Sikkim Pastoral Leadership Education Institute, India
Atoka Swu, a graduate of Westminster Cambodia (MDiv, 2015),
was dreaming of Westminster India even before his
graduation. He is now on his ThM program at Westminster
Cambodia after his ordination for pastor (2016), and his
dream has already begun to come true.
He shared his dream with his mentor (Rev. David Yuhan of New
Life World Vision). With Rev. Yuhan's full support, Atoka
took the first step in 2016. He traveled back to India from
Cambodia, looked around to find a most suitable area for his
ministry, and decided Sikkim would be the best place. He
visited Sikkim twice to meet with the local church leaders,
discuss his plan with them, lay the foundation, and
organized the frames. The mission statement for Pastoral
Leadeer Education Institute (SPLEI) was made as follows:
SPLEI seeks to glorify God by training and teaching
those whom God has called to be pastors,preachers,
church planters, evangelists, Bible teachers and
biblical counselors to serve Christ's Church and expand
His Kingdom. .
Its core curriculum includes training with a strong
emphasis on theological studies in the Reformed
tradition, with the key courses for pastoral ledership,
practice, oversight and biblical government of the
church, and essential biblical studies for preaching.
The aim is to equip them with right theology, so that
they can have a passion for the gospel of grace and a
zeal for building God-centered, Bible-soaked, Gospel
driven, and Christ exalting churches.
In His Grace, SPLEI was thus born, and held its first
Pastoral Education from February 20 through 22, 2017. The
subjects taught were
Reformation Church History and
The Five Solas of the
Protestant Christian and Reformed Doctrine of Salvation.
The second Pastoral Education was held from August 16
through 18, 2017, and this time Ministry
of the Word in Worship and
Synoptic Gospels were
taught.