Summary:

The August First Monday gathering focused on reinforcing the vision of the GProCommission, which aimed to train all pastoral leaders and encourage every pastor to become a trainer. The team emphasized the critical need to raise and equip new trainers of pastors, especially as church growth outpaced pastoral development. Key challenges discussed included identifying pastors willing to be trained, geographic barriers, denominational silos, and trust issues. Despite these obstacles, opportunities such as the openness to training, younger pastors’ enthusiasm, and the use of technology were highlighted. Attendees were encouraged to commit to raising one new pastor trainer annually until 2030, with the goal of training 100,000 new trainers of pastors. Additionally, a new online platform, GProCourses.org, was introduced as a resource for assessments, validation, and course offerings.

Reflective Questions:

1. What obstacles do you face in raising new trainers of pastors? What opportunities for raising trainers of pastors do you see?
2. How has technology or younger generations contributed to the growth of pastoral training in your region?

Action-Oriented Questions:

1. What steps can you take this year to raise at least one new trainer of pastors, and how can you support them in training others?
2. How can you leverage the GProCourses.org platform to enhance the training of pastoral leaders in your community?