On Friday we arrived in Rukungiri, in South West Uganda. This is the location of the inaugural NextGen Uganda. We were looking forward to learning much from our brothers and sisters in Uganda, and on our preparation day prior to the conference we certainly did.

On this day, the team of about 20 from Sydney and Armidale combined with a number of local pastors. They thought they were 2,000 years behind Australia, but then described the challenges they felt were facing churches in Uganda:  Pentecostalism, drugs and pornography, hedonism, generational divides concerning the place of church traditions and growing secular options for the country's youth. They are almost exactly the same issues facing churches in Australia.

It is the relatively simple model of Biblical understanding that has been developed at NextGen (formerly KYLC) over the last 20 years that we are teaching in Uganda this week. People here are so excited that we have come to help them establish this training conference, and it has been such a privilege already to meet some of the local pastors and to see them grasp the model.

One man, a middle aged church pastor, said to me today: 'I think I am getting it. I am so used to giving answers, but I now see I need to hold back and lead people on a journey of discovery themselves.'

He has got it. It will be an exciting week.

Training people to think about the Bible for themselves will have a far greater and longer term impact. The penny had dropped for this . After all of my years of being involved in Christian ministry, witnessing this kind of revelation is almost as exciting as being present when someone becomes a Christian.

The overwhelming welcome we have received here in Uganda reflects their excitement at the prospect of being trained to be more effective servants of Jesus and have deeper roots in the Bible.

In Sydney, we have excellent training available.  The quality of training at many churches exceeds the training of many pastors around the world. The quality of training in many of our conferences is in demand around the world (that is why I am in Uganda), to the point that overseas visitors often express surprise that more don't make use of such incredible opportunities.

And even though both weeks of NextGen at Katoomba in January are now headed for capacity, still for so many training is not a priority.

Maybe the penny has not dropped.