The Evangel Dean Basic Training Resource Handbook

12 • T HE E VANGEL D EAN B ASIC T RAINING R ESOURCE H ANDBOOK

the Kingdom of God. We focus our investment on leaders who are called to evangelize, disciple, plant, pastor churches, and facilitate church planting movements especially among the poor. Our single passion and desire is to advance the Kingdom of God in America’s inner cities and around the globe. The Evangel School of Urban Church Planting was developed by The Urban Ministry Institute as one of several tools designed to equip urban church planters working among the poor. The Evangel Church Plant School operated between 2000 and 2006 during which time more than 40 church plant teams were commissioned. In 2015, under the leadership of World Impact’s then president, Rev. Efrem Smith, the Evangel School of Urban Church Planting was recom- missioned. In its new format, Evangel now emphasizes training urban church planters within their own ministry context. The emphasis is on training urban church planters from and for the poor and on equipping them with the best resources and strategy possible. While the first Evangel Church Planting School was held in 2000, 2016 marks the first time that TUMI is officially certifying other groups to run Evangel Church Plant Schools in their own ministry context. Those who intend to host an Evangel School will need to send at least two prospective deans for certification. The Dean Training aims to provide excellent equipping for church plant trainers working among the urban poor through the commissioning of deans certified to run Evangel Church Plant Schools in their own ministry context. Those who complete the training and are certified will be authorized to use Evangel’s textbooks (e.g. Ripe for Harvest: A Guidebook for Planting Healthy Churches in the City ; and Planting Churches among the City’s Poor: An Anthology of Urban Church Planting Resources, Vols. 1 and 2 ), videos, PowerPoint presentations and other resources developed for Evangel Church Plant Schools in their own ministry contexts. The Evangel Dean School Training focuses on two outcomes: 1) Dean teams will be spiritually, strategically, and tactically ready to train urban church planters using Ripe for Harvest: A Guidebook for Planting Healthy Churches in the City in conjunction with Evangel Church Plant Schools. 2) Dean teams will be inspired and challenged to implement the foundations of missions as church plant movement leaders.