Pastor Training International has now become Equipping Pastors Worldwide and this website will be closed down in due course.

Please use our new website: epworldwide.org

PTI's values are our heart for pastoral ministry, a total focus on expository preaching, and an unashamedly evangelical theology.

Pastoral Ministry

Jesus is the head of the church, and PTI exists to encourage and strengthen the many under-shepherds. We train and support pastoral ministry in local churches, true to the priorities of the Bible. In a changing and diverse world, the primary responsibility of pastors remains to share the Gospel to evangelise the lost and edify those who are Christians.

Faithful ministry takes place in the main meetings of the church, as well as in personal and smaller contexts. Pastors have many demands on their time and focus – often, they will have another job as well as their ministry! PTI helps pastors to keep their eyes on their flock, the sheep for whom Christ shed his blood.

Our prayer for pastors echoes the opening verses of Hebrews 12:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Expository Preaching

God’s people grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by the faithful teaching of God’s word. Our conviction is that the best way to do this is by exposition of Scripture in the regular meetings of the local church. Topical preaching has its place, but we believe that expository preaching is a the heart of the life of the church. All of our conferences, ministry and resources focus unashamedly on what it means to faithfully expound the Bible.

Our prayer is that every pastor in every church would heed to the invitation of 2 Timothy 2:15:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Evangelical Theology

God’s people are transformed by the Gospel, the ‘evangel’, and PTI is unashamedly evangelical in our theology and approach. Rooted in the Bible as God’s word, we stand in the heritage of the Reformation in centring our faith on the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

On many non-essential issues Bible-believing Christians will disagree, but on the central doctrines of the faith there is unity. PTI’s great passion, however, is for more than orthodoxy. Like James, the brother of Jesus, we are also passionate that doctrine is to be experienced and lived out in the life of the Christian and the church (James 1:22):

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves

Our Values inform and motivate our Vision:

The Gospel has very shallow roots in many of the places where PTI is now at work. Typically, whilst many thousands are coming to faith and churches are growing exponentially fast, their leaders are finding it hard, if not impossible, to cope. Pastors are under-taught, overworked and under-resourced. As a result they are able to give their congregations little more than the milk of basic evangelistic messages. But what they, as committed, young Christians really require is the solid doctrinal food that underpins strong, growing faith and active discipleship.

This is a serious weakness that could, if not overcome urgently, prove fatal to these nascent churches as they struggle with a number of severe pressures. Externally these include theological error, worldliness, and persecution. Internally they encompass personal holiness, integrity and disunity.

With the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, PTI’s vision is to tackle this weakness, head on, knowing that Christ’s Gospel is sufficient in and of itself to do this. In practical terms, the key task we face is to ‘Teach to Preach’, or to ensure that pastors are properly equipped to preach that Gospel to their churches.

Our operational strategy is therefore to equip them to do so by providing Biblically-faithful and accurate teaching to as many pastors as we possibly can, as quickly as we possibly can. We need to bear in mind, moreover, that the vast majority of those we seek to serve live in remote rural areas, have never had formal theological training and have no other realistic means of getting it.

Our tried and tested threefold solution to this problem involves, firstly, offering in-country training conferences. These are backed up by distance mentoring to reinforce this teaching over the longer term. Finally we provide a small library of key theological and pastoral texts to ensure pastors’ continued spiritual growth.

If, by God’s grace, our vision is fulfilled and we are able to overcome this major weakness, we will see churches across the Developing World transformed. Solidly and faithfully taught by well-equipped and well-resourced leaders, their members will grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus, in turn making them fruitful disciples of and evangelists for his consuming fire. It is, moreover, a recipe for fruitful, growing churches everywhere.

And our vision is urgent. In the West, our warehouses are already groaning, full of books. Our trainers and distance mentors are ready, willing and able to start work – now – in this huge harvest field. But we lack many of the resources we need, especially money to pay for air fares and many other incidental expenses. So if you embrace PTI’s vision, could you join us in making a real difference as, together, we equip the church in the Developing World to catch fire?

There are at least 2 million pastors not getting any training as you read this. Our vision, under God, is to expand considerably the current work of PTI so more of these pastors have the opportunity to receive this vital training.

We work only where we are invited and also seek to train the trainers of the future. We are committed to evangelical truth and the Reformed confessions but have no denominational affiliations and are happy to work with all our brothers and sisters who need our help.

We can’t do this alone. The other huge need is to develop the other key aspect of PTI’s ministry, which is personal tuition and mentoring work. For more information about how to get involved with PTI, including giving to the work.