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The History of Trinity Biblical Institute

The Founding and the First Epoch of TCWM’s History: Church Planting

The history of the work of Trinity Center for World Mission (“TCWM”) in Africa can be broken up into two epochs: a church planting epoch and a theological education epoch. First, let us examine the founding of TCWM and its first epoch’s focus on church planting. We need to start with Dr. Henry Krabbendam, who was a Bible professor at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, USA. Dr.Krabbendam instilled within his students the need to go to the nations of the world. He taught that one must approach Kingdom work with zeal and determination. He often spoke of the necessity to obey the commission of the Great King and to go as fast and as far and as furiously as God allows. He challenged his students and those around him to step up where the church often failed in obedience to the Great Commission; he challenged many to be involved in foreign missions and to go to the nations. And many did, precisely because of his teaching and inspiration. Both the founder of TCWM, Dr. Pete Anderson, and the current President, Doug McNutt, mention to this day their debt to Dr. Krabbendam for his inspiration in missions and introduction specifically to the mission field in Uganda.

What is known today as Trinity Center for World Mission began as mission work done under the authority of the session of Trinity Church of Central Oahu (TCCO), in Hawaii, a church of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In 1998, Dr. Pete Anderson (known as “Pastor Pete” to all) took his first mission trip to Uganda with Professor Krabbendam, who had worked there in a short-term capacity (mostly summers between his teaching schedule) since the 1970s. Pastor Pete and his team from TCCO initially ministered in various parts of the country, with the goal of helping to plant one church each year. Eventually, while Dr. Krabbendam focused on the central and western areas of Uganda, Pastor Pete decided to focus on the more remote region of the Mount Elgon highlands, home to the Sebei people, a relatively poor and marginalized tribe in the district known as Kapchorwa, Uganda in the east. He then began ministering in northern Uganda, specifically to the Acholi people, planting many Presbyterian Churches among them. From there, the ministry and vision of TCWM grew tremendously with 15 church plants, eventually forming the first Kapchorwa Presbytery in the ‘Presbyterian Church in Uganda’ (PCU hereafter) denomination. Pastor Pete’s ministry grew out of necessity because there were few reformed pastors, and there was a great need to share the Gospel and train new converts. 

TCWM adopted the great missionary William Carey’s motto as their own, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Pastor Pete says of that time, “Often, we could have rested, but still, more than 6,000 people groups on planet Earth have never been reached with the Gospel of Grace. Through the mentoring of Dr. K [a short name for Dr. Krabbendam known to friends] and others, several of us developed a burden to reach the lost with the Gospel and to step up our efforts at church planting.”

When Pastor Pete retired from his Hawaii pastorate in 2013, TCWM was formally registered as a non-profit mission in the USA. Pastor Pete’s trips to Africa increased to four times per year after he moved his family from Hawaii to Dahlonega, GA in the USA. Although the organization was not formally affiliated with a denomination, most of its board members and missionaries come from the PCA, and all of them subscribe to a statement of faith that is reformed in aspect. One-time Ruling Elder at TCCO in Hawaii and Retired Army Colonel Charlie King was instrumental in helping with the founding of the formal ministry and became the first Chairman of the Board. Elder Charlie continued to serve in many ways by taking countless trips to Africa for in-person ministry and through his acute focus on organization, training, and fiscal responsibility for the board. He was also responsible for bringing the board under the governance philosophy of “Policy Governance.” In the first “church planting epoch,” there was also a successful effort together with Pastor Pete’s brother and long-time missionary to Africa, Sid Anderson, to start a radio station, Kapchorwa Trinity Radio (KTR), which would promulgate the Gospel, and biblical preaching and music. TCCO/TCWM also constructed Kaserem Christian Health Clinic and conducted other occasional mercy ministry outreaches, such as supplying food to the Pokot tribe in Kenya during times of famine. During this first epoch of church planting, which we can define as the time period between 1998-2013, there was also a northern Uganda Presbytery planted in Gulu with three church plants (also PCU). In addition, some informal pastoral training classes had also begun by 2013.

