Togo

Country & Reformed Church Profile

Population: 5 Million
Capital City: Lome
Ethnnic Groups: 78
Languages: French (official), Ewe in the south (53%), and Gur in the North (42%)
Religions: Islam (30%), Christian (32%), Traditional Religion (38%)
Church Membership: 1,500
Pastors/Church Planters: 15
Students currently in theological training: 4

Cultural Context and Challenges

The bondage of traditional religion, animism, is a fertile ground for Islam in the Northern region of Togo. The past decade has witnessed a spread of Islam in those regions as never before. This religion is now seriously on the move from North Africa towards the south of West Africa. Islamists have their religious agencies everywhere in Togo: they are building mosques in major cities; they are also building educational institutions and granting scholarships to students as means of bringing them into Islam. The main reason for this growth is the determination of leaders of West Africa Islamic nations to ‘Islamize’ the populations. To reach their goal, they are deeply involved in social activities in poor communities, e.g., giving people loans and grants to start their own businesses. All such strategies are facilitating successful Islamic infiltration of Togo.

PCT Vision

To see multitudes of Togolese become disciples of Jesus Christ as the Presbyterian community plants hundreds of reformed/covenantal churches that are viable, reproducible and culturally relevant.
Initiate a reformed/covenantal church planting movement to reach our goals.
Identify, recruit, assess, train, equip and deploy PCT pioneer church planting leaders with necessary support to start new congregations in the Northern region of Togo

PCT Strategy

Build a national PCT leadership team in Togo that casts vision, provides training, and implements strategy.
Develop church-based leadership development in these new congregations
Ensure discipleship of all church members
Conduct person-to-person evangelism training for all members
Concentrate church planting among Muslims and Muslim-related people
Link evangelistic outreach with social action

Five Year Goals of the National Church

Theological and Missiological Education
Estimated Cost: $10,560/year for the next five years

Goal: Church planting and evangelism is the priority of PCT for the next 5 years. Therefore we plan to recruit assess and train 10 Church planters and Pastors each year. Five of them will be sent to ITAO (West Africa Theological Institute) in Senegal, as well as five to church base leadership development. At the end of five years, we will train and
equip 50 church Planters and pastors for the ministry

Church Planting and Evangelism:
Estimated Cost: $8,750/year for the next five years
Goals:

Recruit a church planting coordinator to overseer the new congregations
Accomplish strategic research and planning in 50 targeted cities and towns
Plant 10 new churches or house churches with 100 members each year in the North of Togo, resulting in 50 churches at the end of the five years.
Establish 2 PCT presbyteries with 25 churches in each presbytery
Ordain 50 PCT church planters and pastors for the ministry.

PCT Church Planters Support:
Estimated Cost: $32,475/year for the next five years.
Goal: One of the greatest challenges facing PCT new churches is that of providing for the church planter. Many house churches in poor Muslim communities lack the resources to be able to support a church planter, thereby impeding their growth to full potential – so that they in turn may become church- planting churches themselves and help
provide a basic income for the church planter of a new congregation.

Ministerial Expenses
Estimated Cost: $14,100/year for the next five year

Goal: Cover all office-related expenses necessary to run the ministry
Other National Goals (current year):

Recruit church planting coordinator
Accomplish strategic research and planning in 50 cities and towns
Recruit and assess 10 new church planting candidates for training
Send five of the new candidates to WATI
Recruit and send 10 evangelists to the field
See 10 new churches or house churches start