Pioneer graduation celebration 2025
Students praise unique learning community and experienced guides
Photo: The class of 2025 celebrate together at CMS
CMS celebrated the graduation of 38 Pioneer Mission Training students on 11 December 2025 with a commissioning ceremony filled with prayer and praise.
James Butler, Pioneer Mission Training leader, opened the event with a reminder that we are sent by Jesus into the harvest that awaits – to leave behind what is past, carry forward what we’ve received and go where Jesus leads.
One graduate, Paul Latham, says he has “never fitted in”, but that at CMS he found a community of others like him.
He describes the pioneer teaching team as “great founts of knowledge,” and stresses that the strength of their teaching is that they’ve done pioneering mission themselves; they can offer guidance based on their own experience.
Angela Rena Collins Itzstein, who also graduated, said one thing she particularly appreciated about the African Christianity focus was the breadth of perspective afforded by students in different countries participating online:
“You have all of these different people, from all different types of experiences, wanting to do different things, but we’re all able to come together and share our hopes and our dreams and the things that God is saying to us and share that in this space.”
Opportunity: pioneer training
In 2025 CMS Pioneer Mission Training celebrated 1,000 students having participated in its courses.
Join them to start your theological training now.
