Lausanne World Pulse – Re-thinking Training of Pastoral Leaders?

July 2007

By J. N. Manokaran

The Asian Theological Association (ATA) was started when many of the evangelicals perceived that the Serampore system placed more emphasis on academics and leaned toward liberal theology. Many of the prestigious evangelical seminaries joined the ATA.

The colleges affiliated with these institutions produced pastors and leaders of institutions. The courses offered were academically sound and mainly residential. It typically took three or more years for students to earn degrees. Students trained in these institutions generally became pastors of churches in various denominations. A few opted to become missionaries with mission agencies.

2. Second wave: Missionary training institutions. Mission agencies felt that sending missionaries for training in the traditional theological education centres did not always prepare them for cross-cultural missions. They felt a need for training that focused on missiology with an emphasis on church planting. Some agencies started such training as orientation programmes for their own missionaries; others started training centres to quickly train church planters for mono-cultural missions.

For all practical purposes, India is like Europe with nearly twenty-five country-sized provinces. With a population of over one billion people, representing various cultural and linguistic blocks, missionary training centres emerged in about fifteen to twenty major language regions in India. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders were trained in these missionary training institutions in many regions or provinces. These trained mono-cultural missionaries made inroads in some of the districts and regions where cross-cultural missionaries could not break through.

In this context, the Indian Institute of Missiology (IIM) emerged, trying to bring about standardization of missionary training. IIM began with the encouragement of India Missions Association (a federal body of nearly two hundred mission agencies). The training given by various agencies had varied emphases, duration and topics. IIM tried to bring about standard curriculum for various levels and also conducted a common exam for affiliated institutions on the core subjects. The institutions conducted the exam for optional or elective subjects. Many institutions became part of this affiliating agency.

3. Third wave: Pastoral training movements. The third wave of training coincides with the growth of local church missions. A dynamic growth of the Church is evident in several parts of India. The congregations are not large like those of the historical mainline denominations, but are smaller with an average of less than fifty members. Many of these churches have been planted in the last decade.

The pastors of these little flocks have had basic church planting training of only six to nine months, if any. Training these leaders has become a real challenge and dilemma for three reasons. First, they have a lot of zeal but little or no knowledge. Many think more zeal compensates for a lack of knowledge. Second, a majority do not have many academic qualifications. They find it difficult to learn through the traditional method of education, and do well when it is a more narrative (or oral) style. Third, a majority are first-generation Christians and struggle with understanding the big picture of the Bible, global church history and global missions.

Emerging New Challenges
In 2006, I had the privilege of being in more than forty cities in India, training local pastors and leaders. Most of these pastors are between twenty and thirty years old and in many cases are responsible for one or multiple congregations. These congregations vary in size from twenty to over 150 members. Additionally, a majority of the church members are first-generation Christians.

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Rev. Dr. J. N. Manokaran is managing director of Trainers of Pastors International Coalition (TOPIC) India. He is trained as a civil engineer in South India and served as a cross-cultural missionary in North India for eleven years.