Reaching and Teaching | reachingandteaching

The Need

Have you ever considered how much biblical training the average pastor outside the United States receives? Think about these stats for a moment:

For every 450,000 people outside the United States, there is only one formally trained Christian leader. The U.S. currently has one Christian leader per 235 people.
Even if every training institute in the world operated at 120% capacity, less than 10% of the unequipped leaders would be trained!

While theological seminaries and resources abound here at home, they are scarce in most sections of the globe.

Have you ever considered the way most of the world learns?

Over 70 percent of the world’s population are oral learners – people who cannot, or will not, read to learn. Instead, these people learn by hearing or doing.
A large portion of the resources developed for training indigenous pastors do not take learning style or ability into account, making effective teaching and learning more difficult.

So, not only is the global need for trained Christian leaders incredibly vast, many of these pastors and leaders are not capable of attending a formal, literacy-based theological institution even if it were available to them.

How does the Bible address the need for pastoral education and training?

Jesus’ parting message to his disciples – his final commission to his church – is to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that he has commanded (Matt 28:19-20). One primary way that the church is built is by the training of faithful men – pastors who are in turn able to teach sound doctrine in the church and raise up others to do the same. (2 Tim 2:2). As God’s Word is taught accurately and powerfully, God’s people increasingly glorify him and are equipped for effective ministry (Eph 4:11-16).

Actual indigenous pastors at an RTIM biblical training session. Very few know how to read or write.

Our Mission

Most indigenous pastors have a Bible, but their ability to read and comprehand the text is not at a level proficient enough for Christian leadership. This picture was taken at an actual RTIM training session.

Reaching & Teaching International Ministries exists to reach the peoples of the world through evangelism and by meeting the great need for deep discipleship, pastoral preparation, leadership training, and theological education around the world.

Reaching & Teaching was founded by Dr. David Sills, missions professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Born out of the deep needs for discipleship and ministry training that Dr. Sills has observed in countries all around the world, Reaching & Teaching accomplishes its mission by sending career missionaries, facilitating short-term trips to train national pastors, and by mobilizing local churches.

The core of Reaching & Teaching’s missions agenda is the establishing of pastoral training centers across the world. Thus far, Reaching & Teaching has helped launch training centers in Ecuador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, and Brazil. At the training centers, pastors are offered quality theological and leadership training at no cost to them but their travel expenses. For this reason, all Reaching & Teaching missionaries and employees are required to raise support in order to meet financial needs and provide ministry backing.

These week-long training modules occur at each site three times a year for three years – a program comprised of nine modules altogether. During these three years, Reaching & Teaching trains pastors in a variety of essential biblical and theological topics. Most of the men who attend have had little to no prior theological training, while many do not possess more than a high school education. The opportunity to receive quality biblical instruction is a profound blessing to them!

My Opportunity

After participating in an RTIM pastoral training session in the mountains of Ecuador, I felt that God was calling me to join the staff of Reaching & Teaching in order to further the work of theological training across the world.

While on the trip to Ecuador, my eyes were opened to the great need for sound biblical education. While at the training site, I realized that some of the pastors in attendance had traveled great distances to study the Word with us. I was amazed at their hunger to spend long days sitting and learning about the books of the New Testament. The men deeply desired to use every moment possible to gain a better understanding of God’s Word.

After seeing firsthand the effectiveness of this type of pastoral training, I believe I must help meet this great need across the world. I will be joining the staff of RTIM in order to support and facilitate the mission of pastoral training to the nations.

My official title will be Director of Short-term Ministries. This multi-faceted role will include:

Traveling abroad 2-3 times a year to train pastors

Recruiting and training teams/churches to go to locations that where RTIM teaches

Handling the logistical details of all the short-term trips

Contributing to journals and magazines related to biblical studies and missions

Representing Reaching & Teaching at evangelical conferences

Helping develop curriculum for the pastoral training modules

The group of Ecuadorian pastors and our mission team from Ninth and O Baptist Church at the RTIM training center (October 2015).

The rural countryside surrounding the Tambo, Ecuador training site. This was the first RTIM training center.