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General Description of 

EE People Group Services Training


•  Audience focused research & design
•  Biblically-based content and pedagogy
•  Conversational storying and redemptive analogies

EE International is a training organization that empowers the Church for witness.  EE is not an evangelistic organization.  An evangelistic organization's first activity is to evangelize, whereas EE's first activity is to train people for personal evangelism.  We believe in the proverb that "it's better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish."  Of course because EE training includes actually doing evangelism rather than just talking about it, many people come to faith in Christ as a result, but the primary activity that we do as an organization is training. 

Scripture is clear on being intentional in evangelism (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2Cor. 5:11), as well as being prepared to do evangelism (2Tim. 2:15 and 4:2; 1Pet. 3:15).  All forms of EE training seek to help Jesus-followers be prepared to witness.

EE People Group Services (PGS) training is built on seven guiding principles.  Learn more about the seven guiding principles that shape all aspects of our training. 

EE People Group Services believes in selecting from among multiple options to develop an approach to training and witnessing that is most effective for the average person in our intended audience.  We currently train using a conversational Bible storying framework for both the pedagogical framework and Gospel content; a religious culture background conversational approach is also under development that uses redemptive analogies for a major sector of the world population.

There are as many ways to share the Good News about Jesus as there are people and situations in which to converse, and our desire is that our training reflect this.  We provide training at different levels that:
  • Fits well with non-western cultures and languages.
  • Facilitates implementation rather than education-only training.
  • Provides launch platforms for beginners as well as more advanced users.
  • Focuses on personal conversation as a complement to various ways of sharing the Gospel.  
  • Helps trainees to clarify their understanding of salvation by faith in God's grace to us through Jesus alone.
  • Helps trainees learn to communicate this in clear, natural, biblical, and Christ-centered ways that make sense to non-believers and are relevant in their culture.
Our 2007 and 2008 workshops have featured a Bible storying approach to training and witness, primarily for people groups with a primal religion background.  In 2008 we are beginning to partner with others to develop services, tools and training for peoples of religious culture backgrounds that are major population blocks in the world.


TRAINING & PARTNERSHIPS
EE People Group Services training is done in partnership with other EE entities as well as with church leaders and other organizations.  Together with our partners, we:
  • Develop services, tools and training for sustainable indigenous multiplication of personal evangelism and discipleship among people groups worldwide. 
  • Facilitate cross-cultural training that will in turn facilitate in-culture training and evangelism.
 Learn more about partnerships with EE People Group Services.  (((LINK NOT YET AVAILABLE)))

TYPES OF TRAINING OFFERED

EE People Group Services has offered the following types of training.  What is offered for a given time and region depends on available personnel and funding, and must be consistent with our overall plan for the year.
Level 1 Training in Personal Evangelism
Level 2 Discipling New Christians
Level 3 Answering Difficult Questions
Introduction to Adaptation and Translation
 
Level 3 training is focused on topics that are issues in the local culture.  Depending on the cultural context, some relevant questions might include:
  • "What will be the proper spiritual preparation for planting my rice field if I become a Jesus follower?"
  • "If I become a follower of Jesus, what will I do about my family obligations regarding the ancestors?"
  • "What will be my responsibilities toward my various wives if I become a follower of Jesus?"
  • "What will be my obligations as a wife to my non-believing husband if I become a follower of Jesus?"
  • "Do I have to break ties with my family to be a follower of Jesus?"
  • "Should I continue to attend the mosque or not?"
  • "Can I be a follower of Jesus if I am not literate?"

General Plan for Workshops

PRELIMINARIES

Establish Partnerships:
We start by forming a partnership with those who have a commitment to, and experience with, the culture and language of a given people group.  This includes local church leaders and expatriates who are potential long-term stake-holders, or are involved in church-planting, or who have technical expertise in the language and Bible translation. 

