DNA - TOT SEMINAR

19 May 2008

NCEASL

The purpose of organizing such an event was to train and equip all pastors and lay leaders to fulfill a holistic ministry by spreading the gospel to their own congregations as well as to the community. Discipling a nation starts firstly within oneself, secondly within your family, from which it will spread across to the community and to the nation.

The 3 day seminar was led by the leaders of the Discipling Nations Alliance and was a follow up and continuation of the 1st seminar held in 2007.

The first day’s proceedings explained the importance of building good relationships within the church and the community. The participants understood the topic well as the speaker related all his examples based on parables from the Bible.

All sessions were based on the “Seed Project” theme. A seed project is a small, short-term ministry done by the local church. It is done with local resources to demonstrate God’s love to those outside the faith community. Seed Projects are usually carried out by small groups of church members getting together which is called a group cell. These sessions were carried out keeping in mind the Seed Project theme so that the sessions would be more meaningful.

The second day’s topic was a very important and an interesting one for all - “how you should love your Neighbor”. All participants were assigned a task to go out and meet a non Christian and to share the love of God. This was a call and a challenge for all participants to build God’s kingdom among their community.

A Participant from the Deniyaya AOG church thanked NCEASL for organizing such a program and for reminding them about the purpose of their ministry. “Usually it is very difficult to stay for a seminar at a stretch for a week. But these few days I didn’t feel any difficulty. God urged me to stay and learn, and I learned a lot. I thank God for giving me this opportunity the best I have got within my 13 year ministry. Though I have undergone so many training sessions before, I have not put those into practice.  We realized that we have a lot more to do within our ministry. Transformation will not come immediately but by putting all we learned into practice I’m sure we can make a difference”.

The final day’s proceedings gave all participants a new experience. The trainer who came from USA had been given some money by a little girl from the US to give it to someone who’s in need. Through the “Seed Project” participants found an individual who was in need. The beneficiary later expressed, “I did not have anything to eat nor money to buy food. I really thank for the support you all gave me. This will support my daily needs. Thank You”. This helped all participants see and experience first hand the true meaning of the “seed project”.

As all sessions were very simply conducted and easy to understand, we believe each participant got the maximum out of this program. Participants also got an opportunity to get into group discussions and practice the “seed project” theme amongst them. This would help them to minister the theme in their respective areas.

Handouts were distributed in all 3 languages so that the participants could conduct seminars and spread the love of God within their own communities.  

A time was set apart for the participants to comment on the training sessions. A participant from Colombo said “I didn’t want to attend this seminar because it was held on 2 days that were holidays. Before coming to this seminar, I attended a Young Adult’s Fellowship camp and thereafter I was led by the Holy Spirit to attend this seminar. I learnt a lot from this seminar, a lot that I can now put into practice. I thank NCEASL for organizing such a programme”.

“I thank God for bringing me to this seminar and giving a chance to learn valuable facts. Thank you so much for the valuable teachings and encouraging us to practice them in our community. God is great he has endowed us through this”, said a participant form the Nuwara Eliya AOG church.