The information shared in this section comes from geographically specific training reports. These reports comprise either face-to-face training or online training. The vast majority (98.6 percent) of all training reports received included a specific country where the training took place. The remaining reports did not include specific geographies for a variety of reasons, which are outlined in the Subset “B” section of the report.
Menu
GLOBAL INTEGRATED REPORT:
DATA, COST, PARTNERS, IMPACT
Initiatives & Activities in the Training of Pastors Worldwide
2016-2020
(for public release mid-2021)
2020
Executive Summary
2020
Introduction
Church growth without church health is much like cancer in the human body. Since church health is affected by pastoral health, the training of pastors is critical to the health of Christ’s Church.
Need: Documentation of initiatives and activities in training pastors worldwide. This data will provide for the strategic direction and immediate action by all trainers of pastors. We must reduce the number of untrained and isolated pastoral leaders, especially where Christ’s Church is growing.
Purpose: The GProCommission has sought to capture in statistical form the number of pastors being trained around the world by various pastoral training organizations and institutions, churches, and individuals. The GProCommission acknowledges the immense work of the respective trainers of pastors which further reinforces the great need and opportunity in the training of pastoral leaders, especially where Christ’s Church is growing. The data collected is for statistical purposes only and provides a database for all who want to know how many pastoral leaders have been trained, how many are being trained, and who is training them.
Executive Summary
Response: The Global Proclamation Commission for Trainers of Pastors
(GProCommission hence)
The GProCommission serves as a
- connector of trainers of pastors
- curator of resources for the training of pastors
- collator of initiatives and activities in the training of pastors
- convener of events1 to gather trainers of pastors on a micro and/or macro scale.
Output: The GProCommission for Trainers of Pastors Integrated Report 2020
Data2 was gathered July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2020 from attendees of the 2016 Global Proclamation Congress for Trainers of Pastors, as well as other individual, organizational and institutional trainers of pastors who were introduced3 to this follow-up effort after the Congress. Sixty-six percent of the total number trained during the four-year follow-up were reported by GProCongress delegates.
The direct costs of this four-year follow-up, which included online and in-person elements in more than a dozen languages and collected training reports from every one of the world’s countries and many territories, was $671,1134 . RREACH is thankful to the generous friends and staff members who contributed toward this strategically important work of documentation to inform direction and action.
Data: This report compiles the training initiatives and activities reported by 548 individuals5, 37 non-formal training organizations (representing an unknown number of trainers) and 14 formal training institutions and/or umbrella organizations (representing an unknown number of trainers).
Given that in 2013, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary identified more than 7,000 training-related ministries worldwide, this is a small6 subset of total data related to training of many kinds. To our knowledge, prior to this report, commissioned by RREACH, there was no international data set of this kind available.
The total number of pastoral leaders trained are categorized according to geography, hours of training received, type of training received, topic of training received and other variables.
Conclusion: The stated goal of RREACH’s decade long (2010-2020) human capital campaign was to connect, unite, strengthen 100,000 better trained pastoral leaders by 2020. In order to cover errors in duplication, replication, or exaggeration, RREACH’s four-year follow-up process set out to document 500,000 pastoral leaders better trained for pastoral ministry, and then apply an extremely conservative 80 percent attrition rate to meet the goal. By July 1, 2020, the GProCentral team received reliable training reports that, after applying the highly cautious attrition rate, still presents 280,911 better trained pastoral leaders between 2016 and 2020. This Global Integrated Report 2020 meets its objective of documenting currently reported data on pastoral training activities and initiatives for statistical purposes and strategic priorities for trainers of pastors in every training sector and location.
Subset " A " Totals
Worldwide: number trained & hours of training* received
*Includes only reports of face-to-face training
Worldwide: total reported face-to-face versus online training
Total pastoral leaders trained:
386,559
Total number of training events:
12,728
Total number of training hours:
275,322
Total Trained Per Country
Subset A training reported in 248 countries & territories and 41 languages
Most training events reported:
1. United States (3,011)
2. India (1,938)
3. China (1,057)
4. Kenya (913)
5. Costa Rica (842)
Most number of training hours reported:
1. United States (141,846)
2. Canada (22,082)
3. India (16,223)
4. Peru (10,097)
5. China (9,000)
Most pastoral leaders trained reported:
1. United States (84,348)7
2. India (56,446)
3. China (48,012)
4. Egypt (20,517)
5. Nigeria (17,951)
Subset "B" Totals
The information shared in this section was provided by 19 international training organizations who, for a variety of reasons, did not break down their training reports by country8. Thirteen of the organizations did list the countries where they provided training, but not the number trained in each country.
