Ministry Update: Church Leadership Seminar

Back in September (yes, we are VERY late in posting significant happenings…sorry!) we held what I believe will be a watershed event for our churches in the Maranhão field.

Let me explain the context…

Since our arrival in this state back in 2011, we have seen God do some pretty amazing things. From two churches, we have grown to six, plus one preaching point. We have seen the establishment of the Mount Zion Baptist Camp and the Bible Institute. We have seen men and women developing their ministry potential.

But one problem has remained: It is very hard for us to find qualified, trained leadership.

A couple examples. One of our churches went for five years without a pastor. Another church is currently without a pastor, and is going on three years in that condition. You may remember that Itacyara and I found it necessary to return to the Ebenezer church – which we founded back in 2012 – because their previous pastor lasted all of ten months.

There are several factors that contribute to this situation. Our region is far away from any of our seminaries. For people to uproot themselves (and sometimes their families) to study at a seminary is costly and often simply impossible. More than once we have invested to send a student to a seminary only to have them be called to another field. Added to this is the financial situation of most of our churches, which does not allow them to attract highly qualified men. I know we don’t like to think of ministry in those terms, but unfortunately, sometimes it does indeed boil down to economics.

The above reasons were what led our current pastors to begin our Bible Institute. But while that ministry is continuing and people are attending, we came to realize that there were issues on a church level that needed to be addressed.

Enter Pastor Nate Edwards of West Windsor Baptist Church in Windsor, NY (near Binghamton). West Windsor is a long-time supporting church, and has played a key role in the development of our camp property. But the investment they made in September will hopefully rank among their top contributions to the ministry here.

Over the years Pastor Nate has developed a very biblical theology and philosophy of church leadership, which he has put into place at the West Windsor church. In one of our conversations on this topic I asked if he might be willing to come down and give a seminar to our churches, and he readily agreed. So in September he arrived with Jim and Larry, two men in his church who are going through the leadership training process. They put on a day-long (9am to after 9pm) module that covered subjects like “what does biblical leadership look like” and “how to choose, vet, and train biblical leaders”. The module was held at the Bible Institute, and the classroom was packed with people from each of our churches, and even some from other denominations. I was particularly happy to see a good turnout from Ebenezer, including our entire deacon board (both of them).

Of course our special thanks to Pastor Nate, Jim and Larry, and to the folks at West Windsor who contributed to this ministry, for their investment in the lives of our churches here in Brazil. Pray that the ripple effect of this event may be felt for many years to come.

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And be sure to read the action-packed adventures of Missionary Max: Missionary Max and the Jungle Princess and Missionary Max and the Lost City.