Discipleship & Training

Timothy Bible College (TBC)

GEMS Timothy Bible College was inaugurated on July 2001 to raise grass root level leaders.It Offers one year Diploma in Leadership Training, accredited by Indian Institute of Missiology. It aims at raising grass root level leaders every year i.e. at least one in ten villages so that they may lead the people to Christ and become a Church planter. To create Church Planting movement, Bihar needs such training in Hindi Language to train grass root workers.

Most of them who have completed this course have been doing God’s work in different part of Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and Nepal.

Discipleship & Training

Fasting Prayer Rally

First Generation believers are taught to Pray,Intercede and to Stand in the Gap.In the past years many posters were made to bring awareness among the believers to constantly pray.It was so encouraging to see that most of the points for which they prayed brought about dramatic changes and results in the following years.Posters were made on Corruption,Poverty,Government,Politics,Casteism,Environment awareness and so on.Through all this the first generations Christians were encouraged to pray not only for their own needs but also for the needs of this nation and world.

Annual Fasting Prayer Rally:

Every year GEMS encourages believers to meet together for a 40 hours fasting and prayer.The recent fasting Rally could witness more than 5000 people.People come together in Sikaria to cried out to the Lord and intercede for Bihar and for the Nation.

Chain Fasting Prayer:

One outcome of the fasting prayer was to generate Chain Fasting Prayer.New believers were envisioned to pray systematically throughout the year. All the participants were given time slots to pray at least for two hours in a year for the transformation of India.They could pray as individuals or as a group or church.This has created a great prayer movement among believers and many witnessed the move of God through prayers

Workers Fasting Prayer:

GEMS conducts 3 days fasting prayer every year in the month of December for missionaries.These days are considered as power house or refreshing time for the missionaries who toil the whole year in the fields.A total fast is declared for all the missionaries except for some beverages.This is the time for each one to evaluate their life ,their minstry and to wait on the Lord for His guidance for the following year.Many who were discouraged,were refreshed and empowered during these fasting prayers and they could go back with joy and vigor of the Lord.

Discipleship & Training

Bible Correspondence Course

Bible Correspondence Course was mainly started to efforts of GEMS, namely Film shows, Major & Minor Gospel programs or any other street preaching.

People who are basically literate and for those who do not want to come out of their village to learn openly, this BCC becomes a very useful tool. At first we send them some literature for study. Once they finish the first study they correspond to the BCC office to receive the next literature. Many are given constant literature training through postal training and thus they are rooted in the word of God. This is very effective in the cases where people who do not want to identify themselves openly with the Christians but still want to follow Christ .

The present Film team is linked with the Bible Correspondence Course where follow-up decision cards are linked with the bible college students who follow them with the Correspondence Course.

Discipleship & Training

Extension Courses

GEMS Training department encourages and offers facilities for the missionaries who are part of GEMS to pursue higher education as per their interest in affiliation with TAFTI and IIM.

Discipleship & Training

Bible Men and Women Training

GEMS initiated the concept of Bible Women & Men to enhance the workforce in the fields. If a person is a consistent baptized believer and is attending the local church regularly for at least 2 years and if he / she is willing to assist the local pastor or evangelist in the ministry of the Church / House Church / Preaching Point, then they can opt to be a bible men or women. The local pastor and the elders decide the selection of the person.

Selected people are constantly trained and mentored by the local pastor and then for initiation, orientation and inspiration, they are brought to the GEMS training centre and are given an intense training for 4 days. Once they are trained they are sent back to their local church to serve there along with the pastor.

GEMS aims at developing atleast 1500 bible men and women within year 2012.

Discipleship & Training

Refreshers Course

This centre is exclusively operating to refresh GEMS Workers/Missionaries in their spiritual, mental and physical arenas. The skills of the workers are developed through different programs and interactions conducted at this centre. The workers are regularly called by selection and the courses conducted in this centre prepare them to face various challenges related to spirituality, economics and cultural problems. They are also prepared to function effectively within their respective ministries as well as educated to deal with difficult issues and are fully equipped to enhance their effectiveness in their respective fields. Trainers from organizations like Haggai Institute, India Missions Association and others are invited to teach the workers.

