Strengthening the Filipino Church for the Gospel

This story is Part Four of our year-end campaign: Equipping the Nations to Reach the Nations. As you read what God is accomplishing around the world, we invite you to partner in this ministry by supporting student scholarships with a year-end gift. Our goal is to raise $2.5 million by December 31 to continue equipping pastors across our 19 member schools.

Is the Great Commission only for the West? 

The outflow of a healthy church is an active commitment to God’s mission. “The Gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10) was Jesus’ instruction to the apostles, the first church planters. Their obedience remains the blueprint for the church everywhere.

In the Philippines, several local churches have taken the next step to equip and send their own members into the world. This year, in partnership with The Expositor’s Academy (TEA), these churches are launching a new Filipino-based missions organization.

An archipelagic country in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is well-positioned to be a central missions hub for several reasons. The country is geopolitically central and a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, allowing nationals to travel relatively freely in the region.

This access extends beyond Asia. In 2023, over two million Filipino workers were employed abroad (Philippines Statistics Authority). Filipinos are able to work in closed and restricted-access contexts where many Westerners cannot, such as the Middle East. The Philippines continues to be one of the greatest exporters of local labor in the world.

All of these represent opportunities for strategic gospel work. But for these opportunities to bear fruit, the Filipino church must take the helm—led by pastors trained to shepherd and send their members with theological clarity.

As an outflow of their training ministry, TEA began to consider how to encourage Filipino churches to maximize their missional impact.

A Partnership for the Gospel

Since 2008, TEA has been equipping Filipino pastors and ministry leaders to serve across the Philippines and Asia. Over the years, graduates of the training center have developed a close group of like-minded churches throughout the Philippines. Under the leadership of trained men, these churches have already become mature in their ecclesiology and missiology.

But they needed support to effectively send their members out—tools and processes to ensure a biblical missions philosophy, financial accountability, and theological consistency.

Last year, TEA gathered leaders from those churches and shared their vision to develop a church-based missions organization.

“Our goal is to come alongside these churches and to help train the people under the authority, under the purview and leadership of these churches”

A faculty member at TEA recalled, “They all said, ‘Yes, we need this. We could really use some help in thinking through how to best send and support missionaries and determine who we partner with.’

“So, this organization—led by these churches—was put together to ensure that biblical principles were being applied to the sending process, as well as the supporting process.”

TEA's desire is to play a supporting role to the existing churches’ ministries.

“Our goal is to come alongside these churches and to help train the people under the authority, under the purview and leadership of these churches,” faculty explained.

Through this partnership, churches will identify missionary candidates and facilitate discipleship and preparation processes, while TEA will come alongside these churches and provide tools for training. For example, TEA is specifically developing new missions courses and curriculum for such candidates, based on TMAI’s Biblical Missions textbook.

This year, TEA also partnered with these churches to host two missions conferences in Manila and Davao City. Speakers, including Mark Tatlock, Chris Burnett, and Rodney Andersen, emphasized the responsibility of the church and the centrality of missions seen throughout Scripture. The conferences were attended by over a thousand people representing churches across the Philippines. Many came away with a new understanding of their own role in the advancement of the gospel.

“It’s not just the Western church, but all churches are called to the ministry of the Great Commission”

“I could bring this back to our church by being a mission-minded Christian,” one pastor said.

TEA faculty reiterated, “It’s not just the Western church, but all churches are called to the ministry of the Great Commission.”

A Movement Among the Churches

The Filipino church is best equipped to reach its own people.  

Millions in the outer reaches of this nation—some seven thousand islands strong—have yet to hear the clear teaching of scripture in their own language. The Filipino church is also well-positioned to send workers into the global harvest.  

But to accomplish both, it must first grow in its understanding of its biblical role in missions. 

“There's just so much opportunity,” TEA faculty shared. “Pray that the Lord would move churches here in the Philippines to think biblically about missions and to be a part of the Great Commission, both here domestically and throughout the world.  

That's the hope—that this organization would be a catalyst for a missions movement among the Filipino churches.” 

The partnership of mature churches in the Philippines is the first step in such a movement. But the multiplication of gospel ministry still depends on pastors and teachers who have been equipped to rightly handle the Word.  

The sound preaching of Scripture awakens believers to Christ’s commands. The patient shepherding of the flock equips them to obey. As a church matures, its members will seek to imitate the New Testament model in fulfilling the Great Commission.  

This is why the training of pastors remains central to the work of missions. As churches grow in faithfulness, their ability to send and support gospel laborers grows with them. What is taking shape among the churches in the Philippines reflects what God is doing through TMAI across the world, as local churches take responsibility for the Great Commission under biblically trained leadership. 

The continuation of this work depends on the preparation of men who are eager to serve but often lack the financial means to pursue theological training. Student scholarships make it possible for pastors to be equipped, churches to be strengthened, and gospel ministry to extend beyond national and cultural boundaries. 

As we come to the close of this year, TMAI’s goal is to raise $2.5 million for student scholarships across our 19 member schools. We invite you to prayerfully consider making a year-end gift by December 31 at 11:59 PM PDT. Your generosity directly supports the training of pastors who will lead, send, and serve for the sake of Christ’s church. 

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