This update is related to the Global Pastors Book Sets campaign.
“Do Something:” A Call to Action
Jonah Mukama came to know Jesus when life was at an all-time low. He had heard about God through attending church earlier in his childhood and then from a teacher who read the Bible to his class every day. But when his family lost their house, he didn’t expect to be shown any kindness from the family who bought it. Even less did he expect to come to faith in Jesus through the ministry of that family.
By God’s grace, they didn’t force Jonah’s family to move out immediately. Instead, they extended hospitality to them by allowing them to remain in their home for a short time while determining next steps. And that’s when one of the family’s sons started sharing the gospel with Jonah. Jonah remembers that every day “we spent time in the Bible together. I was so captured by his passion to live out the Word. And one day I told him that I wanted to be saved because I knew from our reading that it required me to do something.”
This urge to “do something” included accepting Jesus as his Savior along with ultimately deciding to attend Shepherds Training College (STC) in Uganda to receive four years of theological training to equip him for work in ministry. This college strives to provide theological training to a country filled with many pastors who have never received formal training. Crossway has partnered with STC to provide Global Pastors Book Sets to students like Jonah who have few, if any, theological resources of their own.
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A New Window of Clarity
Once Jonah identified that he wanted to pursue ministry, he needed to determine what that meant. The church he started attending after becoming a Christian did not advise their congregants to attend theological schools, claiming that “people who go there come back so argumentative and stubborn.” Having no other context or knowledge of what these theological schools taught, he chose to believe what he heard and developed a bad taste in his mouth toward the idea of going to school.
But after months of patient encouragement and explanations from a relative, Jonah’s views on the idea began to change. He desired to teach but knew he was a long way from being ready to teach. Despite having a Bible of his own, he knew very little of Scripture and what it meant. He was ill-equipped, having access to only one theological resource to reference: one that a Jehovah’s Witness had given him filled with “things that I did not understand.”
And so Jonah took a leap of faith and heeded the advice of his relative by enrolling in STC where he is receiving formal training and theologically sound resources. He is one of about 100 students currently taking classes to complete this three-year degree program with the goal of becoming better equipped to minister in their local contexts. They’re taught how to study the Bible for themselves as well as how to teach the Bible. Chot, another first year STC student, explained the importance of this training from his experience.
One thing that I know for sure that happens in the churches in Uganda and the surrounding countries is that we’re not introduced to some of the key theological ideas. And if we do know about them, we don’t have clarity on them. And so when I first came here and began reading some of the books we’ve been given, I started to understand some of these ideas more clearly.
Jonah’s experience has been much the same. Through the opportunity to read books like those included in the Global Pastors Book Set, he’s come to better understand God’s Word and God’s calling on him as a future teacher of his Word.
A New Way of Preaching
One book that has specifically supported Jonah as he forms a right view of the church is Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Even from the very beginning of the book, he describes it as providing a life-changing shift in perspective.
This book caused me to evaluate the churches I’ve been in, and I realized that we have been so off. This and other theological books have introduced me to a systematic kind of study by covering big themes of the Bible, like expository preaching. I did not know about this way of preaching before. In my church, every week someone came before the congregation having picked a passage out of context that they would teach topically. But as I’ve been reading about and experiencing expository preaching here at the college, I really see that it is a big blessing to systematically go through the Bible in its context, book after book.
Even though Jonah and Chot are still in their first year of the degree program, they’re already being taught these foundational concepts as they seek a fuller understanding of God’s Word. Through four years of intense study, they’ll be able to return to their local contexts and share the good news with their congregations. And through their ability to introduce expositional preaching, Lord-willing men and women throughout Uganda and surrounding countries will come to a fuller understanding of who God is and who they are in light of him.
You’re invited to join us as we continue to provide these Global Pastors Book Sets to pastors in need through the Global Ministry Fund. Your gift provides pastors and their congregations with theologically sound resources that will build them up as local bodies of Christ!
Pray for the ministry of Shepherds Training College as they seek to care for and faithfully teach the students attending their school.
Pray for perseverance and patience for the students as they faithfully study in their courses. Pray that even now the Lord would equip the minds and hearts of Jonah and Chot’s churches to receive the truth of the gospel when they return after graduation.