Experience Online Missionary Training as a Cohort

Research shows that missionary training is most effective when done in the context of a missional community. Training with a cohort encourages spiritual growth and enhances experience and insights for the whole group. As individuals engage together, there is accountability to finish assignments and commitments. Cohort training allows participants to apply principles they are learning as they do ministry together.

GFM's OMTS program is flexible and may be used in various cohort contexts, such as the following:

• A team planning to serve together on the mission field could spend 5-12 months completing OMTS together as they raise support.
• A team that has just arrived on the mission field could benefit by completing select modules, so that they can use a shared vocabulary, work through team dynamics, develop a shared philosophy of ministry, and build unity. 
• A missions organization could use the curriculum to train its staff members to serve cross-culturally as a pre-field or just-in-time equipping option.
• A missions-minded group of individuals in a local church that wants to do diaspora work could complete the program over one to three years as a type of internship or residency.

Each group must have a designated leader. Throughout the learning process, GFM will provide instruction, coaching, encouragement, and direction via phone, email, and zoom. The cohort leader is free to design the cohort structure and supplement GFM instruction with other materials, if desired. The leader will decide, for example, concerning the following:

• How often to meet together each week/month to study the curriculum as a team
• Whether to have the students watch videos and do assignments on their own before coming together to discuss or do it as a group
• How often to complement the material with times of prayer, worship, Bible study, and accountability
• Whether to invite local "experts" to address the group
• Whether the group wants to use GFM mentors/coaches or if your church or organization will provide that
• Whether the students will fulfill their required local cross-cultural ministry together, in groups of 2 or 3, or individually

Our desire is to help local churches, Bible schools, and missions organizations launch their own missionary training programs all over the world.