The most-often used Scripture that drives our philosophy of International Training is 2 Timothy 2:2. Our true desire is to labor alongside God’s leaders in majority (developing) world countries in such a way that we invest in them, enlist them into service, and release them into ministry; specifically, the ministry of training other national leaders. To that end, our training has six important characteristics.
We are intentional in who we enlist in the training. We rely heavily on our National Coordinator to help us identify the men and women God would have to be part of the training. We want our students to be mature, serious-minded, and proven participants in church leadership. They may be pastors, pastors’ wives, deacons, or other significant church leaders. Whatever their official title or position, we want to ensure they have a heart to become the leader God intends them to be. Our training isn’t for everyone, but for those who do receive our training, we do all we can to invest in them with intentionality.
Our time together with the students is very interactive. As we teach, we proactively engage our students in discussion. We want to be sure we are communicating appropriately and they are understanding the material as best as possible. But classroom participation is a small part of the total interaction we have with our students. As we enjoy chai or coffee with them on our breaks, IBL team members and our guest trainers (many of whom are seasoned pastors) engage in deep, personal interaction with our students. We listen, counsel, coach, and encourage them. Our heart is not simply to disseminate knowledge, but rather, we desire to build deep, lasting relationships with our students as we invest in their lives.
Our training is intensive in its curriculum. While we are not the only “team in town” when it comes to international training, we do believe there are very unique aspects to our approach. The material we’ve developed has been designed to be as deep and broad as possible in as reasonable a time as possible. Each class we offer is two hours in length. Throughout the three-year timeframe of our training, our students will receive twenty classes on theology, twenty classes on pastoral skills (with a heavy emphasis on Bible study and interpretation), and twenty classes on biblical leadership. We believe our students need to be given the essential tools necessary to be the leaders God desires them to be. In a world where leadership is all about position, power, title, and money, we want to offer our students the tools they need to be the humble, servant-leaders God desires, so they can be enlisted into effective, God-honoring service.
The relationship we have with our Disciplers is an intimate relationship. After each week of classes, we ask four to six leaders-of-leaders to stay for two additional days of one-on-few mentoring. We invest an incredible amount of time and energy into these men. We get to know them on a deep, intimate level. We engage with them via zoom several other times during the year. We know these men and we enlist them into serving with us as we serve the larger group of students. These men are being trained to be the teachers and disciplers of our students when we are not present in-country; in a real sense they are being developed to be our colleagues.