Echelon team
Strategy and long term vision
Jeremy Taliaferro, TSL
Vision
To see His name glorified and His church established especially among the
Unreached tribal peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa. To enable, train & lead disciples
(nationals and expats) & churches to take responsibility for the evangelism of their
own continent, their own tribe, and of other People Groups.
Mission
Our mission as a team is to glorify God through obedience to the Lord’s call, and
through calling others to obedience to Him. We will recruit, equip, and lead African
and expat missionaries to go to the most difficult and needy areas of the continent,
reaching people who have yet to hear the story of Jesus Christ. We will take the
hope of salvation to the people who for centuries have lived without Christ, in fear
and hopelessness. We will make disciples who will become and expand the Body of
Christ. These churches will then work together to see other peoples become
disciples and gathered together as churches.
Team Structure:
Echelon is divided into several different teams, each with their own strategy leader
as well as their own custom strategy specifically chosen for the People group(s) they
are engaging. The Echelon Team Leader has the responsibility of seeing that all of
the teams’ strategies are in line with the overall purpose and plan for the entire
team and that they are working together for the larger purpose and a larger scope.
The strategy leaders have the responsibility of customizing their strategy, leading
the men and women of their team, and gathering all needed resources to see the
people group(s) come to Christ. While each team operates separately in a different
location, there is much overlap in purpose, and many ways in which one team
compliments the others. Also, though the Echelon team leader will be the
responsible party in regards to relating to our leadership and other organizations,
all of the strategy leader’s will share these responsibilities and partake in the
decision making of the team.
The teams for 2014 will be:
Echelon Kaabong: This team will continue to work out of the outpost in Kaabong
Uganda. In 2014, they will be tasked with engaging two Karamajong segments. The
Dodoth in Kaabong District and the Jie in Kotido District. They are also tasked with
the research and initial entry into Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan. They will
investigate and determine a future plan for our presence in this region of South
Sudan.
Personnel: Jeremy & Susan Taliaferro, Strategy leaders; Journey men coming in
2014, & possible volunteers coming early 2014. Teko Simon, Ngole Abraham &
Nalebe John.
From Pioneers and CVM: Summer Root & Simon & Karena Gruber who are working
with the Karamojong in Southern Karamoja;
Also from SIL: Terrill & Amber Schrock who are working with the Ik.
Echelon Kuajok: This team will be setting up a basecamp in the Kuajok, S Sudan in
late 2013. They are tasked with learning the Dinka language, researching the area
and beginning the church planting effort in the area.
Personnel: Robert & Maridith Lane, Strategy Leaders; Selvin & Laurel Jeremiadoss.
Possibility of Journeymen & volunteers in 2014,
Leadership Team: Because of the nature of our work and our desire to be organic
in leadership we will have a Leadership team who guides the direction of the team.
This will initially consist of all of the career families on the team, but should in the
future include nationals who are leading teams and/or planting churches. We will
come together to discuss and pray over major decisions. This team will act as a
group of elders with varying perspectives, experience and gifting who will seek the
Lords will for the team and share the responsibilities of leadership among
themselves. Due to the nature of our organization there will need to be a Team
Leader and liaison for Echelon. At the current time Jeremy Taliaferro will fulfill that
role, but most decisions will be made on the team level. It is also important to
understand that a team members involvement with the leadership team begins after
their training phase. The Leadership team members and areas of responsibility are
as follows:
 Jeremy Taliaferro: Research, Vision/Strategy, Reports, Mentoring, Strategy
Kaabong,
 Susan Taliaferro: Mentoring, Language consultant-Uganda, Logistics-interim
 Robert Lane: Team GPA consultant, Language consultant-South Sudan,
Strategy Kuajok, Storying (training)
 Maridith Lane: Prayer Coordinator,
 Selvin Jeremiadoss: Short-term coordinator, Networking, Research (in
training)
 Laurel Jeremiadoss: Home schooling consultant, Literacy teacher
Overall strategy
The full spectrum of Echelon’s strategy is continually evolving and difficult to
contain in a concise statement. So, we will express our strategy by sharing some of
our core values and how we plan on working throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Then
each team will determine how these values will be worked out within the context of
their PG, location and team dynamic.
Team Values
o Teamwork
o Multiplication on every level
o Cooperation with other like minded groups
o Contribution to greater kingdom work
o Centrality of Scripture/Storying in the heart language
o Necessity of community/church life
o Making disciples
o Empowering nationals
o Discipleship comes before leadership
o Ministering together as families
What we do
- We plant churches and model new testament church life
- We make disciples
- We imitate Christ
- We learn heart languages
- We communicate God’s story in Narrative form
- We value local cultures
- We are members of local communities
- We evangelize and baptize
- We train church planters of all kinds
- We recognize/appoint elders
- We bear witness to our sending churches about Gods works
- We focus our evangelism on head of household, discipling and equipping
them to reach their families and community.
What we don’t do
- We don’t create dependencies
- We don’t rely on Translation in church planting/evangelization beyond the
initial stages of ministry.
- We don’t put individual needs above the needs of the body
- We don’t build church buildings
Research
We will stay ahead of our research keeping good records and determining our
priorities based on the Echelon engagement matrix. We will utilize both hands on,
fusion and career personnel to obtain the research and then we will share that
research with both the CPPI as well as the other groups who might engage these
groups.
The matrix uses 10 basic questions. If 7 or more questions are checked then we
would consider that an echelon (or similarly equipped team) engagement. IF there
are 5-6 we will be sharing that research with the Engaging team so that they can
help churches from the US to engage these groups. If there are 1-5 checks we will
attempt to find a national church to train and encourage to engage the group or
area.
