WHO WE ARE

The International School of Theology and Leadership (ISTL) was started in the United States in 2007 to fill the gap in Christian education between Sunday School and Seminary and to provide more practical help for local support leadership in local churches and ministries. 

OUR MISSION

To equip and develop believers and leaders to carry out the Great Commission with passion, integrity and creativity, using Biblical strategy and utilizing Biblical teaching and mentoring.

THE DIFFERENCE

A lot of Christian education follows the large classroom setting, or uses online communication.  These are good methods of communication, but they lack the ability to really connect and transfer information that can be modeled.  Jesus’ objective with the Twelve was transformation and action.

David Samuel Parrish, the founder of the school, has been doing discipleship training stateside for the past 25 years using the equipping tool of Evangelism Explosion.  He has also been a short-term missionary to Eastern and Western Europe for the past 17 years.  While not on the foreign mission field, David has invested his time with local churches, teaching and equipping them to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through relationships.  David has expanded his teaching to include “the identity of the disciple” and the power and importance of prayer in a disciple’s life.  In fact, he has coined the phrase “Ministry without prayer is presumption.”  This method of discipleship is classroom taught, and then practiced out in the local communities and is commonly called teaching with on-the-job training.  This is the model Jesus used with His disciples when He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).

ISTL takes very seriously the following directives from the Lord Jesus in God’s Word:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20) 

So Christ himself gave [leaders] to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11-12)

ISTL has designed a curriculum that is very practically oriented to challenge and equip deacons, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, and believers to know how to effectively communicate the truth of God’s Word in meaningful ways to a hungry world and how to disciple and equip all believers for more effective works of service for the Lord and His kingdom.

ISTL is endeavoring to partner with local churches both in the Thomasville area and overseas to provide Biblical and practical teaching and training for those who have not been able to attend a Bible school, college, or seminary for whatever reason but who desire to have additional training to grow in Christ and enhance their ministry in their local church and beyond.