Meet the first Mongolian biblical scholar

Langham Scholar Bayar Garamsteren, who lives in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, is soft-spoken and unassuming. You’d never guess the overwhelming impact he is making on the Mongolian church. 

Bayar is a pastor, leads a Bible translation team, trains other Mongolian pastors and runs a Christian publishing business with his wife.

To do this, he became the first Mongolian to receive a PhD in biblical studies. Those doctoral studies were made possible with support from Langham Partnership and people like you.

Reaching the young Mongolian church

His ministry is crucial because the church in Mongolia is still young and undeveloped. From 1921 to 1990, Mongolia was closed off from the world under communist rule. Not a single church remained when the country opened up again.

Bayar met God through missionaries who came when the country opened up again. As he grew in his faith, he sensed God’s calling to serve and care for the Mongolian church.

“In Mongolia, there are lots of pastors who do not have any official Bible school or college education,” said Amartuvshin Namnandorj, another Mongolian pastor. “These lay leaders need a lot of support and help for how to lead a church.”

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Through Langham Preaching seminars, organized by Bayar, that’s starting to change.

“Before we were just preaching what’s in our head,” said Khaliun Gilyasid, a lay teacher who has been through the training. “We cannot do that with God’s Word. We really need to be faithful to the text and observe the text. When the Mongolian pastors are trained by this kind of training, they can teach God’s Word faithfully and truthfully.” 

’One of the most important projects’

Bayar’s Bible translation work also supports the goal of equipping local preachers with the resources they need to teach God’s Word well.

“I think it is one of the most important projects for Mongolian Christianity. When Mongolians do the translation directly from the original language, they’re bringing the Bible much closer to the heart of Mongolians,” Tsend-Ayush Lkhagvasuren, one of the project translators, said. “Without God’s calling and vision given to Bayar, we couldn’t have started this project.”

Bayar’s story is one of humility, faithfulness, courage and impact. It shows how God can use one key person to influence and transform a culture.

“My dream is that the Mongolian church will be well-suited in our context and culture, so that we know how to live our Christian lives,” Bayar said. “I want to see well-established churches in Mongolia and Mongolian Christians who are genuinely Christian, but genuinely Mongolian.”

He is one of more than 330 graduated Langham Scholars from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, equipped with PhDs, who are transforming their communities and nations for Christ.

Learn more about this work here.