Europe Now is part of Open Air Campaigners International, an
evangelistic body that traces its roots back over a hundred
years. You can find out more at the web site: http://www.oaci.org.
Europe Now trains OAC evangelists, sends them to Europe and
supports them in their ministry. The ministry
undertaken by these people is quite distinctive as it involves
taking the gospel message to where people are, rather than
organising church services and evangelistic meetings and then
inviting people to come along.
For a number of years, we have recognised the need to improve
the training we give to new evangelists, and ‘Snowball’ is the
result. Why 'Snowball'? Because that is
what we believe it will do! All the material is
being prepared in a way that will enable the course to be
translated and run in different countries. We are
planning to run it in France (as well as the UK) from September
2000, and are formulating plans for adding Austria in September
2001.
With Snowball, we are aiming to provide something that is
different, and will appeal to people who do not want to go down
the traditional Bible College or Discipleship Training
routes.
Snowball is an intensive one year full time evangelism training
programme, in which the students will engage in regular active
evangelism from the start. An 'on-the-job' training
approach will integrate the different parts of the programme, so
the classroom aspects are used in the evangelism, and the
evangelism will illustrate and demonstrate the need for the
classroom work.
The students will:
do a good amount of effective evangelism
develop useful techniques
learn what they need to sustain a long term evangelistic
ministry
The students will gain experience of:
a wide variety of evangelistic methods in different
situations
working with local churches
working in a team environment
The evangelism, whatever techniques are being applied,
aims:
to communicate the gospel message
to be entertaining and attractive
to give people a positive experience of Christians and
Christianity
to open the door for further contact
While it is not a Bible College course, we must ensure the
participants have a solid grasp of scriptural truth and an
understanding of how to use the Bible responsibly.
While it is not a Discipleship Training course, we are vitally
interested in the character and spiritual life of the
participants.
Snowball has grown out of the Bristol School of Evangelism (run
for several years by Korky Davey), and has been in preparation
for some time. We are about to run the first 'pilot'
year, starting in September 1999. The people
involved are experienced trainers, and much of the material has
been used in previous programmes, but this is the first time it
has been integrated in this way.
Further Information
For more information about Snowball or the work
of Europe Now, please write to the Europe Now office at the
address below or email Paul Hazelden.