Expanding the kingdom

God’s Kingdom spans the entire world, from the populous cities to the secluded countryside. Churches are being built in some of the most remote and deprived regions of the world. But how do leaders of these churches receive theological training when they are isolated from mainstream seminaries?

The Timothy Project was set up by BMS World Mission worker, John Dyer, to offer training to the leaders of these churches that have been built in the isolated and deprived areas of Brazil.

 Logistical thinking

“The primary concern is that the Timothy Project should be accessible – geographically, financially and academically – to people of the remotest regions of Brazil”, says John. “If we miss the target at any one of these points, then the whole project will be compromised.”

The first task was to assess how the materials could be transported to these remote areas at a cost that all could afford. An online project was the answer. Printed material would raise costs and would be harder to transport while an online program would provide cost-free materials.

Materials

With an online program as the base of the Timothy Project, the co-ordinators turned their thoughts to the content of the materials. “Our plan was to provide leadership training that could be done locally”, says John. “Done in any locality with access to the internet and that focused on the different aspects of Christian leadership.”

A group of local teachers came together to not only create a curriculum, but also a teaching methodology. It was decided that an interactive approach – one where the students could relate to the ideas, adapt them to their own situations and think about the issues in their own churches – was the methdology of choice.

Implementation of the material

With a curriculum and methodology in place, the final step to completion was to assess how the teachers would successfully teach the materials. Thankfully, a BMS grant allowed the project co-ordinators to support a group of writers to gather and produce teacher training manuals for each subject.

While the grant was able to provide financial assistance for the writers to put together these manuals, John states that the, “greatest incentive for all those involved was in knowing that they were making a significant contribution to a cutting edge project that would benefit the kingdom”.

A triumphant outcome

So far, the Timothy Project has had a high success rate in Brazil – every week new churches are signing up (so far more than 120), and all but one of the 26 states comprising the Brazilian federation have registered.

Not only have pastors and churches from all around praised the programme, but the directors of the Rio Grande do Norte Baptist Convention resolved to use the project to train their own missionaries.

“The Timothy Project is different,” says John. “It makes no charge to those who wish to use it. It is available to churches wherever they happen to be, and focuses on the ‘doing’ as well as the ‘knowing’ of the best leadership practises.”

2/2/2012

Photo Credit: Leo Wery