Betrayal and Vision Modification for TCWM

A major event which greatly influenced the trajectory of TCWM revolves around the betrayal by the Ugandan TCWM Country Director against the missionaries and other Ugandan workers. The betrayal was characterized by the theft of many thousands of dollars, sexual immorality, and other crimes. These events eventually led to the dismissal of the country director from the organization, his subsequent excommunication by the PCU, and eventually a criminal court case which led to a conviction for theft of church land titles. This conviction landed the former country director in prison in 2022. In addition to this, the former country director’s influence led other pastors in the Kapchorwa district to defraud TCWM, the PCU, and in some cases steal entire churches. Attempts were made to steal KTR radio station and the Kaserem clinic, although thankfully those attempts failed. The corruption shook the organization to its core. Though it is often difficult to discuss a nadir such as this when speaking about the history of missions, it is important to acknowledge the events that shape organizations, and this was certainly one of them. 

Speaking of the general conditions of the time when they first started the ministry, Pastor Pete recounts, “The road from Mbale to Kapchorwa was not paved. One of our mission teams had to get out and push the van up the mountain more than twenty times. We stayed at rough places with no running water and plenty of mosquitoes and bedbugs. We would preach every day and have crusades at night. Corruption filled existing churches and the local government, cults were growing, and witchcraft still had a large hold on people.” One particularly troubling occasion is recalled by Pastor Pete, “We rounded a turn in the road about 8:30 in the evening and there were boulders in the road. For a moment we thought there had been a landslide. Then almost immediately our van was surrounded. 6 men came out of the bushes. The one at my window had an AK-47 rifle. Another had a pistol, another a shotgun. Two had knives. They tried to open the door, but we refused. They began to make threats, “I am going to kill you.” They slapped some in the face and hit others. Behind me was a pastor from Alabama. One bandit had a knife to his throat and the Pastor said, “Please don’t kill me, I have a wife and child at home.” We began to surrender our cameras, watches, and money. Some in the van began to pray. Some began to cry...we all sang...soon, off to the side of the road, we began to hear sounds–like the war cries of an attacking group of Indians from an old western movie. The men fired shots into the ground and told us to get out of there. We were happy to leave, we high-tailed it out of there.” Later reflecting on this event, Pastor Pete said, “We were glad to be in Uganda and to lose the property and money with joy. We learned something new about the value of life and the cost of missions.”

These circumstances led Pastor Pete to realize, as he would put it in his own words, “We were creating churches for whom there were no qualified pastors.” TCWM could do evangelism in a target town for a church plant and see many converts, and TCWM could certainly raise the money to build a church building. However, finding qualified pastors with good character and competency to lead these new churches proved to be a great challenge for the context in East Africa. This led Pastor Pete and TCWM to take a step back and form a new vision for East and Central Africa which would help address this very issue: to focus on the theological education and discipleship of pastors. This theological education program, both in its informal non-accredited conferences, and later in its accredited higher education format, would be called “Trinity Biblical Institute”.

The Second Epoch Of TCWM’s History: A Focus on Theological Education

Pastor Pete once said, “In our view, the greatest need in Africa is well-trained pastors and Christian leaders. In much of Africa, there is only one trained pastor for every 450,000 people. Churches cannot be planted without pastors. Years into planting churches, we ran out of trained pastors. This led to the founding of Trinity Biblical Institute, a reformed theological college that trains pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders. We started the first branch of Trinity Biblical Institute in Kapchorwa, Uganda in 2014 and discovered men and women very thirsty to learn. Many walked long distances to hear our teachers and the news of this school began to spread.”

