New Frontiers for Gospel Training

for Gospel Training

New Places, Same Principles

It’s easy to feel the world around us is growing more and more complex.

With so many issues and challenges demanding our attention, it can be hard to focus on the right things. In all the chaos, clarity and purpose can be tough to find. And yet, Paul reminds us that we must not be led away from “the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3). When we keep the glory of Christ our primary goal, we will find the focus that we need to lead us forward.

It's clear that God has led TMAI into a time of increased international opportunities.

Last year, we tallied approximately 55 doors that the Lord opened for future ministry. Though exciting, the complexity of it all is sinking in. As

our schools continue to expand and indigenize across cultures, we are seeing an increasing need to resource more languages. And yet, the opportunities keep coming, and when we stop to consider what’s before us, it's not hard to feel the weight of it all.

On every front, the opportunities are significant.

In restricted-access countries, pastors are asking us to train them while they shepherd their people through persecution and political chaos. In other parts of the world, we’re being invited to help train large groups of existing seminary students, and serve churches near strongholds of the prosperity gospel. Even among our existing schools, most of them have told me that enrollment has grown exponentially after COVID. At every turn, God is introducing us to more and more national pastors

with a desire to be trained to preach expositionally. We resonate with Paul when he asks, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor 2:16).

We rejoice in the answer that Paul gives—Christ is sufficient for these things (2 Cor 3:4–6). “In Him all things hold together” (Col 1:17), and in Him even an expanding Christian ministry can grow in a way that serves His people with excellence (cf. Eph 4:15-16). Because of who Christ is for us, we can trust Him to make our path straight as we go to train on new frontiers (cf. Prov 3:5–6).

Looking at the opportunities in front of us, we remember that the goal of Christ is simple: to build His Church among the nations (Matt 16:18; 28:18–20). And in order to bring this about, He establishes gifted local pastors to faithfully proclaim His word for the benefit of His people (Col 1:28–29; Eph 4:11–16).

Simply put, mature churches require mature church leaders (Eph 4:11–16; 2 Tim 3:16–4:1). And it's for this reason that TMAI trains church leaders worldwide.

Investing in church leaders is nothing new. Paul did it (2 Tim 3:10–11; Acts 14:19–23) and he told his followers to do the same (2 Tim 2:2; Titus 1:5). So when we follow their example in new countries and contexts, we do so with time-tested principles firm in hand.

In the pages that follow, you’ll see how TMAI is working towards its goal of establishing mature churches in various contexts. Our students, graduates, and faculty are working in unreached places, among persecuted communities, and amid the crosscurrents of war. In each of these theaters, you’ll see how the simple goal of training indigenous pastors is key to the health of the global church.

God has made all this possible through your support, and on behalf of all our schools, thank you for partnering with us to bring pastoral training to new frontiers.

Until they all hear,

Mark Tatlock President

When we keep the glory of Christ our primary goal, we will find the focus that we need to lead us forward.

COVER Professor at Evangelical Ministries of the Americas in Honduras teaches a class LEFT Students in the TMAI European Master of Divinity program sit in a theology class

WhoWe Are

core values

Authority of Scripture

mission statement

TMAI is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission by training indigenous church leaders to be approved pastor-teachers, able to equip their churches to make biblically sound disciples.

The inerrant and sufficient word of God is our ultimate authority in all areas of life and ministry (2 Tim 3:16).

Centrality of the Local Church

The goal of training is to strengthen His Church, the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).

Priority of the Gospel

We train men to accurately proclaim the true gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16).

Value of Respect

We train with the goal of entrusting the training ministries into the capable hands of our co-laborers in other countries (2 Tim 2:2).

Importance of Integrity

We uphold God’s high standard of holiness and integrity for spiritual leaders (1 Tim 3) through doctrinal, financial, and academic accountability.

RIGHT Graduate of Evangelical Ministries of the Americas in Honduras

distinctives

Longevity

TMAI’s commitment to indigenous leadership positions us for long-term ministry without the interruptions that plague foreign missionaries (like visa issues and diplomatic volatility)

Multiplication

Following the model of 2 Timothy 2:2, gospel witnesses are being multiplied exponentially. The training of one man touches countless lives as he shepherds his own congregation or even sends more men to be trained like he was

Impact

Since TMAI graduates already know the local language, customs, culture, and people to whom they’ll be ministering, they’re often more effective at planting and pastoring churches than foreign missionaries.

