In many places around the world, the church is hampered by a lack of well trained, biblically educated pastors and ministry workers.  It is hard for us to comprehend, given the number of Bibles we have in our homes and on our devices, but many churches in the world have little access to Bibles and almost no other resources.  There is often no one in their church who has a good grasp of biblical doctrine.  Pastors and ministry workers do their best to lead their people with the little Scriptural knowledge and resources they have. 

Jesus’ mission for us is to make disciples of all nations and teach them to obey everything He commanded, (Matt. 28:18-20).  So, missions – our mission – includes educating believers and church leaders in the Scripture and in the doctrines of the faith.  The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) fulfills this aspect of our mission in a number of ways.  We have discipleship programs.  We have online training courses in Bible and ministry.  And we develop and staff schools – preschools through seminaries.

Our own Judy Gaskin has developed and implemented a master’s degree in wholistic child development for our seminary in Indonesia.  She teaches there every opportunity she gets, training children’s workers and pastors to reach one of the most unreached people groups around the world – children between the ages of 4 and 14. 

Twenty-five years ago, the C&MA started a seminary called FATELA for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.  FATELA uses a different educational model in an effort to address the lack of graduate-level leaders among these language groups outside of the United States.  Its online programs allow students to obtain their education within their cultural and church frameworks, equipping them to serve Latino communities and beyond. 

In the first year of FATELA’s operation, the projected enrollment was 72.  Instead, 135 students signed up and attended.  The seminary now has 123 students enrolled each period.  It has 315 graduates as of December 2021, representing 11 countries, and it has awarded 10 D.Min degrees.  You can find FATELA’s full story in the Nov/Dec issue of the Alliance Life magazine and at https://cmalliance.org/resources/alife/. 

Missions takes place in so many forms, including new forms we wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago.  Yes, we have always been about discipling and educating new believers and training new workers, but now we can do it in any language from anywhere in the world, thanks to the internet.  These are some of the ministries you support when you give to the C&MA through the Great Commission Fund.