Immigrant & Refugee Pastors Initiative

ALARM recognizes that God has historically used immigrants and refugees to expand the early Church; people who were scattered away from their native and ancestral homeland due to political, social, and religious persecution and violence. The mission of this new US initiative is to mobilize and equip immigrant and refugee pastors to effectively serve and minister to the spiritual and physical needs of their immigrant congregations while coming alongside them in their own trauma healing journey. Our hope is to see immigrant and refugee pastors and families transform into successful citizens who thrive spiritually, relationally, financially, and emotionally.

The Immigrant and Refugee Pastors Initiative (IRPI) was born out of the desire to respond to the needs and requests of immigrant pastors in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. For the past many years, these pastors have invited Rev. Dr. Celestin Musekura, the Founder of African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries Incorporated (ALARM Inc.) to train them in the same skills that have been the key to the work of ALARM Africa.

A vast majority of the immigrant and refugee congregations in the DFW area are from East and Central Africa where ALARM has been developing servant leaders in the African church and community for over 27 years. Initially, ALARM US organized a training of 12 immigrant pastors and elders and a training of 15 women leaders from these different congregations. As churches and congregations have increased, these immigrant leaders have requested intensive training in different areas of theology and practical ministerial skills as well as in cross-cultural missions and tribal and racial reconciliation.

As a response to the need, ALARM US has established key strategic approaches to effectively train this community of pastors:

• Train & equip immigrant and refugee pastors with skills in servant leadership, discipleship, evangelism, preaching, cross-cultural missions, conflict resolution, and Biblical reconciliation.
• Build the capacity of these pastors by providing resources to their congregants for effective integration in American socio-economic and civic engagement.
• Mobilize these pastors to love and disciple believers from their ancestral native lands while reaching the unreached people groups from the regions of their origin.
• Partner with US seminaries, colleges, denominations, and churches in hosting and supporting training workshops and conferences for immigrant and refugee pastors in their cities while encouraging ministry collaboration, leadership mentoring, mutual spiritual encouragement, pulpit exchanges, and joint local and international mission outreaches.
• Advocate for and connect immigrant and refugee pastors to American denominations, Mission agencies, and Christian foundations and ministries for the development of resources for personal, spiritual, and financial support for the missionaries in American cities.
• Mobilize and equip immigrant and refugee pastors to be ambassadors of peace and reconciliation in the US and globally while engaging in the reconstruction and reconciliation of their motherlands.