The Need for Continuing Education
Our congregations and lay leaders frequently challenge and encourage their pastors and leaders to keep themselves up to date. They desire to listen to better sermons that are contextually relevant, spiritually nourishing, culturally appropriate, and intellectually stimulating. They are looking for a spiritual, competent, and servant pastor/leader who can lead the congregation and efficiently manage the church organization. Pastors and leaders are expected to preach well, lead well, manage well, care well, and do everything well. The solution is to provide continuing education for our pastors and leaders.
Therefore, the main purpose of continuing education programs is to give pastors, church leaders, and lay people more tools to help them serve better and grow spiritually. This will help us meet the needs of the local church more effectively. A program of continuing education will provide major transformational experiences to broaden pastors' and leaders' ministry vision, develop their ability and competence for service, and revitalize their body, mind, and soul. To empower and enrich the lives and ministries of CBCUSA pastors and leaders, we recommend that the following two continuing education programs be implemented in 2023:
TheCenter for Continuing Education program will:
- Create biblical, theological, and ministerial resources and make them available online and in publications for our churches, pastors, and leaders.
- Launch conferences, workshops, events, lectures (seminars), short-term courses, and part time programs
These resources (materials and trainings) are meant to support personal spiritual formation that shows a growing Christlike character, biblical and theological education that shows skillful reading of the Bible in terms of interpretation and application to contemporary situations, and professional enrichment that sharpens the skills needed for effective ministry. In addition, we can tailor these training and renewal opportunities to meet the needs of specific groups of pastors and churches
The Plan
While the Continuing Education program is a great choice for laypeople seeking to deepen their knowledge of God’s Word and strengthen their effectiveness in ministry, this program is primarily intended for the pastors and leaders of the Chin Baptist Churches USA. The Lord has blessed the CBCUSA with more than 100 seasoned and young pastors. It is time for CBCUSA to implement a continuing education program that will support the personal growth and professional development of its pastors and leaders. Ho wever, pastors and Christian leaders from other denominations will also be permitted to participate in this program.
Teachers / Speakers
Since the goal of continuing education is to help pastors and leaders improve their lives and minis - tries, we'll bring in God - fearing, qualified instructors who are knowledgeable, good at communicating content, understand the context and culture, and have a gift for preaching and teaching. We will make every effort to bring well - known scholars, shepherds, and servants of God from around the world to our program so that our pastors and leaders can be strengthened and given the skills they need to accomplish their ministries properly. As resource individuals, we will have people from our own denomination as well as people f rom other denominations.
Courses
For the first two years, the continuing education program will focus on the basics of a pastoral minis - try, such as preaching, leadership, mission, and discipleship. In other words, this program will help our pastors and leaders build stronger foundations so they can effectively lead Christ's Church and produce fruit in their ministry. In addition to the foundation courses, this program will focus on current issues (missional, gender, political, biblical, theological, etc .) that are relevant to the Chin Baptist Churches USA