(Dr. Aloto Anche) Director of LPM India, and Principal of PACE International Seminary, Nagaland India
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Hello Friends,
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I’m glad to share about PACE.
These four alphabets PACE constitutes a major role in the pastoral ministry.
Pastoral Ministry is not simply to prepare sermon and preach on the weekend, but it has major role to play, that is to take care of the sheep. In John 21:15-17 Jesus tells Peter to take care of the Sheep 3 times. Let us consider seriously why Jesus spoke to Peter to take care of the sheep 3 times consecutively. This shows how determined Jesus is about the needs of the people. To understand PACE in a very simple word is ‘Care’.
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Pastoral ministry without care is definitely not a ministry at all. It is a caring ministry instituted by Jesus Himself. PACE is like a mathematical formula to solve equations and algebra. The beauty about PACE is that, it doesn’t interfere in the doctrinal beliefs of different denominations. PACE simply is to show love and care for fellow humans. No ministry is a ministry without care. The other word for care is love, because we cannot care unless we love, and the new commandment that Jesus gave is love.
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Let me briefly talk about my homeland Nagaland in India. Our people are all Christian, so you can imagine how organized our churches are. Very unfortunate to say this but the churches in Nagaland is nil when it comes to caring ministry.
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The Church doesn’t care about the needs of the people, they are only concerned about the financial growth and status of the church.
When I first heard about PACE from Dr. Byeong Cha Seo the national director of LPM, Korea and Dr. Timothy Kaping Kim, when I was in South Korea, the first thought that came was, Nagaland Churches need this. I was extremely excited to be trained under Dr. Byeong and Dr. Tim. With a very high expectation I came back to Nagaland but to my surprise, people didn’t show any interest in this ministry as I thought. People are too busy in infra structural developments, but are less bothered about what Jesus said about caring ministry. But I’m still envisioning the growth of the church through PACE, because I don’t see any hope in the ministry without PACE.
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The beauty about PACE ministry is the exception of lay people doing ministry to care for one another. There is no reason why the lay people Shouldn’t do ministry. Jesus didn’t differentiate any people for their qualifications or for their merit. The only qualifications require in the Kingdom is, obedience to the great call for the mission.
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I believe PACE ministry will continue to grow across the globe. It’s a high calling to fulfill the kingdom purpose.
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Dr. Aloto Anche
