Truth-Bearers Project
Establishing churches is a difficult and wide-ranging job that requires many banding together. Trained leaders need to be established in every church. Training from qualified pastors, educators and lay teachers can seriously make an impact in the Philippines, which has many barriers to church planting and spreading the gospel. It's a dilemma for local church leadership teams and pastors.
There are many regions where pastors struggle in their work for lack of training and resourcing near them. They can't move to Manila to take extra coursework AND the seminary can't move to them. Thus, they struggle through while they constantly hope for training, even short-term training, which will help them in their calling and work.
Truth-Bearers Project is a concept of joining stateside pastors and teachers with the Institute for Practical Theology for specific training events. These will potentially launch in 2017 and 2018. The courses we hope will be brought to the pastors of provincial churches around Manila for a one-week modular-intensive training would be:
Pastors and teachers in US churches would serve in Manila and the Philippines over a 10-14 day span and join in partnership with the Institute for Practical Theology and Equip Manila. On those 2 Sundays during that time frame, they would be expected to serve at a local church in expository preaching to help further influence local churches. Equip Manila and IPT will arrange that ahead of time.
Teams would number up to 4 pastors/teachers and would be expected to supply the course syllabus, student lecture notes, tests & keys, assignments plan, rubrics for grading all assignments, plus an agreed upon resource for all registered attendees to the training events. An example resource would be a study Bible or book specific to the training (e.g.: Basic Bible Interpretation by Zuck for Biblical Hermeneutics; 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Dever for Ecclesiology or Church Management course, etc.).
One might wonder why isn't it possible to use the wonder of technology and the internet to train these pastors and save the funds and time on pastors and teachers flying to Manila? Well, it is certainly true that it would cost less in the long run. There's no denying that. Yet, these pastors need the personal encouragement of the "flesh and blood" pastor coming to them in there setting and their situation. The joy that comes from the personal interaction is extremely beneficial to these pastors serving in the long run. One might find these pastors so discouraged that they are considering quitting...yet personal interaction with another brother in the ministry may be the one thing that keeps them going. There's also no mistaking this sort of scenario as well.
Out of the Truth-Bearers Project ministry experience we expect there will become a definite bond between these pastors from two different countries and very different ministry experiences. They may even become "brothers in arms" when it comes to future ministry and perhaps there will be "sister" church relationships built. This has been what we have seen in the past and expect it will happen again.
That personal touch of pastor to pastor or preacher to preacher goes a long way in the ministry. The encouragement to struggling pastors and preachers is practically immeasurable. This is why we are pressing forward with Truth-bearers Project. The other reason is we just don't yet have the tech savviness to make that sort of thing happen yet, though it is on our hearts to multiply our efforts in that direction in the future.
If a pastor or their missions team has interest in arranging a future Truth-Bearer Project event, the time to begin to talk it over and pray is even now. The sooner it is arranged, the sooner they can partner as a bearer of truth and train pastors in their work.
Contact Robert and Kim Clark at [email protected] for further information.
There are many regions where pastors struggle in their work for lack of training and resourcing near them. They can't move to Manila to take extra coursework AND the seminary can't move to them. Thus, they struggle through while they constantly hope for training, even short-term training, which will help them in their calling and work.
Truth-Bearers Project is a concept of joining stateside pastors and teachers with the Institute for Practical Theology for specific training events. These will potentially launch in 2017 and 2018. The courses we hope will be brought to the pastors of provincial churches around Manila for a one-week modular-intensive training would be:
- Soteriology & Hamartiology (Sin & Salvation)
- The Person and Work of Christ (Christology)
- New and/or Old Testament Survey
- Basic Biblical Hermeneutics & Interpretation
- Biblical Eldership & Church Management
- Pastoral & Prison Epistles
- The Pentateuch
- Leviticus & Hebrews
- Other potential training courses are being considered.
Pastors and teachers in US churches would serve in Manila and the Philippines over a 10-14 day span and join in partnership with the Institute for Practical Theology and Equip Manila. On those 2 Sundays during that time frame, they would be expected to serve at a local church in expository preaching to help further influence local churches. Equip Manila and IPT will arrange that ahead of time.
Teams would number up to 4 pastors/teachers and would be expected to supply the course syllabus, student lecture notes, tests & keys, assignments plan, rubrics for grading all assignments, plus an agreed upon resource for all registered attendees to the training events. An example resource would be a study Bible or book specific to the training (e.g.: Basic Bible Interpretation by Zuck for Biblical Hermeneutics; 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Dever for Ecclesiology or Church Management course, etc.).
One might wonder why isn't it possible to use the wonder of technology and the internet to train these pastors and save the funds and time on pastors and teachers flying to Manila? Well, it is certainly true that it would cost less in the long run. There's no denying that. Yet, these pastors need the personal encouragement of the "flesh and blood" pastor coming to them in there setting and their situation. The joy that comes from the personal interaction is extremely beneficial to these pastors serving in the long run. One might find these pastors so discouraged that they are considering quitting...yet personal interaction with another brother in the ministry may be the one thing that keeps them going. There's also no mistaking this sort of scenario as well.
Out of the Truth-Bearers Project ministry experience we expect there will become a definite bond between these pastors from two different countries and very different ministry experiences. They may even become "brothers in arms" when it comes to future ministry and perhaps there will be "sister" church relationships built. This has been what we have seen in the past and expect it will happen again.
That personal touch of pastor to pastor or preacher to preacher goes a long way in the ministry. The encouragement to struggling pastors and preachers is practically immeasurable. This is why we are pressing forward with Truth-bearers Project. The other reason is we just don't yet have the tech savviness to make that sort of thing happen yet, though it is on our hearts to multiply our efforts in that direction in the future.
If a pastor or their missions team has interest in arranging a future Truth-Bearer Project event, the time to begin to talk it over and pray is even now. The sooner it is arranged, the sooner they can partner as a bearer of truth and train pastors in their work.
Contact Robert and Kim Clark at [email protected] for further information.