From IICM

CONTEXTIFY TRAINING PROJECT

The Contextify Ministry Training Project enables professors in Seminaries, Bible Colleges & Bible Institutes to facilitate the application of their courses to specific people groups in the student's community.

Moving from Content to Culture to Contextuality

Ministry training primarily focuses on the content: the “what” and “why” of biblical, theological, and practical concepts. Generally the application of this content to ministry is broad and with little understanding of how the content should be applied to particular cultural groups in the student’s community. The Contextify Ministry Training Project will invite a small number of ministry training partners (Bible Institutes, Bible Colleges, Seminaries) to participate in adding contextual answers to ministry application: the “who” and the “where” that enhances the content that is already being delivered.

OVERVIEW OF THE CONTEXTIFY PROJECT

Ministry training typically encompasses many different topics today including courses related to pastoral ministry, Christian education, counseling, youth ministry, music & worship ministry, evangelism, and missions. Each of these topics is taught by trained and experienced professors who have a passion for their particular subject area. However, few of these professors have the information needed to enable their students to apply their subject area to specific cultural groups that appear in the community in which the student already ministers or intends to minister one day – they just do not have access to that kind of information. Often content application to ministry is hypothetical or non-existent.

The Contextify Project provides data to the professors and students about specific lifestyle groups that appear within any zipcode area in the United States. The Missional Zipcode Catalogue delivers specific information regarding a lifestyle group within the zipcode. The information that is provided to the professor and student not only includes a descriptive summary of the people group and a thumbnail demographic sketch, but also gives lifestyle information about the particular group: a consumer behavior summary and a media usage summary. The consumer patterns section lists what is “hot” and what is “not” in terms of key consumer behaviors and media usage. IICM’s Evangelscape documents the percentage of active evangelical presence, the percent who are “religious” but not evangelical, the percent who are “spiritual” but not religious, and the percent who are non-evangelical and not-interested in religion or spirituality.

In addition, each report includes top cultural bridges, barriers and themes; and top shared places, projects and communication media. The cultural bridges section gives specific ideas regarding building relationships; using their activities, interests, or opinions to get to know the people in the group. The cultural barriers section lists top values, attitudes or behaviors that might be a barrier to establishing relationships or prevent the spread of the gospel. The cultural themes section provides topics that arise out of their culture that could be used to present the gospel in a way that would be easy for them to understand. The topics in the cultural bridges, barriers and themes sections have many ministry applications to pastoral ministry, Christian education, counseling, youth ministry, evangelism and missions.

The shared places section of the report provides places or events people in the cultural group frequent where students and professors could interact meaningfully with them and develop relationships with them for the sake of the gospel. The shared projects section lists the social or community projects in which people in the cultural group are involved so that believers could join in with them as a means of developing relationships while "serving with them." The communication media section lists the top radio formats; highlighting the communications issues related to the group that may impact the way in which believers should communicate with them. The top radio formats could also impact the worship style that churches employ in penetrating the cultural group with the gospel. A map of the zipcode with indications where the cultural group may be found is also provided within the report.

The Contextify Ministry Training Project serves as a bridge between the content training provided by our ministry training partners and the “real world” of the cultural groups found in our communities. The Missional Zipcode Catalogue enables both the professors and the students to integrate the subject area of study with specific socio-cultural contexts. The Contextify Project provides opportunities for professors to discuss implementation of the process with one another and with other ministry training partners through their Contextify Project Coordinator. Feedback from the students and the professors will be channeled through the Coordinator to IICM and may be discussed with Coordinators from other schools involved in the project.

WHAT IICM PROVIDES TO PARTICIPATING PARTNERS

The Intercultural Institute for Contextual Ministry will provide a number of features to its ministry training partners, including:

• Five Missional Zipcode Catalogues to each student and faculty member – a value of $125 each.
• Access to the IICM Missional Partner site to manage their credits among the students and faculty.
• A “landing web page” designed with the school’s logo from which the students and faculty will search and download their Missional Zipcode Catalogues.
• Capability for the School’s Coordinator to track what students and faculty have downloaded
• Training materials for the Coordinator to use with the faculty.
• Online training webinar for training the faculty if requested.
• An online “task force” consisting of IICM representatives and the Coordinators from each participating ministry training partner for discussion and feedback.
• Website repository of written papers and reports by student and faculty regarding the integration of ministry issues with the cultural groups.
• Potential publication of papers written regarding ministry applications by professors or professors with students.
• Possible collaboration with students and faculty from other participating ministry training partners

WHAT THE PARTICIPATING PARTNER PROVIDES

The participating Ministry Training Partner will provide the following:

• Appoints a person to be the Contextify Project Coordinator. The Coordinator will do the following:
  • Serve as a liaison between IICM and the faculty
  • Participate on the IICM Ministry Training Partner Task Force (online meetings only).
  • Provide IICM with written feedback from each of the faculty
  • Provide IICM with copies of student assignments and papers that use information from the Missional Zipcode Catalogues for possible inclusion on the IICM-sponsored Missional Cyclopedia or Missional Library websites.
• . Information required for student and faculty log-in through the school’s “landing web page”
• . Collects the student fee from each registered, enrolled student and remits to IICM to fund the project

COST OF THE CONTEXTIFY MINISTRY TRAINING PROJECT

The cost of the project for the 2011-2012 school year is based on the number of registered, enrolled students. For the 2011-2012 school year, the cost per student is: $20 instead of the normal cost of $125, which is a 84% reduction in cost. This is collected at the beginning of the fall semester and covers the student for both semesters. New students may be added in January at the same cost.