Once the research is done we will prioritize the groups and begin assigning PG’s to
personnel. Then each team will develop a strategy for their PG and begin
engagement.
This year (2013-2014) we will be researching Karamoja, Eastern Equatoria,
Western Bahr al Ghazal & Warrap states.
*The Matrix can be found in addendum 2.
Training
Training is a very important aspect of our team philosophy. For us training is not
just for new team members but for everyone, we strive to always be growing and
bettering ourselves for the work in the kingdom.
Echelon Bush Training: Specifically for our new team members, both nationals and
expats, we will require that they go through our Echelon Bush training. During
training they will be exposed to our values and team ethos for a full 3 months. They
will be trained in Storying, church planting, Language/Cultural acquisition, Spiritual
disciplines, Church history, Organic church life and many other things. (Full
curriculum list can be found in addendum 1)
We will do 1-2 full trainings per year. There are many reasons for providing these
trainings. We want our missionaries to gain the valuable skills they need to perform
their tasks with excellence but we also want to provide for them an environment
where they can struggle and learn the most important lesson a missionary can learn
and that is how to trust and rely on God, when everyone & everything else has failed.
We also strive to teach them how to care for one another and be the church together
in a New Testament sense.
Trainers: During the full Bush trainings we will have a number of trainers so that
the burden does not fall completely on one or two people. Ideally we would like
each person to be able to teach each subject, so in the next year we will be working
on getting the other teachers comfortable with one or two more topics. Some of the
teachers are as follows:
Jeremy & Susan specialize in teaching Orality & Storying, Organic Church
planting, church history, Spiritual disciplines, survival skills, team building
and others.
Robert & Maridith specialize in language learning and they are training in
Orality/Storying.
Selvin & Laurel will be teaching the Spiritual disciplines this year and they are
preparing to teach PG research.
Typically one family will take over the teaching for 2-3 weeks at a time while the
other teachers rest and prepare for their upcoming classes. There will also typically
be a camp coordinator who handles logistical things so that the teacher is freed up
to teach and invest in the students.
Recruiting: We will also begin this year actively recruiting nationals for our
trainings and as partners for our J-men. We will be recruiting in churches as well as
ministries, seminaries, etc. We will have a job request with different options for
them to answer, etc. The problem we are anticipating is funding for these young
missionaries. We would like to see their churches support them to some degree but
we are also thinking of doing some tent making training.
Echelon Training Center-Kaabong: We will be completing the Echelon training
center this year. This is a conversion of the old unused church building. It will be
used for housing local workshops and trainings of local Karamajong and church
leaders, etc. At this training center we will offer training workshops from time to
time in the following topics:
Leadership trainings: training local church leaders in biblical leadership, use
of Storying and organic church.
Language trainings: training others in GPA as well as Language camps (4
week language intensives in a specific language)
Borehole maintenance: teaching some of our travelling church planters to
repair boreholes as a tent making skill.
Farming Gods way: we will likely use some of our partners to teach locals
how to get the most out of their land.
Veterinary workshops: The Grubers, who went through echelon training,
have agreed to come and do some workshops from time to time for the
shepherds.
We will also be offering advanced training in certain topics that would also qualify
them to teach those topics in our trainings. (Advanced Storying, Church Planting,
Early Church History, Orality, Medical care, etc.)
Church Planting-networks
Church planting is our main reason for being in Africa. We are here to expand his
kingdom into new areas, that is done through the church. So regardless of where we
are, everything that we do relates in some way to church planting. There is a basic
timeline that we will follow in the planting and multiplication of the church but
before we lay that out we will first describe the kind of church meetings that will be
common in the different places that we work. This will help us to explain what is
happening during each phase.
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Evangelistic meetings: Two or more members of the body of believers meets
with a group of non-believers to share the Gospel and guide them into the
way.
 Ekklesia meetings: Small gatherings of only believers who meet for the
purpose of mutual edification and worship.
 Training meetings: Planned gatherings for training the saints in specific tasks
and discipling them in the ways of our Savior and his Church. This is used to
prepare them for moving forward with the Great Commission and in a Christ
like life.
 Whole Church meetings: Large gatherings which take place from time to time
when all of the small ekklesia gather in one place for worship, testimony,
encouragement, etc.
We believe that the answer to the worlds problems is Jesus, and Jesus presence
since the assention has been demonstrated through the Body of Christ, the church.
In order to give people Jesus in his fullness you must also give them the church. So
here is a basic timeline as to how we will go about the process of evangelization &
church planting.
 Evangelization: storying in manyatas/villages, markets, cattle kraals and
other local gathering places, with a focus on men. Then through the stories
we encourage the men to lead their families spiritually.
 Gathering believers: As people come to Christ they are gathered together into
small groups within the manyata/villages, as they are discipled they become
self-sustaining and begin meeting without assistance. This includes
performing sacraments and then the appointment of elders.
 Networking churches: As 2 or more churches are started they will be
networked with each other. We would like to have a large network of all the
local churches meeting in manyatas as well as smaller regional networks that
gather regularly in whole church meetings.
 Multiplication: As these churches are networked and maturing they will
establish Christian presence in the area, and as they work together they will
begin evangelizing and multiplying churches into other areas.
Recruiting
 African Recruiting: The time has come for us to begin our recruiting effort
among our African National Brethren. We will begin by visiting places with
which we are connected through contact within our organization or other
organizations with whom we work. We would like to speak to their leaders
and explain the team and determine how we could best partner together. We
would also like to speak to some of the possible recruits and even leave a
packet with the leaders which should help guide anyone interested into the
process of joining echelon
o The African Echelon Packet will include:
 Application to join the team
 Job request of positions available
 Brochures
Explanation of Options for service
 1: Journeyman: 2-3 year commitment of service, fully
supported by home church/convention, complete
training then join with a partner to fulfill church
planting task for remainder of their term. Under
leadership of Echelon Team leader, but also reports to
home church/convention.