Stewardship

With the same amount of money it would take to send one man to the United States to be trained, TMAI is able to provide high quality education to dozens of students, right in their home countries.

Presence

Faculty members live in the area where they minister, making it possible to disciple and invest in their students, both in the classroom and in the context of their local church ministries. Full-time presence means full-time discipleship.

Maturity

TMAI is committed to equipping pastor-teachers to accurately handle the word of truth according to the biblical requirements for pastors (2 Tim 2:15).

Reaching the Unreached

The core need of the unreached* is to have a gospel-preaching church (Rom 15:19–21). For that reason, a major way to meet that need is to send in gospel-preaching pastors (Rom 10:14; Titus 1:5), the kind of men who are trained, approved, and willing to invest long-term effort to plant mature, reproducing churches where churches don't exist. One example of how TMAI is helping local churches reach the unreached comes through a graduate who longs to bring the gospel where it hasn’t yet been received.

a new frontier in asia

Deep in the mountains of Asia, a TMAI graduate (“M”) is currently devoting his life to reach a remote network of villages that has no Bibles, no Christians, and no church.

For the greater part of a decade, he’s been living in those mountains, enduring long winters and extreme isolation while he works to engage those villages with the gospel and translate the Bible into their tongue. And while his goal is to plant a church there, the work has been far slower than he expected.

Thankfully, however, the Lord has prepared M’s heart for the long haul through his years of studying

the word. “M said to me many times the reason he is there is because he believes in the doctrine of election,” his professor said. “He believes that God owns people from every tribe and tongue and nation, and so he's just going to be there till he finds those people.”

As the days progress, his desire is for other believers to move there to support this ministry. Several members from his sending church have joined him for shorter seasons, but so far no one has been able to stay long term. However, because of his close relationship with his TMAI professors—who are also pastors—this effort now has a broader base of church support since more believers are aware of the opportunity to move there. This is the kind of dynamic support that’s made possible through

TMAI’s training and the network of churches who support them.

To reach the unreached, it begins with pastors like M who are committed to the long haul. As his professor said, “This testimony is a reminder of the biblical fact that the way the gospel spreads is primarily through the training of elders and the planting of churches. And even though that seems slow and laborious, it’s work that will last.”

“That’s why what TMAI does is so important,” he went on. “This philosophy of gospel ministry is rare, and so it’s good to find men like M who are committed to long-haul church-planting work. As the apostle Paul said, once a church is established in a community, the gospel has reached that area” (Rom 15:19–23).

*the unreached

Over the years, the needs of the nations have been categorized in several helpful ways. When trying to reach the unreached, we consider ethnicity (cf. Matt 28:18–20), language (Rev 5:9), and even geographical location (Rom 15:19–23). This story embodies all three. And since the apostle Paul measured the expansion of the gospel by the establishment of local churches (Rom 15:20–21), it’s critical that we focus on training more church leaders like M to spearhead those efforts.

This testimony is a reminder of the biblical fact that the way the gospel spreads is primarily through the training of elders and the planting of churches. And even though that seems slow and laborious, it’s work that will last.

Developing New Training Frontiers in the 10/40 Window

Even though the apostles first spread the gospel from inside the 10/40 Window, this greater region currently contains some of the least-evangelized countries in the world. In many cases, persecution can leave believers isolated, and foreign missionaries face several hurdles in reaching them. However, as God has sovereignly set the boundaries of every man (Acts 17:26), He has graciously given indigenous believers in these regions the ability to get through doors that most foreigners (especially Westerners) cannot. For this reason, it is critical to train the indigenous church leaders to be the ones to expand gospel ministry across this part of the world.

TMAI currently operates schools in various countries throughout the 10/40 Window, and the influence of these training centers extends well beyond their physical location. Not only can students from across the 10/40 Window join our programs, but, once trained, they can also go back out to spread the gospel among their native people and throughout neighboring countries, where Christ is rarely known.

the

10/40 window

Stats and definitions from the Joshua Project

"The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude."

