Our Story

Telos (τέλος) is the Greek noun for completion, maturity, or fulfillment. It holds the idea of a task, even a person, being accomplished. That’s what we are about. We serve the church in the fulfillment of the task Jesus has left us:

Ever since C. Peter Wagner declared church planting as the greatest strategy for the spread of the gospel around the world (1990), church planters have taken up the banner of what is no doubt one of the most obvious results of making disciples in the book of Acts. Indeed, Tim Keller writes, “The continual planting of new congregations is the most crucial strategy for the growth of the body of Christ” (2012). Pick up any church planting text these days and you’ll hear similar remarks. In fact, Ed Stezter and Daniel Im go so as far as to say, “We are most like Christ when we join him in the mission of reaching the unchurched by planting new churches” (2011, p. 26). Both domestically and internationally, the need and opportunity to make disciples who gather in community has never been greater. 

Yet, church planting is not all that disciples do . . .

Today around the world, many Christian leaders are experiencing a theological famine. Would you consider joining us to end this famine for 1,000 pastors and missionaries?

The Need

By some estimations, there are as many as 50,000 new baptized believers each day. As Ramesh Richards notes, 

“…if a pastoral leader is able initially to provide pastoral care for a group of 50 believers, 1,000 new pastors are daily needed to serve the 50,000 new believers baptized every day. We are rather behind. How may we quicken the pace of pastoral training … while increasing the quality … everywhere?”

The Opportunity

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity:

“The CSGC estimates a total of 5 million pastors/priests in all Christian traditions worldwide (Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and Independents, including bi-vocational). Of these, we estimate that 5% (250,000) are likely to have formal theological training (undergraduate Bible degrees or Master’s degrees). This is based on incomplete responses in survey results from colleges and seminaries in our Global Survey on Theological Education. Roughly 70% of these pastors are in Independent congregations. Independent pastors, in particular, have little theological training, even in the West.“

Are you passionate about learning how the New Testament church grew and how you might catalyze those lessons in your church?

We are too! The study of the Ephesian movement focuses on empowering people to use their gifts (2 Tim 1:3-6), inspiring them to join in hardship (2 Tim 1:8-14), entrusting them to teach faithful people to carry on the mission (2 Tim 2:1-7), and reminding them to preach the word in season and out of season (2 Tim 3:16-4:2). These are mission critical characteristics of spiritual multiplication and lead to innovating ways that you and your team can engage contemporary culture with the story of God.