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Click here for a presentation regarding TUMI satellites.
Many urban churches and ministries suffer with discouragement because
there is little lasting fruit. Often there is no plan for leadership
development. The biggest obstacle to successfully planting churches is
training indigenous leaders to be pastors, to be able to rightly divide
the Word of Truth without losing their cultural distinctive. For
decades the Church in America has told the urban poor, “If you want a
theological education, you have to change cultures and know someone who
is rich.” We have basically said, “Do not bother to apply to get Bible
training.” Consequently, biblically sound, evangelical urban leadership
is uncommon.
The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) overcomes four barriers that
urban leaders face in their efforts to receive theological education:
- Cost: Many urban pastors could never afford to attend a traditional seminary.
- Academic
requirements: Many of God's chosen leaders in the inner city have
little more than a high school education and would not be admitted to
most seminaries.
- Proximity: Most urban leaders have a
full-time ministry, a family, and a full-time job, so uprooting their
family and abandoning their ministry to go away to Bible college is out
of the question.
- Cultural relevance: Most of what is taught
in traditional seminaries does not equip an urban pastor to lead a
flock in the inner city, so even if he/she could afford to go to Bible
school, what is taught there is not relevant to daily life.
In 1995 we launched TUMI in Wichita, Kansas, and have trained over 100
pastors there. In 2000 we began establishing satellite Bible Institutes
in other inner cities around the country. We now have 31 such
satellites in the United States, Canada, Honduras, Ghana, and India.
We offer a variety of training materials , but the core seminary-level curriculum is called The Capstone Curriculum, comprised of 16 modules in four subject areas.
Because of a grant we have received, we are able to help with some of
the start-up expenses you may face including curriculum purchases or
computer hardware. If you are interested in establishing a TUMI
satellite in your ministry, the first step is for you to buy our
guidebook entitled, "Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest." This
guidebook explains everything that is involved with launching a TUMI
satellite, including the application and references forms in Appendix
21.
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