Over the past few years, Laurie and I have become more and more aware of the significant worldwide needs for pastoral and church leadership training. We are launching a new ministry, Apollos Training International, to be able to nimbly respond to those needs. God is blessing the global church-planting movement, and the Church around the world is growing – but this has led to extensive unmet pastoral and leadership training needs. Healthy churches are dependent on the spiritual health and Biblical understanding of their pastors and leaders, and we are eager to help meet as many of these needs as we can.
We named our new ministry after the teacher Apollos in the New Testament. We love the passage in I Corinthians where Paul describes ministry partnership, explaining that he “planted” the ministry, Apollos watered, and God made it grow. Like Apollos, we want to come alongside existing churches and national leaders to help supply crucial training and resources. We are already in conversation with several organizations who have invited us to partner with them because the needs are more than they can meet on their own.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus shows His compassion for a crowd by “teaching them many things” (Mk. 6:34). Before Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection, He gave the disciples what Christians often refer to as “The Great Commission.” He said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20). We are excited to see how God will use Apollos Training International as we help continue the Kingdom work of helping Christ’s teaching be known throughout the world.