As many as 85% of pastors across Africa have received no formal theological training. The zeal for ministry is genuine and remarkable. It deserves to be met with solid grounding in God’s Word.
As Global Christian Book Fund (GCBF) sends personal book sets to pastors and leaders, you might wonder how they actually reach the people who need them. We ship thousands of sets each year, but for our partners on the ground, each distribution is its own special moment.
Our Global Expansion Manager, Daniel Henderson, recently had the chance to visit one such distribution in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where 300 sets of 17 books were given to pastors and leaders. So often, our partners turn these distributions into small events. In this case, our partner Doxa Édition et Formation, invited Conrad Mbewe to preach at the distribution event since one of the books in the set, God’s Design for the Church, was written by Conrad. What’s so exciting is that we don’t plan these events around a distribution—but we love seeing these celebrations our partners organize. They are a chance to gather pastors for teaching and training. Every ministry does it differently, but the pattern holds: celebration, equipping, and ministry friendship.
In this case, our partner is organizing the pastors into reading groups. Over the next two years, each book in the set will be read aloud together once a week, then discussed and applied to their ministry contexts—a structure that lets the ideas in the books take root rather than sit on a shelf.
One of the older pastors present said this has been the best two days of 2026 for him.. Many pastors across Côte d’Ivoire serve on incomes that would stagger their counterparts elsewhere. One documented example from a nearby Ivorian ministry revealed a longtime church leader’s monthly income to be just over $140 per month, supporting aging parents and school fees on top of full-time ministry. For men like these, working sacrificially and often holding second jobs to shepherd their flocks, there’s simply no money available to purchase theological resources on their own.
That’s the gap GCBF seeks to close. With the vast majority of pastors across the African continent still without formal training, a personal library like this one isn’t a bonus—it’s a lifeline for the study, teaching, and discipleship these church leaders are already doing every week, often with nothing else to draw on.
At GCBF we’re grateful to come along side our partners in equipping the global church.
Help equip the global church
Stories like this one are made possible by donors who believe Church leaders and believers everywhere deserve access to sound theological resources. Consider partnering with Global Christian Book Fund to help put books and Bibles into the hands of those who need them most.