Scaling Up CCMP in African Brotherhood Church

All the 1,050 congregations under the Africa Brotherhood Church (ABC) are set to go through the Church and Community Mobilisation Process (CCMP) over the next ten years. This is the main goal of the CCMP Upscaling Strategic Plan developed by the top ABC leadership.

The scale up to the entire church will be an advancement from the current 62 congregations that are currently implementing the CCMP. It will be a step forward from the scaling up adopted in 2015 under the directive of Archbishop Timothy Ndambuki, who recognized and embraced the success of the CCMP in the pilot sites.

During an NCCK Conference on The Church and Covid-19 in June 2020, Archbishop Ndambuki outlined eight key benefits that CCMP had brought to the Africa Brotherhood Church (ABC). These benefits included a greater sense of ownership of the church by the members; enhanced financial givings by the members even during the period that churches were closed, leading to an increase of tithes from KShs 14 million to KShs 15 million per month; greater participation of the church members in addressing the needs of their communities; and enhancement of leadership and Bible Study skills within the church. Other beneficial achievements noted included greater inclusivity of different religions in the community; the church become more authoritative; promotion of devolution by giving people space to address their needs; and touching the lives of the individuals and causing them to strategize for personal development.

Implementation of the Church and Community Mobilisation Process in the ABC commenced in 2012 under the sponsorship of the NCCK. At the time, five pilot sites were identified, these being Ndulilya, Kiatineni, Katelembo, KMC and Mwagodzo. From these sites, 62 facilitators were trained and deployed to different congregations. Of these, 45 have completed the process up to the fifth stage, while the others are at the fourth stage. This is in reference to the five stages in CCMP, which are Church Awakening; Description; Information Gathering; Analysis; and, Decision Making.

To reach all the 1050 current congregations of ABC in 10 years, the church will focus on training facilitators in phases, practicing in the churches, and including CCMP training at the ABC College. The upscaling strategy will be implemented in three phases of three years each.

Administratively, the church will establish a structure with clearly defined roles of different officers. These are the CCMP Board who will be responsible for advising the ABC headquarters on all matters CCMP; the CCMP Director who will be the secretary to the Board and will ensure implementation of all work plans; the CCMP Trainers who will oversee the facilitators; the CCMP Managers who will develop the work plans; the CCMP Sub-headquarter Coordinators who will oversee all reports by the facilitators; and the CCMP Facilitators who will facilitate the process in their local churches.

The Scaling Up Strategy was developed during a strategic planning meeting held early March 2021 at Machakos, bringing together Archbishop Ndambuki, Canon Mary Mwaura, Canon Dr Edward Nzinga, Rev Joseph Mwangi, Pastor Faith Kitulya, Eric Muasya, Geraldine Nduku and Rev Dawson Ndundu.