Don't Ignore Half of the Great Commission

Our Great Commission task is not finished until the scope of Jesus’ teachings are being understood, absorbed, and increasingly put into practice by those who come to believe the good news. Paul teaches that pastors and other godly teachers and leaders are the primary agents God designs to fulfill this task (Eph. 4:11-13). The implication seems clear: Our missions mandate must include the task of developing pastors and teachers qualified to help new believers grow into well-trained disciples in churches around the world.

The Global Alliance for church Multiplication (GACX) has a vision to have one church for every one thousand people by 2050. This translates into roughly 10 million congregations. If that were to be achieved, those churches would need 10 million pastors! A study conducted a few years ago indicated that likely no more than 5% of pastors and priests had received formal theological training.¹ So the vast majority of current pastors lack training, not to mention the need to prepare millions of additional leaders for churches yet to be birthed!

FORMAL TRAINING. A growing number of formal seminary programs, many with highly-regarded quality and accreditation, exist on every continent. The global network ICETE (International Council for Evangelical Theological Education) alone connects more than a thousand of them. The demand for such first-rate academic programs will only increase as the global church matures.

NON-FORMAL TRAINING. In addition to these formal seminaries and schools, tens of thousands of non-formal programs offer training to church leaders who cannot relocate or dedicate years exclusively to preparation. Re-Forma, a ministry that defines pastoral-training outcomes and global standards primarily for non-formal programs, alone currently resources 7,000 of these.

Well designed and assessable non-formal programs focusing on biblical knowledge and pastoral leadership skills are relatively easy to scale up with indigenous teachers and virtual learning options. Therefore, quality non-formal programs are essential if the Church is to prepare anywhere close to the number of trained pastors needed.

INFORMAL TRAINING. Meanwhile, many Western churches are involved with a third level of pastoral preparation categorized as informal training which generally takes the form of individual seminars or conferences that are not connected to any extended program and do not involve systematic assessment.

Dr. Michael Ortiz, executive director of ICETE, describes a familiar scenario: “It’s not uncommon for a church or ministry to say they are training pastors in some country overseas. This often takes the form of seminars or workshops offered over the course of a few days or a weekend. Local pastors who attend may have mixed motivations. They want training but they also like to come to these events because they provide a retreat setting with decent meals and a chance to rest a bit, spend some time with friends, etc. So if soon thereafter, they are invited to attend another one by another visiting teacher, they will likely go. Pastors may attend a number of such training programs, but these sessions often lack an overall plan or defined outcomes.”

Multiple organizations offer structured and proven avenues for Western churches to support and participate effectively in all three types of pastoral preparation–formal, non-formal, and informal. We highlight just four at the end of this article including ICETE and Re-Forma. But first, we share two real-life, church-engagement stories and five principles.

Recognize the crucial importance of quality theological and practical training for church leaders even in areas of the world technically considered “reached.” Many leaders, especially across Africa, fear that a vast number of new churches will not survive into the next generation because of lack of solid biblical foundations. The only way to ensure that churches endure is to have well trained pastors and leaders. While reaching the unreached is essential, giving indigenous pastors a strong foundation from which to teach their people is equally important or the “reached” areas could quickly become “unreached.”

Support efforts that springboard from existing, proven materials and which meet high standards of ministry outcomes. This can avoid wasteful duplication and encourages wise stewardship of time and funds. Excellent training curricula already exist and are often shared at little or no cost. Rather than starting from scratch, partners can be encourage to customize existing resources and training. See several sources listed below.

Affirm, train, and resource indigenous pastoral trainers who are equipped to multiply additional trainers. Godly, experienced local leaders have the language and cultural affinity that make them better teachers and trainers than those from the West. Focus on ways to prepare and resource these men and women, coming alongside them in a supporting role rather than as the main trainers.

Take into account that one of the needs in formal theological education is faculty development and better-trained administrators. Many seminary leaders around the world were educated as scholars in particular disciplines, but they were never trained to lead or administer a school. If your church has been blessed by having higher education leaders in your congregation, challenge them to consider training and encouraging their peers abroad. Or perhaps your church could fund the cost of courses and seminars for administrators who need to build missing skills and keep up to date on educational methodologies.

Encourage leaders seeking advanced degrees to study in their own country or region. Many gifted younger men and women come to study in the West and do not return, or they and their family struggle to reassimilate back into their own culture when they do go back. Consider granting a financial scholarship to qualified students to attend one of the excellent theological training programs now available at the highest levels on every continent.

The following organizations are certainly not the only ministries serving with distinction in this space, but they are respected agencies with sturdy track records offering churches different resources and ways to engage.

Is your local church commissioned to carry the gospel and establish churches all the way to the ends of the earth? Yes! But at the same time, you are also commissioned to invest in seeing the believers in those churches nurtured into biblically mature, enduring disciples. Therefore, a very significant part of your Great Commission task is investing in the development of qualified pastors and leaders who are equipped to disciple their churches today and prepare them for the challenges of the future. Does quality pastoral training have the prominent place it deserves in your missions engagement?

1. The most recent global assessment of pastors’ theological education seems to be data collected over a dozen years ago by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) in collaboration with several other entities. However, they warn that that data was incomplete.