The following is an interview published by Jim Manley with Paraclete Mission Group on September 5, 2024.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Paraclete associate David Stevens. He and his wife, Mary Alice come alongside African pastors whose ministries are severely impeded by a lack of sound biblical education. David helps break those chains by training them to use the classic Thompson Chain Reference Bible.
Can you share a brief overview of your ministry background?
As a teenager, I participated in a mission conference in Europe, and that was with Operation Mobilization in 1971. At that particular time in my life, as many PKs do, I went through a period of rebellion and was somewhat distanced from the Lord. But my father was a speaker at that conference. They weren’t about to leave me at home by myself as a teenager, given their experience in the prior two years. So, they dragged me along with them. And I thought it’d be cool to make a trip to Europe. So, I went with them, and my life was turned around. I not only grew in my relationship with the Lord but really committed myself long-term to missions, whatever that would look like.
As I continued to grow, I also felt called into pastoral ministry. My wife and I met in 1975. We dated in 1976, got married in 1977, then went to Dallas Seminary. We pastored for a couple of years after that, and then we went with OC International (now called One Challenge). We were in France and the French-speaking part of Europe for 15 years. Then, through a series of events, the Lord led us back into pastoral ministry for 15 years in Portland, Oregon, where I was lead pastor of Central Bible Church. It’s right next to Multnomah Biblical Seminary.
As I was approaching my 60s, I increasingly felt a call to pastoral training, particularly back in the French-speaking world. So, the Lord opened an opportunity to pastor a church in Belgium, which was bilingual, and that church agreed to allow me to make a couple of trips a year to French speaking Africa for pastoral training. From early 2015 to 2019, the ministry in Africa was growing, and my wife and I decided we couldn’t do both.
So we left the pastoral ministry again and relocated to southern France (where our children had grown up) because it greatly facilitated travel into Africa. But then another milestone. As we were approaching 70, we really felt called to be back closer to our grandchildren, who were growing up very quickly. Our oldest grandchild is 18 years old, so just last year, we relocated to the States. However, I still make four or five international trips as I continue to work full-time for Paraclete.
I know what a Thompson Chain Reference Bible is. What is a Thompson Chain training?
It was initially begun by one of the men who is now one of the general editors of the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. And that Bible is now published by Zondervan as of two years ago. John Jauchen began a ministry of pastoral training in the Philippines in the 1960s. He’s a graduate of Dallas Seminary, as I am. He decided he needed a tool to train pastors who had limited resources. He couldn’t buy everybody a full theological library, but quite frankly, he found a condensed theological library in the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Not that it gives commentary, because it doesn’t. And that’s one of the things that distinguishes the Thompson Chain Reference Bible from all other study Bibles on the market.
We like to say that the Thompson Chain Reference Bible is a true study Bible. Most of the study Bibles are what you might call answer Bibles. They give an interpretation of the text, and usually, the interpretation reflects a particular theological orientation. However, the Thompson Chain Reference Bible simply regroups some 4,200 different topics and over 100,000 verses. It allows you to study those themes by chains comparing scripture with scripture. And then, in the back, there are some 600 pages of reference material that is largely historical and background in nature rather than interpretive in nature. So, if you’re looking for an all-in-one tool to train pastors, the Thompson Chain Bible is an absolutely amazing tool.
In 2007, a man who also graduated with me from Dallas named Chuck Ballard decided to leave the pastoral ministry in the States and begin the same type of training in Africa. He started African Pastoral Training, which is the African expression of the International Thompson Bible Institute. Since 2007, they have trained more than 20,000 pastors on the African continent.
How did you get started doing these trainings?
As we were leaving the pastoral ministry in Oregon, I began looking for different ministries with whom I could collaborate, specifically in Africa, because I sensed that is where one of the greatest needs for pastoral training was. I ran across African Pastoral Training, and as I called the director, Chuck Ballard, I discovered that we had been classmates at Dallas Seminary. I also discovered that John Jauchen had come to preach in the church that I pastored as I was right out of seminary in 1983. At that time, he actually, in a very kind way, tried to recruit me. But we turned him down. I said I felt like the Lord was leading us to France with OC International.
But nearly 40 years later, we ended up working in the same organization, even though John is largely retired now. On my first trip, while I was still a pastor in Portland, I went to Senegal as a translator for the director, Chuck Ballard. As he taught and I translated into French, I said to myself, this seminar is absolutely amazing. I must be involved in this.
How often do you do them?
About four times a year at this point. For example, I was in Cameroon in the month of March. I was in the Ivory Coast in the month of June. My wife and I leave next week for France. She’ll stay in France and minister there, and I’m going to Senegal to do a refresher course with our national trainers for two weeks. And then, in October and November, I’ll either be in Rwanda or possibly the DRC. There are some issues we’re trying to decide. And then, in between, my wife and I will be (for the first time) in Canada to do a training session for about 35 French-speaking pastors near Montréal, Canada.
How do you structure your training?
The training takes three days and consists of three basic areas.
One is how to use the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Because it’s not an easy Bible to navigate, you have to understand the system in order to use it effectively.
The second part of the seminar is devoted to what we call inductive Bible study methods, how to study the Bible. But that is taught by them doing it. In other words, the seminar is very interactive in nature. For example, we’ll take them through the study of the chain called Christ Shepherd because it relates specifically to them being shepherds as pastors. With a large whiteboard, we study inductively the chain of eight verses so they’re learning methodology as we do that.
