CBTE Must Build an Evidence Chain Beyond Testimony

A facilitator reports that pastors now interpret Scripture more carefully, serve with greater humility and handle ministry responsibilities more competently. The testimony matters. It may identify change that a classroom examination would never see. It may also be shaped by loyalty to a programme, selective memory, social expectation or the absence of a comparison point.

The next task for Competency-Based Theological Education is not to silence testimony. It is to place testimony inside a stronger evidence chain. A trustworthy programme should show what competence was defined, what the learner produced and performed, who observed it, how judgement was moderated, what protection governed the setting and whether the capability remained visible after training support receded.

CBTE means Competency-Based Theological Education. It is distinct from Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. For Bible colleges and church-based ministerial formation, CBTE is principally a contextual, mentored and competence-demonstration model integrating what a minister knows, who the minister is becoming and what the minister can faithfully do.

A July 2026 article by Paul Hemming and Joseph Handley in Global Missiology evaluates a non-formal theological-education programme through 2025 qualitative research involving fourteen Kenyan facilitators. It reports perceived gains across biblical knowledge, ministry practice and Christlike character, using a framework of thirty-seven outcomes. The authors also describe effects including resistance to prosperity teaching and greater cooperation among independent Roho…