 2: Intern: 1 year commitment of Service, fully supported
by home church/convention, Complete training then
completes a 9 month field internship with a partner
before returning home.
 3: Trainee: 3 month commitment, fully supported by
home church or convention. Trainee completes training
and then returns home to assist in ministries going on
in his home area.
 4: Apprentice leader: Couples only, 3+ year commitment
of service, fully supported by home church/convention,
complete training, then completes a 9 month internship
with a Echelon team leader, then receives a team of
missionaries and is assigned a PG to engage.
o We are currently trying to organize 2 week recruiting trips in areas of
high interest so that we can have national personnel for the upcoming
trainings.
o In the future, we would like to plan 1 recruiting trip per family per
year, this should allow us to maintain our flow of national
missionaries.
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American Recruiting
o We would still like to vet future journeymen when possible, so we will
be specifically be looking for and giving preference to journeymen
who come to us after previously serving with us through hands
on/fusion or other short term avenues.
o We are currently brainstorming regarding a framework for those who
don’t come through IMB.
o Partnerships
 Snowbird, home churches, etc
S American Recruiting
o We should have a plan developed for recruiting S American
missionaries by the middle of 2014
Language (learning & use in ministry)
 Our language plan for training: During our Echelon Bush trainings we will
train our personnel in the language of their respective assignments, only if
this language is the same as the language that surround the training.
Language and culture training will begin four weeks prior to the main
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training and will include only the participants in need of learning the local
language and culture. Local nurturers (tutors) will be recruited from the
surrounding area. The training is based on the Growing Participators
Approach (GPA) and contains 100 hours: five hours per day, six sessions per
week. After this the trainee will graduate out of phase one and use the local
language though out the rest of the training as much as possible.
Our language plan for after training: After training each trainee will relocate
to his or her base of service. Upon arrival, their team’s linguaculture coach
will train the new team member in GPA; this training will last four to five
days. After completion of this training the coach will assist the learner in his
or her first hundred hours (phase one), and provide support throughout the
rest of the GPA phases.
Language camp: Language camp is an intensive five weeks of language and
culture learning. The idea behind language camp is to give learners a unique
opportunity to focus mainly on language learning. Tutors will be recruited
and trained for the task, as well as, house help providing meals and childcare,
if needed. The goal of this initiative is to bring four-six learners through GPA
phase one as efficiently and quickly as possible in a controlled environment.
Phase one is not designed for total immersion, but gets learners ready for
total immersion in subsequent phases.
Mentoring/discipleship
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The training phase of Echelon is a very intensive time of discipleship and
mentoring. This sets the stage for an continuing mentorship that will take
place throughout the terms of every missionary that serves on our team,
whether IMB, independent or nationals.
The Mentoring of Journeymen and other single personnel will be the
responsibility of the Team leader with which they are assigned. While
couples will be primarily mentored by the Echelon team leader.
We would like to develop an alternate mentoring program that would be a
customized program for our team and would be completely applicable to our
situations. We feel that this would prepare our personnel for the situations
they will face and allow them to develop in areas that they encounter daily.
Family ministry
In the most culturally relevant and practical way possible we will incorporate all
members of the family into ministry & team strategy without neglecting each of our
responsibilities within the family.
As family situations evolve we seek to continue to maintain both a healthy family
and ministry which will look different based on each family and the stage that the
family is in.
We have committed to not be away from our families for more than 2 weeks at a
time unless absolutely necessary. When travelling we will make every attempt to
travel and work together when possible.
Networking & Cooperation
Echelon is primarily a discipling and church planting team. However realizing that
others skills will be needed to do our task we network and cooperate with other
organizations and we assist one another. We envision the Kingdom of God moving
forward as a unified front all using our God given skills and gifts to further his
kingdom.
Holistic ministries & tent making

Holistic
o Animal Husbandry & Shepherd Story set (evangelistic)
o Farming Gods way & Farming Story set (evangelistic)
o Veterinary skills & Shepherd Story set (evangelistic)
o Well Drilling & maintenance to gain access to a difficult area & water
story set (evangelistic & discipleship)
o Community health to gain access and show Christ’s love
o Medical clinics healing prayer and evangelism (C2C)
o Literacy (discipleship) for storytellers
o ESL through Bible Stories
 Tent making
o Bicycle repair
o Blacksmithing
o Making brick or charcoal
o Borehole repair
o Tire sandals
o Literacy and ESL
o Handicrafts
o Tire repair
o Business management
Prayer
 We will maintain contact with our prayer partners in the following ways:
o Newsletters and periodic email updates
o CompasionNet
o Twitter updates
o Blog entries
o Phone calls
Centrifuge partnership
We are very pleased with how our partnership with Centrifuge has gone, they have
expanded our prayer network, provided for several of our financial needs and they
will be sending a volunteer team this April. We hope to continue to develop this
relationship over the next couple of years.
Budgeting concerns for 2014
 Budget needs (travel/accommodations) increased as 2 families move into S
Sudan, and the Kaabong team reaches into E Equatoria. Knowing how
expensive things are in S Sudan we will need the financial support to pull this
off.
 Training costs: If we do our next training in the Kaabong area the cost will be
less, but if we do a Training in S Sudan in 2014 we need to expect the costs to
be very high. We are looking at around $3000 for Uganda training and/or
$5000+ for a S Sudan training.
