CBTE Must Listen Before It Certifies Care

Theological educators often speak about the people ministers will serve. They invite experts, write case studies, define outcomes and assess pastoral responses. Yet the people who have experienced grief, stigma, disability, mental distress, coercive care, recovery or exclusion may remain subjects of the curriculum rather than participants in shaping it.

Competency-Based Theological Education should correct that distance. CBTE means Competency-Based Theological Education and remains distinct from Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. The focus here is contextual, mentored formation in Bible colleges and church communities. CBTE also operates in higher education, as the ICETE standards make clear.

Listening is not complete when a learner can repeat a testimony movingly. It becomes competence when the learner can receive another person's knowledge without appropriation, recognise power, revise judgement, protect confidentiality, respond safely and remain answerable for what happens next.

The governing sequence should be: listen → understand context → share interpretation → define competence → design with people → demonstrate practice → invite protected feedback → moderate evidence → remedy harm → learn publicly.

World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2026 is organised around the theme ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.’ The World Health Organization argues that people with lived experience should influence policy, service design, implementation and evaluation rather than merely be invited to tell stories. World Health Organization

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