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xpress
Expectations
Express teams will:
- Learn language
- Explore and research worldview and culture in the context of stories, drama, song, and/or art
- Involve others in the work (SCs, volunteers, nationals, workers from other agencies)
- Share the Gospel
- Disciple new and existing believers
- Nurture small groups into churches
- Initiate church-planting movements (CPMs)
- Record information for those who come after
- Intentionally mobilize others to finish the task
- Learn language: It is essential for your team to become effective in verbal communication in order to sow the seeds that will lead to CPMs. You will receive three to six months of intensive language study in a “barefoot language learning” environment. This will likely be intentionally done as you interact with people in your community. To truly communicate at the heart level, you need to speak the language of your people. Therefore, language acquisition will be a process that continues throughout your term of service.
- Explore and research worldview and culture in context of stories, drama, song, and/or art: Through your growing proficiency in language and your developing relationships, you will begin to explore the worldview of your people. This is done largely through listening to their stories and observing their use of drama, song, and art in communicating their core beliefs. You will ask many questions as you increasingly identify with their world. Your goal is to understand their needs, discover key areas of concern and anxiety, pinpoint crucial worldview concepts, and look for redemptive analogies, which will be helpful in communicating the Gospel.
- Involve others in the work (SCs, volunteers, nationals, workers from other agencies): You will need to be a self-starter, but not a lone ranger. You will be expected to lead others to join in the task. It is often through these efforts that God will call others to continue what you have started. You will learn from nationals and other regional SCs and draw from the experiences of other workers from other agencies as you develop, research, and train others in communicating God’s message in a culturally relevant way.
- Share the Gospel: In order to believe, they must hear the Gospel. You will need to learn to clearly communicate the Good News to your people group and do this on a regular basis. As you share, you will identify people of peace who can help you in this task.
- Disciple new and existing believers: As people come to faith or you come across believers among your people group, you will be responsible for investing your life in them and teaching them to obey all that you have been taught.
- Nurture small groups into churches: The goal for new believers is always to meet together as a local church. You must be intentional about this even from the beginning. It is through local churches that CPMs will start.
- Initiate church-planting movements: Your understanding of and commitment to facilitating CPMs will be of the utmost importance as you influence other believers. It is through your passion to see God glorified in this way that others will catch hold of the CPM vision for your people group.
- Record information for those who come after: You must be able to communicate to others what you discover so that your effort will not be wasted. This will include a people group profile, maps, trip logs, contacts, and anything that will aid those who walk the trail you blaze. If you are involved in cross-cultural story crafting, you also will be trained to appropriately document the stories and make audio recordings.
- Intentionally mobilize someone to finish the task: If your people group is receptive to the Gospel, it will be important that you look for those whom God is calling to carry on to completion the work that He started through you. This may require writing another job request, returning as a career missionary to your people group, or training and entrusting the task to nationals.
Express teams are provided with just-in-time trainings every six months to help teams learn essential skills needed at each stage of their project; face-to-face, on-site mentoring and coaching visits every three months; and Edge trainings and retreats.
Additionally, teams should be working with a local Strategy Coordinator who will serve as an advisor for strategy, logistics, living issues, and relating to people groups.
Your mentor/coach will be someone who is trained in the area of your assignment, whether that is in storytelling or the arts. After some initial orientation and cultural adjustment, he or she will begin discussions with you concerning the direction of your assignment.
Our desire is to help you maximize your strengths in order to make the greatest impact on people who have never heard the Gospel.
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