Entrust programme
Ephesians 3, which inspires E3 Initiative, puts the local church at the heart of God's purposes and local pastors are therefore vital to those plans. The Entrust programme's role in E3's work of empowering local churches to engage in mission is to support and promote the training of pastors at the grassroots – arguably the greatest need of the growing churches of the majority world.
The 'typical' pastors of today are very different to those of a century ago. Rather than being white, western, educated, professional and middle-class, they are non-western, have limited formal education and are often self-supporting. They go by many names, but whether they are called pastors, elders, church planters or other titles, it is these local leaders that are Entrust's concern. This is because they are in the minority when it comes to receiving effective training even though they form the majority of pastors today.
This lack of grassroots pastor training is compounded by the fact that existing approaches tend to be geared more to the elite than the poor, are often based more on traditional training than local learning, and simply do not reach the multitude of church leaders who have little or no access to training.
In response Entrust supports and shapes alternative approaches. These initiatives prioritise the poor and marginalised, are open-access in their approach, use and develop flexible learning methods, and are directed towards strengthening leadership in the church context and at the local level.
We achieve this through identifying pastor-trainers who are respected for their strong local church ministry, have a proven track record in training other leaders and share our values. We build strong relationships with them and their teams in clusters in Africa and India, as well as with more isolated projects elsewhere. This means that our training partners are part of a like-minded family where the sharing of ideas has value. Together we aim to influence this critical area of Christian mission.
