The church SIM/ECWA started its expansion through the impact of the ECWA Missionary Society (EMS). History has it that the entire ECWA Headquarters used to be where the Christian Education Department is situated now. The then SIM/ECWA representatives were: The General Secretary, Late Rev. Dr. Byang Kato, and Late Rev Panya Baba, the Director of EMS. The three worked together alongside the SIM missionaries in the field to promote the growth and expansion of the ECWA church.

It was in the cause of the rapid growth of the church that few indigenous elites felt the need for an office that would take care of the spiritual nourishment of new converts after EMS wins them to faith in Christ. That thought came when the Nigerian Government started making a move to take over all the mission schools; a decision that became real in the seventies.

The church was proactive in thinking of ways to establish a corporate office that would take care of the formal education of the church. The first meeting towards actualizing that goal took place on August 20^th, 1966. During this meeting, the need for a Missionary Christian Education Coordinator was identified. After the deliberation, Mr. Jim Plueddemann was appointed. The ECWA Christian Education Department came to be when Mr. Plueddmann arrived in Nigeria in 1967 to set up the SIM/ECWA Christian Education Department.

At the arrival of Mr. Plueddemann and his wife Carol, the office took off. Shortly after that, there was need for indigenous staff that could assist Mr. Plueddemann. Hence, Rev. Buremoh D. A. and Pastor Philip Gambo were appointed to work with him as the first staff members of the Christian education ministry in Plueddemann’s house.  Perhaps why Buremoh was appointed was because he was a Yoruba by birth and could work on helping translate study materials into the Yoruba language. Philip was from the Middle Belt (Miango) to help link up with the Northerners. Jim Plueddemann was still serving as the Christian Education Secretary of ECWA. Part of his work schedule   was to help develop Christian education materials to meet the needs of about a thousand ECWA churches then in Nigeria.

The vision that Jim Plueddemann had for ECWA was to turn every Local Assembly into a Bible School—a goal that the Department is still trusting God to achieve. She is not there yet; however, she remains optimistic that one day she will realize that vision or dream.

The work of Christian education kept growing and expanding to the point that the then General Secretary (Kato), decided that Christian education should become a Department in ECWA to coordinate the activities of members in churches. The location of the Department is where it is still operating till date.

The second meeting to set up a Christian education committee at the DCC level took place on February 3^rd, 1967. This committee was to coordinate the activities of the church down to the Local Church (LC) level. It was as a result of that meeting that today, Christian education exists at the DCC level as Christian Education Organizer (CEO), at the LCC we have, Christian Education Secretary (ECS) and at the LC we have Christian Education Elder. Going back to the vision of Plueddemann, Christian Education Organizers should have been full time workers under the supervision of the Christian Education Director. This need is critical now for the effectiveness of the work.