Christian Leadership Training & Distance Education, Online Bible Training

Training Christian Leaders Worldwide

Today, a large portion of training for Christian leaders is offered in the Western world while much of the greatest spiritual growth of the Body of Christ occurs in the third world. The estimate is that 80% of Christian leaders outside of the U.S. have had little or no training. Further, in the United States academic training in the Bible is often separated from that training’s natural context, the church. As Steven Douglas, the President of Campus Crusade for Christ International, said, "the future for leadership training is Christian distance education that is not dependent upon location, schedule, or having everyone physically present, but the education is taken to where ministry is taking place."

Our Mission

Becoming What God Intended (BWGI) Ministries is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to empowering Christian leaders worldwide to lead others to participate in the life of the Trinity by breaking down barriers prohibiting a growing healthy relationship with God the Father. Our passion is to liberate Christians to experience the loving embrace of God the Father. BWGI Ministries' vision is for all Christians to daily draw on God’s grace, to hear His voice, and to experience His guiding hand through every aspect of their lives so their Christian walk is recognized as attractive and authentic by society.

The Lord has brought many opportunities for us to provide Christian leadership training through the vehicle of eLearning with several strategic ministry partner organizations:

Northwest Conservative Baptist Association
(280 churches)
Campus Crusade for Christ of the Northwest
Equip's Million Leaders Mandate

Our vision for 2005 and beyond is to continue to focus on replicating leaders worldwide through strategic partnerships with various types of organizations including:

Missions organizations in the 10/40 window
Major evangelistic organizations
English and non-English speaking seminaries
Para-church campus ministries
Mega churches
Denominational groups

Many of these organizations already have a focus on foreign missions. Highlights of the status of some of our partnerships are described below.

Online Bible Training Chinese Translations

God has raised up a wonderfully gifted team to translate the Becoming What God Intended workbook into Chinese to reach Chinese readers both here and abroad. Pam Tseng (in blue jacket and white blouse) and Xi-Wei Wu (in blouse with blue flowers) head this wonderful team of translators and proofreaders. Since they themselves have been transformed by the content of BWGI and since they are all bi-cultural, they are uniquely gifted to translate not only the words, but the biblical truths of BWGI in a way that is culturally relevant to Chinese readers. Beginning with Becoming What God Intended's chapter 6 on trust, this team is on track to translate the entire workbook.

If you are a Chinese reader or know of one who may be blessed by this new translation, click here to read the Chinese version of chapter 6. Let us know if you would like to stay informed of this Chinese translation, know of anyone who would be blessed by it, or would like to help with this project by clicking here to send us an email, or call our office at 925-846-6264 and ask for Steve Hong.

Training Partnerships

We have partnered with EQUIP to help them train 1,000,000 Christian leaders in the 10/40 window over the next few years (Million Leader Mandate). We have initiated a pilot project to donate 1000 copies of our Spiritual Life Development eLearning course to be distributed to 1000 of their designated Christian leaders in Asia and Africa. We will also be sending our speakers to train their trainers. Ultimately their desire is to distribute 40,000 of our eLearning courses in the CD format to Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America by 2008.

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Cheryl Rookwood of Sacramento, CA attended a singles version of Creating a Healthy Family: "The pain I have lived with so long is now gone, thanks to being able to give all of my family background over to God." Read the testimony!

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Central American Theological Seminary

We have had initial meetings with the Director of the Seminary's Christian Distance Education program, Dr. Alvin Thompson. Central American Theological Seminary is the largest Spanish-speaking Seminary in South America. We intend to provide eLearning courses to them at no cost, since they have no funding for this pursuit at this point. They are extremely interested in both our course content and our Christian distance education capabilities. Details are to be worked out in the next six months.

Campus Crusade for Christ Northwest

We have been providing seminars, leadership training and consultation for the past six years for Campus Crusade Northwest. Currently they are testing our eLearning offerings. Beginning in Jan 2005, we will provide training for their student leaders and staff in the seven-state Northwest region as well as in East Asia (Shanghai) via our eLearning courseware.

For several years we have been working with the denominational leadership to train interns through cohorts and Christian distance education, as well as training pastors in the areas of mentoring. We believe that as we continue to work with them this partnership will result in a method of training interns that will liberate the churches from an unhealthy dependence on the traditional learning model that emphasizes information and intellect over integration and godliness.

The Challenge

As you may well understand, the
cost of providing eLearning to many foreign mission organizations will be absorbed by BWGI Ministries. While we are committed to help these strategic ministries in any way we can, this greatly increases our need in fundraising to provide funding for our on-going operations as well as special projects.

In addition, we have established a corporate headquarters and training center in Pleasanton, CA. The training center will be used for training leaders from our worldwide partnership organizations. This training program will also partner with Valley Community Church of Pleasanton in the use of their facility.

Leader's Testimony

In teaching and preaching to Asian-American students and Christians, I have found that the Becoming What God Intended material has struck at the heart of their guilt, worth, and shame. For many in the Asian culture, performance and achievement is a daily pressure, but now their new identity in Christ has given them freedom from cultural and personal emotional pressures. As my wife and family prepare for a teaching ministry in Singapore, we are excited and burdened to teach the biblical truths found in Becoming What God Intended.

Roy Low, Ph.D.
Professor, Singapore Bible College
former Professor of Western Seminary