Chris McMillan
TOPIC Global
Dr. Chris McMillan spent 22 years pastoring churches in North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. Currently he serves the global church as International Director at TOPIC (Trainers of Pastors International Coalition), an organization committed to accelerating non-formal theological and leadership training to majority world pastors around the world. His passion for missions has taken him to 30 over countries. In addition to serving with TOPIC, Chris has served as a visiting adjunct professor at Pan African University in Nairobi, Kenya. He holds an earned Master of Arts Degree in Theological Studies from Liberty University and a Doctor of Educational Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Chris is married to his best friend Allison for almost 30 years, and together they have a daughter Carissa and a son Nathan who resides in heaven. The McMillan’s make their home in Gloucester Point, VA.
The greatest crisis in world missions today is the problem of untrained pastors. Statistics indicate that 95% of pastors who live in the majority world (Africa, Asia, Latin America) have never received any kind of formal Bible training. For perspective, in the U.S the ratio of trained pastors per population is 1 for every 230 people, but in the majority world it is 1 for every 450,000 people. The result is that heretical teaching, syncretistic practices, and stunted spiritual formation have led to anemic churches and loss of gospel mission. While millions of churches are being planted across the African continent, these churches have an astonishing 70% fail rate. The primary reason is a lack of leadership training. We are effectively losing the harvest because of untrained pastors.
TOPIC exists to confront this crisis by accelerating pastor training around the world through collaboration, innovation, and sustainability. TOPIC seeks to become a catalyst for pastor training organizations and a global hub for all things non-formal training and. A significant part of our work involves developing national indigenous teams in 100 countries where church growth has outpaced church health in order to multiply training and ensure church health and vitality.