A Foundation to Reach the Arabic World
For the last seven years, the Shepherd’s Training Institute (STI) has served pastors in the Middle East and North Africa—a region of stark need.
Few pastors in the Middle East receive quality, biblically based pastoral training. Careful instruction in expositional preaching is unheard of. STI faculty explained, “In the two countries that we work in the most—which are Lebanon and Egypt—there is literally no other place that offers robust training in expository preaching.”
When the training center opened in 2018, it knew the challenges of building a long-term ministry – both from external opposition and from those who claim the name of Christ. The church in this part of the world has a rich, two-thousand-year history. But this history has also led to entrenched traditional and cultural authorities. STI leaders remarked that the strongest antagonism has come from Catholicism, the Orthodox Church, and even other Protestant pastors, who view evangelicalism as cultic.
For several years, the training center developed a small class of four students enrolled in its two-year preaching program. The kind of preaching STI was offering remains foreign to much of the Middle East. But the team pressed on.
In a prayer update, STI leaders explained,
“There are very few Arabic-speaking churches in the Middle East and North Africa region whose pastors exposit on a regular basis. We pray that more pastors (especially among our own graduates) would not just become better preachers, but would become fully convinced that expository preaching is a primary way that the Church can multiply and mature.”
God’s answer to this prayer is becoming clear in several ways. Demand for training has grown from students in Egypt, Sudan and even more North African nations. STI currently has almost 40 students enrolled across two locations.
“In the two countries that we work in the most—which are Lebanon and Egypt—there is literally no other place that offers robust training in expository preaching.”
Just this year, STI launched its Master of Biblical and Theological Studies program in response to students repeatedly asking for deeper training. STI continues to translate and produce resources from commentaries to hermeneutics textbooks to online tools. Several years ago, the team launched an in-depth Bible study site and app to help Arabic speakers understand the original text of Scripture. Leaders emphasized that such a tool “did not exist in the Arabic world”—so they created one.
Graduates from STI’s first class are now becoming examples of the clear and careful preaching of Scripture in places where these models formerly did not exist. The training center looks forward to a time when such churches will be multiplied across the region.
STI’s fruitful ministry has been possible because of TMAI’s supporters. In this season of growth, STI’s is seeking to develop a new building for its ministry. This project has become more urgent for several reasons:
First, the training center operates in a very limited space in Lebanon. STI currently rents a converted three-bedroom apartment for all of its activities. “We don’t have enough classroom space to run all our programs,” leaders said. There are no dedicated offices for the faculty, and the center is outgrowing existing library and storage needs.
Second, the training center needs a permanent base as it pursues ministry throughout the Middle East. Lebanon’s relative openness to Christians makes it possible for students from restricted-access areas to come for modular training.
Third, the training center wants to expand its opportunities for ministry. A dedicated building would allow STI to host visiting students, develop facilities for translation and radio ministry, host conferences, and even support a church plant.
Please consider supporting STI’s building project through the link below. As this region has been central in God’s plan of salvation, we continue to request your prayers for the spread of His Word to draw the hearts of the elect.