The most important event BIG Impact prepares for 2011 is the launching of the fourth course from the BIG5 series. Gelu Paul Faina, the coordinator of the curriculum development team, strategic coordinator of BIG Impact shared with us a few insights about the efforts that are being made for reaching this goal.
On Octomber 28, 2010 about 20 Romanian evangelical leaders gathered from all over Romania to hear from God, and from each other, and to plan the next steps to be taken in the BIG 5 Leadership Program. We met for several hours, during the lunch break of the conference BIG, and New Hope Romania hosted for Phil Yancey. More than half of us drove between 5-10 hours one way just for this special strategic development gathering.
In the first part of our meeting, it seemed fit to all of us that we need to develop a course on Growth Management. A biblical perspective on growth management seems so critical for the 80 churches we are helping to move from program driven to global impact churches. In order to help churches take the next steps, however, we need to know where they are in the transition process. In order to know where they are, therefore, we realized we needed to prepare a battery of tests, and questionnaires for all the churches involved in this process. During the next six months, therefore, please pray for the in depth screening of 90 churches in 14 regions of Romania.
The gathering closed with a clear purpose statement for the course and with several strategic objectives that will, in the end, turn into steps or practical lessons in this process. The purpose of this course is therefore, that every participating church might understand, and wisely manage the changes triggered by the purpose driven orientation, the lifestyle discipleship implementation, and the leadership sharing practices.
On December 15, 2010 the BIG 5 curriculum development team met for 24 hours in Brasov. This time we identified the number of the steps (lessons) this course will need to help each church take, the title, and the purpose of each lesson, and the regional teams who will work prepare each lesson during the next 6 months. We spent the first 9 hours of the first day to develop together a biblical perspective on growth in the Old Testament. “It is very encouraging,” says Ed Hartman who serves as an American missionary in Codlea, “to see so many Romanian evangelical leaders working together in synergy”. Four more 48 hours consultations were scheduled in the first part of 2011 to help the team finish the course and send the materials to the printing press. The BIG 5.4 Growth Management course will be launched on October 2011 in a five day long national leadership development conference.
A few insights from the participants:
”As a host, I was very excited to be able to have the Curriculum Development team come here. Taking care of lots of administrative details, I couldn’t grasp all the content, but the time spent with old and new friends in BIG was a joy and a blessing for me.” (Adi Stanciu, Brasov)
”As you know, in 2010 the Curriculum Development team took a break. But, during the Philip Yancey conference, we came together before the Lord, to learn and create the BIG5.4 course, about Growth Management! This is our second meeting, here in Brasov, for establishing the teams and the topics for each session. For 24 hours, we tasted what it means to live and work in the Body of Christ, exploring and using the various gifts God entrusted each one of us! I missed team based workdays like this! Following the long hours of Bible study and debate, we are ready to go home and continue our work in the regional contexts, exploring the sessions we committed to develop for the course! May God be blessed, once more, for the fruit of these hours of working together”! (Cristi Petricioiu, Curtea de Arges)
”For me, it was an honor and a privilege to join other Evangelical leaders who desire to understand and help others understand God’s intention on church growth management. I appreciated the open interaction and the input of each participant. I also enjoyed that, although we come from different backgrounds, we arrived at a common ground on the topic we want to tackle! Personally, I was very encouraged by the ideas I got from studying some Scriptures that talk about growth. I hardly wait the next meeting when we will attempt to harmonize the goals for each session and, also, discover creative methods for transferring the information to the participants.” (Radu Druta, Timisoara)
”I felt our work for discovering the categories the Bible has regarding growth management paid was well worth it. I regret we spent too much time on the Old Testament, and we didn’t have enough time to get to Jesus’ teaching, which is the foundation of this topic. I know it is hard to achieve balance, when you attempt to involve the whole team in the process of discovering and drafting the course.” (Adi Curta, Satu Mare)