Theological Training for Untrained Pastors
Flip Buys
A vast world-wide need
Frcm22-25 March 2000 I was privileged to attend an international consultation
T.O.P.I.C. (Training of Pastors in Churches) in Manila, Philippines' on the
training of pastors for churches in the economically weaker countries of the
world. There were representatives of at least 80 training institutions from 50
countries around the world.
Reports were given of astonishing growth in numbers of Christian churches in
Africa. Asia. South America and countries that were formerly behind the so called
iron curtain. This growth has occurred so rapidly that formal training
institutions like universities and seminaries will never be able to train enough
pastors to shepherd these churches. Studies have shown that there are at least
two million preachers in pulpits in these countries every Sunday who have
never had any theological training whatsoever.
In many African countries churches have an average of only one trained pastor
for every 20 churches. A pastor from Uganda sitting next to me told us that his
denomination has 1000 congregations but only 8 trained pastors. Another one
from the Evangelical Christian Church in Zambia told us that his denomination
has 675 churches with only 31 trained pastors. We were told that thousands of
churches have been planted in the Philippines over three decades and similar
growth is expected to continue. All the formal seminaries and training institutions
in their whole country could never train even 5% of the pastors needed
for these churches.
One Chinese pastor from the People's Republic of China told us of the
phenomenal growth of house churches in his country in spite of ongoing
persecution. (In many of these churches the pastor will just throw his Bible to
his congregation when he is arrested and the person who catches it automatically
becomes the next pastor. In some places teenage girls are appointed as
Pastors because they are the only literate people with Bibles.) The pastor who
gave the report is presently running a programme of training 20,000 Chinese
pastors for these house churches.
It is said that in some of these countries the Church is growing itself to deathl
The structures simply cannot cope. The provision of adequate leadership is not
keeping pace with the influx of people into the Church. There is a vast lack of
the most basic Bible knowledge as well as foundational Christian doctrine
amongst church members and their untrained leaders.
Millions of African 'Christians' still have the idea that Christ needs the
assistance of ancestral spirits to bring real reconciliation with God. The
outcome of the lack of basically trained pastors is nominality, heresies and
syncretism. The difference between the Church and the world just fades away.
Instead of helping communities to flnd solutions for problems of poverty,
AIDS, unemployment, political and ethnic strife, and violence through
'relevant teaching and preaching of the Word of God, the Church and the
Christians just become part of the problem. More and more effort is required to
backtrack and seek to correct wrong ideas of what it means to be a Christian.
Theological education is now the highest priority in all mission work in
fulfillment of the second part of the great commission of Matthew 28:.19:.'... go
and make disciples of all nations, ... teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you.'
The whole consultation wrestled with one question: How can training institutions
worldwide co-operate to accelerate both the number of pastoral leaders
being trained as well as the rate of training so that not only church growth but
also church health may be accomplished?
The greatest need in economically weaker countries
The greatest need for the training of more pastors exists in the countries with
weaker economies like those in Africa, Asia and South America where people
on average earn 14 times less in salaries than in Europe and North America.
The same holds true for the former deprived communities in South Africa.
At the moment formal theological educational institutions like universities and
seminaries provide less than 10% of the need for trained pastors. The other 80
- 90% wlll only be reached through innovative systems of distance education.
The most important reason why formal theological education is not feasible for
people from the weaker economies of the world is that they have neither the
finance nor the necessary entrance qualifications. Another reason is that many
formal theological institutions do not have a real vision for missions and
produce pastors bereft of world vision who likewise produce self-centred,
ingrown churches.
On the other hand, many examples were given of how a totally new and
different approach to theological education in some parts of the world has
eventually changed churches and denominations from dying bodies into
dynamic evangelizing churches that are growing numerically as well as in
spiritual depth.
Solutions that are providing good results in several places in the world
The overriding insight which came through in many of the discussions at this
consultation is that non-formal decentralized theological education is the most
important answer to the problem of the vast world-wide need for the training
of more pastors in our time.
