Entrusting the Truth to Faithful Men, Who Will in Turn Teach OthersA Summary of the TMAI Symposium – March 2007

On March 3rd Carol and I departed from Atlanta for Los Angeles, California. We had dual purposes for our journey. Mine was to attend a symposium for The Master’s Academy International (TMAI), a consortium of ministry training centers around the globe that are committed to training men for a faithful ministry of God’s Word. Carol’s purpose was to see friends from our days in seminary, folks whom she had not seen in 5 years. We both looked forward to re-visiting people and places among which we had spent 5 years of our lives before heading for Russia.

After arriving in the wee hours of Sunday morning, our first stop before hitting the sack was at In N Out Burger, a favorite eating place of ours with a limited menu but great fast food. After a good night’s rest, we worshipped with brothers and sisters at Grace Community Church, our church home during our seminary days. Dr. John MacArthur was still in the Gospel of Luke, which he had just started when we left five years ago. It was a great time of being part of a large congregational choir, hearing God’s Word, and worshipping with His people in that part of the country.

I attended the TMAI symposium on Monday, March 5th. The theme of the symposium this year was distance learning. Though certainly no replacement for face-to-face discipleship, there are ways to use the power of the internet to supplement theological instruction (consider the apostle Paul’s letters as an early form of distance teaching) and provide training for men who may not be able to study at a seminary fulltime. One such way is simply to post Powerpoint presentations and oral lectures to a website, much like we are doing here with our Bible institute. In fact, in my presentation on how a traditional class on Old Testament survey can be “converted” to a distance learning format, I was able to use our institute class as an example. I also learned things at the symposium that will improve our own Bible institute materials. But the most enjoyable aspect of the symposium was to see men with whom I became friends during my own training now ministering around the world and training men in their respective countries to faithfully teach the Truth. It was the best kind of reunion.

On Tuesday the sixteen training centers represented at the symposium broke up into regional summits. I attended the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit for the four Russian-speaking schools that are part of TMAI. Our main discussion was on building a database of solid theological materials (books, journal articles, course syllabi, etc.) that will be web-based and updateable by each school. This will help each training center know what is available for various theological disciplines, as well as what is currently being translated, so as to avoid duplication of work.

While I was at the symposium, Carol was doing some serious “catching up” with friends. She spent Sunday afternoon with Mary Heath, a dear lady and Georgia native who continues to faithfully serve the Lord into her 80s. On Monday she spent all day with Nancy Green and her family, who now live in Acton, CA. The Green’s kids and ours became good friends when we lived there and still keep in touch; Carol and Nancy also speak occasionally by phone, but had not seen each other since 2002. On Tuesday Carol visited with Debby Stitzinger, Jaclyn’s former piano teacher who has faced various trials of late but remains steadfast in faith, hope, and love. In the evenings Carol and I would rendezvous at one of our favorite old eating places and compare notes. I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of Russian brothers while I was in LA: Zhenya Bakmutsky, a graduate of NBTS who now oversees youth ministry for the Baptist Union throughout the CIS, and Edward Ginrek, the rector of NBTS. Both were in town for the Shepherd’s Conference; Zhenya also sat in with us at our regional summit.

All in all, it was a great trip for both of us. Please pray for the ministries of the teachers and students who make up TMAI as they proclaim the Word of God in their respective countries. If you would like more information about a particular TMAI training ministry, check out the website at www.tmainternational.org.

Frank Pass