 Vehicle maintenance, outfitting and repairs: The roads are already taking
their toll on our vehicles after only 2 years. So, we are really needing to know
that we will have the support from Logistics and/or money from outside to
provide outfitting and continual maintenance for our vehicles. There will be a
need for new tires probably for each vehicle this year.
Echelon: Kaabong Team Action plan
Jeremy Taliaferro, team leader
These are the plans of the Kaabong team for the next several years. Many of these
steps will be overlapping but progress should and will be tracked year to year. Also
as we receive the personnel to expand our efforts these same steps will be employed
as we move into other people groups in Eastern Equatoria.
Language & Cultural learning
Dates: March 2012-May 2016
Personnel: (currently) Taliaferro’s, (previously) Lanes, (future) Johnsons,
journeymen, and others
Objective: To obtain a working understanding of the language and culture that will
guide us in sharing the gospel in an appropriate manner and enable us to build
relationships and communicate the word of God in the heart language of the
Karamojong.
Action plan/steps: Using GPA we will complete our first 100 hours of study.
Then we will move on to Phase two and begin story building.
Phase Three Sharing stories
Phase 4 deep life sharing
Phase 5 native to native discourse
Phase 6 self sustained growth
Outcome desired before beginning next step: We would like to be able to
communicate in a relational way and be on our way to telling simple stories before
we add the next steps into our responsibilities. The task of language/culture
learning will continue throughout this entire term and will simply develop into
more complex understanding and use of Karamojong. Simply put we will always be
learning the language and culture of the Karamojong in order to better minister to
them.
Current Status: Jeremy is currently conversing and telling simple stories in
Karamojong. Susan, is understanding and has a large vocabulary but not yet
comfortable with producing. However, she has begun memorizing Bible stories in
Karamojong.
Research
Dates: June 2013-June 2014
Personnel: Taliaferros, Johnsons, Hands on & Fusion
Objective: To gather pertinent information about the Karamojong in order to first
prioritize our church planting efforts according to need, interest and openness as
well as develop an understanding of the Worldview of the Karamojong that will
guide us in the next step of building a story set that communicates well to the KJ the
gospel of Jesus Christ in a way they can understand culturally.
Action plan/steps: The research will take place in two phases.
People Group Research: First we will use Hands on, Fusion and other
volunteers to research the Dodoth and Jie areas of the Karamojong to help us
determine the areas of highest priority for church planting. The Echelon
Engagement Matrix will be used for this task. (See addendum) This
information will be compiled and put in a format that easily guides us into
the church planting phase.
Worldview Research: During this stage of research we will compile our
understanding of Karamojong Culture and dig deeper into their worldview so
that we can determine Bridges and Barriers to the gospel. Then we will use
this information to write a Worldview document and to use that document to
guide the building of various story sets. This research will be done by having
Q & A sessions with different population segments (elder men, young
warriors, shepherd boys, older women, etc.). then that info will be compiled
into a worldview document.
Outcome desired before beginning next step: Regarding the PG research, I would
like to have a 20 village priority list before moving on to engaging full time of these
villages. The Worldview research will be ongoing and will continue to affect
revisions of story sets and new story sets that are being made.
Status: We are currently about halfway done with the PG research, due to lack of
personnel progress has been delayed significantly. With the arrival of volunteer
groups in early 2014 this should be back on track. Worldview research should begin
in October 2013 and continue heavily into 2014.
Story set building
Dates: May 2013-May 2014
Personnel: Taliaferros and any other long term personnel who might come in the
future.
Objective: Our objective is to develop several story sets for differing groups and
situations that will then be used in the evangelization, church planting and
discipleship among the Karamojong. These stories will also have to be translated
into a workable version of Dodoth & Jie dialects. They will also likely be recorded in
electronic format.
Action plan/steps: Below you can see the Story sets we plan to develop throughout
the end of 2013 and throughout 2014.
Initial test story set (11 stories): This story set is for initial testing of our
worldview understanding as well as refining our storytelling style within the
PG. Most importantly it gives a concise but adequate understanding of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it affects the KJ. It also gives them an
opportunity to follow Jesus and begin meeting with a body of believers. This
story set will mostly be used in storying groups rather than individuals. Once
the church planters know these stories they can go and teach them in a 2
week period in a village.
Creation to Christ for Nilotes (KJ specific): This story is a summarized telling
of several stories from old and new testament that gives a clear and concise
understanding of God’s character, what he requires from men, mankind’s
rejection of God, Gods pursuit of man and finally how one can return to God
and have fellowship with their creator. The story is less than 10 minutes and
will mostly be told to individuals not in a group setting. This will give both us
(missionaries) as well as any KJ believer the ability to share the gospel with
any one they encounter.
Old Testament Story set (20+ stories): This story set focuses on the old
covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It will likely involve a lot of
stories about Shepherds and warriors that will help the KJ to understand God
and his relationship with men in a way that specifically speaks to their
cultural bridges. We will also use this set to begin to deconstruct some of the
cultural sin barriers that keep the KJ from following Jesus. The story set will
begin in creation and end with the time of the prophets.
Life of Jesus story set (20+ stories): The focus of this group of stories is to
show Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise in the old covenant
and to give them a good understanding of Jesus life, miracles, teachings and
specifically his central place as God and the one we follow and obey. This is
the most important story set for evangelism and it sets the stage for church
planting and discipleship in the future. It is very important that we set Jesus
& his teachings up as the foundation for these new believers. This story set
will begin with the announcements to Elizabeth and Mary and will end with
the assention. It will be followed immediately by the Early church story set.