Subset “B” training was reported in 147 countries and territories
Total pastoral leaders trained: 1,017,995
Total number of training events: 4,106
Total number of training hours: 59,577
Number of organizations providing training in each country
| SOURCE | # TRAINED |
|---|---|
| Congress Delegate | 70% |
| Referral | 30% |
| TOPIC | # TRAINED |
|---|---|
| Theological Engagement | 14.8% |
| Spiritual Engagement | 77.6% |
| Missional Engagement | 0.3% |
| Biblical Engagement | 7.3% |
Pastoral trainer profile
Region: Africa
Total Pastors Trained by Country
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN
1,000 PASTORS TRAINED
1,000 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Nigeria: 17,951
2. Uganda: 17,308
3. Kenya: 16,097
4. Ethiopia: 5,082
5. Ghana: 3,987
6. Tanzania: 3,171
7. Zambia: 3,024
8. Rwanda: 2,788
9. South Africa: 2,618
10. Cameroon: 2,517
11. Liberia: 2,489
12. Burkina Faso: 2,457
13. Togo: 2,216
14. DR Congo: 1,907
15. Sierra Leone: 1,544
16. Mozambique: 1,382
17. Niger: 1,303
18. Benin: 1,277
19. Guinea: 1,162
20. Ivory Coast: 1,080
21. Chad: 1,049
Languages Represented
- English
- French
- Arabic
- Amharic
- Spanish
- Swahili
- Hausa
- Kinyarwanda
- Chitonga
- Ndau
- Criólo
- Macau
- Shangana
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress Applicants | 18% | 13% |
| Congress Delegates | 65% | 72% |
| Referral | 17% | 15% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Spiritual Engagement | 33% | 62% |
| Biblical Engagement | 30% | 25% |
| Missional Engagement | 18% | 8% |
| Educational Engagement | 8% | 1% |
| All Others | 11% | 4% |
Region: Asia
Total Pastors Trained by Country
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 1,000 PASTORS TRAINED
1. India: 56,446
2 China: 48,012
3. Philippines: 6,376
4. Nepal: 6,356
5. Indonesia: 3,827
6. Pakistan: 3,292
7. Myanmar (Burma): 1,495
NUMBER TRAINED PER REGION
1. Central Asia: 0.1%
2. East Asia: 36.7%
3. South Asia: 51%
4. Southeast Asia: 12.2%
Languages Represented
- English
- Tetun
- Bengali
- Portuguese
- Dzongkha
- Malay
- Khmer
- Mandarin
- Chinese
- Hindi
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Malayalam
- Bahasa
- Indonesia
- Russian
- Mongolian
- Burmese
- Nepali
- Urdu
- Sinhala
- Thai
- Vietnamese
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress Applicants | 2% | 1% |
| Congress Delegates | 94% | 92% |
| Referral | 4% | 7% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Spiritual Engagement | 85% | 89% |
| Biblical Engagement | 8% | 6% |
| Missional Engagement | 2% | 2% |
| Obstacles in Pastoral Training | 2% | 1% |
| All Others | 3% | 2% |
Region: MENA
Total Pastors Trained by Country
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 100 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Egypt: 20,517
2. Jordan: 347
3. United Arab Emirates: 160
LANGUAGES
REPRESENTED
1. Arabic
2. English
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 100 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Egypt: 20,517
2. Jordan: 347
3. United Arab Emirates: 160
LANGUAGES
REPRESENTED
1. Arabic
2. English
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress delegates | 81% | 68% |
| Referral | 19% | 32% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Biblical Engagement in | 11% | 2% |
| Missional Engagement | 21% | 41% |
| Spiritual Engagement | 68% | 57% |
Region: Latin America
Total Pastors Trained by Country
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 500 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Costa Rica: 8,696
2. Brazil: 3,407
3. Peru: 2,342
4. Argentina: 2,051
5. Ecuador: 1,878
6. Panama : 994
7. Guatemala: 562
LANGUAGES REPRESENTED
1. Spanish
2. Portuguese
