A Summary of Tentmakers Training:
Content, Methods and Processes

Most learning environments center on the dispensation and accumulation of information or knowledge.  The premium is to know more.  The mode is to read; lecture and use power point so that the learner acquires more knowledge or information.  While all of us have benefited greatly from information and corroborate that information is vital and valuable, information or knowledge alone misses the mark when it comes to formation, reformation or transformation in a person or leader. Rarely does information alone bring about the heart, habit, skill and attitude change necessary for one to become more effective as a leader.  Information alone is inadequate for effective training because it is not what one knows that is important; it’s what one does with what they know that counts.

Effective leadership development requires a life-changing or transformational learning environment that contains opportunities for people to form or reform their ideas about themselves, others and their situations. This requires the context of authentic, positive relationships where risks may be taken safely and new habits can be practiced in supportive community so that heart, skill and attitude change happens. In the Young Leaders Training Program, the material covered, sequence or continuity of that material, the trainers and the participants are managed to create that opportunity. 

Our approach is to present material and information in the form of the fundamentals or leading ideas.  These fundamentals are biblical, time-tested principles at the core of proven leadership acumen.  The presentation is interactive, engaging participants to interject their ideas, past experience and in-class experiences.  The fundamentals are “actionable” so that they can be practiced during the training with coaching and accountability to ensure success and learning.

The material is sequenced in a continuity of units that are “threaded” or woven like fabric.  Sections of the threads are presented in increments where skill and confidence are gained before additional material is presented.  One thread is to form or reform knowledge of self, and overcome personal obstacles. Another is to establish authentic relationships and skills to assist one in being others-centered, while a subsequent thread focuses on immediate assistance or application to the situations unique to each participant.  Harvard business school has become a premier school through the use of case studies.  The Young Leaders Training Program includes this stellar method, except that the majority of “case studies” are each participant’s situation.  During training, participants work on actual plans for their situation. 

In contrast to common learning environments where one person teaches, a team of trainers presents Tentmakers training.  These trainers build relationships with participants and facilitate positive, affirming relationships between participants.  This relational environment creates a dynamic similar to a mentor or coach relationship and its intangible, but distinctive life-changing result. The trainers are skilled facilitators who have applied and used the training principles in there own work and in their own lives.  They model what they are presenting, and look for the best in participants.  In the Forty-Day Training Program, the objective of the training team is to build the confidence and competence of each participant.

Those who attend are called participants.  They are an active part of the learning, life- changing environment.  Participants learn from the trainers, but also from each other, lending that all-important life-on-life experience so vital to growth and development. 

All this takes place with Christ at the center, fully dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and work in the hearts and minds of all involved.  In summary,

Tentmakers training is a Christ-centered, team led, interactive process in which people learn from the modeling, discovery and practice of time-tested principles in an environment of discipline, affirmation and encouragement.


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