Early Church story set (20+ stories): This is the story set that will establish
the church among the KJ and set them up for ongoing discipleship as well as
continuing even after the departure of the missionaries. It will tell the story
of the establishment of the church in Jerusalem, the persecution and the
missionary journeys of Paul. It will also include several of Paul’s letters.
(We are considering an idea of having three rotating teams each being an expert in
either Old Testament, Life of Jesus or Early Church Story sets, but we have not
determined if this would work well or not)
Outcome desired before beginning next step: Before we move on to the Recruiting
stage we need to have a Initial Test story set & Creation to Christ complete. The Old
Testament story set should be in the initial stages of development.
Status: We have chosen 11 stories for the Initial test set. 3 have been translated and
recorded. They are being told now. The others are in process of being crafted and
translated. This should be complete in October 2013.
The Creation to Christ story is being crafted and should also be complete in October
2013.
We will begin compiling the Old Testament set after completing Worldview
research, and initial test story set. This should ensure that the story does a better
job of dealing with the worldview issues of the KJ. I would estimate that work on the
Old Testament story set should start in the beginning of 2014.
Recruiting
Dates: Late 2013-May 2016
Personnel: All Echelon personnel (Taliaferros, Lanes, Jeremiadoss, journeymen &
others)
Objective: To heavily recruit National missionaries from Uganda, Kenya, South
Sudan, Tanzania and other African countries to come alongside us in this task of
reaching the KJ as well as the other groups we are working with.
Action plan/steps:
Develop a packet for national organizations, churches and ministries that
gives pertinent information as to how a single or a family can come and join
Echelon in the task we have been given. The packet should include several
options as to how they could serve. Costs. Schedule. Supervisory structure,
etc.
Travel to recruiting sites: We would like to plan a few trips where we can
speak and recruit in many different locals during a short period of time. We
would like to use our contacts within the IMB as well as other organizations
to set up these opportunities and even follow up. This should happen at least
twice a year, every year, more if the level of interest is high. Recruiting
responsibilities should be shared on the team as the benefits will also be for
every team.
Coordinate their arrival: We should coordinate the arrival of National
partners along with the arrival of Journeymen when possible so as to take
advantage of a very important time of bonding as well as being efficient with
our trainings.
Train them: Our African partners will then pass through the echelon training
along with other IMB partners who will also be preparing for the same work.
Partner and send them out: Once training is complete we want to partner
them with a Journeyman and send them on to work in the villages in church
planting.
Outcome desired before beginning next step: The desired outcome would be that we
have national partners with whom to work, however, if the desired partners do not
come we carry on anyway.
Status: This has not gotten beyond the thinking stages. We will be prepping a packet
during our team meeting in September of 2013. This packet should them be printed
and translated into French and Kiswahili for use in several countries.
Story set testing/revision
Dates: ongoing
Personnel: Taliaferros & journeymen/nationals (anyone else serving on the team at
the time will also be involved in this step).
Objective:
Action plan/steps:
Story telling with the core of the PG: After the story sets are completed they
need to be told with the core of the people group. This will be done mostly in
the villages. Though we will be telling stories in many different places, our
focus is to adjust the story set based on the core rather than the fringes of the
PG in order for us to have the broadest and deepest impact on the worldview
of the Karamojong.
Debriefing Storying: After every trip into the villages for storytelling we will
debrief the stories and their effectiveness and the response of the people. We
will also talk about new things we learned about the Worldview of the PG.
This will help us make the appropriate changes and adjustments to the
stories that are told.
Revising Story sets: Upon the completion of the story set we will sit down as
a team and make any necessary additions and/or changes to the story set.
The story set will never be set in stone but this will allow us to have
something more stable.
Outcome desired before beginning next step: We will have a tested and revised
story set and we will do the same with every story set we plan to teach. Since this is
an ongoing process it will never truly be complete, we can/should be doing the
other steps alongside this one.
Status: Not yet begun
Church planting/discipleship
Dates: September 2013-May 2016
Personnel: National missionaries/Journeymen & Taliaferros
Objective: To plant simple churches in every village, where every Karamojong can
hear Gods word, fellowship, worship and be encouraged.
Action plan/steps: Following the example of the Apostle Paul we will be focusing
our efforts on the following steps in order to see God glorified and his church
established among the Karamojong.
Evangelistic Storytelling aka sowing seed: We will share with them the
Gospel by teaching the Old Testament and Life of Jesus story sets. Due to the
lack of Biblical knowledge here among the PG, and the fact that much of the
knowledge they do have is a distorted highly religious version of the
scriptures, we feel it necessary to give them the Gospel over the course of a
longer set of stories in order to give them a better foundation of
understanding with which to work. This storytelling phase will be done by all
missionaries on the team in differing capacities. The National KJ missionaries
will likely be our most prolific storytellers to their own people for obvious
reasons. The African Nationals/Journeymen will likely be the next most
prolific storytellers as they will spend more time in the villages and with the
people, finally the team leaders and other career missionaries are not exempt
from this task and they will be participating in storytelling and church
planting along with their other duties. This storytelling phase will be the
primary means by which we evangelize during the initial stages of the team.
At a later time there should be a lot of personal evangelism taking place by
our new believers.
Ecclesiastic Storytelling aka Gathering believers: After people have
decided to follow Jesus we will then go about the business of helping them
gather together as the church. Through the stories in the early church story
set including the epistles we will gather these new believers into small
simple churches that are meeting within the village. Discipleship will be the
major focus of this stage and the gathering of these new believers will just
come out of a natural desire to be/learn together. This time will allow these
new believers to learn about the life of a follower of Christ in contrast to their
former lives.
