If good materials are not available you may have to write, adapt or translate. For writing specifically for pastors, see item 13 3c.

• Nearly all missionaries who begin writing training curriculum do it on an educational level that is way too high.
• Often it is not culturally relevant; it is too analytical, examples and illustrations are from the West; the material fails to deal with the specific situations of church life in the society in which the people live.

To do relevant writing, pen a letter to a real person who is typical of the type of worker you are training.

• Do not write on his educational level but on the level of those he is ministering to (usually a lower level).
• Write every word with a disciplined focus on his flock: their ministry needs and opportunities, literacy level, way of thinking, hopes, fears and interests.
• Do not write 'down' to them, as though they were unintelligent, just because their education is limited. Get right to the point and avoid belaboring explanations for fear that they will not understand. Most authors commit this error at first, when writing for less educated people.
• Use no academic jargon or other words or idiomatic expressions that are not in their vocabulary (unless you define and illustrate them, and that, rarely). Violation of this rule is common and discourages students from serious reading.

Find in 2 Timothy 4:13 evidence that the apostles used certain books in addition to Scripture.

T&M Student Activity Guide page 49

Verify the common communication forms used in the local culture for teaching, and use them--unless they are simply learning by rote.

• These many include story-telling, practical demonstrations, on-the-job training, even poems or songs.
• Let your trainers choose the media they know will be most effective.

If your people or their disciples are illiterate or hardly literate, then consider making materials that relate stories and make ample use of pictures.

• In this case, hold workshops with your trainers to review the current knowledge and any new knowledge to be introduced.
• Then choose the most essential points of the new, the useful points of the old, and any new points that can correct any old false knowledge.
• After that, let your coworkers put the teaching into a story format that fits the culture.
• Have a local artist draw pictures that illustrate the story.
• Practice using the pictures to tell the story and give the teaching.
• Reproduce the pictures in a cheap booklet.
• Sell--at an affordable price--copies of the booklet to those who master the story and its teaching, so that they can teach the same things to others.
• This method has proven one of the most effective ways to train large numbers of people in a way that they enjoy and can retain the learning.