Entrust Equipping Leaders

Helpful link Original video: https://youtu.be/l420TUDQo4k

Entrust https://www.entrust4.org

Transcript

Todd Randall [00:00:04]: 

Hello, friends. Welcome back again to Entrust Equipping Leaders. As you listen to this podcast, as you explore our website, you might find yourself wondering, what exactly is it that Entrust does, or why does Entrust's work sound so different when described by different people. Those are definitely valid questions. Maybe today's short, winsome message from Entrust President Emeritus David Goodman will help. In the following audio clip, you'll hear Dr Goodman describe Entrust using the image of small wooden stool. This audio is taken from a video. So as you listen, imagine Dr Goodman, who is well over six feet tall, talking about a very small three-legged stool. 

Dr David Goodman [00:00:56]: 

Well, obviously, one size does not fit all. When I was a child, this stool fit just fine growing up in Africa in a mud block grass hous-roofed house with my missionary parents. But here, and now, it doesn't fit at all. For Entrust, our goal is to leave behind movements of transformation wherever we go. Jesus told us that he came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. In the fullest possible way is the way one translation says it. But what does that mean? I remember sitting in the passenger seat of a beautiful BMW, as the owner told me about all the pressure he was under. His business had struggled for several years, and he was forced to sell his six-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion and move into a modest home in a different part of town. In contrast, I visited the home of a South African mother whose husband was unfaithful to her. He contracted AIDS and then transmitted it to her before he died. Now when she could no longer hide her condition, the only person who would not scorn her as the pastor that she went to for help. Now picture yourself as a pastor sitting on a rough-hewn wooden chair in a South African slum, or a pastor sitting as the passenger of a BMW. Even though in both situations, you're trying to explain how to experience the abundant life Jesus came to give, you need quite a different set of tools and skills in each situation. One size does not fit all. What I love about Entrust is not so much the answers we bring as the questions we ask. Wherever Entrust goes, we want to know what sort of chair those pastors and church leaders will be sitting in. What sort of questions they will be asked. What sort of character and skill they will need to lead their people to experience transformation, the life they were created for, abundant life. Then instead of a lecture classroom format and imparting primarily Western wisdom, we help the local church to shape a relational learning experience, to train pastors and church leaders, utilizing the most current adult educational techniques, which bear remarkable similarity to the way Jesus did his ministry 2000 years ago. Training a core group of leaders who are equipped to train others in the same way, while engaging them in a constant dialogue about how to live an abundant life in a fallen, rapidly changing world. Millions of people around the world have been introduced to Jesus but had no little or nothing of the transformed life that Jesus came to give us. And because it takes time and hard work to do it well, to do it like Jesus did it, sadly, Western missions have too often been content to lead people to embrace Christ without also showing them the abundant life and what it looks like in their context, as Christ commanded us to do. So there's a real need for Entrust. As we partner with indigenous churches and mission groups overseas to create the tools and training necessary to equip leaders for movements of transformation, Entrust custom tailors training for movements of transformation. So that it fits just right no matter where you sit. 

Todd Randall [00:04:53]: 

One size does not fit all. Just as Dr Goodman says, different settings call for different approaches. That's why Entrust leadership training looks vastly different in Slovakia than in, say, the Philippines. You'll find Entrust people teaching courses and discipling students at brick-and-mortar seminaries. You'll find Entrust staff members discussing practical ministry skills with eager young church leaders sitting on the ground under Banyan trees in Southern Africa. You'll find Entrust connecting with men and women online from around the world in intensive training modules and collaborating with theological faculties on new curriculum development in Asia and offering refreshing pastor's camps and training gatherings in Europe. All different sizes, one unified goal. Equipping, encouraging, and multiplying leaders for multiplying churches. That's Entrust.  

 

Join us for upcoming episodes of Entrust Equipping Leaders when you'll hear from colleagues in Slovakia, Spain, Romania, and South Africa. Please be sure to subscribe and to share our podcast. Thank you and see you next time, on Entrust Equipping Leaders.