WHAT WE DO
Pastors Discipleship Network
TrainING & EQUIPPING African Pastors To Study, Practice & Teach God's Word Accurately
WHAT WE DO
Pastors Discipleship Network
TrainING & EQUIPPING African Pastors To Study, Practice & Teach God's Word Accurately
ABOUT PDN
PDN - Pastors Discipleship Network - is a ministry that equips pastors and strengthens the African church.
PDN is a registered nonprofit 501c(3) organization established in 2008 to train and equip pastors and their wives with critical ministry and life skills to help them lead and teach their congregations while fostering personal development.
“To bring training to untrained pastors to deepen the church and advance the gospel through healthy churches.”
OUR REALITY
• 70% of pastors in Sub-Saharan Africa have no theological training
• 70% of the 70% will never attend Bible school in their lifetime
• Most pastors in Sub-Saharan Africa will blend a message from television with some elements of African culture and deliver it on Sunday as a message from God. Consequently, syncretism, shallowness, and cultural Christianity are on the rise in Africa. The church continues to struggle, and we must join God in deepening the African church.
How is this reality affecting the spread of the Gospel and the African people?
We are seeing
A great inhibition in the proclamation task.
Making of disciples is sporadic and hindered since pastors are untrained.
Increasing idolatry, widespread false teaching, unchallenged false teachers.
Abuse of the poor and vulnerable.
Politicization of faith.
Specific identified causes of the above problem:
Lack of theological training for pastors and frontline ministers.
Extreme poverty among pastors.
Lack of “growth groups” (discipleship hubs) for pastors in Africa.
Lack of ministry resources.
Lack of basic ministry skills for pastors and their spouses
THE FUTURE
During the next three years, we will continue to build on this momentum and expand our reach and resources. Our goals are to:
Train 20,000 more pastors and 10,500 pastors’ wives in all our programs.
Develop additional curricula, materials, and manuals that cover our programs more thoroughly.
Build the capacity of our staff to fully understand and carry out ministry to pastors in the African context.
What’s more, we plan to network and partner with other individuals and organizations whose programs complement or share a thread with our efforts. And we have already embarked on an exciting project to build a University – Cornerstone University.
Ultimately, we aim to take pastoral training and education to new heights, to strengthen the church in Africa. By God’s grace, and with all of our partners working together, this vision can become a reality.
“We see the church in Africa, TRAINED, ROOTED, and EQUIPPED to bring the TRUE gospel to her nations and the world.”
PROGRESS
During the past twelve years, we have successfully trained and equipped over 15,000 pastors in East Africa – providing quality theological education by gifted facilitators, securing and delivering high-quality ministry resources to African church leaders, effectively following up with pastors after training, and building networks for pastors across East Africa to facilitate accountability and fellowship.
In our special business training program, we have provided more than 1,600 pastors and their wives with training and resources in small business development, financial accountability, and entrepreneurship. The goal of this special training is to alleviate the extreme poverty that is common among African pastors.
Our efforts are making a difference:
We have received overwhelming feedback from congregation members about positive changes in their pastor’s performance.
Pastors have shared their stories of transformation.
Communities have been reached more effectively with the truth of the Gospel.
Record numbers of pastors and their wives have registered for our programs demonstrating a growing hunger for new knowledge and skills.
“Integrity, Christ-centeredness, Institutional Excellence, and Service.”
RICHMOND'S STORY
Our Founder, Richmond Wandera
RICHMOND'S STORY
Our Founder, Richmond Wandera
Richmond's Story
A Child among “The Least of These”
Richmond Wandera was rescued from poverty in Jesus' Name.
Dr. Richmond Wandera grew up in extreme poverty in the Naguru slum near Kampala, Uganda. His childhood was a painful and challenging one, marked by extreme poverty, illness, loss and hopelessness.
When Richmond's father was murdered, he was left to help care for his six siblings. It was not until he entered the Compassion-assisted child development center at his local church when he was 8, that his life and his family changed dramatically.
He began attending Compassion’s child development center at a local church, the healthcare, education, and love he received changed his life dramatically. As hope grew, Richmond quickly began excelling in school. After graduating, he was chosen for Compassion’s Leadership Development Program, which gave him the opportunity to earn a university degree. This ultimately shaped the trajectory of his entire life, building in him a heart for inciting transformational change in individuals, communities and nations.
With his master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Moody Graduate School and Theological Seminary in Chicago, Richmond is unwaveringly committed to theological training for pastors; discipleship and spiritual formation for all believers. Richmond is also a voice from the frontline fighting against poverty in developing countries. He holds strongly that Church must play a crucial role in breaking the bonds of injustice and poverty. Richmond holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Leadership from Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary in Lancaster, PA.
He is currently the senior pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Kampala, and the Founder and Director of Pastors Discipleship Network, a nonprofit that serves, equips and trains thousands of pastors across East Africa.
Richmond resides in Kampala, Uganda with his wife, Rosette and their child. The church he pastors is the very same one that hosted the Compassion program that altered his story forever.
Story
Highlights
• 1,868 pastors trained.
