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Heart & Soul:  The Distinctive Guiding Principles

of EE People Group Services   


The content of this page is under development and has not been approved as our official statement.

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Everything we do in EE People Group Services toward our vision and mission arises from the following guiding principles:

Summary

  1. Personal evangelism and discipleship as a cohesive and life-integrated process for dynamic maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ.
  2. Grace-based dependency on God alone for salvation, life and witness.
  3. Biblical, vernacular contextualization for non-western cultures and new harvest fields.
  4. Indigenously sustainable incremental learning and multiplication that is practical for the average believer.
  5. Relational and personally relevant training and evangelism.
  6. Experiential training with real life modeling and coaching.
  7. Pervasive, on-going partnership.

Details

1.  Personal evangelism and discipleship as a cohesive and life-integrated process for dynamic maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Personal:  Not preaching to a crowd, but ministering on a personal level.
  • Evangelism:  Intentional kingdom proclamation.
  • Discipleship:  EE is a training organization.
  • Cohesive:  Inseparable parts of a single and integrated holistic ministry.
  • Life-integrated:  Not merely a time- or domain-limited activity disconnected from the rest of life, but rather is to be interwoven through all of life.
  • Process:  A journey of on-going learning and change.  
  • Dynamic Maturity:  Always on the growing edge with a humble and grateful desire for life-long learning and growing in wisdom.
  • In the Lord Jesus Christ:  A biblical, Christ-centered training and witness that is all about being in a vital relationship to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2.  Grace-based dependency on God alone for salvation, life and witness.

  • Underlying all of our prayer, planning, expectations, and the manner in which we train and witness, is an intentional dependence on God.  Conversion and transformation are His work alone that require His intervention, timing and power.  Our role is to be his servants who make ourselves available and prepared, and prayerfully seek opportunities to witness and disciple.  The Holy Spirit then uses us as his instruments to share the message of Scripture and interact with people about it, and to show them the message lived out.  However, it is He Himself who speaks to their heart and mind to convince them of the truth (John 16:8-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6; 1 John 3:24b, 4:13).  
  • Since we truly depend on God, we reject all forms of manipulation.  Manipulation has no place in Christ-centered evangelism, because manipulation is a self-centered usurping of God's sovereign place in the process of bringing people to Himself.  Manipulative evangelism arises from a false understanding of the Gospel, a false understanding of the nature and character of God, and a false understanding of our role as his servants.  True belief in the Gospel leads to the complete conviction that salvation in Jesus Christ is through His grace alone, and therefore that telling others about this amazing and undeserved kindness of God requires an equally grace-based witness.  It is our desire that God's grace would permeate all aspects of our personal lives and of this ministry in an ever-increasing manner. 
  • Grace-based dependency and rejection of manipulation also means that we do not push people to decide to follow Christ before they are ready to.  People are to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the message of Scripture, not merely to us.  This may take place in a single spontaneous conversation, or (as is more the norm among people groups that we focus on in EE People Group Services) may take place over the course of multiple conversations with a given person.  Most people need to hear the Gospel several times before they understand it.  God is at work calling people to Himself, and we regard our opportunities to converse and witness as usually beinng part of a series of ways in which God is speaking to them.  This understanding is crucial to how we approach our interactions with people about the Gospel.
  • During the course of EE People Groups training, it is not uncommon that some of our trainees discover that they never truly understood the Gospel of grace (usually due to the unfortunate manner in which they themselves were evangelized, often without Scripture, and/or in a foreign language or using a foreign methodology).  Some come to this realization quite consciously while others don't notice that they have crossed over from a syncretistic (and therefore false) understanding of the Gospel to a biblical understanding of it.  The unfortunate legacy of the Church in so many parts of the world is that a poor witness and poor discipling have led so many people to blend parts of their old world views, belief systems and values, together with parts of the Gospel, thus coming to an adulterated message that is not based on God's grace alone.  In EE training and witness however, we seek to implement the best possible expressions of our core belief and practice of grace-based dependency on God alone for salvation, life and witness.

