BUILD is an initiative for training local church leaders, one that has been designed and developed in East Africa. Its roots are in the Church of Uganda, but BUILD has spread further afield and has presence in eight countries in the region.
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.
BUILD is aimed at those who lead, teach and care for congregations, along with those who lead local ministries within them. It is particularly effective in reaching those at the grassroots. 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.
As a result BUILD provides a cost-effective, appropriate and sustainable way to build leadership capacity in churches.
