Guidelines for Ministry Training of Training Pastors International

The following comprises the ministry guidelines for the training that will take place through the ministry of Training Pastors International.

A.   The invitation to do the training needs to be initiated by indigenous national pastors within a country and needs to be hosted by national pastors as well. The goal for each country that TPI chooses to do ministry training is to identify a key indigenous pastoral leader who will function as the TPI national director. TPI will seek to assist national leaders to set up ministry training centers to train national pastors in such a way that ultimately, nationals will train nationals to be more effective in their ministries.

B.   The training team will seek to partner with national leaders, mission agencies, and local churches within the United States to facilitate the training institutes and long-term curriculum for these pastors and church leaders by providing the following five goals:

a)    short-term training trips to provide specific ministry training

b)    needs analysis of pastoral training needs via surveys/interviews

c)    long-term focus on specific training centers in the country

d)    providing decentralized nonformal training through many such centers

e)    empowering national leaders to manage and operate these centers

C.   The TPI director (JMB, Jr.) will look for key trainers in the US and in each of the countries where the training takes place to put together a training team of expatriates and indigenous leaders for the short-term institutes.

D.   The plan is to do short-term institutes in strategic countries where there is a significant deficiency of pastoral training and an interdenominational commitment to see this training take place. There also needs to be a lack of training centers available to meet this need.

E.   The strategy will be to establish ministry training centers or come alongside existing ministry training centers for the equipping of national pastors through:

a) short-term training institutes (1 week to 10 days) for 1-3 years

            b) long-term training modules (1 to 3 years) after at least two years

            c) development of training resources and curriculum continually

            d) development of an indigenous training program based on needs 

               analysis

F.    The ministry training provided will be in accordance with the doctrinal essentials of the following doctrinal statement. There will need to be agreement with this statement to be approved for training with TPI.

• the Trinity is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• the full deity and humanity of Christ through the virgin birth
• the authority, inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture
• the spiritual lostness and depravity of the human race
• the substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Christ
• salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone
• sanctification lived in the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Word
• the centrality of the local church in God’s program for evangelism and missions
• the priority of preaching the whole Bible and planting indigenous churches
• the physical return of Christ to rapture the Church and usher in eternity

G.   The training program for the ministry training centers will incorporate the following eight areas of basic training:

·         Bible and Theology

·         Expository Preaching

·         Prayer and Worship

·         Evangelism and Discipleship

·         Leadership Development

·         Pastoral Ministries

·         Church Planting

·         Missionary Outreach