ISE Course Description: 4 quarters
Each course is approximately two months long, taught one hour each day. There are two semesters a year, two quarters a semester, four courses each day, in our eight-month program. Each course is composed of at least thirty lesson plans, each lesson printed on one page to be taught in a one-hour period.
The sequence and combination of courses may change,but this is a recommended and workable suggestion; certain courses can be combined when there is a shortage of material, lack of teachers, or little need to address the issue. In India, a couse should be added on Evangelism of Hindus.
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Syllabus First Quarter: General Studies
The divine offer of eternal life, the Gospel which we preach, is examined in detail. The goal of the course is to insure in each student a good biblical foundation in evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and church growth. The student will overflow and be awed by the message in such a way that he will want to go everywhere and tell all men the best news that has ever been revealed to the world. This course prepares the coordinator for the courses on preaching et teaching Church Growth.
Christian experts have done a lot of research on the growth of many denominations, past and present, established everywhere in the world, in order to find out what accelerates and slows down the development of the Church. These experts have written volumes on the principles and methods by which congregations, denominations, and entire nations can experience explosive growth within the Church of Jesus Christ. This course studies those principles and prepares the coordinator for all the courses which will follow, especially the courses on Strategy and Evaluation for Church Growth.
The young African Church can learn much from the historical Church victories and defeats experienced on other continents, by other men, and in other time periods. The course emphasizes neither dates nor historical facts. Rather, it studies the reasons behind the strengths and weaknesses of the Church, its boldness and its fear, its spirituality and its carnality, its growth and decline. By the end of the course, it will be evident that the key to growth and victory in the Church has always been a vibrant and dynamic evangelism. This course is complementary to the course, Movements for Church Growth.
This course is complementary to the course, History for Church Growth. It examines certain movements which have attempted to mobilize Christians within an entire nation: Evangelism-in-Depth, New Life for All, Christ for All, Christ the Only Way, D.A.W.N. (Discipling a Whole Nation), and AD 2000. We will use these examples to form a national strategy for the country represented by the student.
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Syllabus Second Quarter: Practical Applications
This course asks the students to study, evaluate, prepare, and give biblical messages on evangelistic or spiritually edifying themes. Various pastors and evangelists are examined, their messages analyzed, their strengths imitated, their weaknesses avoided. The different classifications of sermons are examined: Method, contents, text, treatment, and structure. The structural classification is analyzed in detail: Topical, textual, expository, and topical-textual. Finally, the students will have to speak in various contexts: Worship services, prayer meetings, Bible studies, lectures, seminars, classrooms, and school assemblies.
This course examines a successful method of personal evangelism, Evangelism Explosion. It sets before the student the double goal of winning the lost one by one and discipling the laity in the process. By the end of the course, the student will be competent, clear, and complete in the presentation of the Gospel, giving the hearer a valid opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He will also be able to launch this method in his local church.
This course is complementary to Personal Evangelism for Church Growth. It centers on the history, purpose, aims, methods, leaders, content, benefits, types, and evaluation of small discipleship groups. Various examples of personal discipleship materials are examined, including New Life for All, Stow Home Bible Study, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Navigators, Neighborhood Bible Studies, and the International Center of Evangelism. The course is a preparation for the necessary counseling and discipleship of new converts.
This course is complementary to the courses, Proclamation for Church Growth and Personal Evangelism for Church Growth. Africa and Asia are two continents where the Church is spreading most rapidly. In such fertile ground, the harvest is bountiful. We must act quickly and gather in the fruit. The open air is a very popular method of evangelism in these receptive areas and succeeds in accomplishing the task of gathering. A very popular and successful method of open air preaching will be examined: The Sowers Program. The goal of the course is to train the student to be a trainer of trainers for mass evangelism situations.
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Syllabus Third Quarter: Targeted Problems
Church leaders need to know how to measure and interpret the different aspects of church life just as the doctor takes the temperature of the patient to know the state of his health. The leaders need to know, and not just guess, what is really happening in the Church, in each department, in each district, in the cities, in the villages, among the different age groups, and among the preachers, so as to know what is essential to edify the Church and assure the victorious life that God wants for every church.