5.27 Billion

people live within the 10/40 Window

of those people are part of an unreached people group

countries are contained within the 10/40 Window

62% 68 Hinduism, Buddhism, & Islam

are the religions most followed in the 10/40 Window

Strengthening the Persecuted Church

Believers who live under constant threat and discrimination face intense temptations to grow weak and discouraged. What they need more than anything is the strength that comes from an ever-deepening faith in the gospel (Eph 3:14–19), and that’s why Christ equips His Church with local pastors who can help His body grow (Eph 4:11–16). These indigenous pastors are critical to the strength and maturity of the persecuted church, and God is connecting TMAI with dozens more of them through a student who lives in an undisclosed part of the Middle East.

Riding the bus through town, Jacob* was sitting at ease when a stranger came and sat next to him. Unexpectedly, the man turned and said words that he had no business knowing.

With studied clarity, the man recited the names of Jacob’s children and where they went to school. He also revealed the name of Jacob’s wife and the address of their family’s home. Then—so as to leave no room for doubt about his intentions—he revealed a gun and said, “Stop sharing about Jesus.”

When he heard this, Jacob was disturbed, but not entirely surprised. He knew that following Jesus came with a cost, but knew it was the right thing to do. He knew that God had shown His love to him in Christ, and he wanted others to know that love too. And so, thanks to a network of churches that he had served over the years, Jacob and his family went underground before he emerged somewhere else to continue his work—sharing about Jesus.

For over a decade, Jacob has traveled the country to plant churches and train them while they struggle under oppression. In this country, Christians are made to be some of the lowest members of society. They are those who work with sewage and those who work like slaves. They are those with poor nutrition,

a new frontier in the middle east

weak health care, miserable living conditions-and a ruling class that largely wants to keep it that way. On top of all that, believers are subject to abuse, abduction, imprisonment, and violent execution.

During a visit, one TMAI professor met a Christian man who had been abducted, taken to a field and beaten severely before being shot and left for dead. Remarkably, he crawled back to his house and recovered. Other stories of oppression and persecution abound, and the fact that we can hear about them is sobering.

It all hit home for the professor during a church service in the desert with a group of day laborers.

“I saw this little girl. She had a cute dress on and came to greet me with other kids and sing for me. Her eyes were the same shape, she was the same age, and she had the same expression that I often see from my granddaughter. My heart was so heavy. I was just hit with the realization that she’s stuck there in that village as an indentured servant.”

As Jacob and his professor traveled from congregation to congregation and saw the desperation firsthand, the professor asked Jacob, “What do you want me to preach on?” In an earnest voice, Jacob replied, “God’s compassion.”

Our fellow believers in countries like this are desperate for the encouragements of the gospel. They need fresh reminders that God is sovereign over their suffering and that He works everything for their good. And from Jacob's years of serving, he has

discerned a great need for training local pastors to handle the word with accuracy.

This is why TMAI trains pastors in these contexts.

“Training men like Jacob makes so much more sense than me trying to go out to these remote areas,” the professor said. “[Jacob is] obviously more culturally connected than me, and he’s able to do so much more to impact those areas.”

Thankfully, TMAI has been blessed with an opportunity to train dozens of pastors here, and they are men whose faithfulness is simply extraordinary. One student pedals a beat-up bike miles out into the desert to shepherd churches there, though they can’t afford to give him much in return. Another student learned 10 languages in order to communicate the gospel to villages in his vicinity, whom he visits on foot. Still another student is a witness for Christ in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Beside these men are hundreds more church leaders who have expressed a desire to be trained. TMAI is currently working with some of these men in 31 of the 50 countries ranked highest for Christian persecution.** It's these men who deserve our earnest attention and prayers, and it's why indigenous men like them are our focus and joy.

*Name changed for security **Open Doors World Watch List

He knew that following Jesus came with a cost

The training ministry in Ukraine was sparked by a pastors' conference held there in 1991. Since then, over 900 men have been trained through this ministry to preach the word and shepherd churches throughout the region. The faithfulness of these graduates to raise mature churches has been evident through the church’s response to the ongoing war.

