How LIM Started – by our Founder, Keith King
The idea of starting Langley Institute of Ministry (LIM), did not come as a flash of inspiration, rather it was a series of responses to many ‘nudges’ from God. It is said that necessity is the ‘mother of invention’. During the last ten years of my paid pastoral ministry, our church gave me many opportunities to travel and teach in Asia and Africa, mainly in India and Kenya. I established, not only friends in these countries but also some important ways of doing ministry which were quite different to my previous thirty-seven years in church-based work. Gold Hill Baptist Church, in England, where I served as Associate Pastor to our present Patron Revd Stephen Gaukroger, released me to take sabbaticals in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Kenya and the United Kingdom.
It was during this time that I saw the need to develop a strategy to train church leaders in other cultures and equip them to teach and disciple others. In 2014, I answered a request on Facebook to mentor a young man in Pakistan which resulted in him accepting Christ as his Saviour. Within a few months, I visited his home, adapted the family’s humble dwelling to teach unschooled children, began a leadership centre for untaught pastors and together we planted a church; things can happen fast when you don’t have a big committee! To progress further, we needed some teaching material. The Pakistan Government insisted that anyone leading a Christian Institution must be theologically trained, so following the advice of our present Patron, I wrote a core curriculum that satisfied all requirements. So it was that, in 2015, the Langley Institute of Ministry was launched and was subsequently registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales four years later.
Since then, as you will see elsewhere on this site, our team has grown, we have to date taught over five thousand students who have graduation with a Certificate, Diploma or Degree in Theology. We now , work in nine countries and have over 2,200 students studying with us. I am so grateful to God for his leading and the wisdom and help of other leaders as we have moved forward. Lots more to share but this is not the place right now. If you would like to support us please go to the relevant link on our site.
“Big works for God do not often happen suddenly
but are more often the result of a series of small obedient steps.“
Keith King