Networking churches: The churches that have been established will then be
networked together. From time to time we will have a large scale gathering
in which we all gather together to share what God is doing and how we can
help one another. This will allow these young churches to feel as though they
are a part of something bigger and encourage them to work together for a
common goal, namely the evangelization of their people. These larger scale
gatherings will likely take place at least every few months maybe more often.
These individual churches will also be encouraged to cooperate in tasks and
share with each other in times of need.
Encouraging, correcting & Teaching: As the stories of the early church
continue and we move on into the epistles, the church should be gathering
regularly. We (church planters) will be visiting the church frequently,
sending letters & teachers when needed to clarify their understanding and
keep them from falling into false teachings. Throughout this process the
church will be slowly learning how to be self-sustaining. They will begin to
rely on each other and the Lord and less and less on the church planter.
Appointing elders: As the church grows into maturity there should arise
mature believers who have wisdom and character that has been
demonstrated to both the church planters and their fellow church members.
When this has been demonstrated the church planters should appoint elders
for this congregation and hand over many of the responsibilities to these
elders and the church itself. This will be the time where our responsibilities
within this church will begin to subside.
Multiplication: Once these churches are established they should begin
sending out missionaries to other villages, we will also accommodate them if
they are wanting to send and support a missionary to work with our team.
The church itself should be multiplying as a sign of a healthy biblical church.
This is the time when the missionary would step back completely and/or
move on to the next prioritized PG on their list.
Outcome desired before beginning next step: Believers present, churches gathered,
and discipleship begun
Status: not yet begun
Exit & hand off
Dates: unknown
Personnel: National missionaries and local churches
Objective: To have a smooth transition as the churches begin to take responsibility
for the Great Commission and as the missionaries (both IMB & Nationals) prepare to
move on to another work.
Action plan/steps:
Emotional Preparation: First we will give the churches and elders an idea as
to when we might be exiting the work among them, We will tell them that
over the next period of time we will be giving them a time of final
preparation. We will over the following months take a less active role in
Church planting and evangelism and we will focus our efforts on the
discipleship of the churches and especially the leaders.
Spiritual Preparation: We will have a discussion with the different church
networks that are present and we will ask them what they feel they are
lacking. What do they feel would be most important that we teach them
before we leave? Then we will prepare and teach whatever it is that they feel
they need. We will do this alongside current leaders, not alone.
Encouragement: After these final teachings have taken place we will take a
few steps back and let them handle all of their affairs by using biblical church
principles. We will be on site as advisors but will not be active beyond that
capacity.
Departure: When the churches have a significant structure of support and
there are experienced elders who demonstrate character in their lives and
many of the churches are healthy and reproducing we will move to our next
area of ministry. Hopefully we will take with us some of the young men from
the harvest among the Karamojong to work with us in the next place.
Status: not yet begun
Action Plan for Dinka Team
Robert Lane
10-2013
Vision
To reach the Dinka Rek of South Sudan by planting simple churches which are led by
Christ alone. To enable, train, and lead African believers, with the purpose of
making the Church accessible to all Dinka Rek, regardless of location or language. To
teach believers to take responsibility for the evangelism of their own area, own
people, and other PG´s.
Mission
Our mission as a team is to make the message of salvation and Christ’s church
accessible to all Dinka people. As a team we seek to glorify God through obedience
to the His call, and through calling others to obedience to Him. We will recruit,
equip, and lead Southern Sudanese, African, and expat missionaries to go to areas
where the gospel is not easily accessible, reaching people who have yet to hear the
story of Jesus Christ. We will take the hope of salvation to those who have lived
without Christ in fear, violence, hopelessness, and oppression. We will make
disciples who will become and expand the Body of Christ. These churches will then
work together to see other peoples become disciples.
Strategy
The Dinka Team will be located in Kuajok, Warrap State. We have the responsibility
of seeing that all team strategies are based on the overall purpose and plan for the
entire Echelon team. The Dinka team will support other Echelon teams periodically
through training, requiting, and other tasks. The Dinka team will focus the bulk of its
resources and energies on making Christ’s name known in areas where it is not
currently known. We are a team of disciple makers, storyers, and church planters.
We believe that the most effective way of carrying out the task of church planting is
through training and disciplining local leaders; however, this is not an exclusive
strategy.
We also seek to train leaders from any tribe or people as we participate in the
greater kingdom work. We will recruit and train any willing believer, as we seek to
strengthen the South Sudanese church, so that every Southern Sudanese may know
the message of Christ.
The Dinka team will have the responsibility of developing CP strategy, leading the
men and women of their team, and gathering all needed resources to see this people
group come to Christ.
We will rise up local leaders to share in the work among the Dinka through training
local leaders in church planting and leadership. Our team is committed to personal
discipleship and mentoring of local believers for the purpose of equipping the Dinka
Rek to lead and plant locally lead indigenous churches.
Team Structure
The Lanes and Jeremiadosses make up the leadership of the Dinka Team, with the
Lanes being recognized as primary team leaders.
The team will make full use of any short-term personnel as is strategically
advantageous the Echelon Team. We will use the J-man as our primary force, these
will be young people highly trained and qualified to evangelize, story, disciple, and
plant churches. We will use Fusion and Hands-On primarily as researchers, but we
will also include them in daily ministry and ongoing projects of the Dinka team and
national believers. These personnel will work along side our career, J-man
personnel, and national believers as encouragers and providing moral support.
