Training Leaders International - A Purposeful Partnership
An update from Josh Montague, SGC Pastoral Candidate at Cross of Grace Church, Chaska, USA, and Director of Expository Training at Training Leaders International…
Over the last eight years, the Midwest-Northwest US region of SG churches has partnered with Training Leaders International (TLI) to train ten Pakistani pastors in the fundamental elements of biblical interpretation and expository preaching.
For me personally, as the Director of Expository Training with TLI for the past ten years, I have led numerous teaching trips to meet these pastors in Dubai, UAE or Amman, Jordan. In addition, Pastors from four different churches in our US Region have taught over the course of this training.
When the curriculum cycle was completed last June, the region began asking, “What’s next?”
I was already leading some training trips to the Philippines and began meeting with Jeffrey Jo of Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries (CCSGM) online and in-person in Cavite. In God’s kindness, these conversations led to the development of another partnership.
Sixteen potential SG pastors from numerous islands around the Philippines will now come together as we launch the training with Course 1, Knowing God, Scripture, and Ourselves. Nine total trips over the next three years are scheduled, beginning with a second course in December called Knowing the Bible’s Story, followed by six courses focusing on understanding and communicating different genres of the biblical text, and a final course entitled Doing the Ministry of the Word.
The impact of this sort of training doesn’t stop with a week long course in Laguna, Philippines or Amman, Jordan. Following Paul’s suggested pattern in 2 Timothy 2:2, those who have been trained are urged to pass on the training to others. This has resulted in hundreds of Pakistani believers studying biblical books like Genesis, Mark, Psalms, Ephesians, Isaiah, and Revelation. Six of the Pakistani pastors who participated in the TLI training now meet monthly with me and another elder from our region, as we work through the Sovereign Grace Churches ordination process with them.
Churches are being planted in the Philippines through CCSGM as well as His Dwelling Christian Church in Cebu, pastored by Nilo Ebo. Please pray that this training helps train and equip pastors for these churches as God grows his kingdom in the Philippines.
Please pray for wisdom and provision of funds and teachers as other possible training sites are considered. TLI is already training potential SG pastors in Sierra Leone and other partnerships are being explored in Africa and Asia.
For more information, you can contact me at josh.montague@trainingleaders.org or subscribe to my updates updates at https://joshmontague.epistle.org/subscribe. I am so grateful to God for our partnership.
