What if the best place to train church leaders is not in a distant seminary, but in the very communities where they’re already serving? For Garuna Ministries founder Rev Jeff Ehlers, this conviction has shaped years of work alongside Lutheran churches across Southeast Asia. Rather than bringing pastors and church leaders to Western countries for […]

What if the best place to train church leaders is not in a distant seminary, but in the very communities where they’re already serving?

For Garuna Ministries founder Rev Jeff Ehlers, this conviction has shaped years of work alongside Lutheran churches across Southeast Asia. Rather than bringing pastors and church leaders to Western countries for theological education, Garuna Ministries has increasingly focused on helping leaders study where they live, work, and minister.

The approach challenges a long-held assumption that the most effective theological training requires students to leave their communities and study overseas.

“Stay where you’re at and keep working,” Rev Ehlers says. “You’re a leader of leaders, and we can’t afford you to be gone for four years.”

Having served as a missionary in Thailand during the 1990s, Rev Ehlers witnessed both the strengths and limitations of traditional international theological education. While overseas study can provide valuable opportunities, he observed that it can also create unintended challenges.

Some students are reluctant to return home after years spent in more affluent settings. Others return with qualifications but find themselves disconnected from the people and communities they originally felt called to serve. Most significantly, rapidly growing churches may lose key leaders for several years at precisely the time they are most needed.

These experiences helped shape Garuna Ministries partnership with Grand Canyon University in the United States, which offers an online Master of Arts in Christian Ministry for church leaders across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

The model is intentionally designed around ministry rather than requiring ministry to fit around study. The desire is to equip leaders where they are, strengthen the ministries they are already carrying out, and ensure that learning remains connected to local mission.

Students remain active in their churches while undertaking postgraduate studies. They continue preaching, teaching, mentoring, and leading congregations while engaging in theological reflection and academic learning.

For many participants, this means balancing study alongside full schedules and demanding responsibilities. Some are pastors. Others are Bible school teachers, evangelists, farmers, nurses, educators, or community leaders. In many emerging Lutheran churches, ministry is carried out by people who also maintain other employment to support themselves and their families.

The online format allows them to continue serving while they learn.

The students themselves reflect the diversity of the global church. Recent cohorts have included leaders from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Burundi, the Philippines, and other countries. Students are not simply learning from professors. They are learning from one another.

Through online discussions and Zoom gatherings, church leaders from vastly different contexts discover shared challenges and common questions. Conversations that begin with theology often expand into discussions about culture, leadership, discipleship, community issues, and pastoral care.

Rev Ehlers notes that participants frequently find that they have more in common than they expected.

Many come from contexts where Christians are a minority. Others serve communities facing poverty, social change, or limited educational resources. They share experiences, encourage one another, and develop relationships across borders and cultures.

Rev Ehlers has observed graduates developing greater confidence in leadership, teaching, and problem-solving. He points out that in some educational systems students are accustomed primarily to memorisation and repetition. Graduate study pushes them to analyse issues, think critically, and apply theology to practical ministry situations.

These skills then flow back into local congregations, theological institutions, and church organisations. Some students have used their theological training through media ministry. Others have gone on to teach emerging leaders, strengthen local Bible schools, and support the growth of young Lutheran churches in their own countries.

Technology, which was once viewed simply as a tool for delivering online courses, is now helping church leaders expand their own teaching ministries. Leaders who have experienced online learning are increasingly using digital platforms themselves to train church workers, conduct Bible studies, and connect with people across large geographic areas.

In countries where travel is expensive and infrastructure can be challenging, this creates new possibilities for theological education and discipleship.

Opportunities for theological education are often linked to relocation and significant financial resources. Garuna Ministries’ model offers a different perspective. Rather than asking leaders to leave their communities in order to learn, it enables them to grow while continuing to serve.

If you would like to know more about opportunities to personally support a scholarship recipient in your congregation during their stay in Australia, or ways in which you can financially and prayerfully support LCA International Mission’s scholarship program, you are invited to phone LCA International Mission on (08) 8267 7316 or email lcaim@lca.org.au

Read more stories about LCA International Mission scholarship recipients at https://www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/scholarships/