Non-formal theological education involves a basic core curriculum being put
together and taught as an in-service training programme by existing pastors to
small groups of students in church buildings or homes. Some fast growing
churches in Asia even say that every local church should be a training
institution where new pastors are trained. The benefits of this kind of non-formal
training of pastors are the following:
1. It costs about 20 times less than formal theological training. There are no
costs on expensive buildings, high salaries of highly academically trained
professors, boarding and lodging of students (and their families) and
travelling costs of theological students.
2. Students can do much needed ministry in local churches while they are busy
with training. In this way they also learn a lot from the practical example of
their lecturer/mentor, while they are involved in the work of ministry and
evangelism with him.
3. The problem of pastors, who have completed high academic qualifications
and are now just too expensive for churches, is also solved.
4. Non-formal training reaches those leaders who are already accepted and
acknowledged as leaders in a community and have a real sense of calling to
minister the gospel to their own communities. Pastors who have had a fullt1
time formal theological education at a far-away university or seminary often
encounter the problem that they enter a community in which they are not
accepted (at least initially but sometimes permanently) as real leaders. High
Academic qualifications that have been obtained through full time
theological education as such are no guarantees that the leadership 'status',
which a leader needs to function well, is a given in a less developed
community. Precisely because of this factor, world-wide research of the
functioning of leaders in economically weaker communities has highlighted
the tragic fact that academically highly trained pastors quite often become
failures in practical ministry and backslide into immoral and corrupt
practices. The majority of highly trained pastors often do not really want to
serve their own churches or communities but do even thing in their power
to find better jobs with higher salaries. This seldom happens with leaders
who have been trained through non-formal in-service training programmes.
They are generally more committed to practical ministry and church growth
and have a deeper sense of calling.
Because of the educational fact that the best learning takes place when a
person is teaching as well, existing pastors who are involved in non-formal
theological training of other pastors are actually involved in a programme of
continuous training themselves, which keeps their o$ n ministry fresh and
dynamic.
Non-formal in-service training of pastors provides unique opportunities tor
the personal guidance (mentoring) of students by their 'lecturer'. In this
way the spirituality and the character formation of the .student receives
much more attention than it usually does at formal theological institutions.
Non-formal in-service theological training greatly increases the number of
lecturers' and training opportunities.
Students are not torn away from their cultural context as so often happens in
formal theological training. In formal theological training students - after
several years of adapting to a completely different cultural context - often
become so detached from their own people that they cannot communicate
on a really deep level with their own people any more'
This model of training comes much closer to the churches. because the
student usually in his ministry applies the things he has learnt. Several of the
training courses which have already been designed for this kind of training
of pastors have been designed in such a way that the student should
immediately (sometimes as part of his exams) go and teach it to the people
to whom he is ministering.
With this training model, churches are much more directly involved in the
training of pastors than with formal theological trained at a seminary.
This model of training resembles much more closely the model which Jesus
himself used in the training of the disciples and is also more in line with
2 Timothy 2:2, And the things you have heard me say inthe presence of many
witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
Both formal and non-formal training are needed and should strengthen
and enhance each other
In the discussions a clear consensus grew that formal and non-formal
theological training of pastors should never be seen as opposing each other.
Both models are still needed and should rather be seen as two sides of a coin.
They are designed to mutually assist, strengthen, extend and amplify in the
followings wavs:
Non-formal training can make the results of formal academic training and
research available to people and communities who would otherwise never
have had access to these.
Formal theological education can provide more training to lecturers of non formal
training programmes.
Non-formal theological training comes closer to the needs at grassroots
level and in such a way makes a much needed contribution to the contextualization
of formal theological education to ensure that formal theological
training programmes do not become sterile and irrelevant.
Non-formal training programmes can be of great value to broaden the
perspectives of formal theological training programmes.
