As we begin our 2020 E-News, we are excited to share that our Leadership Development Program, Ministry Training Institutes (MTI), has started with 17 students in three of our Field Offices. This is a little lower than what we had previously announced, but a few of our students decided they were not ready to begin at this point. I am excited that the process of training new leaders has begun and believe that this is only the beginning. These students will spend the next three-and-a-half years going through classes, meeting for discussions, participating in mentoring and discipleship alongside their pastors and in their local churches. I encourage you to pray for these students as they have committed themselves to respond to God’s call on their lives to prepare for Christian Service as leaders in ministry within the Advent Christian Church.

As we prepare for the 2020 Triennial, we are hopeful that some of these student will be able to attend and share with us their experiences of the MTI training. Pastors, superintendents and leaders, we need to prayerfully seek God to guide us to other emerging leaders and lay leadership that God has called into roles of leadership that would benefit from participating in MTI. Churches, please support these men and women in prayer and in practical ways of finances, housing, transportation and opportunities to minister in their local churches so they gain experience in ministry as they learn and grow together.

Pray for our coordinators as they work through year one and continue to flesh out the classes for year two for the MTI program. God has guided and sustain our MTI Team as they have worked together to develop this program. We have partnered with Berkshire Christian and their trustee board has endorsed our plans and agreed to promote and support the future of this program.