To keep the cycle alive, these activities are followed by a renewal of one's work informed by new and expanded understanding. Using the Method For the last three years, the TEAM Training Office has invited church planters on home assignment to come to a six-day think tank based on this educational model. All participants prepare in two ways. They write a case study describing their church planting experience, and they read two books. Every attempt is made to look at church planting, not from a narrow point of view, but from the multiple perspectives of biblical teaching, church growth studies, personal temperament, family issues, spiritual factors, and anthropological and sociological realities.
Participants listen carefully to each case, ask discerning questions, and suggest new ideas.
The mission's training coordinator and area directors participate in the discussion by sharing insights, models, and principles based on their reading and their own church planting experience. Twenty short papers drawn from the literature on church planting are distributed throughout the weekend. The first think tank in '96 was admittedly experimental, but participants were so enthusiastically positive that the event is now repeated on a yearly basis. Shortcomings have been identified and attempts have been made to try to correct them. We've also discovered that without clear diagnostic tools the analysis tends to lose focus.