One of the great things we get to do with Thoughtworks is bring top-notch training to your churches. Intensives are easy to put together and can be very enriching for your church and the churches in your area. Here's what you do.
1) Identify a need. The best training is timely and directed at the needs of the community. It also makes it much easier on the equippers if the group they are training is already invested in getting the most out of their training. Often training will include some pre-work (usually reading) so that the conversations can be richer and deeper. Among the areas Thoughtworks can help includes: pastoral care, biblical foundations, gaining a historical context, training in preaching and teaching, providing theological foundations, deepening faith, and others. Rather than being committed to a pre-sett inflexible programme, Thoughtworks seeks to serve the needs unique to your community.
2) Contact your Thoughtworks Rep. This is what we are here for - helping your congregation mature and flourish. We will help you figure out who best can deliver an intensive suited to your needs. We can help.
3) Choose a time and venue. A typical intensive is done on a weekend. Usually the whole day Saturday. Your role will be to provide the venue and make sure it is conducive to running the intensive you have asked for. We can work with you to make sure you know what is required.
4) Get the word out. We will help with this too. Most intensives will primarily draw from your church and the churches close by, after all the needs of communities are not all the same. Events like this a better together, so why not offer the opportunity to your neighbours? I am sure they will thank you for it. Wouldn't it be awesome if our churches were instrumental in bringing quality training to all the churches around us? We will also advertise on this blog and help you get the message out through other social media.
5) Reap the benefits. An equipped church is a confident church. In the Vineyard we love the idea that everybody plays - but we also love the idea of equipping the saints so that they can play better. This is the piece that is so important for the future of our communities. Our goal is not just a transfer of knowledge, but to ignite the spark of Kingdom possibilities in every person we can. Imagine what an equipped and confident church can do in your neighbourhoods? Imagine what we can do in out nation? Imagine what God calls us to participate in throughout the whole world! Let Your Kingdom come.
Looking forward to seeing you at a Thoughtworks intensive soon!
Frank Emanuel, Freedom Vineyard, Ottawa.
Note: the picture is Larry Levy (Halifax Metro Vineyard), I used it cause I like Larry a lot and he embodies the kind of down to earth passion for teaching that I am trying to promote here.