Action Plan Priorities For Year-One:
Objective #1: Learn language and culture: August 2013-ongoing
The Dinka have a strong and highly developed lingua-culture. The Dinka
culture is found in every social strata of Sudanese society, from warriors to
the presidency. We will learn to navigate these cultural stratum while living
an incarnational witness among the people of South Sudan. The Rek dialect is
the most prestigious of all Dinka dialects and provides the most social
mobility among the Dinka sub-groups. We will be learning language and
culture through the Growing Participators’ Approach, GPA. The learning of
local lingua-culture with GPA is a copious approach with will direct the first
three years (1,500 hours) of our learning the Dinka language and culture.
This also creates a platform for initial evangelism, discipleship, and research.
Objective #2: Research the Dinka people: January 2014-June 2015
There is little known about the Rek beyond basic demographics and
locations. We will establish the receptiveness of Christ’s message within
various Rek communities and gather pertinent information to future church
planting efforts. The Echelon Research Matrix will provide a framework for
the information gathered. We will to provide a basic document of the current
Rek worldview. This will be produced by December 2014; however,
subsequent revisions will be necessary. This research will be led by Dinka
team leadership and will incorporate short-term personnel for much of the
research process. The research gathered will provide the team with the
needed information for crafting story sets, planning trainings, and planting
churches. These reports and documents will be giving to incoming personnel
and provide a starting point for future work.
We are excited about using Hands-On, Fusion, J-man, SBC direct, IMB
partnering churches, BCOSS and other short-term personnel.
Objective #3: Prayer Life: Ongoing
The team will maintain a natural and intentional prayer life. In continuing the
model of Jesus and his team, prayer, both personal and corporate, will be a
part of our ministry, and decision making process. The Dinka team has
committed to weekly prayer times each Wednesday. The purpose of these
meetings is to support our fellow workers with the required prayer support.
We also commit to making prayer an interwoven aspect of our teams
decision making process.
Objective #4: Networking: Ongoing
Networking with Sudanese churches and GCC partners has already been built
into the launching of this team. Warrap State is highly unreached, however,
there is a great deal of potential for partnerships and training leaders from
Wau town. We will to train some of the young believers from the Wau area in
a future Echelon Training as we develop an ever-growing network of
churches and leaders to take the message of Christ to the unreached of South
Sudan and beyond. The team will also focus on building relationships with
local believers through holistic and community/church projects.
Objective #5: Training: 2014
Echelon Church Planters Training (Bush Training): 2014 Echelon will host its
first training in South Sudan. The Dinka team will give its full efforts to the
training as is required of every team. The team will facilitate various aspects
of the training, preplanning and preparation, as well as teaching spiritual
disciplines, lingua-culture learning, and a variety of other classes. The Dinka
team will also support the training logistically and provide part of the
manpower needed in the pre-training phase of the 2014 S Sudan Training.
Objective #6: Mobilization: Ongoing
The Dinka Team will maintain a constant focus on mobilizing stateside
churches in obedience to the Great Commission. As a team, we will maintain
blogs, twitter, personnel contacts, and facilitate volunteer trips. We also
partner with the IMB’s media team in supplying stories, photos, and prayer
requests from the field in order to celebrate the works of Christ and call the
global church to a deeper level of obedience through joining His work among
the Dinka.
Objective #7: Evangelism: Ongoing
We will begin the work among the Dinka with a concerted evangelism effort,
through the proclamation of God’s word primarily through the telling and
teaching of Bible stories, as well as, the training and discipleship of the few
local believers presently among the Dinka Rek. Much of our capacity to story
will be in relation to our capacity in the local language; however, we will not
allow this to discourage our efforts to carry out the work where possible as
we grow in participation with the Dinka life and language. We will train local
believers to assist us in the work of evangelism through one to two-week
trainings in Bible storying, biblical community leadership, literacy and Bible
study, discipleship, and tent making skills.
Objective #8: Church Planting: June 2014-2016
After the initial evangelism of the area we will form local groups of believers
into biblically based organic churches and appoint elders to guide these
bodies of believers. These churches will be locally led; however, the Echelon
team will provide encouragement and discipleship as needed by these local
bodies. We will also support these locally lead indigenous churches through
sending teachers and encouraging them to plant other organic churches in
the spirit of multiplication. From the start these churches will see their
formation as a model for forming other churches themselves. Multiplication
must be built into the DNA of the Dinka churches if we are to make the
church and her message accessible to all Dinka Rek with consideration to
population growth and death rate.
Appendix 1
Echelon training curriculium list
- Physical Training (singles only)
- Echelon Code of conduct/rules for training time
- Worldview (1-2 weeks)
 My Worldview
 National Worldview
 Tribal Worldview
 How worldview relates to storying and church planting
- Growing Particpator Approach introduction (5 days)
- Spiritual Disciplines
 Inward Disciplines: Prayer, Meditation, Fasting, Study
 Outward Disciplines: Simplicity, Submission, Solitude, Service
 Corporate Disciplines: Confession, Worship, Guidance, Celebration
- Team Building Activities
- Virtual Missions case studies
- weekend practicum
-*trainees find village/man of peace & trainers get permission for home stay
- Cattle camp stay (singles only)
- Orality/Storying (3-5 days)
- Story Crafting (2 days)
- Story Set Building (2 weeks)
- stories (25 stories in English & C2C in tribal language if applicable)
- last few stories learned in tribal language if applicable
- practical skills
- washing clothes
- cooking over charcoal
- digging/maintaining latrine
- water purification
- hygiene
- water conservation
- survival
- medical
- driving
- cooking local dishes
- gardening
- fire
- Early church history
- Simple Church experience with trainers
- Animism (recruit African to teach this – 3 days)
- Mentor Q & A throughout training with each trainer
- Culture Shock (1 day, teach about 1 month into training)
- Medical Training
- Sexual Purity (for singles)/ biblical manhood & womanhood
- Farming God’s Way
- Livestock training (chickens/goats)
- Literacy training when needed
- Work Project (sustenance garden)
- Reading Assignments (Genesis month 1, Luke month 2, Acts month 3)
- Church Planting
- Missionary Bios (2 per month)
- Five Functions of the Church
- Church Visit
Appendix 2
Echelon engagement matrix
Short Checklist
o They are unevangelized
o There is no culturally relavant church planting strategy
o 20% or less of the PG are proficient with a trade language (Arabic, Kiswahili,
English, etc)
o There is currently or will likely be in the future restricted access due to war,
government restrictions or security
o The ministry area is isolated and/or has difficult living conditions
o They are open to the gospel or there is a man of Peace present
o There is religious persecution present
o There has been no evangelical missionary presence in the last 2 years
o There are currently other GCC’s or NGO’s present who are not using CP
strategies but might be interested in partnering in Holistic ministries in the
area (Agricultural projects, ESL, Well drilling, etc).
