"I hope my students can ... develop a biblical understanding of the Gospel of Grace [so they can] overcome distorted theologies and be effective agents of the gospel.”
This was what Pastor José Escobar of City to City in Colombia told Gary Waldecker, Thirdmill’s Training and Partnership Consultant. “And,” he said, “I want to do the same thing with the pastors along the coast here in Colombia.”
Pastor José’s church in Cartagena, Colombia, is part of a network of churches in 10 cities along Colombia’s northern coast. About a year ago, he reached out to Thirdmill, and Gary introduced him to the Thirdmill Institute. Before starting his new Institute learning communities, Pastor José registered over 90 students and selected seven facilitators. He then asked if Thirdmill could help train these facilitators to teach the Institute courses.
In March, Gary, Greg Conover (Thirdmill’s new Regional Director for Latin America), and Steve Kammer (Director of Thirdmill Institute) held two training sessions on Zoom with Pastor José and his seven facilitators. In the first training, they modeled how to facilitate. In the second, they observed the students facilitating their own sessions and gave feedback.
“People understand better how to do it if they get a chance to actually engage in the activity and get immediate feedback on how they did,” Gary said.
Because the training was so successful, they plan to continue these types of training, including in-person sessions, in the future.
The hope is that Pastor José and his facilitators will not only learn how to lead Institute learning communities but will then train other facilitators in their 10-city network, multiplying learning communities along the coast and, eventually, throughout Colombia.
According to Gary, the average pastor in Colombia has not had good theological training. The “health and wealth” gospel is rampant, along with other theological distortions, and a lack of theological training makes it difficult to recognize and root out these false doctrines. What’s more, many pastors have a painfully weak Christian worldview that leads them to compromise with the world. And while there is something of a Christian ethic, there’s no consistent way of thinking and evaluating ideas biblically.
“There’s very little Christian view of how to do your work,” Gary explained, “very little Christian view of the family, little application of Scripture to all of life.”
For this reason, a lot of churches have unhealthy leadership styles based on misunderstandings of the Bible’s teachings. For instance, some pastors demand unconditional faithfulness from their congregations, or else there will be consequences. Sadly, these pastors don’t recognize that unconditional faithfulness belongs to God alone. And this same unhealthy power dynamic spills over into families and communities as well.
But Pastor José has a beautiful vision of hope for his country. He tells us, “We long to see gospel-centered churches, healthy pastors and leaders raising up healthy communities and, in turn, equipping others to impact their contexts for social, cultural, and spiritual renewal.”
In Colombia, as in the rest of the world, there’s a desperate need for good theology and an even greater need to help Christian leaders and other believers apply good theology to their lives. Thirdmill Institute is working to help on both fronts, providing Thirdmill’s sound theological curriculum and teaching facilitators how to guide conversations into thoughtful discussions that lead to fruitful pastoral and discipleship life change.
Please join us in praying for Pastor José, the seven facilitators, and the 90+ people signed up to participate in Thirdmill Institute learning communities at their church. Pray that their efforts will be fruitful and will multiply their network of churches in Colombia and beyond.
