Serving the under-resourced Church with Bibles and training to transform lives worldwide through God’s Word.

Local churches are essential to God’s plan for evangelizing and discipling the world. That’s why Bible League International is committed to efficiently, effectively, and strategically training local church planters to establish new churches wherever they’re needed. Each newly established church reflects the vibrant and individual needs of each community.

Local church planters already know the people, language, and culture of the areas where they work. Their hearts are on fire to reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ. They place God’s Word in the hands of those who want it and engage them in Bible studies. By the power of the Holy Spirit, many come to understand God’s Word and His great love for them and put their faith in Jesus Christ. As a result, church planters not only help bring people to faith, but they also bring those people together to form a new church where new believers can grow and share their faith with others.

Your church’s $1,500 gift provides one church planter with a year of practical training, along with the Bibles and Bible study materials needed to reach people in the community the church planter has chosen to serve—places without an evangelical presence, or a very limited one. In some places, church planters might use Bible League’s Bible-based Literacy program to reach people in their communities. Ultimately, the church planter brings the people in these groups together to form a church.

Bible League’s year-long Church Planter Training is vocational in nature, combining classroom training with hands-on practice. Experi­enced, successful church planters serve as the trainers—they teach what they themselves have done. They share their “know-how” with those eager to acquire the practical skills needed to become suc­cessful church planters themselves.

In each of their five training modules, the trainees hone each new skill through practice—first with the experienced church planters, and then in real-life situations as they begin their ministries. By the end of their year of training, most church planters have launched one or more new churches. But they can’t do this on their own. They need the support of churches like yours.

Bible League’s network of trainers also offers strong support. Trainers regularly connect with the church planters outside of the classroom. Meeting with church planters in their target areas, the trainers offer encouragement, help the trainees overcome any barriers they may be facing, and support them in prayer.

Bible League-trained church planters follow these five steps as they work to plant a new church:

Step 1—Evangelism
Wherever they live, church planters learn how to communicate the Gospel naturally and appropriately for their culture. For example, in the Philippines, church planters go door-to-door to make contacts. In predominantly Muslim countries, friend-to-friend relationship-based evangelism works best.

Step 2—Discipleship
The church planter invites interested people to a home where they study God’s Word. Relationships develop, and people gain a deeper understanding of who God is, with many deciding to follow Christ. The church planter nurtures their newfound faith. Lives change.

Step 3—Membership
New Christians make their public profession of faith and become part of this new worshipping community. Soon, people outside the original group see the difference in the lives of the new believers and join their Bible studies. The cycle starts again.

Step 4—Leadership
The church planter identifies those with leadership gifts among the new Christians and trains them to disciple and help lead the growing group of believers.

Step 5—Worship and Service
A spiritually mature group then establishes a church that is self-supporting and meets for worship. In most cases, each new church has 25–50 adult members who worship regularly, and conduct community outreach.

Bible League International is a non-denominational ministry organization. We serve under-resourced churches around the world, including here in the U.S. Bible League-trained church planters are connected with their own denominations or sending churches. They do not plant “Bible League” churches.

While Bible League is non-denominational, we are a member of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Our offices and staff worldwide adhere to the NAE’s statement of faith:

1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
4. We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
6. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
7. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we want people to be able to easily read and understand God’s Word, Bible League provides our easy-to-read Bible translations where available. In places where an easy-to-read translation is not available, we provide the Bible translation that best fits the area’s needs. Where English is the primary language, we provide the English language Easy-to-Read Version.

If there is not an easy-to-read translation available, we provide a Bible translation that best meets the needs of those who will be using the Bibles. This is based on recommendations from Bible League International’s translation team and, where possible, in consultation with local Christian communities concerning their needs. In this way, we support the local Christian communities and their teachers.

In 1936, William Chapman, a Chicago-area businessman suffered a heart attack that left him near death. An elder from his church prayed with him at the hospital. He boldly asked God to spare Bill’s life so that he could “be directed into the service of Christ.”

Bill made that prayer his own. Two years later, on Good Friday, April 15, 1938, Bill began serving the Lord in earnest. On that day, he and his wife Betty went door-to-door in Walkerton, Indiana, to give Bibles they had purchased to Bibleless people. But those who received a Bible had to make a promise. They had to agree to read God’s Word.

From the very beginning, Bill recognized it was not enough to simply hand a Bible to someone. People need to read God’s Word to understand it so that they will come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

That effort quickly expanded far beyond Walkerton throughout the U.S. and then around the world. Today, donors who love God’s Word and want to share its message of hope are helping to provide Bibles and training to Christians in more than 50 countries.

These believers—these volunteers—use Bible League’s evangelistic and discipleship Bible studies, Bible-based Literacy ministry, and Church Planter Training programs to help people understand God’s Word—and grow God’s Church around the world.

That’s important! When people read and come to understand God’s Word, they believe. By the power of the Holy Spirit, lives change, truly change.