PLI is all about training and developing multiplying missionary leaders all over the world! We serve six regions: Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, USA/Canada, and Western Europe.
We believe God is raising up pastors and leaders for His church across the world. God has promised to do this and is answering the prayers of His people. These pastors and leaders yearn to effectively lead God’s people, to bring people together to work in unity to make disciples and start evangelistic communities for the sake of fulfilling God’s mission. And they need leadership Learning Communities and fellow, experienced Christian leaders who are willing to come alongside them and their spouses. They need to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered in their missional leadership development.
This is why we provide the training we do. We believe that through PLI’s training and an equipped and transformed pastor or key leader, baptized believers can be released into and empowered for their participation in the Mission of God, together!
For the next few weeks, let’s take a closer look at PLI’s work in Africa.
There is only one way to reach the billions of people around the world who do not yet believe in the Gospel: every believer must be engaged in God’s mission together. This mission cannot be accomplished solely by pastors preaching on Sunday mornings within church walls. It requires every believer, every day, everywhere they live, work, and interact with others, working together to fulfill the Great Commission.
This is why PLI exists. Through leadership training, PLI encourages, equips, and empowers pastors, evangelists, key leaders, and their spouses to return to their local congregations and release tens, hundreds, and even thousands of baptized believers into God’s mission.
PLI’s Growth Through Relationships
PLI, now in its 26th year, began offering international leadership development training in Seoul, Korea, 21 years ago. This expansion happened through relationships, a principle that continues to drive our global growth. While some have discovered PLI online, real transformation happens through networks and connections with other leaders eager for this training.
In 2008, PLI expanded to Hong Kong and Ghana through relational connections. Our work in Africa has grown steadily, but in recent years we have witnessed exponential growth.
Here’s the story:
PLI’s first African training began in Ghana (2008), followed by Tanzania and Ethiopia (2009). Various PLI team members served as trainers. One key figure, Dr. Rev. Emmanuel Makala, played a pivotal role. Initially the assistant to the bishop and the PLI coordinator in Tanzania, he later became bishop and helped expand PLI into 10 additional dioceses.
In 2023, Emmanuel Makala joined PLI full-time as an Africa Development Leader, bringing 40 years of ministry experience. He previously served as Head of the Bible Knowledge Department at Mwadui Secondary School, a parish pastor, District Pastor in Southern District Shinyanga, and Bishop of ELCT-ELVD Mwanza. Emmanuel, who speaks Nyiramba, Swahili, and English, resides in Shinyanga, Tanzania, with his wife Lilian and their three children.
PLI continued to grow in Africa, adding Uganda and Liberia (2016-2019). In 2020, Paul and Beth Schult joined as part-time Assistant Africa Development Leaders, focusing on Uganda and Ghana.
By 2020-2021, despite the pandemic, we launched training in Burundi, Cameroon, and Rwanda, introducing a new strategy: training smaller groups (10-20 couples) of future trainers from day one, enabling faster multiplication. This approach has proven highly effective in expanding leadership.
Exponential Growth and Multiplication
In 2022, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (the first non-Lutheran church PLI worked with) invited us to help train 10,000 couples (or 20,000 leaders). As of the end of 2024, over 13,000 have been trained toward that goal.
In Cameroon, Dr. Felix Niba and his team have embraced PLI’s multiplication model. In 2023, they trained 123 Local Trainer couples representing 36 denominations across 8 regions. Their decision to include leaders from at least five different church bodies in each region has fostered unprecedented unity among diverse Christian communities.
In 2024, PLI-trained leaders in Cameroon expanded to Chad, the Republic of Congo (ROC), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “By 2025, Africa will surpass Latin America as the continent with the most Christians (forecast: 688 million).”
Today, 85% of PLI’s global training participants are in Africa—a testament to how God is moving through this region.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll explore what we’ve learned about church growth in Africa, PLI’s impact in Africa, and what we’re looking forward to in 2025.
Contributors: Rika Beckley, Rev. Dr. Scott Rische, Sherrah Behrens
*maps made with mapchart.net