Non-formal training programmes may provide a good 'sifting' mechanism
to identify students with gifts and talents who can be assisted to enrol for
graduate and postgraduate studies. Formal theological training programmes
usually have more time and facilities available and are in a better position to
do in-depth research on issues which are relevant for the church and the
kingdom of God at large.
Formal theological training programmes may fulfil a much-needed
monitoring need in the continuous evaluation of the academic standards and
theological foundations of non-formal training programmes
How should all this be implemented in order that the two million pastors are
eventually trained?
When can a pastor be considered trained?
In order to establish good programmes of formal and non-formal training
programmes in such a way that various programmes and models complement
and enhance each other a burning question must first be answered: When is a
pastoral leader sufficiently trained?
At the consultation consensus was reached that a pastoral leader is basically
trained when he has competence in the following four areas:
1. Concerning the Bible he should:
Know, understand and apply it in a valid way
Know basic biblical doctrines
Be able to communicate it (teach, preach and counsel)
Have a biblical world-view.
2. Concerning conformity to Jesus Christ he should have:
Christian character and conduct
A servant attitude
A deep sense of continuing dependence on the triune God.
3. Concerning competence in basic ministry skills he should be:
Able to prepare and deliver sermons effectively
Able to evangelize and plant new churches
Able to pastor believers with a view to disciple them towards spiritual
maturity
Able to teach
Able to lead believers in such a way that their own vision for the growth of
God's kingdom is stirred up.
4. Concerning leadership, he must have a vision and be able to reproduce:
Himself as pastoral leader
His church.
A core curriculum?
One possible way of assisting non-formal training institutions and paving ways
for co-operation is to design a core curriculum which could establish broad
parameters of a programme that may achieve the outcomes of a basically welltrained
pastoral leader. This core curriculum should be flerible enough to
allow for additions and issues of local application according to the needs of a
specific area.
Such a curriculum should meet the following criteria. It should be:
Comprehensive - complete at basic level
Culturally adaptable - generic and transferable (principles, concepts should be
presented as transferable truths)
Compact - teachable within a reasonable time frame (2-4 years)
Conformable - adjustable to different educational levels, perhaps grades
6to12
Compatible theologically - it should be biblical, evangelical, trans-denominational
to the extent that the specific teachings of denominations (e.g. mode
of baptism) should not be a hindrance for students who are evangelical
Christians but have different views on peripheral issues
Competent and measurable educationally - evaluation of progress, feedback
and assessment loops should be given with the core curriculum
Consistent with biblical perspective - the Bible should be the main textbook
Conducive to practical ministry and personal spiritual growth and multiplication
students must be able to use and apply the content in their ministry
immediately
Available in key languages - English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, French,
Swahili, Ztlt, etc
Commonly available at low cost.
Unfortunately there was not enough time available to prepare and evaluate
proposals for such a core curriculum. There were several training institutions
present that had copies of their curricula of a wide variety of T.E.E.
(Theological Training by Extension) and other models of curricula available
for insight. The consultation has now appointed a committee to work on such
a core curriculum and send it to interested institutions for evaluation and
possible field testing.
The whole idea with such a core curriculum is to offer it to training institutions
involved in the non-formal training of pastors. Those institutions wanting to
use it may then strengthen their own credibility by advertising that their
training courses are in line with internationally recognized standards and are
using the T.O.P.l.C. core curriculum.
Thanksgiving
This consultation has enriched my life and ministry and also convinced me that
the Lord has led us on the right track with our own work at Mukhanyo
Theological College, Gauteng, South Africa, although we still have many
problems to solve and stumbling-blocks to overcome. I am also convinced
more than ever that the harvest is so ripe in Africa that a lack of vision and
commitment to do everything in our power to accelerate the training of more
harvesters will be a grave sin and grossly grieve the Holy Spirit.
This article first appeared in Reformation Today Issue 178 Nov-Dec 2000