CBTE Must Assess Character Where Faith Meets the Neighbour

A learner can lead prayer fluently, quote Scripture accurately and receive warm praise from a respected pastor while remaining defensive, unreliable or unsafe in relationships. Another learner may speak quietly, wrestle openly with faith and lack public visibility while demonstrating truthfulness, compassion, courage, self-control and an unusual willingness to receive correction. If theological education treats religious confidence as character, it may certify the first learner and misread the second.

Competency-Based Theological Education should be better than that. CBTE means Competency-Based Theological Education and remains distinct from Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. This article focuses on contextual, mentored and demonstrated formation in Bible colleges and church-based ministry.

CBTE speaks of knowing, being and doing because ministry cannot be reduced to information or technique. Yet being is the dimension most easily romanticised and least safely assessed. A Bible college must take character seriously without pretending to possess God's complete knowledge of a person. The task is disciplined discernment: define the formation sought, gather proportionate evidence, protect the learner and community, name uncertainty and make only the decision the evidence can support.

A peer-reviewed study first published online on 6 September 2026 analysed the Association of Theological Schools' Graduating Student Questionnaire 2023–2024 responses from 5,528 graduating students at 151 accredited North American institutions. The researchers examined religiousness and spirituality alongside social-justice commitment, intercultural competence,…