Apart from training, the GEMS workers, the trainers of this centre are sent to participate in selected Conferences, Seminars and other training programs conducted by other reputed Christian agencies.

Discipleship & Training

Junior Evangelical Training (JET)

JET is run with a vision to reach the children with specific strategies.Volunteers to work among children are raised, trained and Children Clubs are formed. Through these developed Children clubs, refresher courses are conducted and more volunteers are raised from the clubs itself.Through these clubs many un-reached areas are being reached.

Discipleship & Training

Conventions

GEMS conducts conventions every year. Centralized(Major) Convention and Regional Conventions happens alternatively every year.Normally Major conventions are attended by around 7000 people and Regional conventions which is split into 16 zones are being attended by 1500-2000 people.

These conventions help the believers to keep up the momentum of reviving them and also gives them solid spiritual food for 3 days .Good anointed speakers from within GEMS or from different parts of India are invited to preach during these conventions.

Conventions are a great source of encouragement for the believers and as they come together in great multitude they get a sense of feeling that they are a part of big family of God and sense of belonging to each other.

Discipleship & Training

I Must Plant A Church Today (IMPACT)

GEMS training department conducts a seminar once in a year for 3 days to train Pastors, Evangelists and Lay people. These are mass level Seminars conducted for GEMS Staff and for ministers of other organisations who serve in the Hindi speaking belt.They are energized in zeal within three to four days to think 'Big' like: 'I Must Plant A Church Today' so that they converge all their activities to be effective Church Planter.

Discipleship & Training

Apollo Team

Apollo teams were established to consolidate the churches locally. This team normally consists of three people, a preacher, a worship leader and one person to lead the people into anointing.

This is basically a concept of sending one team to a local church where they would be able to gather believers from 2 or 3 churches in that neighborhood for weekend meetings (Saturday and Sunday).These teams lead the believers into basic Christian discipleship truths and also encourage the people to grow in the Lord. Presently there are 2 Apollo teams functioning in GEMS. One in the southern regions and another in northern regions.

The presence of such a team has become very crucial, as training the new believers is crucial.

Discipleship & Training

Women Empowerment Thrust (WET)

This is run with a burden to reach the women and empower them with the Gospel. This is solely run by women and training is carried out by going to the un-reached places.

Discipleship & Training

Discipleship Training Centers (DTC)

GEMS offers six months certificate course in Discipleship in eight places with 6 language focus. One centre is exclusively for girls and other enters run gender based trainings depending upon the need. These centres are basically established to train those who are in the beginning stage of their Christian faith. They are trained on basic theology, self-discipline, soul winning, prayer life and related topics.

Training Cost:

The cost per student per month for Class Room Training, Field Training, Literature, Food and Accommodation is around 1700 INR (38 USD). Since most of the students are economically backward, they are unable to afford the course fee and other expenses. As it is residential training, many of the students support their family members financially during their course period also. So GEMS offers this program almost free of cost.

Discipleship & Training

Preventive and Social Medicine Training (PSM)

As a Christian we cannot neglect this obvious health need of our country. Missionaries who are already established in the villages can contribute to meet this need easily. This will also have a two-fold benefit.

First, they can meet the physical needs of the people by preventing dangerous diseases in a very early stage. By this they can also reduce people’s expenditure on health needs, prevent loss of wages by eliminating the need to go to hospital.

Secondly, if the missionaries are trained to offer culturally acceptable simple health care at the village level, that will lead to an open door to meet the spiritual needs of the people.

So this project is aimed at empowering the missionaries to provide basic health care (early detection and treatment of illnesses as well as preventive care) at village level thereby paving way for holistic care for the people in the villages.

COMPONENTS OF PROJECT

MAIN TRAINING

No of Trainees in each batch - 20

Duration of training for each batch - 40 days

FOLLOW UP

Refresher course - 3 days (once in 2 months) - 6 batches per year

Field Visits by trainers - 3 days (once in 2 months) - 6 Visits per year

Annual Refresher meets - 3 days - 1 Meet