3.  Biblical contextualization for non-western cultures and new harvest fields.

  • Biblical Contextualization:  A relevant application of the pure, unchanging Gospel that in content and manner of communication connects people to God Himself in a vital way.  In contrast to this, syncretism is a distortion of the Gospel that adulterates the biblical message with other beliefs and practices.  Relevancy is never to define what is biblical, but rather Scripture itself ---by principle, by teaching and by example--- teaches us what are biblical applications.  Biblical contextualization answers the question, "How can we communicate the unchanging Good News of Jesus Christ even more effectively to get through to the hearts and minds of this particular audience?" 
  • Language is by nature a critical issue in training and evangelism.  The use of the vernacular (heart language) in witness and training is basic to biblical contextualization, as is the use of vernacular Scripture for maximum comprehension.  Jesus and the apostles spoke in the vernacular of those around them, at Pentecost God saw to it that His message was proclaimed in every language of the audience, and Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 indicate God's plan for people of every language to worship before the throne of the Lamb.  So too we aim for our training and witness to become available in all languages, by means of intentional faith initiatives as well as by the spontaneous moving of the Holy Spirit.  We recognize that in today's world, globalization and political pressures are reducing the number of languages, and that it is beyond the scope of our capabilities to influence the course of language change.  However, we do not presume for the sake of convenience or apparent expediency the degree of effectiveness or acceptance of majority languages; rather we will seek to facilitate the best use of whatever languages are available to us for maximum effectiveness in training and witness. 
  • Non-western Cultures and New Harvest Fields:  Rather that duplicate work where others are already effective, EE People Group Services focuses on establishing training and witness in areas where the Gospel has not yet taken hold. Practically speaking, this primarily includes cultures where people are steeped in non-western belief systems, worldviews and traditions.  Given the global mobility and heterogeneous makeup of societies in today's world, these harvest fields are no longer strictly determined by geography, but may be in places where they weren't 10 or 20 years ago, including in one's own neighborhood.  
  • Learning to be effective messengers of the Good News in these environments often requires research and innovation, sometimes at an organizational level and sometimes at a personal level.  This research does not need to be completely open-ended, but can be directed in a manner that builds on previous knowledge and commonalities, and that begins implementation with the expectation of on-going investigation and verification to evaluate effectiveness of our strategies.  And although we take advantage of commonalities, we do not mechanistically assume that what worked well in one culture will necessarily work well in another culture.  

4.  Indigenously sustainable incremental learning and multiplication that is practical for the average believer.

  • Indigenously Sustainable:  All aspects of the training and Gospel content are to make such good sense to the trainees in their culture and language that they can faithfully reproduce it on their own without struggling to imitate a foreign methodology that is not a good fit for their situation. 
  • As the ministry matures in a given country, we expect that local people will take responsibility for managing and growing it, with the goal that each national ministry become self-managed, self-supporting, self-propagating, and function as a respected peer in the international network of EE national movements, so that the national movements may assist one another toward becoming all that God has called each one to be.  
  • Incremental Learning:  A strategic factor for indigenous sustainability is that the training be incremental, beginning at a realistic level for the intended audience, and proceeding at a pace and in a manner which faciltiates successful learning.  High failure rates in training ---which are commonly expected in many developing countries--- are not acceptable to us.  Trainees begin by learning with a very simple, Bible-based, Good News conversational strategy that enables them to immediately begin sharing their faith in a clear and concise manner that others can also learn, and that can then be built upon and adapted in an infinite variety of ways. Various levels and types of additional training are offered.
  • Multiplication:  Christ's mandate to his followers was to make disciples, not merely converts.  (Matthew 28:19-20 and 2 Timothy 2:2)  Every EE trainee is to be enabled to be a disciplemaker] who in turn can train others.  "It is better to teach a man to fish that to give him a fish."
  • For the Average Believer:   We do not presume that local leaders can or will automatically take training that is designed for a high level of ability and then somehow make it accessible to the average believer.  Instead, our training is to model for leaders what will be guaranteed to work for their trainees, and if it doesn't, then we will discover how to improve it.  
  • Recognizing that in many cultures a defensive attitude toward personal power and guarding one's territory of authority in the Church has become problematic, our training seeks to cultivate vision in our trainees for personal evangelism as the responsibility of both leaders and laity.  

