Where We Are Going
By: Ron Barnes
New Literature and Resources
By now, most of you are aware that we have initiated a plan for developing new literature. While God has used greatly the literature that we have utilized for many years now, we also know a lot in the world has changed. The Gospel, no! The culture and the challenges many are facing, yes!
In the early days, we had no idea that the materials would be used in so many different cultures. When they were being written, not much thought about addressing the needs of different cultures went into them.
Having a long history of ministry and experience behind us now, we have had the advantage of decades of cross-cultural ministry insights from cross-cultural workers. That has put SLM in a position to write curriculum that will span across cultures, not identifying a specific culture either in the writing or in the illustrations.
We started with the children’s curriculum, which is now nearly complete with four children’s age groups that have gone through line edits, cultural edits, and are soon to be illustrated.
We will next work on creating youth and adult curriculum in the same vein, utilizing our current courses, but creating new courses to better round out our discipleship and Bible courses into a more thorough and organized curriculum.
The next phase will include specialty tracks that will address things like ministry to prisoners, truck drivers, soldiers, etc., addressing specific needs for those who may have unique life issues or challenges with reading. Simpler, large print, even audio delivery methods will be introduced to make our courses more accessible and available.
Then, the final phase will be to offer additional resources, tied to our print or online discipleship courses, but designed to “fill in the blanks” with downloadable resources online. From deeper and further explanations of Bible terminology and truths to lessons dealing with various topics in the Christian’s life, we want to have an answer to wider and deeper questions than the limitations of the printed booklet give adequate time towards.
Our World Wide Bible Institute and the Ezra Institute will also expand, with new classes and languages, some very soon!
This is a massive undertaking, but we want SLM to be seen as the “go-to place” for Christian evangelism, discipleship, in-depth Bible study, and Christian life resources.
Branches
The byproduct of a discipleship ministry has been disciples touched by the ministry and then seeking to continue their cycle of discipleship by perpetuating it in their own countries as SLM missionaries. A distinguishable movement of just such missionaries has begun and we are in the process of sorting through the possibilities. These are coming at a rate faster than we are currently adequately resourced for financially and administratively.
But in the near future, we could easily see Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Honduras, Cuba, Uruguay, Mozambique, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Benin, South Korea, Malaysia, and East Timor become official branches. These are more than just possibilities, they are probabilities, so we eagerly await God’s timing and provision.
Broader Vision
When I started as the President of SLM, many were eagerly awaiting some sort of drastic change at SLM. There certainly were changes, but none of them significantly changed the vision of SLM. If anything, they just enhanced the vision.
I remember one of my first weeks in the office, I wrote something for the Reaper and one of the editors commented on my article, “You do know we aren’t a church planting agency, right?” I responded that maybe they hadn’t realized it, but we have been church planting for decades. In fact, I discovered over time that we have been, and continue to be, significantly involved in church planting. A board member, who is also the president of a large church-planting mission agency, often says, “SLM has started more churches by accident, than my mission has started on purpose.”
I will never publicly correct my elder, but it isn’t by accident. We just believe it’s a necessary step in the process of true discipleship. So, the future of SLM will continue to broaden, but mostly in the sense of giving more training, direction, and depth to the type of ministries we are currently in. It’s worked for 70 years, and we have faith it will continue another 70 by God’s grace and through His faithfulness.