3. English
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress Applicants | 1% | 2% |
| Congress Delegates | 44% | 36% |
| Referral | 55% | 62% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Biblical Engagement in Pastoral Training | 33% | 43% |
| Educational Engagement in Pastoral Training | 26% | 8% |
| Missional Engagement in Pastoral Training | 24% | 7% |
| Spiritual Engagement in Pastoral Training | 13% | 33% |
| All Others | 4% | 9% |
Region: Europe
Total Pastors Trained by Country
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 500 PASTORS TRAINED
1. United Kingdom: 2,341
2. Germany: 937
3. France: 935
4. Netherlands: 911
5. Italy: 805
6. Russia: 794
7. Austria: 772
8. Switzerland: 535
Languages Represented
- English
- Spanish
- Russian
- Romanian
- Czech
- Estonian
- Greek
- Arabic
- Hungarian
- Albanian
- Portuguese
- Ukrainian
NUMBER TRAINED PER REGION
1. Eastern Europe: 21.0%
2. Northern Europe: 14.0%
3. Southern Europe: 5.0%
4. Western Europe: 60.0%
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress Delegates | 17% | 2% |
| Referral | 83% | 98% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Biblical Engagement in Pastoral Training | 21% | 46% |
| Missional Engagement in Pastoral Training | 15% | 1% |
| Spiritual Engagement in Pastoral Training | 64% | 53% |
Region: North America
Total Pastors Trained by Country
LANGUAGES REPRESENTED
1. English
2. Spanish
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 1,000 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Canada: 5,631
2. United States: 84,348
COUNTRIES WITH MORE THAN 1,000 PASTORS TRAINED
1. Canada: 5,631
2. United States: 84,348
LANGUAGES REPRESENTED
1. English
2. Spanish
| SOURCE | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Congress Delegate | 0.3% | 1.3% |
| Referral | 99.7% | 98.7% |
| TOPIC | # EVENTS | # TRAINED |
|---|---|---|
| Biblical Engagement | 0.2% | 0.6% |
| Missional Engagement | 19.0% | 9.0% |
| Spiritual Engagement | 0.2% | 1.8% |
| Theological Engagement | 80.7% | 88.6% |
Region: OCEANIA, CARIBBEAN & ANTARCTIC
Total Pastors Trained by Country
Oceania
caribbean
Antarctic Pastors Trained(Not pictured)
- Antarctica (continent): 39
- South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands: 22
- French Southern Territories: 15
- Bouvet Island: 12
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands: 10
languages represented
Caribbean
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Arabic
Oceania
- English
Antarctic
- English
- Russian
| REGION | Most training events reported by (source) | Training most often on (topic) |
|---|---|---|
| Caribbean | Referral (52%) | Biblical Engagement (82%) |
| Oceania | Referral (96%) | Spiritual Engagement (60%) |
| Antarctic | Referral (100%) | No Topics Reported |
Total pastors trained by country
- AFRICA
- Angola: 652
- Benin: 1277
- Botswana: 73
- Burkina Faso: 2457
- Burundi: 870
- Cameroon: 2517
- Cape Verde: 61
- Central African Repulic: 189
- Chad: 1049
- Comoros: 17
- Congo: 495
- Djibouti: 8
- DR Congo: 1907
- Equatorial Guinea: 22
- Eritrea: 59
- Ethiopia: 5082
- Gabon: 255
- Gambia: 160
- Ghana: 3987
- Guinea: 1162
- Guinea-Bissau: 479
- Ivory Coast: 1080
- Kenya: 16097
- Lesotho: 27
- Liberia: 2489
- Madagascar: 73
- Malawi: 868
- Mali: 235
- Mauritania: 41
- Mauritius: 73
- Mayotte: 13
- Mozambique: 1382
- Namibia: 118
- Niger: 1303
- Nigeria: 17951
- Reunion: 15
- Rwanda: 2788
- São Tomé & Príncipe: 76
- Senegal: 322
- Seychelles: 25
- Sierra Leone: 1544
- Somalia: 47
- South Africa: 2618
- South Sudan: 915
- Sudan: 541
- eSwatini: 113
- Tanzania: 3171
- Togo: 2216
- Uganda: 17308
- W.Sahara: 18
- Zambia: 3024
- Zimbabwe: 658
- Antarctic