5.  Relational and personally relevant training and evangelism.

  • Relational:  Jesus was a "friend of sinners," so we seek to instill in our trainees vision and wisdom for developing relationships in which they demonstrate true love and respect for those who have not yet come to know Jesus.  Friendship is not merely a gimmick for the sake of evangelism, but rather is an expression of the love has given us, made clear in the fact that he loved us first while we were still his enemies.
  • Personally relevant:  Both training and evangelism need to connect with the issues, and in the language, that are relevant to those who we train and to who witness.  Our strategies and methods are not to be implemented as a one-size-fits-all formula that is disconnected from the nature of our audience; instead, our strategies and methods are to be a means by which we come to understand them and communicate with people in ways that they perceive as relevant and vital.  Whether or not a message is "canned" depends on whether or not it is applied relevantly or indiscriminately ---that is, with regard or without regard for whoever receives it.  Scripture itself is a pre-packaged collection of narratives and teaching, yet we do not consider it to be "canned" when it is ministered in ways that are vital and relevant. 
  • The Jesus follower who has a witness that is personally relevant to others is one who:
  1.  
    1. Has learned the message of Scripture well, submits to it in his own life, has thought through what others need to know about it, in faith takes initiative to speak to others about it, and is responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire process.  People (especially those of western culture) often say that learning a Gospel presentation by memory causes it to be canned, and therefore irrelevant.  However, memorization per se does not make a message relevant or irrelevant, but rather the way in which one uses what has been memorized.  For many people groups of the world, rote memorization, especially of narratives and other pre-packaged expressions of beliefs, is the first step to understanding and integrating it to life. Believers who refuse to memorize are usually sloppy, and often self-centered, in their witness. In EE however, trainees memorize Scripture and conversation guides in order to be free to focus on relevant application that is faithful to Scripture and is Christ-centered.
    2. Has come to understand a prospect’s spiritual status, and helps him to think through his need and how the message of Scripture is relevant to him.  This is called a "Good News encounter."  This is done through conversation in a relationship of friendship and respect in which we get to know the person, are good listeners who interact in a relevant manner, and by asking appropriate, thought-provoking questions.
    3. Has learned to tell others about what God has done in his or her own life in ways that make sense to others, and attract them to Christ and the Gospel.  
  • Personally relevant does not mean only sharing the Gospel with one person alone, but in many cultures means being relevant to entire families.  This is especially true where the family unit is integral to the identity and life of the individual, and where family agreement or support is expected in decision-making.  This is in contrast to individualistic western culture evangelistic methods that emphasize individual decision-making at the expense of losing the rest of the family to the Gospel.  

6.  Experiential training with real life modeling and coaching.

  • "On the Job Training" has always been, and will always be, one of the primary distinguishing core values and features of EE.  EE is more than yet another classroom course.  Real life application os not merely a hoped for result of the training, but rather is a component of the training.  Although classroom sessions have their place in EE, classroom-only training is usually not an appropriate learning strategy for most of the audiences that EE People Group Services is concerned with; our audiences tend to be people that learn by observation, imitation and discussion.  For that reason, our EE People Group Services workshops intentionally de-emphasize information-intensive lectures that depend on written materials (e.g. fill-in-the-blanks workbooks), and instead favor a cycle of observation and discussion of demonstrations, followed by imitation and practice, and finally by "On-the-Job Training" (OJT) that pairs up trainers and trainees in a comfortable growth path.
  • Our trainees usually come from cultures that value long-term relationships, and that do not value short-term relationships.  Thus we seek to develop a series of contacts with trainees over a period of time, including visits by trainers to the trainee’s local situation.  Part of this process is also to ensure proper follow-through to the second and third (or more) generation of trainees in a given area.

7.  Pervasive, on-going partnership.

  • Partnering together in training with EE People Group Services is a journey in partnership.  We are not interested in isolated, one-time training experiences to fill your church calendar for a while until the next thing comes along.  Our desire is to walk together with our partners down a path of experiences that continue to build vision, understanding and skill for cohesive ministry of evangelism and discipleship that is connected to all of life.  Until all come to know the transforming power of the Lord Jesus, there is work to do.  
  • EE has traditionally partnered almost excusively with local churches.  However, because EE People Group Services is focusing more on new harvest fields where churches may not exist, or may not be mature host churches, we also partner with a wide range of ministries including those who do church planting, community development, medical attention, relief work and other mercy ministries.  Believers who can effectively share the Gospel are needed in an infinite number of venues!
  • At the entity level, we seek to network and partner widely in a variety of ways that are congruent with our organizational vision and mission as part of building up the Body of Christ. At the personal level, experienced trainers work side-by-side with trainees to mentor and coach them, and all trainers and trainees are required to have two people who actively pray for them and with them about their EE training and ministry.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 January 2009 05:56 )