The third component of the seminar covers homiletics: how to develop a message, how to preach, how to take the results of your Bible study and turn them into an expository message for the people in the church. We do this because, in terms of pastoral training, that is the area, particularly in Africa, that is lacking the most.
How would one of your newly trained pastors conduct a seminar?
The seminar itself normally lasts two and a half days. But we say three days for the trainers. We begin at 8:00 in the morning. There’s a time of worship. Then, during each day, they conduct approximately 7 to 8 different sessions. Those sessions have to do with the three areas that I mentioned earlier. Although not always in order, we’re always dealing with one. We’re going back and forth between those three areas. We use the same seminar John Jauchen developed in the Philippines because it’s put together with a particular flow and development that moves between those three different elements back and forth. When the participants have finished 2 1/2 days of intensive training from 8:00 AM in the morning until 5:00 PM in the evening, they are better equipped to study and preach the scriptures.
How do you arrange for or set up a training?
One of our blessings, but also challenges, is we don’t have to go out beating the bush. We have more requests than we could possibly respond to. And now we’re beginning to see the trainers that we have trained actually moving into other countries themselves. But all of these are African trainers.
An example would be Togo, a French-speaking country in West Africa. We hope to be in Togo at the beginning of next year. A mission group called Mission Onecontacted us. They’re involved in leadership training in that country, and through a series of events, they heard about our training in West Africa and said they really need this for their pastors. They’re going to finance the whole thing. At this point we’re normally not moving into new countries because we’re so busy trying to raise up and train national teachers of our seminars in the countries where we’re already represented. But since this mission group volunteered to foot the bill, we probably will go into Togo at the beginning of the next year. We’re represented at this time in about 15 to 17 French and English-speaking countries in Africa.
My main role at this point is teaching the trainers of our seminars. So, for example, in Senegal, we have three certified trainers. I’m going to give them a refresher course, and then they will be the ones who will be teaching a couple hundred pastors in the next few weeks while I coach them. I went to Ivory Coast where two of our best teachers serve. I was there as a coach while they taught some 300 pastors. But as we go into a new country, I or one of our international trainers, will teach until we identify several key national pastors. Then our main job is to train them and set them free to do the training.
Usually, I’m there for two weeks. In most countries, except where we already have a very well-trained national teaching team, I take the nationals that we have chosen to be teachers, which is no more than three, through training themselves and then setting them loose to train. So, given the distance from the USA, I try to get there a couple of days ahead of time. I may preach in a church on the Sunday after I arrive, which is often the case. Then, I have three days of training our trainers, coaching them through every aspect of the seminar. After that, I spend another week and a half observing them teaching three seminars themselves. I do a coaching evaluation on them every day and help them improve their teaching methodology. So, it usually takes two weeks to two weeks and a couple of days. I try not to be gone more than that.
What sort of team helps you before and during training?
Normally, I don’t take any team with me because we have our team of national pastures already there. However, I am always looking for people to go with me from the States, mainly with the objective of them understanding the ministry and being able to be a voice for the ministry. In the case of Rwanda, possibly later this year, I have a young 16 or 17-year-old, home school student whose parents support us, who wants to go with me. So, taking him will be an opportunity for him to see the ministry and maybe receive a call into missions himself.
What sort of feedback do you receive from attendees?
I just got an e-mail today from our trainer in Ivory Coast. He and his colleague are two of the very best teachers we have, and we’re now sending them to Mali, just to the north of the Ivory Coast. Mali is 98% Muslim and, quite frankly, a country that, due to security risks, I could not go into. But they’re going to go in under protection and do an exploratory seminar with pastors there in the coming months. That is just really exciting for us. And they are constantly telling us the impact that it is making. They’re teaching, on average, 600 pastors a year in these three areas. And so, the ministry is multiplying very rapidly.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Two things moved me in this direction. First was the urgent need for pastoral training. Believe it or not, 85% of pastors worldwide have no formal theological or pastoral training. There are 2.2 million pastoral leaders in the world today and 85% are without adequate training. That really challenged me as a pastor. I pastored for two years in East Texas, 15 years in Portland, and 4 in Belgium. So, I was in pastoral ministry for about 21 years. Even part of my ministry in France as a missionary was as part of a pastoral team. I felt like, wow, we just really need to do something. The Lord linked me up with Dr Ramesh Richard from Dallas Seminary, who has what’s called the G-Pro Congress. He is mobilizing pastoral training worldwide. We were just at an international congress in Panama City last October, and that really challenged me.
The second thing is answering the question, “Why pastoral training in Africa?” Estimates are that by 2050, 38% of all believers in the world will be living in sub-Saharan Africa. The church is growing at a rate of 33,000 people per day, either being born into a believing family or coming to faith in Christ. So, sub-Saharan Africa is where the most urgent need is for pastoral training, particularly in the area of Bible study and preaching biblical messages. The average approach from an African pastor—I don’t say this is a generalization—it’s really true—is to open the Bible, take a verse, and go off in any of 100 directions with it. There’s really a need for an understanding of expository preaching. Ramesh Richard often says societal health is dependent on church health, and church health is dependent on pastoral health. So, our primary objective is to contribute to pastoral health in sub-Saharan Africa. That will strengthen the church and, as a result, reach more people with the gospel.
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