CBTE Flexibility Must Not Leave the Learner Alone

A working adult studies after a full day, serves in a congregation, supports a family and tries to assemble evidence of ministry competence. A flexible programme may make theological education possible. It may also quietly make the learner responsible for finding a mentor, interpreting every requirement, paying hidden connectivity costs, surviving interruption and proving formation without a dependable community.

That distinction matters for Competency-Based Theological Education (CBTE). CBTE is a contextual, mentored and competence-demonstration model used here with a focus on Bible colleges and church-based ministerial formation. It integrates knowing, being and doing through explicit outcomes, authentic ministry tasks, mentoring, feedback, reflection and renewed practice. It is not the same as Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET.

CBTE rightly challenges the assumption that every learner must progress through identical seat-time. But flexibility is not an educational good by itself. It becomes good when it expands access while preserving the relationships, theological depth, spiritual practices, practical observation and public accountability through which a claim of ministerial competence becomes trustworthy.

On 28 August, Christ College in Australia published the story of physiotherapist Alysha Cheng, who enrolled in a part-time ministry-training programme while balancing work, church and family. The institution describes a two-year pathway with ten lectures each year, hybrid participation, one-to-one mentoring and peer support. The learner reports increased biblical understanding, confidence and humility.…