Revised October 2026. Figures in this essay were checked against current sources, and some claims were corrected to match what ENDS is and does today. Where ENDS stands today is set out on the accountability page.
When people picture pastor training, they often picture a classroom, a stack of textbooks, and a diploma at the end. On the frontier, most of that picture falls apart. Pastors there often cannot rely on printed books, and the churches they serve gather in homes and under trees rather than in lecture halls. So training has to take a different shape. What we have designed is a two-year path built around speech, testing, and the slow formation of character. It is a first draft (v0.1), awaiting theological review and not yet piloted. But its shape is worth describing plainly, because the shape tells you what we actually believe about making a shepherd.
Why the shape is oral, in-country, and gated
Three commitments run through the whole design, and each one is a deliberate choice rather than a limitation we settled for.
First, it is oral-first. Many of the peoples being reached pass on what matters through the spoken word, not the printed page. A man who can read a textbook but cannot teach a truth aloud to his people has not been trained for his people. So the curriculum is built to be heard, repeated, and taught back. We have written more on this in why oral cultures need more than printed curriculum.
Second, it is in-country. The design does not pull a man out of his village, send him abroad for years, and return him as a stranger. He would be trained where he lives, among the people he will serve, by those who already know the ground. Formation is meant to happen in the same place the ministry happens.
Third, it is competency-gated. A man does not move forward because months have passed. He moves forward because he has shown, in front of others, that he can do the thing the phase was meant to teach. Time does not promote him. Demonstrated faithfulness does.
The design at a glance
On paper, the path runs 24 months and is organized into four phases, seventeen modules, and roughly 416 hours of structured formation. Those numbers are not the point, but they are honest markers of scope. This is not a weekend seminar. It is designed as a sustained apprenticeship.
We say plainly that this curriculum is a first draft (v0.1). It is awaiting theological review, it has not been piloted, and it has no field outcomes yet. We describe its shape here so that donors and churches can see clearly what they would be joining, not so that we can claim results we have not yet earned. You can read how we think about that honesty in what donors deserve to know.
Phase one: Foundations
The first phase lays the ground. Before a man handles doctrine or leads a church, he needs a settled grasp of the gospel he is being asked to give his life to, and an honest look at his own walk with Christ.
Foundations covers the basic story of Scripture, the character of God, the meaning of the cross and resurrection, and what it means to follow Christ as a disciple before leading others as a pastor. It also begins the long work of examining a man's own life. Paul tells Timothy to keep a close watch on himself and on the teaching, in that order. The self comes first. A man cannot give what he has not received.
This phase is also where the oral method is set. A man learns to hear a passage, hold it, and speak it back faithfully. That skill carries through everything that follows.
Phase two: Word and Doctrine
The second phase turns to handling Scripture rightly. A pastor's first task is to feed the flock the Word of God, not his own opinions. So this phase trains a man to read a text, understand what it actually says, and teach it without twisting it.
Alongside that, it lays out the main lines of Christian doctrine: God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, the Spirit, the church, and the last things. Not as abstract theory, but as the truths a shepherd must guard and pass on. Paul charges Titus to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he can give sound teaching and correct those who contradict it. That is the aim here.
Doctrine on the frontier is not a luxury. Where the church is young and false teaching spreads quickly, a man who cannot tell truth from error will not last, and neither will those who follow him.
Phase three: Shepherd and Church
The third phase moves from the text to the flock. Knowing the Word is necessary but not enough. A pastor has to shepherd real people: the grieving, the wandering, the divided, the sick.
This phase covers the ordinary work of pastoral care, the ordering of a local church, the meaning of the ordinances, church discipline, and the character required of the men who lead. Scripture is specific about that character. The qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are mostly about a man's life, not his gifts, and the office of overseer is given to men who meet them.
This is slow work, and it cannot be rushed. We have written about that at length in the slow work of making a shepherd. You do not manufacture a shepherd in a term. You form one over time.
Phase four: Multiplication
The final phase looks outward. A pastor who only gathers a congregation and stops has done half the work. The aim from the beginning is that the man being trained will one day train others, and that the church he serves will help plant more.
Multiplication covers evangelism among the unreached, discipling new believers, raising up the next set of leaders, and starting new congregations. Paul's instruction to Timothy sets the pattern: what you have heard from me, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Four generations are named in that one verse. That is the shape we are aiming at.
This is also why the model is built around national pastors rather than sent-in workers alone. A man from the people, trained among the people, is positioned to keep this going long after any outside help withdraws. We have laid out that reasoning in national pastors versus missionaries.
James Bell is Founder and Director of ENDS, Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fenton, Michigan, founder of the Pastors Connection Network, and author and creator of LiveWell by James Bell. He writes on world missions, national-pastor training, and the unfinished work of the Great Commission. More about James Bell.