriented, “Life-On-Life.” It’s not a class – it is very different. Instead, it resembles what most from churches in the U.S. would call a small group. It is within this group that in-depth discipleship will take place. We work through material that has been written specifically to not only engage their heads, but their hearts and their hands as well.

The goal from the beginning has been to have Ugandan disciple-makers leading disciple-making groups in various areas around Uganda. We are beginning to see this fruit and are thankful to the Lord of the Harvest for his guidance and provision. This allows us to reach more churches because we won’t be limited to our campus for training or the need to speak English, and we pray this will grow into a Ugandan-led disciple making movement. We have incorporated discipleship in our theological training school, Messiah Theological Institute, where students learn how to serve like Jesus with their hearts, minds, and hands. 

We also have discipleship groups for women, focusing on leaders of women in village churches. Each of them is led by a missionary and Ugandan in a partnership together. The hope is that these ladies will start discipleship groups in their own villages and communities.