Mission Agencies
Created to train missionaries in cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship.
Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship has been designed to be effective in any country and culture. It is rooted it in a chronological presentation of God’s “Big Story”, helping those who hear the gospel make a faith response that takes root and bears fruit.
As a leader of an evangelical missionary agency or missionary trainer, would you be interested in...
- Evangelism and discipleship training and resources that were specifically developed to train missionaries who are serving around the world, in cultures where people know little or nothing about the true God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, or salvation by grace through faith?
- Resources that are available—or could be made available—for the languages in which your missionaries serve?
- Training that is reproducible—that will equip you to train others, who will train others, who will train others, and on and on.
- Partnering with other evangelical missionary agencies around what we all agree on—it's our job to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations."
Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship began for the very purpose of training missionaries to be more effective in cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship. Here's our story:
Several years ago, ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) began to realize that many of our missionary candidates were not adequately trained for evangelism and discipleship, especially for ministry with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, spritists-animists, Postmoderns, staunch Roman Catholics, and other people from non-Christian worldview cultures.
In 2004, ABWE leaders convened a group of veteran missionaries, missionary administrators, and cross-cultural ministry experts from other mission agencies. After a few days of deliberation, this group concluded that training and resources for cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship were needed that would…
- Work effectively anywhere in the world (with minimal adaptation)—in any country and culture.
- Provide as much of the Bible's gospel-content, and Biblical BIG Story context for that gospel content, as necessary for unbelievers to make a "good soil" faith response.
- Be rooted in a chronological presentation of God's "Big Story" of redemption—the Bible's metanarrative.
- Be expandable and contractible to make it possible to present God's redemptive story from 15 minutes to 50 hours, depending on how much Bible content and Biblical context the hearer needs and how much time is available for the presentation.
With input and influence from people like Mark Zook (whose story is featured in the Ee-Taow video ), John Cross of GoodSeed, Dr. Tom Steffen of BIOLA University, Dr. David Hesselgrave and Dr. D.A. Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and others, Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship was developed as part of the training division of ABWE.
The Ongoing Story…
After we developed our Good Soil training and core resources we (at ABWE) began requiring all of our missionary appointees to participate in the Good Soil Basic Seminar and, prior to leaving for the field, (1) take an unbeliever through The Story of Hope and (2) a new believer through The Way to Joy. We almost immediately began to see some amazing results. For example:
The ABWE missionary appointees that attended the July 2011 Essential Mission Components class (approximately halfway through their pre-field ministry) had taught through The Story of Hope 101 times with a total of 324 people seeing 24 faith responses. They taught through The Way to Joy 68 times with a total of 168 people. 7.4% of the people with whom TSOH was shared made positive faith responses. Of the 101 presentations, 31% resulted in at least one positive faith response.
Good Soil training and resources have DEFINITELY made an incredible impact in preparing ABWE pre-field missionaries for their future cross-cultural ministries. Here are a few (typical) reports from our pre-field missionaries regarding their use of Good Soil training and resources during their pre-field ministries:
You will find many more pre-field missionaries’ Good Soil stories below.
From the beginning it has always been our goal to provide Good Soil training and resources with others outside of the ABWE constituency – mission agencies as well as churches.
We are happy to say that many dozens of evangelical mission agencies have participated in Good Soil training and/or use Good Soil evangelism and discipleship resources.
We all want to share our faith effectively…but how do we do it?
Shari, Missionary AdministratorThe training and follow up certification brought evangelism and discipleship alive again to me. I served eight years on the mission field and recognize I have yet to learn so very much. This weekend taught me the “why” behind the method of teaching the FULL STORY of HOPE from the beginning to the end. I also learned from interacting with other ministries (not being a part of ABWE myself). WE all have so much to glean from engaging one another. Thankful for the ministry team for choosing a level of excellency that I'm excited to reproduce. And the food......whoa...!
FREE Book for Mission Agency Leaders and Trainers
Gaining Ground with Good Soil is an evangelism and discipleship training narrative—a scaled-down version of the Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship seminar in a narrative format. The principles gained from this book are applicable for anyone wishing to serve God through Biblical evangelism and discipleship, but is especially instructive and helpful for cross-cultural missionaries and those who lead and train them.
The realistic, but fictional narrative, around which the book is developed, tells the story of a couple of missionaries who were frustrated and discouraged—to the point of almost giving up—because of their lack of success in evangelism and discipleship on their field. But, the "Good Soil" principles they learned from Bible study revolutionized their ministries. It will help you think through a theology of evangelism and discipleship and help you to present the gospel so that people will clearly understand it, sincerely embrace it, and firmly hold on to it.
Free instructional resources for individual and group study are also available for download. www.GoodSoil.com/FREE
If you are a missions agency administrator or trainer, with a USA shipping address, and will commit to reading this book , we will send you a FREE (and postage-free) copy of Gaining Ground with Good Soil.
Another Special Gift Offer for Mission Agency Leaders
For the sake of the gospel, we want to share with other mission agencies the cross-cultural ministry training and resources that God has given us.
We will gladly waive the registration fees for two of your agency's key leaders to attend up to a full week of our May or October Good Soil training seminars or workshops. A $600 value.
As seminar participants, representatives from your agency will be certified and equipped to teach the Good Soil Basic Seminar in your ministry organization.
Dates and More Info Regarding Good Soil Training Events
Use this form to send us your name, contact information, name and website of your mission agency, and we will send you the code for FREE registrations, which you can share with one other key leader or trainer in your mission agency.
Contact us at Info@GoodSoil.com or 717.909.2397 for more information.
Equipping missionaries to share God's story of hope in a world of competing faiths and cultures.
Good Soil E&D Training and Resources for Many Types of Ministries
The focus of this page has been on using Good Soil in your mission agency. But, Good Soil provides training and resources for many different kinds of ministry.
Join Our Mailing List
Get notices for new products, resources, and training events.