South Asia pastors respond in spontaneous worship to Pastor Strong training

Editor’s note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of individuals in this story.

In 2014, Kevin Abbott, Area 5 representative and director of Pastoral Health Networks at Texas Baptists, was pastoring First Baptist Church Red Oak and felt God put a burden on his heart to partner with local indigenous pastors in South Asia. He began praying for a partnership. 

“We were supporting somebody in China. We were supporting somebody in Honduras… but I felt like God wanted us to have a personal relationship and partnership with somebody on the ground in South Asia, where some of the highest levels of persecution were starting to happen and are happening because of the Hindu religion,” said Abbott. 

Two years later, in 2016, Abbott’s former pastor and founder of Light the Window Ministries, Joe Moody, reached out to him to have coffee. Moody told him he needed to meet “the Billy Graham of Nepal,” Peter, who is a church planter in South Asia.  

“He's the guy that's well-respected and moving and shaking when it comes to evangelism and church planting and lots of very cutting edge, at least for Indian people in that area, cutting edge church planting movement and gospel movement type stuff,” explained Abbott. “I go, ‘Well, okay, I got to meet this guy.’” 

Peter came to the United States for a visit, and after meeting, Abbott set up a trip with his church’s leadership team to “see the work on the ground [in South Asia] and go to villages and meet pastors.” 

“We came back, and we were all convinced that God wanted us to partner with South Asia and [Peter]… and the rest is history,” said Abbott. “Every couple of years, I've gone over there, except for a couple of years in COVID, but [I’m] always trying to pour into their leaders and connect resources to them and their needs.” 

Before coming on staff at Texas Baptists, Abbott developed Resilient Pastors Cohorts at the Union Baptist Association (UBA), a 6-month learning cohort focusing on the five habits of leaders who finish well. Every time Peter would visit Houston, he would participate in a Resilient Pastors Cohort and “really loved what we were doing.” 

“He said, ‘Man, I would love to bring this to South Asia,’” explained Abbott. “I said, ‘Well, that’s great. Let’s talk about it,’ [and] that turned into a two-year conversation. Then I moved to Texas Baptists, and we're launching [Pastor] Strong cohorts… and that's when I said, ‘What if we could do Pastor Strong South Asia, and I can bring all those elements of what we did in Houston, which are now part of Strong, and bring it over there under the umbrella of Texas Baptists.’” 

This January, Pastor Strong was brought to South Asia.

Developing leaders and spontaneous worship  

On Jan. 20-25, 11 pastors across South Asia met in Nepal for a week-long training on leadership development, focusing on material from J. Robert Clinton’s “The Making of a Leader.” The pastors learned “how God develops a leader over a lifetime and how we can use that as a model of developing our leaders.” 

Abbott said most of the pastors are also regional pastors, mentoring between 5 and 15 pastors each, so they also went through coaching skills training to get “some tools in their bag” for shepherding them. He said he was encouraged by the level of commitment from the pastors to learn and be in community together. 

“[I] told them upfront that this is an alongside formation environment, that we are in a cohort together and really hammered home pretty strong the value of learning and community; that it wouldn't be me lecturing, but we're learning together, and they really took off on that,” said Abbott. “It's kind of a foreign concept to them, and so for them to really engage in that was pretty powerful to watch.” 

Each day was centered around a different theme. The first day evaluated how to finish well. Drawing from “The Making of a Leader,” the pastors considered the six barriers to ministry and the five habits of finishing.

The second day was a session called “Focused Living,” which helps pastors get clarity on their “unique Kingdom calling.” During the session, participants create a sticky note timeline of their life to “gain sovereign perspective of how God has shaped them” for their purpose. 

Abbott said at the end of the day, the pastors reflected on their timelines and were encouraged to “mine out of each chapter a couple of blessings from God or lessons.” After concluding the time with prayer, an older pastor among the group “stood up with his hands in the air and just started singing a worship song.” 

“He was singing this worship song from his heart language of Nepali, and Peter, sitting next to me, leaned over and said, ‘This is what he's singing… I will sing your praise with thanksgiving, oh Jesus, my Lord. Your goodness to me is numerous, millions of thanks. You have given me more than my merit with your compassion. I have received more than I have asked for. I'm grateful to you, oh Lord. You are the true and living God. I have my trust in you, Lord; give me the gifts so I may serve you in such a way that I may get rewards from you,’” explained Abbott.

He said every other pastor soon joined the spontaneous worship session. 

“This was just a response with tears of worship [and] Peter's interpreting to me [and] I didn't know what to think. I was like, ‘Oh, this is powerful,’” said Abbott. “So, those are some of the beautiful things, spontaneous things that [came] out of this with these leaders.”

The international movement of God 

Abbott said Texas Baptists pastors could learn a lot about the power of prayer and passion for the gospel from their South Asian counterparts. 

“As Americans, we tend to get self-dependent… and it's so refreshing to go into an environment like India or Nepal or countries like that… [because] these pastors, they don't do it for the money, they do it for the love of God and the kingdom call of ministry,” said Abbott. “Their hearts bleed the gospel and the need for people. Their passion about the gospel is real.” 

He said they closed every evening on their hotel’s rooftop patio in a glassed-in room, which they donned the “Upper Room” as a reference to Acts 1:12-14, sharing what they learned from the day and praying over each other. 

At the end of the week, the pastors were commissioned to “take this model to your leaders in your regions” to train them to utilize the same skills they learned during Pastor Strong.

Abbott said he wants the Pastor Strong South Asia cohort to be an encouragement to Texas Baptists pastors that the work being done in Jesus’ name around the world “[is] not dead.” 

“I would encourage our pastors to really lean in and partner with local pastors and… church planter leaders in some of these countries, especially the 10/40 window where the most unreached people groups are, which happens to be mostly Muslim countries and Asian countries,” said Abbott. “I think our pastors, some of them are doing really great at it, but if they're like me, when I was pastoring, my focus was right there on Red Oak and North Dallas County and very little focus on the international movement of God.” 

Partnering with what God is doing internationally 

Looking to the future of Pastor Strong Cohorts, Abbott said he desires for Pastor Strong Texas cohorts to have a “true partnership” with Pastor Strong South Asia cohorts to connect and provide tools and resources for them. He said he would eventually like to set up a sponsorship program where Texas pastors can directly adopt a church and pastor financially. 

The main priority at this time, he said, is for Texas pastors to “gain awareness of what God is doing [in South Asia].” 

“I think it is a great marriage to partner what we're doing here with pastors in Texas and what we're doing at the same time with pastors in South Asia now,” said Abbott “[I] really wanted there to be this type of partnership and support amongst our local pastors with what God's doing internationally.”

Abbott said this trip “reconfirmed the power of the process” and the design of the cohorts. 

“[I learned] that this type of training… works in any culture, in any language, and that leaders struggle with the same things everywhere; it just is flavored a little bit different,” said Abbott. “I was reaffirmed in Nepal in this training, once again, the power and the need for what we're trying to do as Pastor Strong Cohorts in Texas: that we want a different type of environment. We want an environment where you come alongside each other, and you learn together… [It was] a confirmation that what we've been doing is valuable.” 

To learn more about Pastor Strong Cohorts and how they can be a resource for you, visit txb.org/ministries/pastor-strong-cohorts.