Pastors Trained to Reach UUPGs

As the “H” initiative of our Daring Faith goals, we are helping to take the Good News to the last 3,000 unreached tribes. In an effort to make this happen, Saddleback is sharing Purpose Driven strategies with other churches in order to go beyond what Saddleback can do alone.

This mighty step equips churches to implement the five purposes. They can then train other churches to reach those that have no Bible, no believer, and no body of Christ. Exemplifying this multiplication model were 35 pastors who recently attended the Eurasia PD Conference at our Rancho Capistrano campus on October 5–7.

Representing three denominations and 10 churches, pastors were trained on Purpose Driven Essentials to reach neighboring Unengaged Unreached People Group’s (UUPGs) through the mobilization of their members. This event set the stage for April 25-28, 2017 when our GPC partners will host a PD event in Moscow to train church leaders throughout Eurasia.

Overseeing the conference was Andrew Lossau, Saddleback’s 401/Global PEACE Pastor and PD Regional Director for Eurasia. “One of our GPC partners co-hosted the event,” he explains, “and we’re excited to nominate three more GPCs in the coming months. We want to help churches in Eurasia bring people in, build them up, train them forward, and send them out for the global glory of God, so that they might reach their own communities in a healthy way.”

Currently, there are more than 400 UUPGs in Eurasia and specifically 85 found within the territory of the Russian federation. The PD multiplication model trains pastors to share what they’ve learned with fellow church leaders, and ideally equip volunteers to champion each of the five purposes. This empowers members to serve and lead others to balance the five purposes, both personally and in the church body. The goal is achieve church health.

Embracing this vision were the 35 pastors who gained insight from Pastor Andrew, Pastor Tom Holladay, and other PD leaders. During the three-day event, God moved through the collaboration and unity of different denominations, coming together to discuss church health.

“There was a unified spirit of commitment to starting a church health paradigm within their own context,” explains Andrew. “The movement towards reaching the unengaged in some of the hardest to reach places in the world was just amazing.”

As a church family, our commitment to pray and “go” reach the UUPGs has never been greater. There is still a desperate need for Saddleback members to join PEACE trips, and collaborate with Eurasia churches as their PD development progresses.

“This kind of work can be really tough on pastors and leaders,” explains Andrew. “There is a huge need for prayer that these pastors would have the courage and strength to continue pursuing healthy changes in their churches.”

To learn more about PD, visit pd.church. To participate or attend the April 2017 PD event in Moscow, email globalpeace@saddleback.com.