During the pandemic, WHMI saw how our national leaders were poised and ready to take the lead in implementing theological education. The Staff and Board worked together to formulate a multi-year Accelerated Growth Initiative (AGI). This ministry plan increasingly placed leadership of our work in the hands of trusted national partners who make it possible to scale our work. The result was and has consistently been increased capacity and lower costs. We also continue to learn more about how this model works. In 2023, the President and CEO called for the formation of a Board Task Force to help chart a course for long, sustained growth. The Board of Directors agreed and the The Long Horizon Task Force was formed. This Task Force is working with WHMI’s Executive Leadership to incorporate what we learned from the AGI and set our sails for further global expansion.
As you can imagine, this kind of growth has stretched us. We have realized our support needs are not based on student counts but on numbers of locations and numbers of nationals who are teaching. The huge increase in nationally led ministry required nearly double the management of data and logistical support. More importantly, this demanded an increase in mentoring and coaching for our national leaders. We now know that managing a class of 15 in the bush requires the same attention and care as a class of 200 in a city. This is one of the many reasons why God is continuing to direct our long-term growth, based on the biblical model found in 2 Timothy 2:2. We hoped to see nationals take the lead and they have! We continue to make multiple adjustments “on-the-fly” to ensure that those hundreds of flames, spreading the light of theological education to others, do not go out—but continued to spread to others.
We now see long horizon growth through the lens of being a global catalyst. If giving the ministry away to others is why this approach is flourishing, then the same idea of empowerment can also extend to new ministry partners. In our original Accelerated Growth Initiative, we projected significant growth from such partnerships, where we equip them to use the same biblical model to create a pipeline of theologically trained leaders for their work. We are ready for that phase of expansion to take root in earnest which is why we are working to help empower ministry partners and their networks to learn and replicate theological education using WHMI’s Bible Institute approach.
The future of WHMI is bright! Our vision to see global gospel transformation through theologically trained pastors and leaders is our laser-focus. As far as we have come, and as many pastors that we have trained, we are just getting started.
All glory to God!
.png){kind=icon}
