ABOUT TLI
Where We Work
Training Leaders International trains pastors around the world, partnering with local leaders who have invited us to provide the theological training pastors and leaders desperately need. We meet this need through modular training, international church plants, teaching in formal schools, and planting schools.

Brazil / Atibaia
TLI partners with the First Baptist Church of Atibaia (PIBA) in Atibaia, Brazil. Since 2013 TLI has provided consulting, support, and instructors to help them start their own church-based seminary (EPPIBA). Students receive both academic training and supervised ministry experience as a PIBA elder mentors them over the course of three […]

Brazil / Natal
Have you ever wondered what it looks like for a region to see, on the one hand, significant church growth and, on the other hand, the equally striking advance of false teaching? It looks like Nordeste, the northeastern region of Brazil, where the prosperity gospel and extreme versions of liberal theology […]

Brazil / Tefé
The State of Amazonas in Brazil is a beautifully lush and diverse region known for its famous Amazon River. Many areas in this region are only accessible by boat or plane, yet the Lord is building His church in remote towns and villages along the river. In 2022 TLI […]

Cameroon / Yaoundé
Cameroon is the most complex nation in Africa with its 290+ language groups. In partnership with Église Baptiste Bethléem, Bethlehem College & Seminary, and Treasuring Christ Together, TLI is engaged in church-planting, the establishment of an accredited MDiv Program, the equipping of Cameroonian pastors to strategically use the TLI curriculum, and […]

Chile / Santiago

Diaspora / Minneapolis, MN
In partnership with the North American Mission Board, we have begun training migrant leaders in Minneapolis from primarily a Hmong background. Many pastors who are first-generation immigrants do not have access to the opportunities around them for training and education. These ministry leaders find themselves in a similar position to those […]

Diaspora / Pico Rivera, CA
TLI is partnering with First Bilingual Baptist Church (FBBC) in Pico Rivera, California (southeast Los Angeles metro), to lead the first Spanish-speaking workshop for the newly redesigned Diaspora Training. In addition to a high value on expository preaching and teaching, FBBC has a strong heritage of cultural cooperation and unity across […]

Diaspora / West Des Moines, IA
TLI is partnering with Soteria Des Moines Church in West Des Moines, Iowa, to sponsor the first site of the newly redesigned Diaspora Training. Located in a rapidly developing rural corner of southeast West Des Moines, Soteria Des Moines has celebrated over five decades of faithfulness, and seeks to be known […]

Diaspora / Cleveland, OH
TLI is partnering with The Church at West Creek in Parma, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland), to offer preaching workshops for diaspora pastors in Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. These workshops will be hosted primarily at Cleveland Romanian Baptist Church in Seven Hills. Parma and Seven Hills are communities with a strong […]

Diaspora / Phoenix, AZ
TLI is partnering with EFCA West All Peoples Ministries (a ministry of the Evangelical Free Church in America) and Iglesia Bíblica Pan de Vida in Chandler, Arizona (suburb of Phoenix), to offer preaching workshops for Spanish-speaking pastors in the greater Phoenix area. Some participants will even be coming from Albuquerque, NM. […]

Diaspora / Redlands, CA
TLI is partnering with EFCA West All Peoples Ministries (a ministry of the Evangelical Free Church in America), Iglesia Fuente de Vida, and Trinity Church in Redlands, CA (suburb of Los Angeles), to offer workshops for Spanish-speaking church leaders in Southern California. These workshops will be offered in Spanish and hosted […]

Dominican Republic

El Salvador / San Miguel
TLI is partnering with La Iglesia Cristiana por la Gracia de Dios San Miguel. Pastor Job and Pastor Orlando love Christ and the church. The church is involved in several ministries to reach their community and help equip believers: Christian school, church planting, medical clinics, annual and men's and women conferences. […]

Ethiopia / Bishoftu
Bishoftu, also known as Debre Zeyit, is a key city in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, the site of several universities and resorts, and the main base of the Ethiopian Air Force. TLI taught one cohort of church leaders in Bishoftu in 2016~18. Some graduates of that cohort now teach alongside us as […]

