Equipping Pastors International -- Matthew Burt
equippingpastors.com
I have completed my fourth year of teaching with the Reformed Seminary of Latin America (SRL Seminario Reformado Latinoamericano) this year. One big change this year from previous years is that Reg accompanied me on all of my trips. She is a wonderful support in every aspect of this ministry. She is able to use her knowledge of Spanish to interact with the students and others who attend the lectures. It is so much better for me as well, rather than staying home.
In February, we went to Cochabamba, Bolivia where I taught Introduction to Theology. This site houses a dozen residential students on the third floor of a beautiful church building. In addition to hosting SRL, this church is involved in planting another eight Reformed Churches in other Bolivian towns, including Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the largest city in Bolivia. Each evening as I lectured, some forty persons of all ages from the host church joined the students as they learned together. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the week was acclimating to the 8,500’ above sea level elevation. The air is thin up there!
In March, Reg and I went to Barcelona, Spain where I was one of the speakers for the first Reformed Theology Conference in Spain sponsored by SRL. Over 650 participants registered for the two-day conference! Ligonier Ministry also participated and gave away a pallet of Spanish-language Reformation Study Bibles to pastors and students. One result of this conference is the establishment of an SRL teaching site, training future pastors and church-planters in Barcelona. Another result is that five other Spanish cities have expressed interest in having SRL come to begin pastor training sites! Imagine our surprise when we saw a precious married couple from San Diego, CA, who have been my students as part of the audience.
In April, we made my seventh trip to Medellin, Colombia, again to teach Introduction to Theology. Here I was welcomed by former students as well as a cohort of first-year students. Our building, which is in the city that formerly served as Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel, houses 30 students, a full kitchen and dining facility, two classrooms, the best library of Reformed literature in Colombia, a video recording studio, administrative offices, and the home of SRL’s online platform. I wish you could experience the enthusiasm and commitment of both the students and the incredible administration team.
August found us back at Iglesia El Camino de Fe, the host church of the SRL site in Orlando. There, I taught History of the Medieval Church. This group meets in the evening because the students are all working during the day. Here, too, we were reunited with precious brothers and sisters and shared their joy of learning the mighty works of God in ages past.
This week, I am teaching Medieval Church History via Zoom to our site in Honduras. The local director in Honduras is the first student that Reg and I met when we went to Colombia in 2021! As much as we wanted to make the trip and teach in person, it seemed that the best use of time, energy, and funds is to use this medium. At present, I am scheduled to teach three courses in 2026 and to be a speaker at the annual Pastors’ Theology Conference in Medellin in June.
Lastly, I was asked to participate as a speaker for the 26th annual SRL fundraising banquet in October. We are praying that God will fund a one-million-dollar budget. SRL board member Mimi Acosta explained that this budget provides an education opportunity for nearly 1,000 students in over twenty locations in many countries and online. It pays a humble salary to three employees in the USA and provides compensation for staff in other Latin American countries. It provides a $3,500 yearly scholarship to each residential student. It also maintains buildings and operational costs.
None of this money goes to supplying teaching faculty for the seminary’s many teaching sites—200 professors per year. I am one of the 200 because of your contribution and partnership. I am grateful for your invaluable help and to be your representative in this incredible educational outreach that is producing a multitude of well-educated ministers bringing the glorious truths of the sixteenth-century Reformation in Europe to the Spanish-speaking world of the twenty-first century.
I encourage you to sign up for the monthly SRL newsletter as well.
www.srlseminaro.org (the site in is English!) May God bless you greatly as you partner with SRL and me,
