Thousands trained, tens of thousands resourced, more transformed!
By God’s grace, amazing work is being done through Langham’s Preaching, Literature and Scholars programs. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected some planned activities this year, but the work has gone ahead anyway! See below Langham’s statistics for the last financial year and also a little of what’s been happening in the programs through the pandemic.
Preaching: training pastors
Langham Preaching held 331 seminars across the world, attended by 9,661 pastors and lay leaders – nearly 10% of these are local indigenous trainers or preaching club coordinators.
Between July 2019 and June this year, over 1000 preaching clubs of 7-10 pastors/leaders met regularly for ongoing training and mentoring, supporting and helping each other with sermon preparation.
In the pandemic
Despite travel restrictions, the Preaching global leadership team has actually been meeting more regularly: weekly instead of monthly on Zoom, to discuss business and do some training, but also to pray together, share and encourage each other. Each of the Preaching directors (Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia/South Pacific) have also been meeting at least fortnightly with their teams. A fuller awareness of the potential of Zoom and WhatsApp is leading to more extensive, possibly even more effective, collaboration between continents, regions and within regions. The Latin America team has enthusiastically launched themselves into exploring online options for meeting together and learning. As Igor (the Preaching Director for Latin America) says, “We are seeing the advantages of supporting facilitators, coordinators and escuelitas [preaching clubs] using Zoom. The truth is that Zoom existed before the pandemic, but we did not use it. But now, forced by the impossibility of having face-to-face meetings, we see the advantages of using this technology.”
The pandemic has also given us more time to work on developing Preaching resources, including translation of training resources into local vernaculars, especially across Africa.
Literature: developing books
Langham Literature supplied 13,893 Bible-centred books to 642 Majority World colleges across 80 countries to help students grow and mature in Christ. Over 70% of these books were given free of charge through our Library Grants program. Publisher grants enabled 22 indigenous publishers in 15 different countries to produce 50 local language titles. 28 Majority World editors and 50 Majority World writers have also been trained.
In the pandemic
Pieter Kwant, Langham Literature Director reports about publishing: “Under lockdown most publishing ministries struggled to market and sell books and they have experienced significant cash flow challenges. Some Majority World Christian publishers have been forced to shed staff, but mercifully this has been a small number of cases so far. On the positive side, much of the publishing process lends itself well to lockdown situations: writing, translating, editing, design and formatting can all be handled well under home working contexts. Consequently most publishers have put extra energy into pre-press function and we have tried to respond to this opportunity by maintaining a flow of funds as far as we are able.”
Scholars: equipping scholars
The Langham Scholars programme supported 78 PhD students from 44 Majority World countries.
All 14 Scholars who graduated last year have returned, or are preparing to return, to serve in the Majority World. These are leaders who will go on to shape their nations with a biblical worldview. They will teach in seminaries, start “salt and light” ministries, and serve at the highest levels in government.
In the pandemic
All current scholars have experienced some degree of “lockdown” where they are living and studying. Most are studying from home, some with limited access to online resources and some having to manage family responsibilities at the same time. The disruptions are likely to delay submission of their theses so it’s likely that many scholars will apply for scholarship extensions. However, thankfully all 23 new Scholars have commenced their studies, although some of them will travel abroad when they are able. The Scholars team is doing what they can to best support Scholars at this time.
Please pray for all current Scholars, including one from Myanmar hoping to come to Australia; pray he’ll be able to develop his academic English, even while still in Myanmar.
Join us in prayer
PREACHING
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Please pray for events scheduled for the following countries over the next month (mid-Nov to mid-Dec). Pray for good internet connections and communication!
South Asia Level 1, training in person.
Benin Supervisors connecting with preaching clubs.
Sierra Leone National Committee meeting (in person). Pray for safe travels!
Bosnia & Herzegovina Level 1 online training.
Colombia Level 2 online training.
Liberia Level 3 Training and Coordinator meeting.
Jamaica Webinar.
Benin Training in person.
LITERATURE
- Poland – Pray for publisher and church planter Sashko who has recently started both of these ministries in Krakow. There are very few outward looking and lively evangelical congregations in Poland so Sashko and his colleagues are pioneering a new start for Bible based and theologically robust preaching and teaching. Pray that the Lord would bless His Word to many Poles.
ADMINISTRATION
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Thank God for good online meetings of the International Council and leadership team last month. Pray for the team working to select and appoint a new International Director to work alongside Rev Dr Chris Wright. Pray that the economic downturn in our donor countries will not result in significant reductions in donations.
“Tell your children about these things, then let your children tell their children, and let your grandchildren tell their children.” Joel 1:3 (NCV)
Passing knowledge from one generation to the next we know is invaluable. Societies knew early on that to survive, knowledge and experiences must be passed on to future generations.
We know it too. You support a great organisation that has wonderful stories to tell from around the world and we think your children, grandchildren or a young adult at church need to hear them too … and as a supporter of Langham Partnership you are in the best position to tell them!
Each Monday on Facebook and Instagram we introduce one of our Langham Scholars, we talk about the challenges they are facing and the work they are doing in their context. Please share these posts! What better way to share Langham Partnership than with one of their stories? We hope you will be inspired to share the work of Langham Partnership with the next generation.