Ethiopia / Hawassa
Pastor Tesfaye Nenko Edema, a trainer of ministers who is widely respected among many denominations, invited TLI to launch its first cohort in the Rift Valley city of Hawassa in 2015. That first cohort graduated in March 2018. He and TLI launched the second Hawassa cohort in March of 2019, using […]

Ethiopia / Shashemene
A key crossroad city in southern Ethiopia, Shashemene has several churches but very few preach the true Gospel. A fledgling Bible College has two classrooms and a sparse library. The school’s president is now seeking faculty members. TLI’s non-formal program utilizes this school’s facilities to provide crucial training in Biblical interpretation […]

Ethiopia / Ambo
Ambo is a University town two hours west of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. While the Orthodox church maintains its dominant presence in Ambo, animism is prevalent in the small towns and villages outside of Ambo, where many of our trainees serve. Lacking among the many educational options in Ambo is a […]

Ethiopia / Adama
Adama, also known as Nazret, is a key city in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley on the main rail & road route to the port of Djibouti. It is majority Muslim, but “Pente” (the Ethiopian term for Evangelicals) are boldly planting churches there. Believers in Adama are in danger from the expansion and […]

Ethiopia / Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is a city of 5,000,000 people with a land area similar to Chicago. There are faithful evangelical colleges and seminaries in Addis, as well as a lot of informal missions’ activity. TLI's non-formal training site helps meet the need for those many pastors for whom formal training remains inaccessible […]

Ghana / Northern Region
Northern Ghana is the religious border between Islam dominated north Africa and Christian dominated south Africa. Training Leaders International is partnering with Community Life Church to train church planters in this critical, Christian-minority area. In January 2018, we will be graduating our first cohort. Currently, the plan is […]

Ghana / Esiama
Formal Training options exist in Accra for those who are able to access them. For the majority of Ghanaian pastors and church leaders, however, accessing formal training remains impractical if not impossible. TLI’s non-formal training team has been investing in pastors and church leaders in Northern Ghana for nearly a decade […]

Malawi / Liwonde
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Rural pastors have little access to theological or Biblical training, the health and wealth gospel is prevalent, and Islam is expanding country-wide. Yet there is a solid core of Pastors and leaders who want to preach and teach well. They are […]

Middle East
In partnership with a group of U.S. Churches, we are training 10 pastors from a closed country. Each of these men has planted and pastors multiple village churches in their area. The churches sacrificially give to fund the entire training and provide one pastor each trip to teach […]

Moldova

Mongolia / Ulaan Baatar
TLI is excited to train first-generation pastors in a location just outside the capital city of Ulaan Baatar. With the fall of Communism in 1989, the ideology that had defined life for so long collapsed and left the country in a state of confusion. But the church has been on […]

Namibia / Windhoek
NETS was established in 1991 (shortly after Namibian Independence) by a merger of two theological institutions: Windhoek Theological Seminary (WTS) and Windhoek Evangelical Bible College (WEBCol). The Protestant Unity Church and the Evangelical Bible Church (EBC) were also involved. With so many churches represented in Namibia, there arose the need for […]

Pacific Rim / Oahu, Hawaii
Our mission in the Hawaiian Islands and other Pacific Islands is to serve and equip pastors and churches in the Hawaiian Islands for the sake of the Pacific Islands. Through Oahu Theological Seminary training, informal pastoral equipping and preaching workshops, and involvement with pastoral and denominational networks in Hawaii and […]

Philippines / Luzon
In partnership with a Filipino leader who works to train rural "village" pastors, TLI will begin a new, non-formal training location on the northern island of Luzon just a few hours outside of Manila. New Tribes Philippines has a camp near Olongapo used for training their national and international missionaries, […]

Serbia / Novi Sad
The Baptist Theological Seminary is located in the city of Novi Sad, in the northern part of the country of Serbia. We are a theological institution of the Serbian Baptist Union, dedicated to training pastors and Christian leaders for effective service. For over 70 years BTS has been training men and […]

Sierra Leone / Freetown

Sierra Leone / Makeni

South Africa / Cape Town
One of our global partners will be serving churches in the townships of the Western Cape. His work with pastors will have the specific focus of equipping expository preachers of Christ through weekly Preaching Fellowships.

