GLOBAL TRAINING UPDATE

Belize And Ireland Scott Mescher

Reaching & Teaching’s Global Training exists to serve churches and train leaders in areas that lack healthy resources. We often report how far away these pastors live, how primitive their houses are, or that we had to eat armadillo for breakfast. The goal of this piece is to help you understand that the common response of teaching God’s Word has been effective as we continue to serve among the under-reached, as in Belize, and enter the post-Christian context as in Dublin, Ireland.

Finish The Work

First, we established our Global Training ministry among the “under-reached” people of South America. AJ Gibson has defined the “under-reached” as “people and places that have the true gospel but lack the health to grow, make disciples, and fend off false teaching.” The sad truth is that many pastors in this context lead their churches with unhealthy practices and unsound teaching. Thankfully, God continues to open the eyes of key leaders who are now coordinating partnerships around healthy biblical and theological training. How did these under-reached places develop? They’re the fruit of incomplete missions efforts. One example is found in southern Belize.

Under-reached: people and places that have the true gospel but lack the health to grow, make disciples, and fend off false teaching.

For several years, the Baptist Association of Belize (BAB) has desired to serve Mayan Mopan pastors in the southern jungle of Belize. North American churches have sent countless teams to help with various construction projects. As a result, there are many new buildings filled with nice furniture to serve the churches and leaders here.

Over time, however, key leaders of the BAB have realized that the pristine buildings don’t reflect the teaching that happens inside them. To remedy this, the leaders of the BAB have reached out to Reaching & Teaching for help.

Miguel Tush, a key leader among the Mayan Mopan, was a bit guarded at first. He didn’t like the idea of yet another American team coming for a visit. He’d seen the fruit of this kind of arrangement. But after a day and a half of us teaching the Old Testament, his fellow Pastor David Cal (left) responded, “I have been told that Jesus can be found through the whole Bible, and you brothers have come to help us see it.” As the week went on, Pastor Miguel warmed up. Before we left, he couldn’t contain his excitement: “Many teams have come to do many things, but we have been waiting a long time for someone to come and finish the work. Finally, we find some Gringos who are crazy about the gospel.”

Of course, the work in Belize is far from finished. Our partnership with the BAB and a group of churches in West

Virginia is ongoing. The Global Training team is committed to helping these local leaders so that they are equipped to establish healthy churches among the Mayan Mopan of Belize.

What The Church Needs

We’ve recently extended our work beyond under-reached places to new opportunities in “post-Christian” Europe. Author Leonardo Di Chirico describes “post Christian” as “an aggregate of all forms of presentday alternative worldviews to the Christian one.” In other words, Christian principles and stories are blended with other postmodern ideas that compromise the exclusivity of the gospel message. In such a context, biblical literacy is acceptable so long as God’s Word is placed alongside other works of classical literature. Thankfully, God continues to stir the hearts of pastors and connect them with partners who encourage them to uphold the authority of Scripture.

The story of Global Training in the postChristian context started at the Pillar

Conference. Caroline Hay attended with her husband Jeff, the pastor of Ballycullen Community Church in Dublin, Ireland. Jeff is committed to expository preaching and deep discipleship in an area where many beautiful church buildings stand empty. While he attended to share the testimony of presenting the gospel clearly and plainly, his wife Caroline heard about the RTIM Women’s Ministry Institute. She quickly recognized, “This is what our church needs.”

Caroline realized the Women’s Institute could help to, “create a culture of discipleship in their church.” After the first courses at Ballycullen, she shared, “it really is somewhat beyond our comprehension that Christians who don’t even know us, have been so willing to give their money, their time, and their thoughts, prayers and energy to send over such well-organised, indepth teaching for us to provide for the women of our churches.” As a pastor, Jeff recognized, “This teaching will enrich the church in Dublin and multiply God’s work in the lives of our churches.”

Again, the work is not finished. Later this year, a team will return to teach the ladies of Ballycullen and five other churches. This is a joint effort between the Association of Baptists in Ireland, RTIM Global Training, and various partners from the U.S. The goal in Ireland is the same as our goal in Belize: to make mature disciples and establish healthy churches in a difficult context.

These two stories from two different social contexts remind us that God is always at work. In this case, he’s stirring up leaders to establish healthy churches. We have the joyous privilege of partnering with them by encouraging and equipping them with God’s Word.

SCOTT MESCHER Director of Global Training

Scott has more than 25 years of experience in missions and local church ministry. Scott and his wife Corey live in Salado, TX, and have 3 children (Corban, Noah, and Ellie). He is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDivBL) and earned a PhD in Christian Apologetics and Worldview at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is fluent in Spanish and has a strong call to develop church leaders in their local context. Scott leads the Global Training Team of RTIM to provide biblical and theological education to church leaders around the world and equip domestic church partners to teach in cross-cultural context. He is a member of the Executive Team.

Discover more about our Global Training ministry at rtim.org