News about the Launch of Re-forma Global
Dr Reuben Van Rensburg has been in touch and has asked me to share some important news regarding the training of Christian ministers in the Majority World. As I have previously discussed this issue on this blog I am happy to do so.
******
It is with great joy that I would like to share with you the launch of Re-Forma www.re-forma.global.
Background/Reality Check
Studies show that over 90% of all pastors do not have a formal theological education. According to statistics, that equates to well over 2 million Protestant pastors worldwide. In addition, every year thousands of new Protestant churches are established, very often without a trained pastor or preacher. The biggest crisis facing the evangelical, global church today is the fact that most pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders have no formal theological training. Re-Forma has set as its goal to fundamentally remedy this situation.
Foundational Statement
Re-Forma is responding to the crisis of insufficiently trained church leadership. Founded on outcome- and impact-based assessment, Re-Forma provides recognised benchmarks for informal and nonformal biblically-based ministry through 2 distinctive programs:
- Guidelines for evaluating the over 40000 training programmes for ministry competency; and
- Guidelines for start-up organisations wanting to train many thousands of church leaders annually, to narrow the gap.
The world desperately needs Christian leaders who know the Scripture and can effectively serve the church. For these servants, Re-Forma awards a Certificate of global recognition, underwritten by the World Evangelical Alliance.
Important: Re-Forma does not tell ministry organisations what to do or how to do it, but rather provides resources to assist them in achieving the goals they have formulated. It does not focus its work on traditional, formal theological education, but rather on non-formal/informal leadership formation needs which exist at all levels, from grass-roots upwards. The outcomes we prescribe are extremely simple and can be demonstrated by students at any level, including those who only have a primary school education.
We believe that many organisations who are training pastors and Christian leaders non-formally or informally, will want to take this opportunity to use the FREE outcomes we provide to help their students earn a Certificate underwritten by the World Evangelical Alliance. This is the first time we have an internationally recognised standard for non-formal training.
The attachment [linked below] provides more detail. The outcomes will also be available in Spanish and French in due course.
We would appeal to you to forward this information to the contacts you have, who may be interested in adopting these outcomes and to publicise them whenever the opportunity arises.
