RREACH’s efforts to connect, unite, and strengthen pastor trainers date back to 1997, with the convening of a consultation at the Billy Graham Institute of Evangelism in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. Participants from 99 organizations convicted of “the sin of doing one’s own thing” were also convinced that collaborative efforts would accomplish more together. TOPIC (Trainers of Pastors International Coalition) resulted from that meeting and still serves as an umbrella organization to accelerate nonformal pastor training. Hundreds of nonformal training initiatives are connected to TOPIC at various levels.

A decade later, efforts to deliver better training to more pastoral leaders emphasized bridging the formal/nonformal training divide. At the historic 2010 Lausanne Congress, pastor trainers from both sectors came together. The Cape Town Pastoral Trainers Declaration concludes “that we shall endeavor to build trust, involve each other, and leverage the strengths of each sector to prepare maturing shepherds for the proclamation of God’s Word and the building up of Christ’s Church in all the nations of the world.”

The Global Proclamation Commission (GProCommission), a satellite ministry of RREACH, began in 2011 and has catalyzed a two-decade human capital campaign to champion the training of large numbers of pastoral leaders, especially where church health is not keeping pace with church growth.

The campaign’s first decade (2011-2020) gained significant momentum at the first Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers (GProCongress I, Bangkok 2016), an eight-day event with four years of follow-up. The goal of RREACHABLE 2020 to reduce the deficit of the trained by 5%—100,000 pastoral leaders—was exceeded, under budget and ahead of schedule. RREACH had received, vetted, and documented reports from numerous sister ministries and presented 280,000+ pastoral leaders better trained in mid-2021.

In the second decade of the GProCommission (2021-2030), called RREACHABILITY 2030, the focus has shifted from increasing the number of pastoral leaders better trained to increasing the number of trainers of pastors. To that end, RREACH now convenes the second Global Proclamation Congress for Trainers of Pastors (GProCongress II, Panama 2023), a six-day event with a seven-year follow-up towards 100,000 additional pastor trainers by 2030.

GProCongress II continued the sector-neutral philosophy, platform, and process, featuring the three pastor trainer sectors and pollinating pastor training initiatives. In June 2022, representatives from TOPIC, the nonformal sector; MentorLink, the informal sector; and the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE), the formal sector, converged around the urgent, important, and critical need for the faster delivery of better training to more pastors by every effective and efficient means possible. In November 2022, ICETE’s global consultation encouraged “Formal and non-formal theological education: beyond dialogue.” In March 2023, TOPIC gathered key nonformal pastoral organizations to address the question, “How might collaboration accelerate the training of pastors globally?” In April 2023, MentorLink led the launch of the Pastors Mentoring International Network (PMIN).

All three sectors contributed to the theme of the November 2023 GProCongress II for Trainers of Pastors: multiplying the quantity and quality of pastor trainers. With the Lord’s enabling toward 2030, each delegate commited to raising at least one new pastor trainer each year. These new pastor trainers also commit to train an average of 10 more pastoral leaders by 2030, resulting in 1 million better trained pastors by that date, the Lord willing.

“To the glory of the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the health of Christ’s Church, and the very best of many everywhere. Amen!”