Between 2014 and 2023 Trinity Biblical Institute (Hereafter “TBI”) grew and developed multiple pastoral training branches in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi. TBI classes began as informal pastoral conference classes which were unaccredited (and continue in conference format up to the present) but eventually sparked the development of accredited schools in Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania (the latter two being in process of application to accredited status and the Uganda branch being granted provisional status as an “Other Degree Awarding Institution” by the Ugandan government as of 2023).

This growth was made possible in part because of a discovery by Pastor Fred Kabenge, who in due time became the principal of Trinity Biblical Institute. TCWM struggled for years to locate pastors who were called by God and trained in the Scriptures, and this limited the ability to plant new churches. As Pastor Pete tells the story, “Around 2017, I met with Pastor Kabenge, who was a leader in the PCU and a teacher at Westminster Christian Institute in Uganda. I asked him to do some research and try to locate every African, qualified Bible teacher/pastor in Central Africa. He identified 85 men in 11 countries in Central and East Africa. Most of them were graduates of Westminster Christian Institute in Uganda, but after graduation, most remained unemployed. We found among these 85 a number of excellent reformed teachers we could use. This changed our strategy. At last, we had a large enough faculty that could be used to disciple and train pastors and candidates for the ministry, and they were located in places all over Central and East Africa, where we believe the Lord was directing us to as our target area.” Since that time, many of those 85 have served with TCWM either as site coordinators or teachers.

After explosive growth and demand for these new theology classes emerged, a headquarters building for Africa was planned by Pastor Pete and the first two employees of TCWM, Pastor Fred Kabenge and Elder James Kabugo. For years the organization had worked out of suitcases, but the demand for TBI led to the decision to build a home for TCWM and TBI. Soon, a new chapter in the history of TCWM and TBI began on July 17, 2017, when TCWM dedicated its new, 450-seat auditorium/training center, guesthouse, and library in Kapchorwa, Uganda. The next day, July 18th, 2017, Christian leaders from eleven countries in Central and East Africa began their teacher training in the new auditorium. Missionary John Griessel helped to raise money and supervise construction during this initial construction period. In 2020 TBI Kapchorwa campus was first accredited in Uganda by the National Council for Higher Education as an “Other Tertiary Institution.”

God blessed the work of TCWM, and it grew eight-fold between 2014 and 2022 in number of students (approximately 500 active students across all sites at any one time), as well as increased staff of 30, and a dedicated headquarters building was built in Dahlonega, GA, USA. PCA Pastor Doug McNutt joined the staff as Vice President under Dr. Anderson in 2019 after volunteer teaching with the ministry for several years during his pastorate. In 2021 Pastor McNutt became the second President of TCWM as Pastor Pete began to reduce his duties with the mission in preparation for retirement. Pastor Doug McNutt had also been greatly influenced by Dr. Krabbendam, having been a student at Covenant College and having studied under him from 2001-2005. Pastor Doug began going on trips with Dr. K in 2002 to Uganda, and even met his wife Kelly in Uganda in 2004, thanks to Dr K’s mission trips.

TCWM has yearned to realize the great goal of seeing African students themselves sent out and establishing hundreds of biblical, grace-filled, self-supporting, Christ-centered, gospel-preaching, and reproducing churches in target countries. This focus on “training the trainers” inspired by 2 Timothy 2:2 proved to be successful as a recently conducted internal survey showed that 28 of 30 inaugural graduates from TBI were in full-time ministry and the other two were in part-time ministry, one year after graduation. Three men of the first graduating class and nine men of the second class were church planters. Pastor Peter said, “Success for us will include making disciples who make disciples and help plant new churches that focus on the Gospel of Grace. Success for us is when we go to a village church and visit one of our student’s church plants and witness Christ being glorified and his disciples making other disciples. This is happening right now.  We praise the Lord and give all honor and glory to His Name.” Current President, Doug McNutt, summarizes the vision of TCWM and TBI in the following way, “We create seminaries, which create pastors, which create churches, which create disciples, in Africa, to the Glory of God.”

Written by Pastor Pete Anderson, Founder of TCWM and Doug McNutt, President of TCWM