PROPER PASTORAL PREPARATION

Team India

I teach the CP trainees that -- in the same way Jesus listened to His trainees -- that they too need to LISTEN to their disciples. In so doing, the trainer uses a MENU approach to modeling concepts for applications. These men are contemporary Indian nationals reaching their India.

I use a skit to illustrate this: “At a Restaurant”

o Taking paper and pen in hand, welcome some participants to the Noodle Bowl Restaurant.
o I ask two or three participants, “How many times have you eaten here before?”Whatever number they answer, tell them that they must eat the next highest meal number on the menu. Shout out some disgusting item like ‘Pickled chicken’s feet’ or ‘Boiled escargot’.
o Gleefully gesticulate: “This food is good for you. You need it. I know, for I own the restaurant!”
o I ask: “Is that how you order food at a restaurant. No? How do they do it at a restaurant?”Ask one or two participants what they would like to order today.
o I explain that mentoring new leaders is like going to a restaurant.
o If the participants do not visit restaurants, then create a skit in which buyers go into a shop and the shop-keeper wants to sell them anything but what they want.

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Everything (or nearly everything I teach the Indian nationals) I teach them are put in terms of NT verbs for action. NOT simply passive, for-the-brain-only stuff.

I teach them, for example, NT verbs like: 1) They need to LISTEN to their trainees. 2) And to SHARE AUTHORITY with their trainees. 3) And to SEND out their trainees to the harvest. 4) And to PRAY and LOOK for more trainees.

Please pray with us to the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth workers into His harvest. Please, quickly: kneel with us daily for His His Lordship in South Asia. Pray for these men (trainees with whom I minister there), as they serve as lights for God's India.

And pray with Debbie and I as we sets our sights toward PROPER PASTORAL PREPARATION for South Asia.

-- Patrick