• 1,800,000 believers now worshipping under PDN’s 15,000 trained pastors.
• 5.53% overall growth rate compared to 2021.
• 11.5 acres of property in Kampala city acquired for the construction of Cornerstone University.
• 244 Pastors in emergency crises rescued and cared for.
• 695 pastors’ spouses trained and equipped in PDN’s 10-week empowerment course.
• 21 new PDN faculty (Trainers of Trainers) educated by Lancaster Bible College, and Capital Seminary.
• 11,700 hours spent training pastors.
• 14,425 Study bibles, bible resources, pastors’ handbooks, and source books distributed across East Africa.
Story
Highlights
• 1,868 pastors trained.
• 1,800,000 believers now worshipping under PDN’s 15,000 trained pastors.
• 5.53% overall growth rate compared to 2021.
• 11.5 acres of property in Kampala city acquired for the construction of Cornerstone University.
• 244 Pastors in emergency crises rescued and cared for.
• 695 pastors’ spouses trained and equipped in PDN’s 10-week empowerment course.
• 21 new PDN faculty (Trainers of Trainers) educated by Lancaster Bible College, and Capital Seminary.
• 11,700 hours spent training pastors.
• 14,425 Study bibles, bible resources, pastors’ handbooks, and source books distributed across East Africa.
Brighter
A Brighter Future For Women
PDN continueS to touch the lives of pastor’s wives & women leaders - THROUGH JESUS CHRIST'S transforming power - WITH training in discipleship, inductive bible study methods, business & life skills, and small scale enterprises.
The Word Of God • Business skills for self-reliancE BIBLE TRAINING • SELF EMPOWERMENT
Brighter
A Brighter Future For Women
PDN continueS to touch the lives of pastor’s wives & women leaders - THROUGH JESUS CHRIST'S transforming power - WITH training in discipleship, inductive bible study methods, business & life skills, and small scale enterprises.
The Word Of God • Business skills for self-reliancE BIBLE TRAINING • SELF EMPOWERMENT
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Strategic Partners
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Strategic Partners
Ignite Mission Convention IMC
PDN entered a partnership with Ignite Mission Convention (IMC) as part of our ongoing efforts to engage and empower churches in Uganda for global mission, PDN and IMC launched and annual four-day Africa to the World Mission’s Convention targeting 500 participants drawn from pastors, church leaders, Christian professionals and Christian youth/students’ leaders who are passionate about mission.
The vision behind the Mission Convention is to ignite the passion of participants to the place of appreciating the need for the Church in Uganda to become a sending Church for global mission and intern be involved to mobilize their church towards the same goal.
Key partners in organizing this Annual Mission Convention are World Venture, Africa Inland Mission (AIM), Pastors’ Discipleship Network, and Simply Mobilizing Uganda.
Reforma, South Africa
PDN recently partnered with ReForma.
Re-Forma is responding to the crisis of insufficiently trained church leadership. Founded on outcome and impact-based assessment, Re- Forma provides recognized benchmarks for informal and non-formal biblically based ministry through a program which provides guidelines for evaluating the thousands of existing training programs for ministry competency and guidelines for start-up organizations wanting to train thousands of church leaders annually.
Living on the Edge (Chip Ingram)
PDN recently partnered with Pastor Chip Ingram. His ministry, Living on the Edge, has a vision to be a catalytic movement of Christians living out their faith in ways that transform families, churches, and communities for the common good and the glory of God.
Living on the Edge provides Biblical teaching and discipleship resources that challenge and equip spiritually hungry Christians all over the world to become mature disciples of Jesus.
New Thing
PDN also partnered with New Thing to train pastors in church planting and church growth. New Thing provides frameworks to catalyze movements. It’s a church planting movement that works to awaken the church to the importance of church planting and healthy church growth.
Dr. Val from Colide Consultancy
PDN Recently entered a relationship with Dr. Val who is a veterinary doctor working in one of the most remote and most hostile regions of Uganda called Karamoja. She has seen many come to Christ but had no pastors to care for those who were coming to Christ. PDN has been pleased to come alongside her to supply pastoral support to her work.
Church Transformation Network
Church Transformation Network (CTN) and Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) entered in a partnership in 2022 to equip pastors and lay leaders in discipleship. This partnership has trained 500 facilitators, who individually, currently lead a discipleship hub that meets weekly with 10 members. Thereby impacting 5,000 Church leaders at community level.
BOARD MEMBERS
PDN USA Board Members
BOARD MEMBERS
PDN USA Board Members
John Zeswitz - Interim Chair
With a passion for people and leadership, John brings 27 years of executive level leadership to his role at North Group Consultants. John served as Executive Vice President at Lancaster Bible College. Prior to that, John spent 7 years as Executive Director of Ministries at LCBC. Throughout his career, John has seen the positive ripple effect of good leadership, noting that as leaders get better, it makes their organizations and the lives of those in them better. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Millersville University and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from New Hope College.
John is an active member of a variety of organizations on the local, regional and national level.
