The Complexities of Training National leaders During the Twentieth Century that Led to a Vast World-Wide Shortage of Trained Leaders for the Twenty-First Century Church

There is worldwide evidence of a severe modern-day shortage of trained leadership in the church. The purpose of this thesis project is to understand the reasons for the shortage and suggest achievable solutions. Yes, the army of missionaries deployed around the world has accomplished great things for Christ. However, this vast shortage of qualified national leaders came about due to a lack of vision and poor recruitment of theologians and missionary candidates. While missionaries have done a great job planting churches, most were unprepared to train national leaders for these churches. Further, for the last thirty-five years, missiologists have debated contextualization while churches were developing daily with no trained leadership. This project wants to challenge established leaders to correct this impediment to the fulfillment of the Great Commission