Welcome to Week Seven of my Video Friday series (previous episodes here). Today I'd like to talk about a fairly new program we started last year to train lay ministers.
This began because, basically, we are understaffed. The Lutheran Church here has five pastors, and a total of 11 congregations (plus some areas with outreach going on, so this adds up to a lot of places to cover!).
In 2008, leaders of the Mexican Lutheran Church sat down to find a way to deal with this shortage. They developed a program that is similar to the staff ministry program in WELS. Lay leaders can take courses that train them to serve congregations with vacancies.
The first two students recently enrolled in this program. One is in Puebla, and the other is in Juarez. For part of their training, the students come to Torreon for a week of intensive study. Here is a short clip of Pastor Sanchez teaching Gerardo Aguilar a course on pastoral theology:
This program is just another classic example of how God fills the needs that arise in churches, time after time. We are very thankful for men like Gerardo, who will gain knowledge and training to become strong leaders in the church body here.
Stay tuned for next week's video, which will cover English classes here in Torreon. Until then, have a good weekend and enjoy the springtime air (which for us means highs of 100F)!
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