Around the globe, we face an urgent need to multiply faithful preachers who proclaim Christ-centered, expositional sermons. According to The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 95% of pastors worldwide have not received formal theological training. Testimonies from pastors in our workshops affirm this reality. After completing our Core Training in 2025, pastors in a closed country echoed what we have heard around the world.
Before we began attending your workshops, we didn’t know how to study the Bible. We couldn’t find the main idea of a passage, and didn’t know how to preach the Word. Now, God’s Word is open to us, and we can preach for transformation in our churches.
WordPartners is on a mission to close this gap between those who are called to proclaim God’s Word and those who are equipped to do so. We pursue this through an exponential growth strategy.
We measure strategic success by two key outcomes. First, indigenous pastors are trained to preach God’s Word with God’s heart. Second, they are equipped to lead their own workshops. As pastors grow in their expositional skills in our Core Training, we invite some to lead workshop sessions, guiding them step-by-step until they can train others independently. Those who express a desire to train more pastors after completing Core Training are then considered for Advanced Training.
In the majority world, we offer a four-year, non-residential process called Core Training. It is for pastors and church leaders, especially those in under-resourced, restricted-access, and persecuted contexts. Core Training consists of eight workshops conducted about every six months. Each workshop walks through a different book of the Bible. Through the workshops, pastors and ministry leaders are introduced to our accessible and transferable Dig & Discover Principles. These principles help them preach Christ-centered, expositional sermons. Participants practice using the principles through highly interactive sessions and receive feedback from peers and trainers.
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Year One
Jonah
2 Timothy
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Year Two
Genesis
1, 2 Samuel
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Year Three
Mark
Psalms
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Year Four
Habakkuk
Ephesians
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After year two of Core Training, we select three to five pastors from the group. The pastors we select share a vision for equipping more pastors and show an aptitude for training. They become the Core Training Team. Over the next two years, we equip them to lead workshop sessions through on-the-job experience. We help them prepare to lead a session in the months leading up to a workshop. In the days following, we offer encouragement and point out areas for continued growth. In this way, the pastors on the Core Training Team grow in their preaching and training ability.
Some of the pastors who complete Core Training go on to participate in Advanced Training. At this stage they become Training Partners who receive personal coaching from WordPartners’ staff and other experienced Training Partners. In addition to coaching, we provide some resources for our Training Partners to launch and lead their own Core Training. We also meet with them about once a year for continued expositional training. During these yearly in-person meetings, we work through additional books of the Bible, beginning with Hebrews or Isaiah.
With the Lord’s blessing, this training strategy has resulted in scalable, exponential growth that is locally-led and built on deep, personal relationships. In 2024, we saw over 17,000 pastors and ministry leaders trained in 40 countries. The vast majority of those training groups were led by 236 of our Training Partners.
As we equip thousands of ministry leaders each year to proclaim God’s Word with God’s heart, entire networks of churches are being transformed. Yet many hard-to-reach places still lack Christ-centered, expositional preaching. Through your partnership—whether in prayer or through giving—you can help multiply faithful preachers to meet this need. Join us today. Together, we can elevate God’s Word among the nations.
