David Watson plants Churches, very well, and he plants them ‘remotely’ by investing in the education/training/apprenticing of others. He is self-conscious about the ‘product’ he wants and works self-consciously and intentionally to achieve those goals. His work, humanly speaking, has sparked a self-replicating Church-planting movement that has seen 3,000,000 baptisms (and counting) amongst the people group for which he was made responsible. If you’re working in the developing world for the kingdom of God I don’t need to tell you to sit up and pay attention, you’re way ahead of me. But what can his particular methodoogy teach us about Kingdom eLearning in and for the developing world? Lots.
You Can Work Remotely and Have a Real Local Impact
He lived in Singapore? and was responsible for a people group in India. That’s a big distance. He did this by training leaders who would then plant self-replicating churches. I don’t know how long he spent in the target area, but all of ‘his’ work of church planting was done without him being present by men (and a woman) whom he’d trained and their ‘offspring.’
The implications for eLearning are clear. Your physical presence is not required, nor even desirable, in many cases.
Make Someone Accountable for a Given Group of People
For a people group! For their neighbourhood, or for a social-grouping. That means coordination and delegation. It also means accountability. Making someone accountable for (e) learning for a specific group makes a whole lot of sense too. Your ‘accountability partner’ can provide feedback for stats, suggestions for additions and alterations and generally keep you on your toes.
Church Planting Movements Focus on Intense Leadership Training
Can anyone say “twelve disciples and Jesus?” This is at the core of their model. John Knoxes and St. Patricks are amazing! but they are few and far between. The Bible has its Joshuas and King Josiahs, yes, but it also has the Levites and… Jesus and the twelve (and seventy) disciples. No heroes on white horses, locals on foot is the order of the day.
If you’re called into Christian Eduation you’re probably not called to be a church planter too. You may, however, be called to facilitate the faithful, Biblical, training of church planters. The best way to deliver learning in the developing world is the mobile phone, so… let’s deliver a focused, faithful message to church planters.
Focus on a few to win many.
No Professional Leaders
- No Seminary
All the leaders are ‘lay.’ Professional leaders can, no, have to! go to seminary. This is not an option for a subsistence, illiterate farmer in the developing world. So, let’s not imitate seminary in our delivery.
- Build Capacity by Incorporating Literacy / Numeracy Materials
- Don’t Give Stuff Away
They have to raise their own ‘support’ and they probably live in an area of subsistence farmers. Subsistence means ‘no spare cash.’ Providing eLearning programmes targeted at helping people with literacy or numeracy skills you don’t have to give stuff away ‘rice christians.’ No, at least provide the option of paying for the materials. That way the church planter can earn a living, build a bridge with a community, build relationships and bless his fellow-man all at the same time.
This principle may extend to your leadership/general Christian Education materials. Is there a precedent for free in the cutlure? What is the hidden message? Are we establish a patron-donor relationship or saying ‘our material is not worth anything.’ Payment may be tricky to collect and tricky to get the right level, but, it’s worth it. We’ll need to work with entrepreneurs to get that bit right.
But… Train Everyone, Not Just Leaders
That means two different groups, with different responsibilities. That means different audiences and differing goals/emphasis in teaching/training.
Outside Leaders De-culturalise, Inside Leaders Contextualise
- Hard work number 1: Strip out the leaven of foreign culture
Ruthlessly, relentless and iteratively strip out all that can be stripped out to get back to scripture alone. This makes church easier to replicate and also means it’ll be easier to teach, possibly, but certainly easier to learn.
- Hard work number 2: Facilitate contextualisation by the receiving culture
That means;
1. Modularisation – it’s easier to adapt small ‘chunks’ rather than the whole of Calvin’s institutes.
2. Online videos – YouTube has options for subtitling using free tools
3. Using open-source where possible
4. Outreach looking for local folks with appropriate skills
5. Producing training materials that explain both ‘how to’ and ‘why.’
6. Trusting that adaptation will happen
7. Follow-up to find out how things were adapted and incluing that feedback into your trainings.
Self-Replication
- Distribution Model
No-one has to come to a central office to have their church rubber-stamped by a denominational bureaucracy. Churches plant churches who plant churches. The distribution model of eLearning should both imitate and try to piggy-back on this model. This will mean…
- Simplification
Simple things are easier to replicate; think ‘throwing stick, not nuclear weapon.’
