Equipping the church

Equipping the church

Elim Missions is working hard to help churches in Pakistan through the ‘Be Equipped’ campaign, Jack Skett reports

Elim Missions is committed to equipping leaders across the world to run their race well. One of our four key campaigns is ‘Be Equipped’ which aims to provide training and resources to leaders around the world to fulfil God’s call on their lives in their contexts.

Through the Be Equipped campaign, we partnered with Dr Keith Warrington to bring his Word and Spirit resources to our partners in the nations. Keith has travelled and taught in a variety of nations, and his resources have continued to equip leaders ever since.

One example is a church in Pakistan which has been using Word and Spirit material since the formation of their ministry in early 2021 (we cannot name the church or its leaders for security reasons). The leaders of the ministry were introduced to Dr Keith Warrington by Pastor Nigel James from New Life Elim Church in Barry, and both Keith and Nigel taught by Zoom during the inaugural Word and Spirit School.

After the graduation of 20-plus students from the initial two-year diploma course, the church has expanded the Word and Spirit Bible School programme and now has four distinct courses running – one for youth based at a local Christian school, one in the church building, one at a women’s training centre, and now a new course on the other side of their city.

This church has also established an annual youth conference, a children’s convention, regular services and a Bible study in its own building, and has reached out to one of the areas where Christians were attacked and churches burned last year.

A new church has been established there, and aid in the way of food, bedding, and kitchen equipment has been donated to local Christian families in the area. The ministry has also been undertaking regular mission trips to a Hindu majority area where they have already witnessed a young woman beginning to follow Jesus.

This church has great faith for the future, and roots everything they do in prayer, the Word of God, the Lordship of Christ, and an expectancy to see the Holy Spirit move powerfully. The church’s pastor, who we cannot name for security reasons, said, “It is a blessing to partner with friends in the UK, and we praise the Lord, our provider, for providing the Word and Spirit programme for us to train many leaders and believers.”

Nigel James said, “Some long time ago a Pakistani believer came to Cardiff for a season but is now back in Pakistan working alongside his brother in the church he leads. I’d used Word and Spirit material in India in previous years, and when these brothers in Christ in Pakistan reached out to me to help them with training, I immediately contacted Keith Warrington, and the partnership has flourished since then.

“I’m maintaining regular contact via WhatsApp, and occasionally teaching on Zoom, but the bulk of the delivery of the Word and Spirit course is by the pastor, his brother and their local team.”

Jack Skett is Comms and Content Creator at Elim Missions

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.