What are the top 10 advantages of Wildfire's church-based leadership training?

We are pretty proud of our innovations, but just remember: you're the one who asked us to blow our own horn Wink. So here goes:

  1. The first advantage of this type of approach is the historical pattern set by Jesus when He was training and discipling His own leaders. He is our example and what He modeled in His life should have high priority in ours. It has also proven successful in the lives of Wesley, Luther and others.
  2. Fourth, Wildfire's approach involves the local church in training its own leadership. Students are involved in the church while they are in training. Existing leaders can help guide their growth. The church has the ability to identify and call those who will serve.
  3. In 1908, Abraham Flexner conducted a study of medical education in the United States. This study revealed the incredible fact that in most medical schools in the United States, it was then possible to gain the MD degree without so much as medically touching a live, warm human body. While Christian leadership training has not suffered from such a serious abuse, it is never-the-less true that too often graduates of seminaries cannot lead someone to Christ, counsel or have any idea about how to effectively lead a local church. The fifth benefit of the Wildfire approach is that it emphasizes practical field experience. The student is required to actually disciple others while he studies the course material. Learning is increased as the student studies the material himself and uses the same material to disciple a group of leaders or future pastors elsewhere.
  4. Sixth, Wildfire provides a setting in which evangelism and discipleship are modeled. Unless evangelism, discipleship, godly character and ministry skills are modeled before the students in their training, they are unlikely to make these an important part of their own ministries.
  5. Ninth, Wildfire training is easy to pass on. The curriculum is designed to be "transferable" so students themselves can teach others. This removes the need to have experts available, an especially difficult problem in remote locations.
  6. Seventh, because Wildfire training is local, it's practical. In most societies of the world it's impossible for adult Christians to break away from their work, their families and their roles in their villages in order to go off to a Bible college for training. They are in the village, but the seminary is in the big city.
  7. Third, the Wildfire strategy equips more students than Bible colleges can. Realistically, a Bible college can only train a fraction of the thousands of new leaders who are already needed now.
  8. Eighth, Wildfire training ensures students aren't removed from their "natural habitat." Too often students who have gone to other locations for extended training have either never returned to their original place of ministry, have returned somewhat out of touch with their native culture, or have been rejected by their own church.
  9. Finally, the Wildfire is cost effective. Building maintenance costs, salaries for full-time staff, and operating expenses-all of which can be prohibitive-are non-existent with Wildfire. Wildfire training can be conducted at a fraction of the cost per student compared with traditional training methods.
  10. Second, the Wildfire method trains more of the right people. The main focus is on mature adult men who are involved in some form of ministry. These men are already trusted by the church, have demonstrated their faithfulness, and are in the right place. We just come alongside to add hi-octane fuel to an already glowing ember.