Conservative Baptist Seminary - Asia - Training at the Sharp Ends

Training at the Sharp Ends

Grassroots-venue training for a grassroots Christianity

Do the math! Ten percent of the evangelical churches in the Philippines are led by pastors who have adequate ministerial/theological training. According to DAWN 2000, nowadays there are almost 60,000 evangelical churches in the country. Check out 10% of that. That’s how delicate the situation is.

Director Nicky Joya teaching a Hermeneutics course at a new RTC for FLAG-CD, North Manila

Moreover, many church members feel the need to help their pastor in his tasks like preaching, counseling, etc. This introduces a new set of people who need to be trained. Like what a CBAP pastor always says, “Training is not the determinant for a calling, but a called person most certainly needs training! The ‘able men’ of the Bible were made able by education and the truth of the Bible.”

Prof. Norbert Manzano leading a group of pastors and church leaders in a New Testament Survey course at the new Taytay RTC.

In such a short time, CBS-Asia has expanded to 13 RTCs with some located in La Union, Nueva Ecija, Naga, Zambales and countless others in the national capital region. It has partnered with the International School of Theology – Asia, the Southern Baptist School of Theology and the Great Blessings Presbyterian Missions, not to mention the countless non-CBAP students from circles of the Full Gospel, Pentecostal, Charismatic and other Baptist denominations. It has expanded from 2 professors to close to twenty, staff of three to a staff of six and 13 other volunteer administrators. It has gained the favor of students with high-profile occupations – CEOs, business proprietors, architects, lawyers, engineers, company & government executives, military servicemen to name a few. This list does not even include pastors & missionaries and countless others from the labor sector. It has facilitated the recruitment of new pastors from CBAP and non-CBAP churches.

In this short period of time, CBS-Asia has risk-jumped from a burning platform onto the plain of God’s will for theological/ministerial education.

New Regional Training Centers

Quezon RTC meets every Friday evening (7 PM) at Sariaya Conservative Baptist Church and Saturday morning (8 AM) at Lucena Baptist Church.
The second RTC of EastMar at GCF East in Taytay meets every Saturday morning at nine o’clock and in the afternoon at one.
North Manila churches has another RTC catering to FLAG-CD churches at GCF-North. This meets every Tuesday at 7 PM.

It is not hard to find why God anointed this effort. From the Old Testament to the New, there had been a recurring doctrine of training. In fact, the discipleship dam that broke forth in the Great Commission, has an inescapable undercurrent of training. As one CBS-Asia faculty has said, “No wonder we are flowing through with God’s provision.” From the measly 750K annual budget we have less than four years ago, now we have 3.9M. God has graciously provided the 70% of the total amount and we continue to wait as He finally meets the se\minary’s needs.

One particular comment is that it is just nom de plum for theological education by extension. Wrongfully so, it is not. It is more than that. An RTC has three elements needed for a successful learning experience for the students: (1) hands-on, (2) personal and (3) professor-practitioner training for students.

We call it hands-on because professors are actually there and facilitating the learning. This is hands-on because the minds and the hearts of the students are carefully guided by a trained
faculty. The classroom activities are facilitated by a trained professor.

We call it personal because we employ an application-oriented approach to our teaching objectives. However, this practical emphasis does not mean CBS-Asia has taken in a pragmatic approach to training – where truth is only functional. God forbid! While it is important for the seminary to “set people free” as the end-product of training, it is the priority of CBS-Asia to teach “truth” which then will function as “setting people free.”

The new RTC in North Manila catering to churches in the FLAG-CD area was attended by more than 50 church leaders and workers.

We call it professor-practitioner training because all of our professors have adequate pastoral experience. A great majority of our professors have been serving the Lord for the past ten years. Also, all of our professors have graduate degrees (masteral or doctorate). The professor then is a flux of academic and pastoral experience.

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Apr May 2008 Jun