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Missionary Training School Curriculum by GFM

This is a very rough draft of the school curriculum so that you get an idea of what subjects we will be covering. Each week we focus on one main topic and the bulk of the Bible studies, classes, and discussions revolve around that principle theme.

Orientation Week (Base Policies, School Policies, Foundational Values, GFM Overview)
During this course, we will be talking about the importance of bonding to the culture in which you are trying to minister and following the incarnational model of Jesus (becoming one of us in order to reach us). We will also talk about the importance of learning language and some of the differences between warm and cold climate cultures. We will also discuss the Great Commission and the task of reaching the remaining 6600 least reached people groups of the world.

Missions and Death to Self Week
This course will be talking about death to self as it is a major theme in the New Testament. Jesus said that anyone that wanted to gain their life must lose it and that anyone that did not deny self and take up their cross could not be his disciple. Paul said that it was no longer he that lived, but Christ in him and that he died daily. This good news is much different than the self-centered gospel that often times gets presented in Christian circles. We will talk about Cat (man-centered) vs. Dog (God-centered) Theology and the importance of being dead to self in order to know God's will and accomplish great kingdom purposes. We will also be talking about the motivation of missions and focusing on God's glory.

Inner Healing, Fasting, and Seeking Week
This course focuses a lot on inner healing from past hurts, problems, lies, identity issues, and sin struggles. We as missionaries must allow the Son to set us free in order for us to be able to free others up as well. We will be going through a self inventory, so that we can "forget what is behind and run towards what is ahead". We use a truth and prayer based counseling book called Bondage Breaker which has helped a ton of people find freedom and deliverance. This is an awesome week of seeking, praying, and fasting to draw near to God and get our hearts right with Him before continuing to go out and minister to others.

Intercessory Prayer Week
It has been said that "nothing happens apart from intercessory prayer". Prayer is the backbone of the missionary and is a universal element of every revival and church planting movement throughout history. We must learn how to "watch and pray" both listening and asking with boldness as we pray according to His will. As we spend time with God, our heart begins to beat as his heart does and we begin to rejoice with the things that make him rejoice and be broken for the things that break his heart. This course is all about intimacy with God and changing the world through prayer.

Relationships: Knowing Yourself and Others Week During this course, we will tackle the number one reason that people leave the mission field: not being able to get along with other missionaries! We need to understand that people are made unique with different personalities, temperaments, giftings, love languages, etc. We will talk a lot about knowing yourself and others as well as tips on resolving conflict and working on teams. It is essential on the mission field that you understand a little bit about psychology and sociology because missions work is basically all about relationships. So, we will study about people and what makes them tick so that we can better work with other ministers and be able to be more effective at reaching out to the lost.

Personal and Lifestyle Evangelism Week
This course is focused on evangelism. We will tackle questions such as: What is the gospel (good news) that we are preaching to the nations? Should we focus more on relationship evangelism through friendships or preaching the gospel to strangers every time we have a chance? Is fear, judgment, and hell an okay motivation to come to Christ or should we focus more on how great God's love and mercy is and the promises that are in store for those that come to him? What is the purpose of the law in bringing people to Christ?

Church History, Postmodernism, and House Church Week
This course will be talking about church history because history tends to repeat itself and also because we can learn great things (good and bad) from our Christian heritage and missionary work from the past. We will also be talking about different forms (or wineskins) that the church has taken throughout history (house churches, traditional churches, mega-churches, emerging churches, etc.) Another major focus this week will be the shift in culture from a more modern to postmodern way of thinking and how that will affect the church, the mission field, and making disciples.

Praise/Worship and Guy/Girl Relationships Week
This course covers two main topics: the role of music in the kingdom of God and guy/girl relationships. There has been a large focus on "praise and worship" recently in our churches. Is there something special about times of worship and "entering into God's presence" or is worship supposed to be a lifestyle? Maybe it is both. We will also tackle every man and woman's battle of lust as well as dating and marriage relationships. Our families are our first mission field, so we need to make sure that things are in order there before going and taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

SHAPE (Spiritual gifts, God's calling, Teamwork) Week
In this course, we will be talking about your specific calling and what God has created you to do. We will be doing a lot of self-evaluation to determine our S.H.A.P.E. (Spiritual Gifts, Holy Discontent, Abilities, Personality, and Experience) to help figure out what role God might be calling you to in this task of making disciples of all nations. A lot of students begin getting a lot of future direction during this week. We spend a bit of time coaching each person in what might be the best role and place for them to expand God's kingdom based on how He has molded them.

