What Are We Doing Here? (Part 7)

If you have been following our blog for awhile, you may remember the series of posts that I wrote during our time at New Tribes Bible Institute, where I wrote short descriptions of each of the 53 classes we took there. (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)

I decided to continue the series, because even though we are at a different location now (the Missionary Training Center in Missouri instead of the Bible Institute in Michigan), we are still training for the same thing: a ministry in tribal missions.

At the Bible School, almost all of our classes were about the Bible (makes sense, right?)

Here, at the Missionary Training Center, our classes are specifically about missions--teaching in missions, language learning in missions, teamwork in missions, practical skills in missions, etc.

If I haven't said it before, we are SO THANKFUL for the comprehensive, four-year training program that New Tribes Mission offers. Even with the training, it seems like an impossible task in front of us, but we are trusting that God will work through us and despite us in our ministry!

So here is the first recap of the classes we have taken this far at the Missionary Training Center:

Worldview Analysis
This class was amazing...but never before have I had such a feeling of "information overload." We just learned so much new stuff in this class. The basis of this class was just what the name suggests--we learned to analyze people's worldviews. We learned what a worldview is (everyone has one by the way...it is the "lens" through which we see all of life), how a worldview forms, develops, and changes, and how to use strategic ministry techniques to address people at the worldview level. You see, if we were to go into a tribe and just start addressing all of the outward behaviors of the people that were "wrong," nothing would change in their thinking. So this class served to teach us how to identify worldview assumptions, which then express themselves in values and observable behaviors. One of the main reasons we need and want to minister to our tribe at a worldview level is to hopefully avoid "syncretism." Syncretism is when people accept what you are telling them (i.e. the gospel), but then continue to hold on to their old beliefs as well. They add the information about Jesus to all of their other religious beliefs and emerge with something that is neither Christian nor their old religion...it is a deadly mix of both. We want to avoid that at all costs. We want the people to gain an entirely new outlook on everything with regards to the gospel message. We want them to totally do away with their old beliefs and embrace the new biblical ones. And we also learned in this class why it is biblical to address people at a worldview level. This class truly was mind-blowing...lots of amazing information.

Big Picture
This was basically a class that gave us an overview of what our future will likely look like if we continue with New Tribes Mission (which we intend to do) and go into a tribe to plant a church. We learned about all of the different stages of church planting and how those stages relate to the ultimate goal of establishing of a mature church. We read documents that outlined the church planter's job description (overwhelming!!!) and reviewed what the Church is, why it exists, and how NTM works alongside the local church to fit into God's plan. Our favorite part of this class was going through a long document called "The Mature Church Model," which basically shows what our goals are for the church that we plant (Lord willing!) in a tribe someday after we have been there for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years. This was a very practical and helpful class for us to envision our future in tribal church planting a little better.

Culture/Language Acquisition (CLA) Intro

Culture and Language Acquisition will be a huge part of what we will be doing when we move to a tribe. The first few years we are there, that is pretty much all we will be doing. We will be gaining as much understanding as we possibly can about the people's language and culture...and then we will be using that information to relate to them in ways that they can best understand us...especially when we are presenting them the Gospel. This class was just a brief introduction into this process. We learned about the importance and nature of good relationships, the significance of attitudes and habits, and the skills needed for growth in these areas. We will be learning much more at the MTC about CLA over the next year or so.

History of New Tribes Mission
Much of this class was repeat from a couple of classes we took at NTBI, but it was great to be reminded once again of the extreme sacrifices the founders and early missionaries in NTM took in order to get the Gospel to unreached people groups. It is so easy for us to lose sight of why we are doing this tribal missions thing. Learning about the early days of NTM really helps us keep our eyes on the Lord and keep an eternal perspective. NTM really does have a fascinating history (and we have the book about it if anyone would ever care to read it!).

Learning Styles
This class was very enlightening. Since we will be working on a team in our tribe (in our case, we will most likely be working with Nathan and Rachel and at least one other family) and will be constantly working in cooperation with other people in NTM and the national church of the country in which we will be living, it is important for us to gain understanding toward one another. We learned about the four main learning styles in this class: Concrete Sequential, Concrete Random, Abstract Sequential, and Abstract Random. I am almost 100% Concrete Sequential, and Aaron is almost 100% Concrete Random. Listen to some of the descriptors of these two learning styles and (if you know us well at all) see if you think they fit us:

• Concrete Sequential: they like order, logic, and following directions. They learn best when they have a structured environment, and they like to work with people who are reliable and predictable. It is difficult for them to work in an unorganized environment and be involved in discussions or projects that have no specific point.
• Concrete Random: they like experimenting, taking risks, and solving problems independently. They learn best when they can use a trial-and-error approach. They often think that they are the exception to rules or that rules do not apply to them. It is difficult for them to work with restrictions and limitations, have formal routines, and keep detailed records.

