The Great Challenge Facing the Global Church

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The Great Challenge Facing the Global Church

• Thousands of sheep without a shepherd and
  multitudes of churches without an equipped
  pastoral leader!

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During the last 30 years or so, Evangelicals have
focused attention on

• Evangelization
• the Gospel for every person
• Church multiplication
• a church for every people group
• Strategic Mission initiatives
• reaching the least evangelized regions of the
  world (10/40 Window), unreached people groups

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The good news is...

• DAWN Movement reports
• 1 million new churches started in 149 countries
  (1990-2000).

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The results havebeen God-sized!
Look at the nations and watch, and be utterly
amazed. For I am going to do something in your
days that you would not believe, even if you were
told. Habakkuk 15
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Overall growth...

• Evangelical growth rate is about 5.
• This is more than 3 times the world population
  growth rate (1.6)!
• It is almost double the growth rate of Islam
  (2.7).

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Christianity has become the most extensive and
universal religion in history

• There are now more Christians in the southern
  hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere.
• Every day in Africa an average of 25,000 people
  respond to Jesus Christ!
• Each week in Africa approximately 300 new
  churches are planted.

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And this rate is increasing!

• We expect 3 million new church plants in the
  next 10 years. Pastoral leadership development
  needs to catch up. DAWN Ministries

• We start 50,000 new Lighthouses per day, each
  reaching 4 other people. We need thousands of
  pastoral leaders to shepherd these new
  believers.
• Every Home for Christ

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But there are 2 million pastoral leaders who
still lack essential training...

• The leadership gap will never be closed until
  all Christian leaders take an active role in
  developing more leaders!

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Worldwide 95 of todays pastoral leaders lack
basic formation and tools to effectively equip
their congregations
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One possible solution

• Concentrate the training in
• Bible schools
• Seminaries
• Other in residence education efforts

These solutions are known primarily as the Formal
education approach. But only 10 of the worlds
pastoral leaders have been trained through this
approach.
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Models of Education
Formal Education
Informal Education

• Focus on knowing...
• Strengths
• Comprehensive
• Structured
• Systematic
• Weaknesses
• Limited access
• Expensive
• Learning usually takes place out of context
• Theoretical

• Focus on being...
• Strengths
• Wide access
• Inexpensive
• Practical (highly relevant)
• Weaknesses
• Gaps in learning
• Not structured
• Not comprehensive
• Not measureable-
• What has actually been learned?

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Models of Education
Formal Education
Informal Education
Non-formal Education

• Effective models apply
• Appreciative-inquiry and needs assessment
• Education as dialogue based on sound
  relationships
• Praxis doing with theological reflection

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Non-formal Pastoral training...

• ...is the best hope of developing the worlds
  current pastoral leaders in addition to those
  neededas more and more people come to Christ and
  more churches are multiplied.

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Non-formal Pastoral training...

• is essential for the global Church. These types
  of leaders represent 80-90 of the churchs need
  and will be produced by a spectrum of non-formal
  and institutional efforts. There is a profound
  connection between formal and non-formal
  training.
• Overseas Council for Theological Education

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Insanity is...
Doing things the same way and expecting
different results. Albert Einstein

• Can the Church of Jesus Christ continue to do
  things the same way?

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African proverb...
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to
go far, go together.

• By partnering together we can see God accomplish
  the impossible.

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TOPIC seeks to answer 3 questions...
1 - After a church is planted, then what?
2 - What does an equipped and maturing (African)
pastoral leader look like?
3 - How do we train and develop the greatest
amount of leaders for the Church in the shortest
amount of time?
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What does an equipped and maturing African
pastoral leader look like?
HEAD- knows the Word of God
HANDS- leading, preaching, teaching, counseling,
etc.
HEART- vision, passion for God, compassion for
people
LOINS- sexual purity, discipline, self-control
FEET- evangelism, discipleship, missions,
mentoring
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What does an equipped and maturing African
pastoral leader look like?

• HEAD- increasing competency in handling the
  Bible. Knows, understands and relevantly applies
  Gods truth and has a biblical worldview.
• HEART- increasing conformity to Jesus Christ in
  character and conduct. A Spirit-led servant who
  is also a maturing leader.
• HANDS- increasing competency in ministry skills.
• LOINS- a growing conformity to Christ in their
  inner world.
• FEET- increasing ministry engagement in their
  outer world.

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How do we train and develop the greatest amount
of leaders for the Church in the shortest amount
of time?
Level 3 Trainer of trainers
Level 2 Trainers of pastoral equippers
Level 1 Equipping pastoral leaders
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Vision of TOPIC
Every Church with at least one equipped and
maturing Pastoral Leader.
Mission Objective
We are an international coalition of pastoral
training organizations accelerating non formal
pastoral training where the church is growing
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• A local church is only as healthy as its pastoral
  leaders.
• Large numbers of pastoral leaders, in contexts
  where the Church is growing rapidly, need
  essential ministry training.
• The challenge can best be accomplished by
  concerted, cooperative action among pastoral
  equipping organisations.

Premises
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Core Values

• The Great Commission will not be fulfilled
  without the effective equipping of pastoral
  leaders.
• Qualified pastoral leadership is critical to the
  health of the Church locally and globally.
• Biblical character, knowledge, and skill form the
  core components of effective pastoral ministry
• Cooperation reflects the Body of Christ
  maximising human and financial resources
• Non-formal education of pastors is the best way
  to meet the urgent need in the world's weaker
  economies.
• Training local pastoral leaders to equip the
  saints is the better way of doing missions in
  today's world.

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• Identifying and networking ministries, materials
  and other resources on regional, national and
  international levels.
• Testing and implementing effective non-formal
  pastoral training models.
• Facilitating and nurturing the development of
  indigenous non-formal pastoral education
  programs.
• Stimulating and enlarging vision for non-formal
  pastoral leadership training among formal
  training institutions and churches.

Strategies