By Matters India Reporter
Dili (Timor-Leste): “Christian Conference of Asia’s (CCA) grassroots ecumenical theological training programme is valuable in least developed countries, like Timor-Leste, as it is helping pastors and evangelists of Protestant churches in Timor-Leste to fill the void of ecumenical theological education and leadership development in churches,” commented the leaders of the East Timor Protestant Church – Igreja Protestante iha Timor Leste (IPTL) at the end of a training programme held from May 16 – 19, in Dilli, the capital city of Timor-Leste.
Forty-five pastors, evangelists and lay leaders from CAA member church IPTL, the National Council of Churches in Timor-Leste, the Bethel Church, the Adventist Church, Assembly of God and the Pentecostal Church in Timor-Leste attended the training.
In a country like Timor-Leste, pastors and churches lack proper leadership and ecumenical formation as they do not have access to seminaries and Bible training schools. Members of Protestant churches are also vulnerable targets of “aggressive evangelism” promoted by proponents of “freelance missionary evangelism” from outside of Timor-Leste. The CCA identified the urgent prerequisite to accompany churches in Timor-Leste and their pastors, as well as evangelists and lay leaders, especially those who serve in remote areas, to train them in Asian ecumenical and contextual theologising.
“Equipping young ecumenical and church leaders with the proper tools of theology is obeying God’s Great Commission,” said Rev. Jung Eun Moon, CCA Program Coordinator.
In a session on “Mission and Evangelism and the context of Diakonia Ministry”, Rev. Thomas Liddle, Mission Co-worker of the IPTL from the United Church of Christ in the USA, told the participants, “Church leaders at the headquarters level should not to be directing pastors in their diaconal ministries from top to bottom. Instead, the pastors and congregation members must actively participate in their own ministerial work and programmes at the grassroots level to serve communities.”
Rev. Bobby Daniel and Rev. Nico Lumba Kaana from the Christian University in Kupang, Indonesia held interactive sessions on the contextual reading of the Bible and homiletics.
Participants of the training observed that the sessions helped widen their theological perspectives and pledged to re-reflect on their ministries with missional and diaconal programmes to serve their communities.
The IPTL – CCA’s only member church in Timor-Leste – was the host and local organiser of the training. The IPTL, a small church in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, has been witnessing an important role for justice and reconciliation in the country ever since the struggle for independence started in the 1970s.
The IPTL has also largely been involved in leadership training and the continuing education of its pastors. It has established a Christian theological training institute recently, the East Timor Christian Institute (ETCI) in Dili. In 2016, the CCA assisted the IPTL to develop a curriculum for theological training at the ETCI.
Formerly known as East Timor, Timor-Leste is one of the smallest and newly independent countries in Asia.