Pastoring without Training is Difficult

November 2024

A man we will call "Mr. A" was born and raised in a Hindu family in Manipur, India. According to his recollection, his mother became a Christian in 1979. However, all of his other family members continued practicing Hinduism. This made family life difficult, yet his mother continued a faithful and loving witness for Jesus to her family. Only in 1999, 12 years after his mother accepted Jesus Christ, did his father convert to Christianity. Mr. A also converted 2 years later in 2001.

He served in the Indian military until 2007, and after retiring, moved to northern India. Mr. A started sharing his faith with others and was able to lead several families to Jesus. Hovever, due to religious persecution, he was unable to start a Christian fellowship there for many years. Finally, in 2018, he started having fellowship in his home, and now many families gather there together as a church.

Mr. A was recently appointed as an elder of this home church, but today they still do not have a formally ordained pastor to shepherd them. Mr. A is an untrained elder taking care of his flock as a pastor without any ministry training. Praying for an opportunity to study the Bible and gain pastoral training led him to enroll in this year's Acts training class in his area.

This is the first time Mr. A has attended Bible training and he is excited, because now he has started to understand more about interpreting the Bible and the overarching story of redemption presented in the Old and New Testaments. The class is currently in its sixth module and he is now learning how to prepare sermons and preach every Sunday. He is anxious to complete his coursework and practical ministry training to take back what he has learned through Acts to better minister to his home church.