World Religions and Cults Week
During this course, we want to give our students and overview of the major world religions (Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism). Many of our students are working cross-culturally with people from these religious groups in the US during MTS and many are hoping to reach out to them after graduation as they go to serve in the 10/40 window. We give a whirldwind tour of each religion talking about where they came from, what their basic beliefs are, and some tips on reaching out to them. We also do a quick overview of some of the cults that are out there and what they are teaching.

Holy Spirit Week
This course is designed to give the students time to seek a relationship with the Holy Spirit. We have a lot of questions that come up during the missionary training school such as "how do you know when it is time to persevere rather than wiping the dust off your feet" or "how do you know if you're supposed to go to the 10/40 window or work a secular job and support indigenous missionaries" that really don't have an answer other than "ask God" or "the Holy Spirit will show you". So, this week is dedicated to studying the person of the Holy Spirit: his filling, his fruit, his gifts, his character, his role in salvation, the Trinity, etc. Jesus said not to leave Jerusalem without the Holy Spirit because he would give us the power, direction, strength, counsel, and words we need to fulfill the Great Commission.

Healing and Faith Week
This course will be talking about faith. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God, so we want to dive in and figure out exactly what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. We will spend a lot of time in the Word since we know that faith comes by hearing. We will talk about the power of the testimony in increasing our faith. We will also discuss healing and the role of miracles in the mission field. It seems that the preaching of the gospel in the gospels and book of Acts was often times accompanied by supernatural acts. Should the same thing happen today?

New Testament Survey and Indigenous Church Week
During this course, we will be talking about the New Testament. We will also study what it means to plant indigenous churches. We will talk about the importance of churches being self-teaching, self-propagating, self-supporting as well as issues of dependency and reproducibility. We missionaries have often been compared to scaffolding meaning that we are only needed temporarily until the local people no longer need us. Our job is to work ourselves out of a job and see the local people equipped so that they can make disciples of their own people. We will also talk about issues of contextualization and whether or not it is important it is for the church to look like the culture around it.

Finances, Stewardship and Support Raising Week
This course focuses on stewardship of finances. We will compare what this world teaches concerning money versus what Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom view of riches. We will also be talking about the Biblical basis of raising support for missionary efforts and tips on how to go about vision casting and "friend raising". We will also cover topics such as budgeting, staying in touch with supporters, giving, etc.

Leadership Week
During this course, we will be hearing from some of the greatest leaders in the church today. Everyone on the mission field is a leader in some capacity whether it is with supporters and prayer back home, other people on your team, or the people that you are trying to disciples. We will be talking about the laws of leadership, the character of a leader, pitfalls of leadership, etc. This course will be sure to take you to the next level in leading those above, under, and beside you.

Revival and Community Transformation Week
This course takes us on a journey of discovering the universal principles of revival and community transformation. As we study moves of God throughout history and throughout the world, there are certain themes and principles that are evident in all of them. There are no formulas to seeing God move in this special way, but we can learn a lot from studying how God has moved in the past and how he wants to move again. We will also look at real testimonies of God transforming whole societies across the globe in our generation.

Orality and Storytelling Week
During this course, we will talk about the most effective way to share the gospel with people of oral or non-literate cultures. We will talk about the power of storytelling and how chronological storying has been an effective tool in many missions contexts. We will also look at a lot of different audio and video resources that are being used overseas to disciple the nations. Storytelling is a tool that is being used all over the world in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

Spiritual Warfare and Authority Week
This course focuses on the spiritual warfare that many people will experience in ministry and how to be prepared both defensively and offensively to come against the works of the enemy. Most missionaries have many tales of the reality of spiritual warfare overseas, so we want to prepare our people for battle as they take the gospel to places where it has never been preached. We will also be talking about the authority that we have in Christ as well as the importance of submission to authorities that have been established by God.

Indigenous Laborers and Persecuted Church Week
This purpose of this course is to look at the importance of national laborers and what is happening in the global south to fulfill the Great Commission. We will be exploring the role of Westerners and nationals in finishing the task and what healthy partnerships look like. We will talk about the pros and cons of introducing foreign funds and laborers to the field. We will also be exploring the persecuted church and specifically what has been happening with the underground church in China over the past 50 years.

Apologetics and Theology Week
This course is designed to expose students to the full spectrum of Christian theology, so that they can see what schools of thought have helped develop certain denominations and organizations. We want all of our students to have a good understanding of where different Christians are coming from and to be able to discern certain camps of theology and learn how to work with all members of the body of Christ for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. We will also be talking about apologetics and their value in the mission field for bringing people to Christ.