- Antarctica: 39
- Bouvet Island: 12
- French Southern Territories: 15
- Heard Island & McDonald Islands: 10
- South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands: 22
- ASIA
- Afghanistan: 51
- Bangladesh: 689
- Bhutan: 135
- Brunei: 351
- Cambodia: 983
- China: 48012
- Christmas Island: 14
- Cocos Islands: 1
- Hong Kong: 319
- India: 56446
- Indonesia: 3827
- Japan: 84
- Kazakhstan: 45
- Korea, North: 15
- Korea, South: 73
- Kyrgyzstan: 47
- Laos: 9
- Macao: 8
- Malaysia: 830
- Maldives: 28
- Mongolia: 79
- Myanmar (Burma): 1495
- Nepal: 6356
- Pakistan: 3292
- Philippines: 6376
- Singapore: 941
- Sri Lanka: 631
- Taiwan: 80
- Tajikistan: 47
- Thailand: 210
- Timor-Leste: 504
- Turkmenistan: 21
- Uzbekistan: 55
- Vietnam: 616
- CARIBBEAN
- Anguilla: 32
- Antigua And Barbuda: 89
- Aruba: 33
- Bahamas: 143
- Barbados: 138
- Bermuda: 58
- British Indian Ocean Territory: 54
- British Virgin Islands: 28
- Cayman Islands: 30
- Cuba: 1714
- Dominica: 60
- Dominican Republic: 188
- Falkland Islands: 5
- Grenada: 82
- Guadeloupe: 21
- Haiti: 342
- Jamaica: 352
- Martinique: 9
- Montserrat: 12
- Netherlands Antilles: 67
- Norfolk Island: 39
- Puerto Rico: 101
- Saint Barthélemy: 3
- Saint Helena: 9
- Saint Kitts And Nevis: 39
- Saint Lucia: 169
- Saint Martin: 3
- Saint Pierre And Miquelon: 11
- Saint Vincent And The Grenadines: 50
- Trinidad and Tobago: 179
- Turks & Caicos Islands: 15
- Virgin Islands (U.S.): 22
- EUROPE
- Åland Islands: 6
- Albania: 71
- Andorra: 64
- Armenia: 60
- Austria: 772
- Azerbaijan: 17
- Belarus: 87
- Belgium: 326
- Bosnia & Herzegovina: 38
- Bulgaria: 277
- Croatia: 43
- Cyprus: 45
- Czech Republic: 71
- Denmark: 442
- Estonia: 57
- Faroe Islands: 12
- Finland: 231
- France: 935
- Georgia: 63
- Germany: 937
- Gibraltar: 55
- Greece: 82
- Guernsey: 4
- Hungary: 215
- Iceland: 241
- Ireland: 128
- Isle Of Man: 2
- Italy: 805
- Jersey: 2
- Kosovo: 19
- Latvia: 107
- Liechtenstein: 21
- Lithuania: 45
- Luxembourg: 49
- Macedonia: 18
- Malta: 54
- Moldova: 54
- Monaco: 23
- Montenegro: 16
- Netherlands: 911
- Norway: 257
- Poland: 360
- Portugal: 76
- Romania: 294
- Russia: 794
- San Marino: 31
- Serbia: 25
- Slovakia: 27
- Slovenia: 45
- Spain: 146
- Svalbard & Jan Mayen: 16
- Sweden: 335
- Switzerland: 535
- Turkey: 45
- Ukraine: 160
- United Kingdom: 2341
- Vatican City: 2
- Yugoslavia: 27
- LATIN AMERICA
- Argentina: 2051
- Belize: 56
- Bolivia: 86
- Brazil: 3407
- Chile: 209
- Colombia: 480
- Costa Rica: 8696
- Ecuador: 1878
- El Salvador: 114
- French Guiana: 27
- Guatemala: 562
- Guyana: 490
- Honduras: 207
- Nicaragua: 97
- Panama: 994
- Paraguay: 61
- Peru: 2342
- Suriname: 24
- Uruguay: 76
- Venezuela: 184
- MENA
- Algeria: 57
- Bahrain: 77
- Egypt: 20517
- Iran: 28
- Iraq: 53
- Israel: 59
- Jordon: 347
- Kuwait: 95
- Lebanon: 54
- Libya: 22
- Morocco: 70
- Oman: 41
- Palestinian Territory Occupied: 14
- Qatar: 51
- Saudi Arabia: 67
- Syria: 47
- Tunisia: 49
- UAE: 160
- Yemen: 12
- NORTH AMERICA
- Canada: 5631
- Greenland: 63
- Mexico: 222
- United States: 84348
- OCEANIA
- Australia: 1782
- American Samoa: 43
- Cook Islands: 45
- Fiji: 107
- French Polynesia: 8
- Guam: 41
- Kiribati: 21
- Marshall Islands: 47
- Micronesia, Federated States Of: 21
- Nauru: 17
- New Caledonia: 13
- New Zealand: 267
- Niue: 8
- N. Mariana Islands: 13
- Palau: 13
- Papua New Guinea: 61
- Pitcairn Islands: 12
- Samoa: 20
- Solomon Islands: 43
- Tokelau: 12
- Tonga: 14
- Tuvalu: 13
- Vanuatu: 93
- Wallis And Futuna: 7
2016-2020 Final Impact
Pastoral leaders better trained for pastoral ministry
Target:
500,000 (with 80% potential error rate)
GOAL:
100,000 pastoral leaders
Documented:
1,404,544
TOTAL:
280,911 (minimum)