South Africa / Queenstown
There are many good options for theological training in the major population centers of South Africa. But, since most rural pastors in South Africa are bi-vocational and extremely poor, access to these institutions is difficult. This is especially true in the Eastern Cape. TLI hopes to make a dent in this […]

South Asia I
Recognizing the need for healthy churches in South Asia, in 2017 TLI began partnering with a faithful congregation in a large city to establish a three-year, church-based Master of Divinity program. The seminary began with a cohort of twelve men and a goal of training pastors to plant churches, preach the […]

South Asia II
We are continuing to partner with an experienced local ministry. They have a 40-day training program from which our partner selects certain pastors to participate in our training. This is the second cohort (27 pastors), with a projected graduation of July 2019. Our work here is strategic given the deep need […]

South Asia III
Seeing the tremendous need for vibrant, biblical churches, TLI partners with a faithful church to restart our non-formal training with a second cohort of ministry leaders from surrounding villages. The partner church is a hub of faithful theological training and pastoral care for these fledgling and growing churches.

Sweden / Gothenburg
Sweden is considered one of most secular countries in the world. Although the Reformation and the state Lutheran church left an imprint on Swedish culture, what remains today is an empty shell of Christianity, devoid of the gospel and impotent to save souls. Sweden has a desperate need for […]

Tanzania / Mwanza
Nassa Theological College serves the needs for Bible Training of the African Inland Churches, Tanzania (AICT). The AICT is one of the largest protestant Christian denominations in Tanzania, with over 2,000 churches, 600 ordained pastors and 2000 evangelists. It is estimated that 90% of these leaders have little to no formal […]

Thailand / Chiang Mai
Asia Biblical Theological Seminary of Cornerstone University, in cooperation with multiple mission organizations, makes available graduate level theological education to eligible Christian leaders serving in Asia. Since 1983, this program has provided the opportunity to earn master’s degrees from Cornerstone University while remaining in Asia. ABTS aims to accomplish its […]

Togo / Lomé
In Lomé (Togo), TLI partners with the École Supérieure Baptiste de Théologie de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ESBTAO). This African-led seminary is the denominational school for Baptist churches throughout Francophone Western Africa. ESBTAO is a formal theological site which confers Licence Degrees (the equivalent of a U.S. Bachelors Degree) and is beginning […]

Uganda / Gulu
We work with a group of churches from Wisconsin who have committed to fill all teachers necessary for our trips. Our national partner is the staff of Tutapona Trauma Counseling. Many of the students we work with have gone through Tutapona's trauma rehab program and are leading churches in the […]

Uganda / South Sudan Cohort
We work with a group of churches from Wisconsin who have committed to a long-term relationship with our local partners in Uganda.

Ukraine / Kyiv
Twenty-nine years of political and religious freedom in Ukraine have provided tremendous opportunities for the spread of the gospel, and many who have experienced spiritual thirst have come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Believers today need spiritual meat, discipleship, and deeper biblical study. Unfortunately, after 70 years of […]

United Arab Emirates / Abu Dhabi / Dubai
Gulf Theological Seminary trains pastors and church planters for the 10/40 Window. We are affiliated with gospel-centered churches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We began offering classes in 2015, and our innovative church-dependent pastoral education curriculum launched with the 2016-17 first-year cohort. We are working in partnership with international seminaries and […]

United Arab Emirates / Dubai

Vietnam / Hanoi
Hanoi Bible College serves the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), which includes the Red River Delta region and the northern highland provinces. The majority of students are Hmong, but the ethnic Vietnamese and other minority groups are also represented. Due to significant growth of the church in recent decades, the church […]