After a two-year vacancy, the Apache Christian Training School (ACTS), Whiteriver, Ariz., has a new director. Daniel Rautenberg, previously pastor at Open Bible, Whiteriver, accepted the call in January. According to Mr. Kirk Massey, director of the Native America mission, this is an important development for the ACTS program, which is an integral part of the field’s goal to raise up national pastors and lay leaders.

“When I received the news that Pastor Rautenberg accepted the call, I was filled with joy,” says Massey. “Now the school will be ready to take the next step.”

The school started 12 years ago with four men enrolled. Two became evangelists and one went on to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon. Things seemed to be moving along in the ACTS program, which Massey says was a new concept for the Native American field. But then in December 2006 the director, Pastor Kirby Spevacek, was involved in a serious car accident. He retired a few months later.

While calls were being extended for a new director, two part-time ACTS professors, one vicar, and two recent ACTS graduates took on additional responsibilities—but Massey says without a full-time director, it was hard for the program to accomplish some of its goals, especially in the areas of recruitment and preparing men for the ministry. “Now with Pastor Rautenberg on board, we can step forward with all of the stuff that was on hold,” Massey says.

Right now, about 60 people are receiving training through ACTS. Although a few are enrolled in the pre–seminary program, most are taking leadership classes—one of which Massey teaches. “We’re hoping that people take these classes and apply [what they learn] in their lives because they have more contact with other people than the average pastor would have in a week,” he says. “We’re hoping that we can continue to develop leaders who can go out there and work alongside the pastor.”

And Massey says this is already happening throughout the Apache field. More laypeople are stepping up to help the five missionaries that serve the field’s nine congregations; members are working to support their church’s ministries financially; and the Apache Lutheran Council, made up of leaders from the Native American congregations, is helping set direction for the ministry. “One of the blessings is that God’s Word is still being given to the people here,” says Massey. “But we want more people to get involved in ministry.”