Seminary Course
On January 1, 2007 the baton was officially passed
from the Oertlis to Bob and June Ewell. Our good friends for many years,
the Ewells are now the leaders for the Church Discipleship Ministry for
the Rocky Mountain region. That opens the door for some exciting new
horizons in ministry for the Oertlis.
We enjoy pioneering new things. We were the first Navigators to design a ministry to military officers, the first to do evangelism and discipleship with student married couples in campus housing, and then designing, for churches, the approach used in The 2:7 Series.
During a major revision on The 2:7 Series, we became the first Navigators to have a full-fledged computer set up. (For that first IBM PC, with printer and software, The Navigators paid $7000. That's unbelievable today!) But the project was completed in less time and with far less frustration than there would have been using lower-tech methods. Whatever good results there have been in those pioneering endeavors, we acknowledge the incredible grace of God. But we have enjoyed colaboring with God in "new territories" and look forward to doing more pioneering.
The new assignment has two facets:
We enjoy pioneering new things. We were the first Navigators to design a ministry to military officers, the first to do evangelism and discipleship with student married couples in campus housing, and then designing, for churches, the approach used in The 2:7 Series.
During a major revision on The 2:7 Series, we became the first Navigators to have a full-fledged computer set up. (For that first IBM PC, with printer and software, The Navigators paid $7000. That's unbelievable today!) But the project was completed in less time and with far less frustration than there would have been using lower-tech methods. Whatever good results there have been in those pioneering endeavors, we acknowledge the incredible grace of God. But we have enjoyed colaboring with God in "new territories" and look forward to doing more pioneering.
The new assignment has two facets:
- Ron has been asked to design approaches and methods for helping
seminaries and Bible colleges deepen their students in the area of
intentional disciplemaking. This probably means writing at least one
seminary course and field testing it in two or three seminaries, and
then making it available nationally. The content will include some of
the lessons CDM staff have learned about intentional disciplemaking
as we have worked in churches with the IDC process over the last ten
years or so.
- He is to study books and interact with knowledgeable people in order to become conversant with postmodern thinking, and get to understand the generation now in their late teens, up through their thirties. This influences how materials are designed.