Who are these strangers next door? Where did they come from? What language do they speak? How can I share Christ with them? These are a few of the questions that the People Group Discovery and Engagement Workshop will answer.

The training leads participants through five educational sessions and a people group excursion encounter. Excursion encounters can include: visiting an Islamic mosque, Buddhist or Hindu temples, ethnic restaurants, ethnic markets, ethnic home meal/visit and ethnic home Bible study. (Participants come prepared to eat lunch out on Saturday.)

Typical Schedule (Workshop can be held in one day upon request but the field trip is required):

Friday
6:00 – 6:30pm Registration and check-in
6:30 – 7:30 Dinner and overview
7:30 – 8:30 Session One – “The Macro Perspective – Changes and Diversity in the USA”
8:30 – 9:30 Session Two – “The Importance of Heart Language and Worldview”

Saturday
8:30 – 9:00am Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:10 Devotional
9:10-9:50 Session Three – “The Process to Carefully Examine”
10:00-10:50 Session Four – “The Process to Naturally Encountering”
10:55 – 11:40 Session Five – “The Process to Intentionally Engaging”
12:00 – 3:00pm Exploring the harvest – field trip and lunch
3:00 – 4:30 Debriefing, next steps

Reaching the Nations in Texas is a six-session training based on Jesus’ principles for cross-cultural ministry. The training material helps believers by giving them principles on how to connect, evangelize and disciple foreign born people groups in Texas. Each session includes a principle exemplified by Jesus, an overview of the beliefs of people groups in Texas and information on the best practices for cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship in context.

The Reaching the Nations in Texas manual can be used in any Bible Study group, Sunday School Class or Small Group. We encourage you to attend one of these training events first and then take
the training to your church or small group.

Session and Topics:

• Introduction: And Who Is My Neighbor?
• Session 1: Reaching the Nations Locally by Doing Glocal Missions
• Session 2: Making Changes In Our Routine to Reach the Nations in Texas
• Session 3: Bridging the Cultural Gap Between You and Your Foreign Born Friend
• Session 4: Ministering to Your Foreign Born Friends According to Their Felt Needs
• Session 5: Discipling Your Foreign Born Friends in Their Context
• Conclusion: The Fields Are Ready

Going Beyond Seminars 1 and 2 are two one-day seminars designed for people group missionaries, ethnic church planters and workers among people groups. There are two levels of the workshop: Going Beyond Seminar 1 and Going Beyond Seminar 2. These seminars are the basis to establish a Going Beyond Network where churches, pastors and leaders learn from and encourage one another in reaching the nations in their locale.

Going Beyond Seminar 1 casts a vision to reach beyond to the peoples next door by reviewing the Biblical basis for going on mission. It helps identify people groups in the participants’ locale
and introduces the simple church concept. This seminar primarily uses Dr. Bryan Galloway’s book “Reaching the Nations: People that Change the World” as the text base. Copies are provided for participants.

In Going Beyond Seminar 2, the participants review the best practices for ethnic church planting, how to avoid pitfalls and best practices in contextual discipleship. This seminar uses J.D. Payne’s book “Apostolic Church Planting: Birthing New Churches from New Believers” as the text base. Copies are provided for participants.

We can train your church, small group on how to connect, engage and disciple different people groups as per their particular religious and ethnic background. Our People Group specialists and Missionaries can come and share depending on your interest and need.

Some of the specialized trainings that we have done in the past focus on Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists (Loving Muslims, Building Bridges for Muslims, Walking with Hindus). Training is available on the best practices to serve people groups from other minority religions present in Texas. Examples of minority people groups include Jainism, Sikhism, Mandeanism, Zoroastrianism and Bahaism.

We want to come alongside you and your church to serve and share the Gospel with international people groups that have arrived in our state with refugee status.

We advocate for all ministries serving refugees to include an intentional church planting strategy that is contextualized to the people group. We would love to speak to you and your group to let you know about opportunities in your city. We would also love to meet you and your group to talk about how to develop an intentional church planting strategy in your current programs serving refugees.

Call us at 817.552.2500 to discuss these training options or email us today.