Examples of Faithfulness A Mature Church in the Midst of War

Churches led by TMAI graduates in Ukraine have provided aid and shelter to their neighbors, ministered to soldiers on the frontlines as they battle the longterm mental effects of war, and proclaimed the gospel of Christ in the midst of suffering.

The Lord has also used believers from European Bible Training Center (EBTC) in Germany to strengthen the churches in Ukraine during the war. EBTC and its graduates’ churches have housed refugees and sent needed supplies into Ukraine.

We are thankful for these churches in Ukraine, Germany, and around the world that are committed to preaching the word of God and living out the truth of that word with Christ-like love.

"They receive the aid we are able to deliver as a demonstration of love from our Lord Jesus Christ in this tangible way."

PHOTO EBTC partners with local Ukrainian churches to deliver aid to refugees

G.W., TMAI professor & pastor in Ukraine

Resourcing New Frontiers through Publishing

Sound preaching is a necessity for the growth of mature churches, and sound pastors need biblical resources to help them study the word. This is why TMAI’s Global Publishing Department (GPD) is committed to streamlining the publication and distribution of indigenous biblical resources for our schools around the world. One example of a new opportunity is to resource Ethiopia in the Amharic language. Translating these resources into native languages, and encouraging indigenous authors to write their own resources, is an integral part of making biblical truth accessible to believers and training men to lead their congregations to maturity through the nourishment of the words of the faith (1 Tim 4:6). Learn more about how you can support TMAI’s publishing ministry at tmai.org/publishing

25 Languages licensed for translation in 2022

Including Arabic, Armenian, Burmese, Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Kazakh, Slovak, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and more

100+ Book Projects completed in 2022

Preaching: How to Preach Biblically ITALIAN

John MacArthur

Philippians (MNTC) ARABIC

John MacArthur

Faith CZECH

Charles Spurgeon

God vs. Government GERMAN

Nathan Busenitz and James Coates

90+ Book Projects in progress in 2023

Essential Christian Doctrine ITALIAN

John MacArthur

Preaching and Preachers TAJIK

Martyn Lloyd Jones

Called to Preach GERMAN

Steven Lawson

Biblical Doctrine ALBANIAN

John MacArthur & Richard Mayhue

Forerunners of the Faith GERMAN

Nathan Busenitz

God, Technology, and the Christian Life CZECH

Tony Reinke

Grasping God's Word ARABIC

J. Scott Duvall & J. Daniel Hayes

More Ways to Help

a.

c.

b.

d.

critical impact projects

Your generous gifts help strengthen the global Church by providing support for these projects that are an integral part of TMAI's mission to train indigenous pastors:

Scholarships

Resourcing for Church Planting

Construction Projects Conferences

Library Expansions

Technical Upgrades Translation, Writing, and Publishing

New Training Sites and Programs

a. Student browses library books at Christ Seminary in South Africa

b. Arabic translation of the Philippians MacArthur New Testament Commentary

c. Teacher at Central African Preaching Academy in Malawi teaches a class

d. Word of Grace Biblical Seminary in Mexico constructs a building to be used for classes

e. Teacher at Evangelical Ministries of the Americas in Honduras utilizes a TV screen to teach Greek

18 Training Centers

2,407 Current Students

80+ Training Locations

7,564 Graduates

75% Indigenous Faculty

55 New Frontiers for Training Opportunities

PHOTO David R., President of Berea Seminary in Spain, speaks at a conference hosted by the Training Center

partner with us

As the Lord opens new doors for gospel training, we need your help to pursue these opportunities around the world.

Intercede

Jesus, after telling His diciples that the fields are ripe for harvest, told them to “beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.” Prayer is still the greatest need today. We invite individuals and organizations to join us in praying for the Lord’s work through TMAI around the world.

Introduce

You can play a significant role in TMAI’s ministry by introducing us to others who share a passion to see Christ’s name exalted among the nations. Please contact the TMAI Home Office at info@tmai.org or call 818.909.5570 and we will be happy to work with you to connect with any individuals or organizations you recommend.

Invest

Our top priority is to provide member schools with the funding they need to provide training to all who desire it. These funds are distributed by our Board of Directors two times each year to cover student scholarships and all operating costs of the schools. If you are interested in supporting our ministry, visit tmai.org/donate