Teach Through Questions Which Open Scripture
This is the teaching-method of the Bible-study materials which are instrumental in bringing families and communities to Christ and the materials which are helping chuches to grow in obedience and impact. It’s a methodology used to great effect by Jesus, the Prophets and countless others, including some fella called So-crates. It should probably be the backbone/starting point of your eLearning materials.
Go Slow in Order to Go Fast
Will mean digging deep, over a long time with only a few. eLearning lends itself to providing lots of content, available whenever the student is ready to access it. Instructional designers will need to build patience into their toolbox though. Going deep over a long period means spending years before someone goes through all the material… The lure of technology is ‘harder better faster stronger.’ It doesn’t have to be all that to be effective.
Outsiders Don’t Plant Churches
I don’t know how this principle applies to eLearning. But, in an ideal world, you will eliminate all possible barriers to learning. Culture is one such barrier. This is a foreigner,
- why should I trust him, his country is occupying my country?
- once we become Christians we must listen to western teachers. O.K. does this mean we can’t/shouldn’t teach ourselves?
- hmmm… he speaks in English/Urdu/Spanish/Portugese and he’s teaching me, hmmm… is my language no good?
I’m putting words into an imaginary person’s mouth. But… the hidden curriculum is real and powerful. If we want to do something right, it’s better to be intentional and do things right from the start. Local voice talent/teachers/idioms/language/language references/examples should certainly be used if at all possible.
Not Jesus and Me: Reach Families and Communities With the Gospel
Same with the ‘teach them to obey all things…”
- Therfore groups, not individuals are taught.
- How will they all see and hear?
- How can individual distribution methods be combined with group interactions?
- This means no/far less invidual-focus in eLearning,
- It may well mean bigger screens/fewer devices needed too
- blended learning, informal classroom/discussion groups with individual eLearning
- it may mean pre-supposing that some will be gifted as teachers and will… teach using your eLearning materials. Facilitate teachers…
- It will mean phones with projectors, they will be ubiquitous, sooner or later
![;)]()
Unbelievers can facilitate Bible-studies and lead themselves to Christ through the Word
So… facilitate this.
Buidlings and Paid Staff Kill Church Growth
All the energy that would have gone into growing is siphoned off into maintaining and edifice and managing staff. No-one trusts the messenger-for-hire. Paying for 100 people is expensive, paying for 100,000 is within the means of Bill Gates, but he’s not that dumb.
So, absolutely no single-use school/academy buildings and no centrally paid/centrally accredited teachers. They can paid, but allow that process to work itself out in each area.
No Cookie-Cutters
Whatever your methodology, it should be principle-led, but adapted and adaptable for each circumstance.
Ministry Precedes/Accompanies the Gospel
There are many ways we can obey the command to love our neighbour as ourself. Medically, economically, educationally. All of these areas of service require/can be enhanced by training… mediated by eLearning. We are training for obedience, yes, but not just ‘church’ obedience or ‘spiritual’ /pious obedience. Job-training type eLearning programmes will form part of the overall mix.
Conclusion
eLearning has a definite rôle to play, major change can happen with specialists targeting a group from a distance. The methodology of Church Planting Movements provides a sound approach that Kingdom-focused eLearning professionals can imitate profitably. This will mean training leaders deeply provided by warm, God and people focused people. This will be adapted by locals and the adapted materials will be used to instruct groups in non-seminary, multi-use environments. eLearning interventions will be developed for different audiences, including all Christians, leaders and even unbelievers, each will have their particular needs and require unique approaches. This learning will be delivered by locals who may be paid for some of it and will help equip God’s people for acts of service. Instructional designers and those adapting materials will work with those responsible for a particular group of people, large or small. This will mean a whole of a lot of people doing a whole lot of work coordinated in a multitude of different ways.
The post eLearning Lessons Learned from David Watson & Church Planting Movements: Part 4, How to? Methodology appeared first on lrnteach.com blog.
