A global informal theological training movement with its Africa hub in South Africa is tackling one of the biggest crises facing the Evangelical Church today — the fact that most pastors and Christian leaders are undertrained or not trained at all.
Founded in 2019 by prominent Evangelical leader and theologian Dr Manfred Kohl, the movement, Re-Forma, has developed what it describes as the world’s first competency–based training standard for pastors and ministry leaders. The training is certified by the World Evangelical Alliance.
“In just seven years, with the help of passionate donors, this work has flourished,” said Re-Forma ministry director and former president of the South African Theological Seminary Dr Reuben van Rensburg who is based in Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape.
He said 10 national coordinators have been appointed to promote Re-Forma’s free informal training programme in their respective countries. As of June 22, 4 387 facilitators have joined the movement with groups of students who are all involved in church ministry in some way, he said.
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To date, 8 055 groups are either actively studying or have completed the 37 outcomes, a process that ideally takes a year or longer. These groups represent 97 countries, with recent additions including Timor-Leste, Bolivia, Morocco, Equatorial Guinea and Lebanon. Re-Forma training materials are now available in 81 languages.
“What is effectively happening,” said van Rensburg, “is that while Re-Forma staff cannot reach everywhere, the facilitators who lead these groups become ministry partners, spreading the truth of the Gospel in their own language, among their own people and within their own cultural contexts.”
National coordinators continue to report remarkable testimonies of transformation. Families are embracing more godly patterns of relationships, women are being released into ministry, and servant leadership is increasingly becoming a defining characteristic of church leaders, he said.
One particularly impactful testimony comes from Kenya, where participants in the Re-Forma programme have grown in confidence in their personal relationship with God. They have come to understand that access to God is not mediated through objects, rituals or special intermediaries, but only through Jesus Christ. As a result, many have stopped seeking “special prayers” involving candles and other practices from religious leaders.
The change has been so significant that some of those religious leaders have reportedly complained, saying: “Re-Forma has ruined our business. People no longer come to us for special prayers using candles.”
The testimonies emerging from around the world point to a growing movement of biblically grounded discipleship and leadership development. As Re-Forma continues to equip church leaders, it is empowering ordinary believers to become ministry partners who carry the light and truth of the Gospel to their own communities.
On its website Re-Forma states: “According to global research, only 5% of all the pastors in the world have a formal qualification. The majority have very little training or no training at all — research has confirmed that 76% of Kenyan pastors are untrained. In the US there is one trained pastor for every 250 people, but in the rest of the world it is one trained pastor for every 450 000. By 2050 the global Church will need 9.7 million pastors, and formal theological institutions will simply never keep up with the need.”
The cost of not addressing this growing training deficiency is “more false teaching and questionable behaviour among church leaders and congregations, ultimately damaging the witness of Christianity”, said Van Rensburg.
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