o There is a current or recent translation project.
After completing this quick survey, use the matrix to determine who is the best
entity to engage the PG or region. Then fill out completely the long form of the
Checklist.
7 checks or more: Ideal for Echelon engagement or another IMB entity
5-6 checks: Engaging churches
1-5 checks: Well trained national church engagement
Echelon engagement Matrix
Long form-Checklist
1. They are unevangelized
a. What is their level of evangelization?
i. Scource
b. List location, age and size of known churches within the PG.
c. Where do believers assemble and how often?
d. Describe how known churches were planted and how they are
growing.
e. Describe how known churches are reproducing
f. Do they minister in the heart language of the people?
i. What languages are spoken?
ii. Describe how language use affects ministry
g. Describe leadership of known churches
i. What training do they receive?
ii. Who can be a leader?
iii. How old are the leaders
h. Describe the make-up of a typical congregation.
i. % men vs. women
ii. Age of attendees
iii. Family units or Individuals
i. Is there a less evangelized segment of the population?
2. There is no Culturally relevant Church planting strategy in place.
a. Describe any non-contextualized work that is currently going on.
b. Are any of these issues present?
i. Prosperity gospel
ii. Syncretism-Animism
iii. Lack of understanding due to language used
iv. Literate communication to non-literate learners
v. American style churches
vi. Major doctrinal failures
1. Infant baptism
2. Syncretism-spirit world
c. How can we avoid these same pitfalls?
d. What would a contextualized church look like in this PG?
3. Less than 20% of the PG are proficient with a trade language
a. What trade languages are present?
b. What language is spoken in the home?
c. What language family does the heart language belong to?
d. Is their language closely related to another nearby dialect?
e. What other languages does this PG commonly speak?
f. Do they have a written form of language?
g. Demographically speaking, who is monolingual?
h. Demographically speaking, who is multilingual?
i. Are there any language learning opportunities for outsiders?
4. There is currently or will likely be in the future restricted access due to war,
government restrictions or security.
a. Why is/would this area (be) restricted?
b. In the last time of struggle was this area a hot spot (bombed, conflict,
government sponsored terrorism, cattle raids,)
c. Who is currently allowed access to the area?
d. Who will be allowed access if the restriction tightens?
e. When will the restriction likely occur? Or ease?
f. Is there a suggested timeline of engagement?
g. What are other NGO’s preparing for?
h. When the area is closed will anyone be allowed to go into the area?
i. Are there national believers who could be trained/sent in if we were
ejected?
5. The ministry area is isolated and/or has difficult living conditions
a. Give a detailed description of how to access the PG. Including ALL
possible travel options.
b. How do locals travel?
c. Give a detailed budget for travel to the PG
d. What time of year is best to access them?
e. Give a detailed description of difficulties for an ex-pat.
f. Give a detailed description of difficulties for an African.
g. What communication options are available?
h. What electricity/water options are available?
i. What housing options are available?
j. Is it possible to stay in a village? Or cattle camp?
k. Who else (besides echelon) is equipped to engage this PG?
l. Describe medical situation in detail.
m. Describe situation with the local police/military.
6. They are open to the gospel and/or there is a man of peace present.
a. Did people seem to show interested in the gospel, stories, Jesus, etc
b. Were you able to share stories, proverbs or parables with them? In
what language? How did they respond?
c. Did they respond in one place more than another? Market, village,
borehole, etc.
d. Is public or private proclaimation best?
e. Provide information for the man of peace.
7. There is religious persecution present
a. What is the level of persecution?
b. Who does the persecution come from?
c. What are the objections to Christians?
d. Is the persecution avoidable or inevitable?
e. Would new believers lives be in danger? Shunning?
8. There has been no evangelical Missionary presence in the last 2 years.
(define evangelical)
a. Are there non-evangelical missionaries present now? Who? How long?
b. What are the positive effects of the non-evangelical work?
c. What are the negative effects of the non-evangelical work?
d. Does anything prevent us from working with the non-evangelicals
there?
e. How could we help them?
f. How could they help us?
g. What has kept evngelicals out of this area?
h. What evangelical history exists in the area?
i. Why did they leave?
i. How are evangelicals perceived by locals?
j. Provide contact info for anyone past or present.
9. There are currently other GCC’s or NGO’s present who are not using CP
strategies but might be interested in partnering in Holistic ministries in the
area (Agricultural projects, ESL, Well drilling, etc).
a. List NGO’s, what they do, contact info & comments
b. How could they help us attain our goal?
10. There is a current or recent translation project.
a. What Bible portions are complete.
b. What language learning tools are available? Where?
c. When was translation completed or scheduled for completion?
d. Who is doing the translation?
e. Is there a denominational bias in the translation?