Report On Interface Seminar and Workshop
September 2024
Over the past two months, I have conducted an interface seminar and workshop with a church in Manila, Philippines. The seminar was standard, and the Workshop continued our trialling process. The Pastors of this church were graduates of Kairos in the 1990s when mission mobilization was a revival movement in the Southern Philippines.
Having pioneered a local church, Interface was the program they were now looking for. I conducted the Seminar with seventy-eight of their church leaders. The response was as expected—enthusiastic, with lively discussions during breakout groups. Included in this seminar was the new Session 6, designed to lead them into the Next Steps.
Following the seminar, we scheduled a date two weeks later for a Facilitator Training through Zoom for church leaders to conduct the Interface Seminar with their church members. Church leaders can decide to conduct the entire seminar, Parts 1 and 2, or just Part 1.
Over this past weekend, I conducted the four-hour Workshop One with their core leadership team, which normally follows the completion of the Seminar with church members. The Workshop went very well. Our point of difference with many missional church models is that we promote living a life on mission with God and not following a prescribed system of missional activities. This first workshop for core leaders challenges them, as leaders, to live a life on mission with God (we cannot lead where we ourselves have not yet gone), form a missional Connect Group, and, in the process, pioneer what missional Connect Groups might look like in their church.
This portion takes place over the next six weeks, after which we again conduct Facilitator Training for these core leaders, this time to conduct Workshop One for their church members. Having done this, they then form them into Missional Connect Groups, which often means redesigning existing Connect Groups (Home Groups), and oversee these Connect Groups to help participants embark on the exciting adventure of living life on a mission with God 24/7.
In Interface, living a life on mission with God is not presented as something just for the evangelists in the church or the specially gifted ‘people persons.’ This is for everyone, and everyone gains a sense of hope that living such a life is achievable and, with short-term wins, easily achievable. The key is to begin the journey! The Seminar new Session 6 (Next Steps) and Workshop One will shortly be available with a teaching tutorial. I will also schedule several instructional Zoom meetings for NCs/NCTs wanting to move forward with Workshop One or at least take a look at what this involves. Workshop Two, still in development, will look at how to assist church leaders to ‘anchor the change’ and become a truly missional church. I am very excited that we might finally have the HOW to the Interface (missional church) WHY!