Columbian Pastor’s Institute of Bible
Non-formal Biblical Training

Pedro Hernandez

National director of Christ for the Cities, Colombia

Addressing the problem of formal education

Sorry I can’t speak to you in your own language.  I have been a pastor for 30 years.  For the last 6 years I have been the national director of the Christ for the cities.  When we started working, we discovered a series of needs.  We began to try and figure out what we could do for the pastors.  So this bible institute was birthed in response to the needs of the pastors.  The pastors needed to be helped in functional and practical way.  We discovered that vast majority of urban pastors had no opportunity to go to seminary anywhere. Several reasons- financial, and majority of them had not finished schools to pass the entry exam for the seminary and also had to work. The other obstacle is that 6 years are required for education for seminaries in Colombia.  Some people cannot afford to not work for that long or even just have the time.  We had to develop a program that would cater to the people who are going without proper training and meet these issues. Thus In SEPA was birthed.  It’s called the Pastor’s instate of seminary.  The Colombian church is in a great challenge.  There was a huge vacuum of theological and biblical education.  Every 100 pastors, 79 had no biblical training.  Of the 10,000 pastors, only 2100 have studied in institutes of Bible but don’t know how many have graduated. 8000 evangelical churches in Colombia.  The big question is what are they giving their people as spirit food if the pastors are not trained?   The great commission had a long answer for us.  We decided that theological education should be the first priority in all our work- thus fulfilling the second part of the great commission.  To make disciples.  The Colombian Churches have been characterized by developing social services as well as church planting- but the question was who was going to disciple the new believers?   There was a huge need for centers of pastoral training.   The existing institutions only take care of 15% of the need. So we thought about the alternative of extension of theological education. We believe that for the other 85% the most appropriate way to reach them is the extension theological education.

Our solution - non-formal extension of theological education

We decide that non-formal education was the best alternative to train the church leaders today.  This non-formal education, we hope to educate 80-90% of the remaining. The program I am going to tell you about is just one of the many projects.  To share the vision: every Christian commune church should have a capable leader to lead it. We want to train and rise up church leaders according to Ephesians 4:12 with the finality of training the leaders so that they can do the ministries.  The outcomes we desire are: 
1. We decided that it is necessary for them to be able to study at their own home or work.
2. Important to train Christian leadership.
3. Serve the Colombian church, not make them fulfill our need.
4. Call Colombian leaders to a deeper commitment to their churches and the global church.
5. Challenge each leaders to fulfill 2Tim 2:2 in their churches

Methodology

We expect students to put in 7 hours of personal time per subject. They have to find this time at home/office etc.  They need to get together for 2 hours with a mentor- study time in a classroom with a mentor in various centers that we have set up in the country. 
1. Build Christian character with integrity- integrity is very important.
2. We are looking for skilled training
3. It should be short but meet the need.
4. Compatible interdenominational
5. Measurable.
6. Biblical based
7. Holistic

Education cannot be separated from relationships. The hermeneutics must be contextualized.  We have basic certificate that takes 1 year.  WE have a second level of certificate in Bible Theology. Which takes 2 years and diploma for 3years and bachelor for 4 years and a degree between Bachelor and Masters for 5 years.

The students are required to:
- be a current active member of a local congregation
- have the respect and reference of local pastor
- be working towards at least a high school degree
- commit to the level of excellence the INSAPA requires
- fund their studies- it’s a minimal thing but it’s more of a dignity issue than trying to get money.

Informal education consists of workshops and seminars. 20 hour seminars- in order to get a recognize You would finish 12 seminars and get a certificate in pastoral studies.  We start at any 40 people who were willing.  We were committed to find excellent teachers who could teach subject matter.  We cover most of the cost.  When conducting seminars the local church is a representative for providing room and board for teacher. 

The curriculum is very practical:
1. Local church and missionary commitment of the church- we think that all pastors should take this class. All church should have a missionary vision
2. Church growth- anyone with a big church can teach the class and then decided not.  Because if you say that if you have a huge gathering and that qualified someone to teach then we are calling something that swells up growth.  They not only have a large church but a vision for the body of Christ, for the entire city and are able to defend the validness of his course.
3. Leadership training
4. Administrating church
5. Interpretation
6. Hermeneutics
7. Psychological counseling 1
8. Counseling 2
9. Pastoral family- can’t take the class without your wife. 
10.Youth Ministry- need to understand how to find them and train them
11.Children ministry- very few pastors understood children ministry because there is lack of interest because the children don’t produce any money for the church.
12.Conflict resolution.

There is more on the list (please see power point presentation) but I want to point out two more that are essential:
-   Pastoral ethics- we believe that a pastor should be a ethical man because everyone is looking at him.  When we have problems it’s usually because we lack ethics
-   Jesus Christ, human dignity and peace- this has been a major theological point of help because we live in the midst of guerilla groups. 

In general terms these have resulted in reaching many people- not just pastors.  We have had inquiries from the govt. to conduct for their workers.

We want to take this program to each of our Spanish speaking country to adapt and apply however it fits.  We also have the people trying to adapt this program in other languages.  It’s placed on the Internet.  We are one of the most economical programs.  We have looked to the government for help to finance it. 

Question and Answer

Question:   maybe Pedro can give examples as to how information is to be transformational.
-  We talk about transformational- it must be contextualized that actually facilitates the pastor’s ministry where he is found.  We are looking at helping the pastor do a better job.  Ministry isn’t all that complicated.  We need very practical and functional ministries.  It touches every level of society in a very simple but comprehensive way.  For example hermeneutics class is important For every pastor but it has to be applied in the context of where somebody lives.  Our country has many regions- we have different customs in all parts of our nation.  We are saying that his education has to be contextualized to his ministry so that he can apply it to his community.  Traditional education – you receive in classroom is all principles and when the student leaves the classroom the reality is very different. 

Question: what kind of impact did you see in the community when the pastors went back after the course?
- Change is the major word- in their home, church and community.  Eg: If we talk about the course on pastoral family- he realizes he has to pastor his own family before he pastors anyone else.  We also noticed that the pastors gained dignity because before that they weren’t be to go to seminary so that really did something to their dignity but they go back and they know something they didn’t before and it gives them their dignity.  In the course- it trains to be better pastors and they know they are better pastors.  We also had pastors with Doctorate degrees who wanted to come and attend to get up to date.

Question:  how do you change their character and integrity?
 - We have direct mentor- a constant contact between the student and teacher or denominational rep. They are always in contact.  We are very aware that none of us a immune to all the temptations and testings common to everyone so we all need to accountability.  The word “accountability” doesn’t exist.  It is not a culturally a term – accountability is not part of their culture.  It had to be introduced contextualized into the seminary.  If you don’t take in mind issues of integrity and family pasturing- we have to get people to be humbled about their immaturity and then be able to grow.  That’s where it starts.

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010