Donnie and Rebecca Berry were sent out from Christian Fellowship Church as missionaries with Training Leaders International (TLI) in the summer of 2021. TLI works in over 20 countries to strengthen the global church by providing Biblical and theological instruction and discipleship to pastors and leaders in places where there is little or no access to such training.
Donnie serves as an international trainer with TLI, traveling to schools and training sites around the world to teach and equip pastors. The Berrys are now living in Minneapolis where Training Leaders International is based.
We’d love to tell you more about our work with TLI and how you partner with us. Email Donnie to set up a time to meet (on Zoom or by phone).
Our story of getting to serve the global church through training pastors and leaders is nearly 20 years in the making. After graduating from college at Mizzou, I did a one-year ministry internship at Christian Fellowship. At the end of that year (June of 2004), we traveled to Guatemala on a medical mission trip to ASELSI where we met John and Sharon Harvey, long-time missionaries of Christian Fellowship.
During the trip, I got to travel with John Harvey into the mountains to one of the extension sites where John was training and teaching pastors, and I went to a graduation for pastors who had been part of the training institute. The vision for serving pastors and leaders internationally captured our hearts and we felt it was something we could give our lives to. A seed had been planted in us.
Four years later (in 2008), I finished my seminary degree in Louisville, KY and we returned to Columbia, Mo and to our Christian Fellowship family. I joined the pastoral team and worked toward a doctoral degree in Biblical Studies/New Testament. In 2012, Rebecca and I had the opportunity to travel with Training Leaders International to a school in Uganda, where I got to teach a group of pastors and ministry leaders for two weeks.
We loved getting to know and encourage these leaders, and we were inspired by their hunger for God’s word and their desire to see their nation impacted by the gospel. Once more, the incredible ministry of serving and strengthening pastors and leaders around the world grabbed our hearts, and we wondered where this might lead us someday.
Fast forward eight more years to 2020. Rebecca and I learned that TLI was looking for someone with a New Testament degree to join their team of international trainers. We began praying about this, and the seed that had been planted in Guatemala many years before began to grow in our hearts again.
While visiting TLI as part of the interview process, we got to hear stories from some of the pastors TLI is working with. They told about how their lives are being transformed and the impact this is having on their families and their ministries. Once more, our hearts were captured by the huge need for pastoral training and discipleship and the strengthening effect this can have on the global church.
After praying and seeking God’s will together along with the Christian Fellowship pastors and many others in the church, it became clear that God was calling our family to be part of the ministry of TLI, serving pastors and leaders around the world.
We are excited about what God is doing at Christian Fellowship and for the things that are in his heart for CF’s future. And we are honored to have been part of the “launching” what God has spoken over CF, with the new church building serving as a launching pad to impact our community and the world. God is bringing to pass what he put in our hearts on a mission trip with CF in 2004.
And now, in partnership with our CF family, we get to help meet the huge need that exists for Biblical and theological training among pastors and leaders around the world. God is writing a good story. We’re thankful to be part of it with you.
