Project Amount: $12,500

Field Description: LCMS World Mission has planted a young, vibrant church body in the mountains of Mindanao—The Tagakaulo Lutheran Church of Christ (TLCCP). Since its inception in 1999, the church has grown from 13 congregations to more than 20. In March of 2005, 12 men graduated from the pastoral training program. This is unique in that most of these men had very little formal education before entering the program. Now these 12 men are training others to be pastors and leaders in the TLCCP. Since the Tagakaulo people are training their own spiritual leaders, LCMS World Mission has moved missionaries out of Mindanao and entrusted the work into the hands of local pastors.

This project allows the missionaries that were involved in planting the Tagakaulo church to make periodic visits back to the Tagakaulo people to encourage the local church. While we trust that God is leading this young church, we want to continue to partner with them so that we can encourage them to grow in the grace that God has given them.

LCMS World Mission missionaries will return to the Tagakaulo area three times a year to follow-up and give additional training to Tagakaulo leaders. Todd Roeske will make three trips a year. On two of those trips, Don Treglown, Bruce Lesemann, or Mike Wade will accompany him. Each trip will include a training seminar and visits to local congregations to encourage the church in their growth. Each seminar will include between 30 and 40 church leaders and pastors. Local leaders handle the logistics of the seminars, which are held at one of the local churches.

Todd Roeske gives an account of a recent training event:

“Don Treglown and I led a seminar to teach how to use Crossways International's tract, "The Divine Plan". The tract uses symbols to explain the story of salvation in just a couple of minutes. We hoped that the tract would serve two purposes for the Tagakaulo church. First, it would help members of the church get a better handle on the basics of the Gospel message. Secondly, the tract would provide a tool for Tagakaulo Christians to share their faith with unbelievers. After the second day of the seminar, we requested that as a homework assignment each participant in the seminar find someone in town to whom he could explain the tract. Out of 25 participants, 23 excitedly reported their experiences the next day. They were excited to have a tool to help them explain God's plan.”

In November 2006, Todd Roeske and Mike Wade taught more than 30 church leaders on “Jesus as the Vine,” “Reconciliation,” and “Dealing with Addictions in your Congregation.” Ann Wade taught a one-day women’s seminar on reconciliation. More than 50 women attended. In March 2007, Kim Roeske taught a women’s seminar on “Leading Our Children to Christ.” Fifty-eight women attended this one-day seminar.

The TLCCP has requested that we give them more training in church administrative issues such as Christian leadership, group decision making, financial record keeping, etc. We plan to honor their requests with seminars in the fall and winter of 2007. We intentionally avoid teaching topics that duplicate the in-house training of the Tagakaulo church. Our goal is to help the Tagakaulo church mature into a dynamic mission-oriented church that is equipped to handle its own affairs as its members reach out into the world around them.

 

Contact person: Rev. Todd Roeske

Tagakaulo Seminars in the Philippines

Tagakaulo pastors worship together as part of their monthly seminar time. This is a time to reflect, to study, to worship, and to grow in faith together.