Ha...just typing those out makes me again see how DIFFERENT Aaron and I are. Those two descriptions fit us so well. This class was so good for us not only in our marriage (to understand each other better), but to understand everyone that we will potentially work with better! Everyone fits one of the four learning styles (although some people are mixes of two or three of them), and learning different ways to relate to people from each of these styles in this class was extremely helpful. We are now constantly saying, "He is definitely A.S." or "She is definitely A.R." about other people. :) This class really did help us to understand people different than ourselves.

Ministry Practicum

This class is actually an ongoing one that we will be involved in our entire time here at the MTC. Every student here is expected to be involved in ministry. Most students are required to spend a minimum of 8 hours per week in ministry (but moms are only required 4 hours per week). Aaron and I are both part of a ministry team at our church here in Missouri called the Rock House. Aaron is involved in the worship band, a one-on-one discipling ministry, and various other things. I am mostly just involved in the children's nursery on Wednesday nights and Sundays and sometimes various other things. We meet with the rest of our team once a week to strategize and talk through things and also once a week to pray for the people we are ministering to. This is a great class, because it allows us to use the ministry skills that we are learning in our classes right now in real-life situations. We don't have to wait until we are overseas to minister! We need to be doing it right now.

Communication Skills

This class was based on the principles from a teaching series called "The Seven Laws of the Teacher" by Howard Hendricks. This truly is an amazing series of videos--ones that I wish I could have watched before I began teaching ninth grade English about six years ago! Since we will have various teaching roles in our ministry (Bible teaching, literacy teaching, discipleship, etc.), we will need to have clear communication skills. This was a great class; we both learned a ton.

Love and Respect

This was a class about marriage based on Emerson Eggerich's book and video series. It was SO GOOD. Again, I wish we would have taken a class like this about eight years ago (when we got married). We just learned a ton about God-given gender differences and the importance of relating to one another in ways that meet our unique needs. Aaron and I have had some good and really important talks that have come out of this class. We know that our marriage will need to be strong and rooted firmly in Christ in order for us to have any hope of staying on the mission field long-term, so we were so thankful for the things we learned in this class.

Form and Meaning

This class was all about Bible translation--something that we will be involved in overseas someday (Lord willing). The class informed us about Bible translation in NTM as well as expand and challenge our knowledge about Bible translation in general. A few things we learned: 1) How impractical it is to aim for total word-to-word correspondence between any two languages when translating Scripture, 2) how really every Bible translation is meaning-based to some extent...there are no TRUE word-to-word translations, 3) meaning is more important than form in creating a faithful and accurate translation, 4) the dangers of over-contextualization and under-contextualization in Bible translations, and 5) what a HUGE and SCARY job it is to translate God's word into a language that has never been translated before. (All of these classes just serve to show us how much of God's help we are going to need in EVERY part of our ministry.)

Foundational Bible Teaching

If we had to choose a favorite class so far here at MTC, this would be it! This was a 63 hour course that introduced us to the way or methodology that we will be using to present the Gospel to a tribe someday. NTM uses a system called Building On Firm Foundations in which the Bible is presented as one unified story from beginning to end that builds upon itself throughout the entire thing. There are several themes about God, man, Satan, and Jesus that can be seen throughout the entire Bible, and we learned to use these themes as we taught through Bible stories to ultimately point to the Redeemer--Jesus Christ. This class was basically divided into three parts: 1) a rationale for why NTM uses this method of teaching the Bible, 2) a clarification about what the Gospel truly is, and 3) some practical skills in teaching the Bible this way. During the third phase, everyone in our class was required to teach, and it was so great to not only sit under our classmates' teaching, but also be taught the Bible in this way for the very first time ourselves. It was truly so exciting. We can't wait to present the Bible to our kids in this way, and ultimately to present it to a tribe in this way. I can truly say that the Bible makes so much more sense to me now than it ever has before. I am just in awe of God's character and plan as I see it all throughout Scripture. 

Overall, we are about 1/6 of the way done with our training here at the MTC. (It is three semesters long, and we are halfway through the first semester.) We feel so privileged to be here and to train for a tribal ministry. I can safely say that we grow in our excitement for our tribal church planting ministry every day. THANK YOU if you are someone who is enabling us to be here in any way. We are truly humbled and grateful.

Thanks for caring about what we are doing here at the MTC. You can expect several more of these posts throughout our time here!