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 Through the years, Open Doors has learned that training and encouraging pastors and church leaders is the most effective way to support strong, healthy local churches, especially among those facing persecution. We help these brave leaders study and teach the Bible in a way that brings the courage of truth to their people.
 The professional ministers who we are used to seeing on Sunday mornings are not typical of the kind of pastor who leads a congregation in areas where the Church faces persecution. Often the person made responsible for shepherding a group of persecuted Christians is a fairly new believer.
The shocking reality is that less than 10 percent of Christian leaders in places of persecution have received any form of theological training. In addition, these leaders are spread thin between their vast amount of responsibility and the second jobs they usually maintain to support their families.
We respond by providing training seminars and leadership institutes that accommodate Christian leaders' restrictions on time, travel, and finances.
To support these courageous believers who shoulder the pressures of leading a congregation with little training while facing opposition from the outside, we simply must help them in whatever way we can. As a result of our "Standing Strong Through the Storm" seminars and Biblical courses like those at our Timothy Training Institute, Open Doors was able to equip over 114,400 persecuted church leaders in 2008. You can help us surpass that number now in 2009!
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