Our vision is to see well-established church-planting movements (CPMs) in each of the nine major civilizations, led by leaders, fully trained in "the way of Christ and His Apostles", who are designing and implementing effective strategies for civilization-wide progress of the gospel.
We exist to train networks of leaders, grassroots to national, in the way of Christ and His Apostles, in partnership with church-planting movements in each of the nine major civilizations
The origins of BILD International begin in the early 1970s when Jeff Reed desired to develop his equipping gifts in the context of local church ministry. The elders at Ontario Bible Church (now known as the CityChurch of Ames-Des Moines) in Ames, Iowa, agreed to let Jeff train in this way. At the end of Jeff’s training, the elders asked him to formalize the training so that others at the church could go through a similar equipping process. Having been influenced strongly by Ray Stedman’s book "Body Life" and Ephesians 4, he established a training influenced by Ray Stedman’s Scribe School and John MacArthur’s Logos School. This was the beginning of the Ministry Apprenticeship Program and eventually the Leadership Series. Over the next 25 years, Ted Ward and Walter Kaiser made themselves available to Jeff for ongoing development.
An elder at Ontario Bible Church, Keith Cook, and his wife Carol were aware of the needs of pastors in India, since Carol grew up there with her missionary family. They approached Jeff to take a trip to India to see if this ministry apprenticeship idea could work for the multitude of untrained pastors there who could not go to seminary. The idea was welcomed by Indian pastors, and Jeff began seeking funds to finance the translation of the new church-based materials, key books, and other costs. In North America, the churches he approached for funding became interested in the training for themselves also. As more and more requests for training came, BILD was formalized in 1986 under Jeff’s direction, as a ministry of the church, to handle these requests.
Today, BILD is known as a leader in church-based theological education. The church-based resources have grown to include equipping a complete training system, designed to train leaders from the grassroots to doctoral level.
BILD works formally with groups of churches or associations of churches all over the world, helping them develop church-based theological education paths and resources to meet their needs for church leadership and is cultivating many other groups worldwide. There are new requests every week, from additional people groups and countries. BILD also works with churches throughout the United States and is spearheading the Antioch Initiative and the CityChurch Network with a fresh focus on church planting and networking churches––to see the church strengthened and expanding in North America.