Preliminary Research & Development:
A preliminary phase of prayerful and directed research fills out the framework for the training.  "Directed research" makes three significant assumptions:
  • Assumption 1:   A significant amount of information is already available about the people groups in question.  The input of people with relevant expert knowledge, directly and through things published, enables us to avoid reinventing years of original, open-ended research.
  • Assumption 2:   We do not need to know everything about a given culture and language before we even begin a project; rather, knowing a definable list of topics can be sufficient to begin.  Continuing to operate in learning mode enables us to keep verifying and expanding our knowledge and ability to evaluate the effectiveness of the training.  Although this may sound reminiscent of the Spanish idiom "arreglando las maletas en camino" (packing our bags en-route) which usually implies a sloppy way of doing things, in this case it is an intentional approach based on the belief that certain aspects of ministry are most efficiently and effectively figured out through empirical testing and implementation. 
  • Assumption 3:   We can take advantage of known commonalities that are broadly applicable as a first step to bridge the gap to a more culture-specific strategy.  Such commonalities to evaluate would include the use of conversation, storying and other forms of communication, art and media typical of the region.  We presume that the use of almost any kind of commonality will need to be refined for a particular people group.
Based on the results of the research, a first generation training design is prepared in a major language for which teachers and trainers are available to work with a bilingual Content Development Team.


FIRST GENERATION CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

Following the preliminary phase, a workshop is held to train a bilingual "Content Development Team" (CDT).  This team consists of cultural insiders and native-speakers of the language, plus outsiders, such as missionaries, who have intimate knowledge of the culture and insights into the use of the language to express biblical concepts.  

First Generation Training Workshop:
  • An interactive, hands-on experience to learn the vision and strategy.
  • Includes many demonstrations and practice sessions, and much discussion.
  • Includes "On the Job Training" (OJT) with trainers.
  • Begins the process of integrating the training into life.
  • 5 days minimum.
It is common that a number of people begin a relationship with Christ as a result of the OJTs, so the host entity has to be prepared to continue to work with these new believers.

Immediately after the first workshop, while the learning experience is still fresh in their minds, the CDT participates in an adaptation and translation workshop for their culture and language. 

Adaptation & Translation Workshop:
  • CDT members solidify their initial learning.
  • OJTs and follow-up are continued.
  • Audio-visual aids are created, if appropriate.
  • Low tech visual aids are created, if needed.
  • 5 days full-time is the bare minimum.
Non-print media learning aids are produced on site with the workshop participants to reinforce the learning experience.  This process also tends to bring learning difficulties to the surface that haven't been previously addressed, and provides support tools for review as they train a second generation.  In some situations it may not be possible to complete the low tech visual aids during the minimum 5-day time span.


TRANSITIONAL IMPLEMENTATION

During the next several months, the members of the CDT become the first generation in their people group to put the strategy into action, witnessing and training a second generation.  After that, they assist People Group Services staff in teaching and training a second round of workshops to help them become qualified to teach week-long workshops.  Teaching a workshop is a more demanding challenge than discipling someone personally, and it is recognized that although most all trainees are capable of personally training another person, only a select few will be able to handle the challenge of a workshop.  

Transitional Implementation:
  • Each CDT member trains two others.  
  • Continues to reinforce learning of first generation trainees (the CDT).
  • On-going encouragement and accountability provided by regional facilitator.
  • Brings to light further needs for adjustment in the training strategy.
  • Provides a reality check; some CDT members might drop out.
  • Bridges first generation trainees toward becoming workshop teachers.
  • Is a sifting process that helps each participant discover his or her niche.

SECOND-AND-LATER-GENERATION TRAINING

Level 1 EE training is a launch mechanism to help trainees on the road of a lifestyle of witnessing and training others.  As they put the training into practice, each one invariably develops his or her own style.  As developers, part of our role is to track the quality and effectiveness of the training as it goes from one generation of trainees to the next.  This is complicated by language issues and other factors, and often requires a significant expense for travel, but is nevertheless an invaluable reality check for all stake-holders.  

Indigenization is a core value of EE, so we desire to work ourselves out of a job by ensuring that the ministry baton is passed on to locals.  At the same time, the biblical concept of how the Body of Christ is to function in the world teaches us to seek on-going interaction between our team and the local trainees.  Thus we expect to learn from them by letting them teach back to us their innovations in Gospel witness and training, and it is our hope that we may continue to serve them by offering such assistance as may be appropriate.  Our international team's role as initiators, developers, facilitators, teachers and trainers will change over time as we become less, and the local people become greater, in leading and carrying out the ministry in their region.


