Pastors Become Partners

Discipleship Resources, International has partnered with 14 central conferences to create publishing teams that empower pastors and lay leaders to write, produce, and print the resources they need for their local churches to flourish. The team members are pastors serving as local church pastors or district superintendents. They are lay members who may be students, stay at home moms, teachers, or electricians. The amount of formal education varies widely among the team members – some have not yet completed secondary education,while others have their PhDs. It is rare that any team member has any prior experience or training in journalism, writing, or publishing; but they are all passionate about creating a culture of reading and writing in their local churches and the annual conference.

In North Mozambique, the team has had training in the four areas of publishing: Editorial, Production, Marketing/Distribution, and Finance. The pastors and team members learn the language of a new industry, the skills and programs to succeed in publishing. Pastor Carlton has been on the team since its formation in July 2012. He is a local church pastor with a secondary education, fluent in several indigenous languages and Portuguese. But he receives training from DRI staff members through translation from English to Portuguese. In addition to pastoring full-time, Carlton has committed to be one of the writers, editors, and the treasurer for the Publications Team.

Each of the pastors serving on these Publications teams feels a calling to write and produce resources that are available, affordable, and appropriate to the context in which he or she is serving. Please be in prayer for these pastors who are sacrificing their time, committing to learn and serve their communities in new and vital ways.