Common Ground African Leadership Uganda
A CGALU team member walking a dirt path toward a remote village in the hills of Uganda
Gulu, Uganda

Every trained pastor changes the road ahead for an entire village.

Roughly 7 in 10 pastors serving rural Uganda have never had access to biblical or leadership training. Common Ground walks the road to them — on foot, book in hand — and puts sound teaching within reach.

Send a leader on the road → See how training works
60–70%
of rural Ugandan pastors have no formal training
300+
leaders CGALU aims to equip by 2030
9,000
indirect beneficiaries reached through their churches
What's at stake

An untrained pastor is doing his best with a Bible and no map.

Uganda is a nation of believers — but belief without training leaves churches exposed. When leaders have never studied Scripture formally, discipleship stalls, conflict goes unresolved, and trauma goes unaddressed.

82%
of Ugandans identify as Christian — a nation primed for healthy churches, if leaders are equipped to build them.
65%
of church leaders can't reach quality theological education because of cost, distance, or availability.
1
exam-free, affordable curriculum is often the only bridge between a willing leader and sound biblical training.
Who we are

We've walked this road since our first classroom.

Common Ground African Leadership Uganda (CGALU) is a legally registered, indigenous, non-denominational Christian education organization based in Gulu. We partner with local churches and para-church networks to put biblical training, mentoring, and trauma healing within reach of leaders who would otherwise go without it.

We're led by a Ugandan board and country team who know these roads personally — not a foreign office directing from a distance.

Read our story →
Common Ground Academy graduates holding their certificates
How your gift moves

Three stops on the road from your gift to a transformed church.

01

You send a leader on the road

Your gift covers course materials, a Global Study Bible, and a seat in the Academy for a pastor who could never otherwise afford formal training.

02

We walk it with them

Over months of classroom teaching, mentoring, and community-engagement fieldwork, that leader builds real skill — not just a certificate.

03

A church — and a village — changes course

A trained leader disciples well, resolves conflict, and helps neighbors heal from trauma. One graduate reaches an entire congregation.

Why it matters now

Two roads for Uganda's churches.

Without trained leadership
  • Discipleship stays shallow, and new believers drift
  • Conflict inside churches goes unresolved for years
  • Grief, trauma, and shame go unaddressed in the pews
  • Talented leaders burn out with no mentoring or path forward
With a Common Ground–trained leader
  • Scripture is taught with confidence and applied with wisdom
  • Churches govern themselves with integrity and accountability
  • Trauma survivors find trained lay counselors, not silence
  • Emerging leaders are mentored instead of left to figure it out alone
Our programs

Three ways we equip leaders for the road ahead.

Rural graduation ceremony under a large tree
Academy · BTCP

Common Ground Academy

Exam-free, affordable biblical and leadership training developed from an MA curriculum at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Learn how it works →
Church leaders receiving Global Study Bibles
Field practicum

Community Engagement

A nine-book toolkit that walks leaders from biblical worldview through data-gathering to a real, implemented action plan.

See the toolkit →
A community leader holding trauma healing training materials
Counseling

Trauma Healing

Practical training for pastors and lay counselors in grief, anger, shame, and domestic violence — led by a professional counselor.

Meet the program →
From the road

Pastor Okello walked four hours to his first class. He almost didn't come back for the second.

"I sat in the back row with my old Bible, the pages taped together, and I thought — everyone here knows more than me. Then week two happened, and everything changed. But it wasn't the lesson that changed my mind. It was something my mentor said to me on the walk home…"

We publish one story like this from the field every month — the kind you won't find in an annual report.

A team member walking a dirt road through the Ugandan hills toward a village
Give toward a specific need

Pick the problem you want to solve.

Every gift funds something exact — not a general fund. Here's where the need is greatest right now.

$25
Puts one Global Study Bible in a pastor's hands

Many leaders in our program own no study Bible at all before their first class.

$150
Sponsors one pastor through a full term at the Academy

Covers tuition, materials, and mentoring for one leader — who will go on to disciple an entire congregation.

$500
Funds a trauma-healing training day for a rural congregation

Trains local lay counselors to walk alongside neighbors carrying grief, loss, and unspoken trauma.

See all giving options →