Explore and select the best types of training for the people you are serving.

• Jesus, the prophets and apostles used very many methods of training:

• Normally a combination of several forms gives best results.
• For new leaders or new churches in a pioneer field, classroom instruction must be supplemented by some kind of mentoring in which trainers listen and respond to each new leader-in-training.
• Most of Paul's valuable writing, for example, was in response to word he had from churches and friends.
• Select a method or combination that best suits each trainee, and that harmonizes the theory or research with their fieldwork.

Missionaries should use traditional residential theological education only where and when circumstances warrant (premature introduction of formal training has stifled growth on many mission fields). For effective formal training (such as three years' intensive study in a distant institution) the following circumstances need to be in place:

• High enough economic level so that mature (biblical elder types) can attend, not just their teenage sons--who seldom return to the churches that sent them,
• High enough educational level so that students can assimilate the intensive, abstract teaching and apply it to the lives of their people,
• Well established churches with experienced pastors, so that their trainees know for what they are preparing. Otherwise they do ministry in the same way they were taught--in a classroom style with a dictator type of leadership. The gift of teaching eclipses other gifts and ministries.

If you want to do a scientific study of training, keep a record in each worker's file of past formal (classroom) education, non-formal (apprenticeship) programs, and informal (on-the-job) experiences.

• After a year or more, verify any correlation between those three training types and ministry competence and outcomes.
• You will probably be quite surprised at what you find! Highly educated researchers who have done this have found the results quite contrary to their expectations.