The laity can be considered an army of soldiers; their participation is essential to the advance of the Church against a world controlled by Satan. This course examines the definition of a layman, various biblical principles behind lay involvement in the Church, and their commitment to the Church.
The mobilization of each local church depends to a large extent on the will, desire, and ability of each pastor: He must teach and show his congregation the different projects which the denomination has chosen to implement; then the pastor should send his church people to carry them out. The goal of the course is to teach the student how a coordinator of evangelism would seek the cooperation of pastors and equip them to continually mobilize their congregations in the growth of the Church.
The Muslim population remains the largest unreached people group in the world. Their resistance to the Gospel has been documented in history. This course examines the world view, the beliefs, and the practices of Islam. Ordinary Christians must learn how to behave towards Muslim neighbors and how better to witness to Jesus Christ among them. The course challenges the coordinator of evangelism with the burden and necessity of cross-cultural evangelists who are willing to live among the Muslims, using personal evangelism to win some, preparing the church for the challenge of nurturing those converts who will be cast out of their society and family.
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Syllabus Fourth Quarter: Synthesis
The course is divided
into two parts: Rural Church Planting and Urban Church Planting
Rural: It is estimated that 60% of the African population still lives in villages despite the strong migration toward the urban centers. The Church faces problems of distance, communication, finances, leadership, literature, immorality, training, and teaching. The first part of this course deals with how various denominations can renew those small, isolated congregations which struggle for survival. How can revival spread to the vast areas of hills, bush, and jungle? How can the necessary research be done to uncover the work which remains to be done? How can those numerous unreached villages be evangelized? How can lay pastors be trained and placed in those unchurched villages? The student will be challenged to find a practical answer by using the strategy of portable schools, the Heart of Man, Sowers, and Theological Education by Extension.
Urban: The second half of the course deals with the complexity of urban life, which presents the Church with enormous problems and marvellous opportunities. We will examine urban changes in social, financial, and Church life. The courses proposes a strategy of Church planting which will respond to these problems. Principles of evangelism, establishment, equipping, and expanding will be applied to the urban situation with the goal of establishing a permanent, consistent, and biblical church for each citizen looking for God through Jesus Christ.
This course synthesizes the material of all previous courses into a plan for the years ahead to stimulate the growth of the denomination. The strategy has ten steps which are represented by ten questions which each student must answer: To whom? Where? What? Why? How? With what? With whom? When? With how much? Afterwards? The student chooses a neglected people and develops a strategy to approach them, lead them to Christ, fortify them in the body of Christ, and multiply the number of believers.
The denomination is the contemporary agent through which the Church of Jesus Christ acts. It groups a body of members and gives structure to the organism. It decides what the body will and will not do. It has authority and governmental recognition to function within national boundaries. It has a charter, a history, a doctrinal statement, a position in the culture, a growth rate, goals, properties, institutions .... This course is concerned with the harnassing of these resources to reach regional and national goals planned by denominational leaders. Discovering and accurately labeling the location and the size of spiritual needs, then planning how to help the denomination respond individually, collectively, and effectively to those needs are goals of this course.
This course is complementary to that of the Department of Evangelism. Preferred evangelistic projects are summarized in order to increase church growth in the student's denomination: crusades, open air preaching, visitation, home Bible studies, prayer cells, church planting, church research, unreached peoples, portable schools, women's fellowship, children's groups, youth groups, and missionary sending .... How to present each project and how to implement it once approval is granted receive much attention. Using calendars, charts, and tables, the student will synthesize all that he has learned and planned for use in his denomination.
This course is a synthesis of all previous courses. The goals
of this course are to familiarize the student with the functions, equipment,
material, methods, objectives, and budget of a department of evangelism. Principles
of biblical management and spiritual motivation will be discussed. An important part
is dedicated to literature as a means of communication, training, and mobilization.
Discussion will center around how, where, why, when, and what the department of
evangelism. should and will be. This is a complementary course to that of Projects
for Church Growth.