16,834
Total Pastoral Training Events
334,899
Total Pastoral Training Hours
2,668
Total Pastoral Training Reports
14,319
Total GProLearning Resources
Reporting integrity
Notes
1 For more information, visit www.GProCongress.org.
2 To confirm training reports, the GProCentral team asked verifying and clarifying questions, about the country and language in which the training occurred, dates and/or number of hours of the training event, and the topic of the training. They also asked if other trainers (individuals or organizations) were involved in the training reported. In 11 percent of all reports (representing 5.3 percent of the total number trained), the dates of and/or number of hours of the training were missing. In these cases, a one-day (8 hour) value was applied for each month represented in the training report.
3 Those who contributed to this report but did not attend the 2016 GProCongress fall within four groups: (1) GProCongress applicants who were accepted to attend, but were unable to do so; (2) those referred to the GProCommission by an individual familiar with the project; (3) those referred to the GProCommission via a communication campaign to a larger audience of trainers of pastors; and (4) delegates of the Dallas Global Proclamation Academy (GProAcademy) and National GProAcademy programs, as part of RREACH’s overall ministry training strategy (https://rreach.org/ministry-training).
4 Direct costs of follow-up relate to compensation for the team that collected the training reports, compensation for those directly organizing the efforts of that team, and the technology they used to securely store and track that data. Indirect costs for follow-up, including travel, support staff, communication and advancement efforts, totaled an additional $476,717. RREACH, as the parent of the GProCommission and the founder of TOPIC, considered this four-year undertaking a worthwhile investment of human and financial resources in view of the potential use of this report by pastoral training strategists for missiological focus and priority activity. Ramesh Richard’s article, “Training of Pastors: A high priority for global ministry strategy,” originally published in the September 2015 issue of the Lausanne Global Analysis, provides the rationale for this undertaking.
5 Lists of individuals and organizations/institutions who contributed training reports for this project are clickable.
6 If every individual, organization and institution who reported to us counted as one ministry, and if every entry in the Gordon Conwell report counted as one ministry, our respondents represent 8 percent of ministries listed in that report, not all of which are related to pastoral training. 7 The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) data, representing more than 270 graduate schools of theology in the United States and Canada, is responsible for the United States being at the top of these lists. Other formal training accrediting bodies (similar to ATS and working in different regions of the world) did report numbers of graduates by member schools, but the data was not broken down by country or degree program, so “number of hours of training” was not applied. The Integrated Report, therefore, does not reflect the formal training taking place in those regions in the same way it does for North America. 8 Subset B (1.4 percent of total reports, cf. Subset A, page 4) comprises 72.5 percent of total pastoral leaders better trained, 24.4 percent of total training events, and 17.8 percent of total training hours from organizational annual reports. Of the 19 pastoral training organizations, ten did not provide data on training events and/or training hours. Organizations not providing a list of countries where training occurred did so for the following reasons: 1. Training took place in restricted /unsafe countries 2. Training was tracked according to resource downloads, and therefore geographical information is not available.
9 Tracks in Pastoral Training were grouped into 8 broader training categories, corresponding to eight tracks available at the 2016 GProCongress. Not all topics were represented or delivered in each region. Categories include: Biblical Engagement in Pastoral Training (ex. Biblical Knowledge, Biblical Interpretation, Biblical Preaching, etc.) Cultural Engagement in Pastoral Training (Ideas and Values, Moralities and Behavior, Media, etc.) Educational Engagement in Pastoral Training (Campus-based Delivery, Church-based Delivery, House-based Delivery, etc.) Missional Engagement in Pastoral Training (Evangelism, Discipleship, Church Planting, etc.) Obstacles in Pastoral Training (Economic Poverty, Conflict Zones, Persecution settings, etc.) Opportunities in Pastoral Training (Bi-Vocational Pastors, Immigrant Churches, Technology-based Delivery, etc.) Spiritual Engagement in Pastoral Training (Pastoral Leadership, Marriage and Family, Mentoring, etc.) Theological Engagement in Pastoral Training (Theological Essentials, Theological Discernment, Theological Formation, etc.)
Theme Verse
“...but the word of God is not bound.” 2 Tim. 2:9
“Pastoral health affects church health. Church health affects societal health.”
-Ramesh Richard
2020
Global Integrated Report
Data, Cost, Partners, Impact
2016-2020
