Indigenous

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Michael Woodward

“Fifteen years of civil war devastated our country and its people. After twenty years of prayer, spiritual renewal has begun in the training and multiplication of our national pastors and churches. Something is happening here in Liberia that is beyond what we have could ever have hoped for through our Christian leaders being equipped through GBTF. God has empowered us from within our own borders!”

James Togba

“In the wake of our national genocide in 1994, I personally assisted our churches in replacing slain pastors with faithful yet untrained men to carry on scores of devastated churches. In 2012, I was introduced to Dr. Snavely, and the Global Baptist Training Foundation, who believes in the power of training nationals. The equipping and empowerment of our indigenous leaders have eternally transformed our movement.”

Denys Rutayigirwa

“As a native Christian and minister in Myanmar, I have come to recognize that our national believers must assume responsibility for reaching our nation for Christ. We can no longer depend on or expect Westerners to come and evangelize our culture as effectively as we can ourselves. The time has come for us to reach our own nation with the gospel. With organizations like Global Baptist Training Foundation to assist us with preparation, our pastors are starting new church plants among our people in the north.”

Thang Dong Lian

“Paul told Titus to appoint elders in every city on the island of Crete. . . . Two thousand years later, God’s plan to reach the nations still hasn’t changed! There is still an urgent need to train local, indigenous church-planting pastors who can carry the gospel message most effectively among their own people. This much-needed book sounds a clear call to align our twenty-first-century missionary strategies with the strategy seen in the pages of the New Testament. This is a book every pastor and missions pastor should read!”

Scott Wilson

“Every church must be committed to local and global missions, taking the gospel to our neighbor and the nations. Dr. Bruce Snavely knows what it takes to get the gospel to those all over the world. This book is an excellent resource for pastors and those in the pew with a heart for world missions. It clearly shows why and how to equip local leaders to plant and pastor churches. I highly recommend it!”

Kyle Mercer