ChristianWeek

RICHMOND, BC—"Four years ago I thought that relatively few Canadian Christians would be inclined to invest in theological libraries. I've been pleasantly surprised," says Gordon Smith, president of reSource Leadership International. He even had one supporter tell him "there's a one-to-one connection between a good theological library and the advance of the kingdom of God."

This isn't to suggest that books—even great books—have any redeeming power in themselves. Rather, a strong library provides good resources for Bible and theological study that equips people to be leaders in the church no matter where they live.

The Richmond, B.C.-based reSource invests directly in students through scholarship assistance programs. And it works closely with partner agencies to assist theological schools around the world, helping them to develop capable faculty, solid administrative procedures, good libraries and effective curricula.

"We support student scholarships and faculty, campus and library development along with related programs that foster institutional vitality for our partner schools," says Smith.

"We focus on local training for local leaders. We don't bring leaders from other countries to the West. We take the training directly to their own country, or at least their own region."

Smith has a stock set of questions to ask wherever he travels to see church leaders—places like Lebanon, Romania, Turkey, Poland and many more. "What does the church in your area need?" he asks. And he routinely discovers that they don't need westerners coming in to do church planting. Rather, they "need programs that empower and equip local leaders to do church planting.

"Without local leadership, there is no enduring legacy in any given country," he says.

Smith cites Romania as a prime example of a place where the church is growing rapidly, but still "lacks mature, theologically trained leadership. Our commitment is to provide that." And supplying good library materials is one way reSource goes about its mission of developing leaders for the churches internationally.

But simply bringing North American books to other countries is less than ideal. "I was distressed by the situation in Romania," says Smith. "Even though the church has been there for many years, most of the books are in English."

As Smith sees it, "enabling local leadership to provide effective leadership for the church" involves developing good training and theological materials in their own language. It means having local leaders write their own books, not just translate ideas from the West. To this end, reSource desires to sponsor sabbaticals that will give local leaders the opportunity to create their theological resources.

With strategic support and funding, reSource is working with the Lyon-based publisher Editions Cle on a massive, $600,000 project to develop a French theological library. This supports reSource work in France, Francophone Africa and Haiti. And the ministry has library projects going on in Columbia, Haiti, Macau and Romania.

"We need to invest in others," says Smith.