Emily Hartman - Secretary
Emily Hartman has had a heart for engaging with the nations from a very young age. She has served short term in 8 different countries in areas of children’s ministry, teaching, media development, writing and administration. Her focus is to invest in others by discipling them and doing life together. Most recently, she served as Personnel Director for Mandate, an organization placing professionals in countries in Asia where traditional forms of missions cannot operate.
Emily recently moved to Atlanta but previously lived in Chicago and loved the opportunities available to her in such a multicultural city. The church she attended was in a small neighborhood that is home to more than 40 distinct cultures, and their focus is to be intentional about connecting with individuals and families from other ethnicities with the hope of the Gospel. Her educational background includes a BA in Anthropology from University of Texas at San Antonio and a MA in Biblical Studies from Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago. Her sweet spot is using her administrative skills to help others, and it has been her joy to serve PDN in this capacity since it’s inception.
Dr. Terry Timm - Past Chair
Terry Timm is a pastor/teacher, musician, and coach with a deep desire to help people pursue God sized dreams for their lives. Since 1985 Terry has served in a variety of local church settings and in 2003 launched Christ Community Church of the South Hills, a missional community of faith located in the south hills of Pittsburgh. His background in the fields of music, education, theology and leadership fuels his passion of helping people become everything God intended, created, redeemed and gifted them to be. He is the author of the book, “A Movable Feast: Worship for the Other Six Days” and his intention is to empower people to engage in a lifestyle of worship, a life marked by a deep love for God, others and the world.
Terry serves as a Regional Coordinator for Made to Flourish Pittsburgh, coaches pastors and leaders through his work with the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation and teaches East African pastors as an adjunct faculty for Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary.
Terry’s educational background includes degrees from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (BS and M.Ed in Music) and his theological studies were conducted at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (M.Div) and Northern Theological Seminary in Chicago (D.Min) where his focus was in the area of leadership and teamwork.
Terry and Patty have been married for 34 years and together have raised four children and have two grandsons, Christopher and Roman.
Rob Blanks - Ex Officio Member
Rob Blanks grew up in Colorado and attended the Colorado School of Mines where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. Rob went on to earn a Master of Divinity Degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
In 1999 Rob married his wife Heather and they have 4 kids: Marian, 16; Hayden, 14; Judah and Josiah, 11. After finishing seminary Rob pastored a church in Colorado. After pastoring, Rob and Heather, along with their kids were missionaries living and working in Mozambique, Africa for 6 years. In Mozambique, they worked and taught in Portuguese in the areas of discipleship and theological education. In the fall of 2015 they relocated to the US.
Rob works for Lancaster Bible College (LBC) as the LBC-PDN Partnership Liaison and Assistant Professor. In this capacity, in partnership with PDN, he leads LBC’s online Master of Arts in Contextualized Pastoral Ministry degree offered in Africa.
Robert W. Teague
Rob completed college in 1999 and soon after began his career in the Financial Services Industry as a Financial Advisor. In 2008, Rob was appointed as the first Executive Director of Eden Bridge Foundation, a faith-based non-profit in Lancaster, PA, where he continues to serve. Rob’s current role as Executive Director of Eden Bridge Foundation involves assisting donors with specialized estate planning through various charitable planning techniques, including charitable trusts, in kind gifts and donor advised funds. Currently, the Foundation directs nearly $40 million in assets, all earmarked for ministry!
Rob serves as a Partner and Financial Advisor with Capital View Wealth Management and also serves as the Treasurer of the Board for Jessica and Friends Community in York, PA.
Rob is a graduate of Houghton College (earning a B.S. degree) and also the American Banker's Association Trust School at Emory University.
Rob is married to his high-school sweetheart, Kirsten. Together, they have three children. Hobbies include adventure motorcycles, travel, cooking (eating), and skiing.
Dr. Richmond Wandera - President and Founder
Dr. Richmond Wandera grew up in extreme poverty in the Naguru slum near Kampala, Uganda. His childhood was a painful and challenging one, marked by extreme poverty, illness, loss and hopelessness.
When Richmond's father was murdered, he was left to help care for his six siblings. It was not until he entered the Compassion-assisted child development center at his local church when he was 8, that his life and his family changed dramatically.
He began attending Compassion’s child development center at a local church, the healthcare, education, and love he received changed his life dramatically. As hope grew, Richmond quickly began excelling in school. After graduating, he was chosen for Compassion’s Leadership Development Program, which gave him the opportunity to earn a university degree. This ultimately shaped the trajectory of his entire life, building in him a heart for inciting transformational change in individuals, communities and nations.
With his master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Moody Graduate School and Theological Seminary in Chicago, Richmond is unwaveringly committed to theological training for pastors; discipleship and spiritual formation for all believers. Richmond is also a voice from the frontline fighting against poverty in developing countries. He holds strongly that Church must play a crucial role in breaking the bonds of injustice and poverty. Richmond holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Leadership from Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary in Lancaster, PA.
He is currently the senior pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Kampala, and the Founder and Director of Pastors Discipleship Network, a nonprofit that serves, equips and trains thousands of pastors across East Africa.
Richmond resides in Kampala, Uganda with his wife, Rosette and their child. The church he pastors is the very same one that hosted the Compassion program that altered his story forever.