Siblings Across the Globe

We recently had a long-time missionary visit us at Bloomfield Presbyterian Church in New Concord, OH (where I serve as pastor). Peter Snyder began his vocation at Bloomfield for 40 years ago, traveling to Haiti, Tawain, China, and just recently, Mongolia. Over the years, his work has been training pastors in different parts of the world that do not have ready access to seminary training. Pete often brings a pastor or two with him, and they travel meeting with congregations that are formed, but still young, offering training and encouragement for the leaders. And Peter is getting ready to go back next year.

Pete’s work is very similar to the work I am engaged in with the Gambia. I met Abou Camara in 2018 and again in 2019 when he was visiting this country to make connections with the PCUSA for support. Abou, a Minister of Word and Sacrament, returned to his home in the Gambia to plant Reformed (Presbyterian) churches. Now, the church has grown to seven different countries, the newly minted Reformed Church of the Saheel. Abou invited me (along with Rev. Joe Svancara and ruling elder David Klies) to visit in 2022, and we formed a partnership. Bloomfield raises money for the girls’ homes they host so the girls may have an education and good health (the church cares for over 300 girls). And now we are looking at support for training of pastors. Abou shared with me, there are no seminaries to train pastors in his part of the world, and the work of training is growing too big for him and the one other Minister of Word and Sacrament.  

As we, the General Assembly, our Synod, and Presbyteries, think about training CREs, pastoral leaders without a Master Divinity degree from a seminary, we can turn to our siblings around the world who are engaged in the very same discussion of how to train church leaders without seminary training. We are fortunate to have a rich diversity of training resources in our denomination alone. But I think we can learn a lot from our siblings in Mongolia, the Gambia, and the Saheel who are growing and planting churches at a rapid pace without the resources we may take for granted in our context. I do wonder if there is a movement of the Spirit where, for a variety of reasons, the church universal, not just our PCUSA corner, is rethinking, reforming, and reinventing pastor training. May God bless us with wisdom and discernment at this exciting time.

The Peace of Christ Abides

Tim Pollock

CRE Coordinator of the Synod of the Covenant

tim@synodofthecovenant.org

740-624-2351 - cell