Church and Community Transformation (CCT) & Church Leaders

Within Chikwawa, Eagles has been working with church leaders from various denominations as part of their Church and Community Transformation (CCT) work.

The church leaders are incredibly well respected within their communities as they are known to lead by example. As a result, this amassed a greater level of trust in Eagles’ work, which in turn helped communities adopt CCT more wholeheartedly.  

To enable the most impact, the church leaders work with their congregations, other local leaders, and the community members at large on CCT. In practice, this looks like having various local committees which are formed by community members who elect office bearers.

‘Our involvement in community development, especially being part of different local community committees, has helped to restore trust and has increased participation in the work overall. This is because the majority of the community members have trust in us, as church leaders, in comparison to other local leaders’. Pastor Lomson Fombe.

Before participating in CCT through committee membership, the church leaders’ participation in development was minimal, despite being part of the community and leading people in their own churches. To ensure the church leaders were properly equipped, Eagles provided capacity-building training which imparted skills and knowledge to the church leaders and allowed them to understand their roles and responsibilities.

The capacity-building training helped to solidify the value that the church leaders can have in their communities. Because of the responsibility the church leaders have in leading their congregations, they have been able to use their influence to teach their congregations about development and how it fits into their spiritual journey:

‘As church leaders, our presence in local community committees has helped a lot of church and community members better understand the issues impacting them and more effectively participate in the work to combat them. We are able to communicate and train them, drawing on the word of God and how this calls them to act’. Pastor Christopher Nota.

Church leaders have been key in unlocking community transformation because of their influence over communities as well as their ability to bring people together. They have been working hand in hand with local leaders to help communities understand their role in development and take responsibility, which brings sustainability in development.

To date, about 20 church leaders are serving in different committees in various positions in the following committees: Village Disaster Risk Management, Village Health, Borehole Management, Grievance Redress, School Management, Community Police, Seed Multiplication, Mother Care group, Child Protection and some of them are Lead farmers. Their participation in these committees has helped with mobilisation and ease of working together, making local leaders appreciate the role of church leaders as vital in the transformation agenda.

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