History of Timothy Training Institute

When you want to know more about someone, you can get a fair idea when you know where he or she comes from. That is the reason for asking Timothy Training Institute where they came from:

The first ever seminar was held in Kiblerpark (south of Johannesburg, South Africa) for African Christian Church Leaders in 1985. They came from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa.The Organization was formally founded in 1986, as “Project Timothy”, by members of various Christian organizations, following a visit to Mozambique to deliver Bibles to the pastors, shortly after the civil war ended. They however found that there were no pastors as most of them were either killed during the civil war, or went into exile into some of the adjacent countries. Open Doors International was facing a serious dilemma – the remaining churches had no pastors with Biblical knowledge, therefore they could not adequately serve their congregations and communities. There was only one possible outcome to this dilemma - they had to look at ways to start with proper, thorough Biblical training so that the Christian leaders could serve their congregations and communities.

The problem surrounding setting up a formal institution for a group as big as this was, that it would have been impractical for a number of reasons and it would have cost millions of Rands. The traditional ideology of sending someone to a Theological Seminary (Universities, Colleges and Private Institutions) simply wasn’t possible, due to the following reasons:

1. The Mozambique students would not have the necessary “entry qualification” for University
2. The cost of training students at a University is very expensive.
3. Taking Christian leaders from their communities and training them in South Africa would have lead to a void in leadership and discipleship in their local communities.
4. Even if the Christian leaders were somehow trained in South Africa, they would normally not want to return to their local communities, after completing their studies.
5. Even if they went back, they would not be accepted by their local community, because they are now seen and treated as outsiders.

It was with these issues in mind, that a decision was made to start a new Project, called Project Timothy. Project Timothy’s task and vision came from 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit thou to faithful men (and women) who will be able to teach others also.”

Project Timothy’s first “order of business” was to find or develop a curriculum suitable for the needs of the Christian leaders and their congregations. Research was done by Christian leaders and Professional writers, by talking to the people who are operating and working on grass-roots level. After extensive research was done, the researches found no existing curriculum specifically aimed at students on grass-roots level and therefore began to write and develop, which was to become the first edition of the curriculum. The intention and purpose of the curriculum was not to train academics, but to equip Christian leaders with thorough Biblical knowledge. (2 Timothy 2:2)

When the impact and the success of Project Timothy’s course in Mozambique were realized, it became evident that the curriculum could also be used elsewhere. During that time, South Africa looked as if they were heading to a civil war, as the political situation deteriorated radically under the Apartheid regime. The members of Project Timothy then saw a great need in South Africa, especially under the African Independent Churches (AIC), of which the most of their Christian leaders did not have adequate Biblical knowledge and no formal training. In Southern Africa alone, the members of these churches count for more than 122 million people and in the southern subcontinent, more than 35 million people. These churches “broke away” from the mainline churches more than a century ago, due to foreign doctrinal issues, but they never had the resources, or the finances to train their leaders. Unwilling to give up their independent status, they could not send their church leaders back to the mainline church training facilities, therefore, most of the Bishops, Reverends, Pastors, Evangelists and other church leaders did not receive any formal training, resulting in them not having adequate Biblical knowledge. One must remember that the same “untrained pastors” lead their congregations, thus resulting in countless issues, which soon became big problems…

Realizing this, the vision and scope of training suddenly got too big for Project Timothy’s members. It was then decided to form an independent, not-for-profit organization, to cater for the needs of Christian leaders on grass-roots level and for the African Independent Churches (AIC). On 26 December 1988, Project Timothy’s members stepped down and relinquished full control to the members of the newly founded Christian organization, called Timothy Training Institute. Timothy Training Institute was formed as an Educational Trust and registered with the South African government.

As most leaders belong to the African Independent Churches, they did not have any affiliation with any recognized theological training seminary. Even if they did, most of the leaders would not be allowed at universities because of their academic qualifications. It was then decided to offer the training to the various leaders.

Since then, approved tutors were used to teach classes of dedicated students in South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Madagascar and other countries. These classes are held after working hours and close to where the students are living and working.

When the successes in South Africa were realized, the need in the rest of Africa was addressed. This meant that the courses had to be translated into various languages, including: French, Swahili, Portuguese, Arabic and Amharic. Currently there are 40 countries, including some persecuted countries, that are served in some or other way, either by ourselves or by co-operative missionary organizations with which we have forged co-operation deals, such as Open Doors, Oriental Mission Society (OMS), Philadelphia Project, Harvesters International Ministires and many more...

Over the past 24 years we have seen more than 20 000 church leaders get equipped for full-time ministry. Should each leader serve only 100 people, we can see the type of influence that our material have on the community at large. Should each leader influence the lives of 1000 people, we then have a total of over 2 million lives being served with the Word of God.

To God be the Glory!