List of Training Modules Currently Available

from EE People Group Services


TOPIC:  EE Adaptation and/or Translation
AUDIENCE:  Selected bilingual leaders who have successfully completed in another language the level of training that is to be adapted and translated for their language and culture.  These leaders form a Content Development Team.
FORMAT:  5-day minimum initial workshop to begin the project + follow-up + implementation workshops
CONTENT SUMMARY:  
  • Basic translation principles.
  • Discussion of key terms in the receptor language
  • Drafting sessions, creation of back translations, checks and revisions.
  • Preliminary recording, editing and production of audio and video learning aids.
  • Follow-up in which each Content Development Team puts the culturally adapted and translated training into use with two other people over a period of approximately 15 weeks.
  • Implementation 5-day workshops in which the adapted and translated training is at first partially used in a bilingual workshop, and then later is exclusively used.
 
TOPIC:  Level 1---Intra-cultural Contextualized Training & Witness in a non-western, indigenous, primal religion context where belief systems are preserved and passed on through storying.
AUDIENCE:  Leaders and disciplemakers.
FORMAT:  5-day full-time workshop (i.e. morning, afternoon and evening).
CONTENT SUMMARY:  
  • A "launch platform" to begin learning to do personal evangelism in a Christ-centered, grace-based manner.  Training is interactive with demonstrations, discussions and practice.
  • 28 classroom sessions plus 4 "On the Job Training" (OJT) visits in the community.  A Bible storying approach is used for almost all sessions.  That is to say, most background topics as well as the content of the Gospel itself utilize a Bible storying approach.  
  • Background Topics:
    • The motivation, relationships, and character of the messenger.
    • Beginning conversations about spiritual experiences and felt needs.
    • Understanding where the other person is at in his or her spiritual journey. 
    • Sharing one's story about experiencing God.
  • Gospel Content and Follow-up Topics:
    • Discussing what Scripture says about God, people, grace, Jesus and faith.
    • Discussing the hearer's response to the Good News.
    • Knowing how to help the hearer begin a relationship with God.
    • Knowing how to help the hearer grow in his relationship with God.
  • OJT sessions:  Groups of 2 or 3 trainees go with a trainer to visit friends, relatives and acquaintances to build relationships and converse about the Good News.
FOLLOW-UP TO THIS WORKSHOP:  
  • Each trainee disciples 2 other people using what he or she learned in the workshop.  If meeting once per week, this discipleship process takes about 15 weeks and includes 14 OJTs.  OJTs can be multiple visits with the same people, gradually building a relationship as well as understanding.

TOPIC:  Level 2---Intra-cultural Beginning Discipleship in a non-western, indigenous, primal religion context. 
AUDIENCE:  Level 1 graduates
FORMAT:  Culturally Adapted Discipleship Workshop 
CONTENT SUMMARY:  Focuses on initial follow-up of new believers.  Course contents depends on the needs and capabilities of the trainees as well as on relevant cultural issues. 
 
 
TOPIC:  Level 3---Responding to Difficult Questions and Situations.
AUDIENCE:  Level 2 graduates for a specific people group or related people groups.
FORMAT:  Culturally Adapted Workshop 
CONTENT SUMMARY:   
Greatly expands the general approach to handling difficult questions that was briefly discussed in Level 1.  Trainees learn to handle specific issues that are relevant in their local culture.  Examples: 
  • Where ancestor veneration and fear of retribution by "the living dead" is a live issue, a typical question might be "If I become a follower of Jesus, then what will I do about my obligations toward the ancestors?"
  • Where polygamy is common, a typical question is "What is the Christian husband's responsibility toward his multiple wives?"  
  • In many regions it is helpful to answer the question, "Can a person be a Christian if he is not literate?" 
Last Updated ( Friday, 12 September 2008 11:17 )