International Leadership Training Institute

After reviewing the ILTI 15-Year Evaluation, and analyze of all the I.L.T.I. material, the Board of Directors was faced with a dilemma. They had come to the realization that many students and teachers were not sufficiently prepared for seminary level studies. The Board refused to consider reducing the level of academic quality to correspond with the student and teacher’s abilities. Instead the Board came up with a unique approach. They decided to approach the problem from three directions.

1.) Create a multi tiered approach to training leaders.

2.) Provide training and assistance for I.L.T.I. teachers, so that they can effectively teach I.L.T.I..

3.) Improve the format and presentation of I.L.T.I. material

Multi-Tiered Approach of Training
To address the need for having a more uniform standard of students applying to I.L.T.I., the Board of Directors decided to take a unique approach to seminary training, by developing and implementing, a Multi Tiered System of Training some term "a cradle to grave" approach. Instead of trying to teach ill-prepared and substandard seminary students, I.L.T.I. will begin working with potential students prior to their becoming ministerial candidates to assure that they have a solid firm spiritual foundation built on the Word of God. I.L.T.I. will now offer three separate and distinct courses.

First, we will develop a course in the basic tenets of the Christian faith, which provides systematic training at the ‘grass root foundational level.’ The 'Foundations for Christian Living Course' will be designed to enhance the student’s faith while giving them a solid biblical and spiritual foundation to build their life on.

Only those who are called to the ministry, have a well-grounded firm faith, and walk with maturity and uprightness before God, may study our other courses.

Second, we will add content and divide our existing seminary program into an intermediate and advanced course, creating the 'ILTI-Building Christian Leaders Course,' and the 'ILTI-Mature Christian Leaders Course.'

This new multi-tiered approach to raising up Christian leaders will take a longer time of study than before. However, we will reduce the actual time spent in direct ministerial studies.

Each student needs only study to the level in which God is calling them. By breaking I.L.T.I. into three courses, the I.L.T.I. Program will be more versatile and able to fit needs. This new approach also has the added benefit of placing ministerial candidates in active full time supervised ministerial positions early in their studies. This gives the sponsoring organization an opportunity to utilize these people, while allowing them to continue to develop to their fullest potential.

We have designed the first course to help the student grow and develop spiritually by building a solid biblical foundation. The second course delves deeper into biblical studies and provides a solid base on which the graduate is thoroughly trained and able to 'rightly divide the word of God.’ (2 Timothy 2:15) The third course is only for those that God has called to the ministry.

Training & Assistance for I.L.T.I. Teachers
One common problem the ILTI-15 Year Evaluation brought to the surface was that many teachers teaching ILTI material were ill-equipped to teach the I.L.T.I. material. Teachers found themselves in the awkward position of not being able to answer their students’ questions with complete or satisfactory answers. Because of this, the teachers had lost the respect of their students (lost face.)

As a result many schools discontinued teaching some or all of the I.L.T.I. material replacing it with easier to teach, and easier to understand lessons from other sources. To us this was the most crucial issue. If teachers were not familiar enough nor trained well enough to teach I.L.T.I. than our material is useless.

The most common lessons dropped from the curriculum were those teaching practical hermeneutics. I.L.T.I.’s course on hermeneutics is the central and pivotal unit upon which we base all our other lessons. By dropping this course, the teachers made understanding other I.L.T.I. materials more difficult.

After much prayer, discussion, and thought, we feel the Lord has led us to a divine solution. We will begin implementing two changes that should make I.L.T.I. easier to teach and easier to understand.

The first, is to create teachers’ packets. Each topic, will contain a packet with it extra material designed to aid the teacher. This packet may include suggestions for group exercises, diagrams, flash cards, discussion points, participation projects, power point presentations, videos, or other aids to help the teacher.

The second is to start certification of I.L.T.I. teachers and a Training of Teachers program. (TOT). ILTI-TOT will be a short course in which we teach the basic skills needed to teach any I.L.T.I. material. The TOT course will primarily focus on Hermeneutics, (the practical, common sense principles used to understand the Scripture) as a means of understanding and teaching the Bible. All I.L.T.I. material is presented from this approach, and the ILTI-TOT will be a practical course designed to train the teacher in using hermeneutics as part of his teaching and to use hermeneutics to find answers to any question the student may ask.

Once we have launched the ILTI-TOT Course, the I.L.T.I. Staff will travel throughout the world training potential teachers by conducting mobile seminars. We realize that for many teachers, this course will be their first introduction to the field of hermeneutics. Our goal is to make this course practical, simple, easy, and fun, while being comprehensive and academically complete.

During this ILTI-TOT Course, the participants will learn how to respond to questions by leading their class through joint hermeneutical exercises. Those who are taking the ILTI-TOT Course will take part in live practical exercises, which solidify and reenforce each point or concept as we are teaching it. They will also participate in role playing exercises designed to hone their teaching skills by using hermeneutics.

By the time the seminar is over, everyone who took part will leave confident in their own abilities to analyze and understand the Scriptures, using hermeneutics. They will have had practical, one on one, first hand experience using hermeneutics as a teaching method. The teacher will also have the ability, skill, and confidence, needed to lead a class through a guided exploration of the Scriptures. With these new skills, teachers will not be afraid to answer any question.

We believe that pastors and teachers who know how to understand and accurately teach from the Bible, are needed in the Church. Because of this, we are not limiting ILTI-TOT Course only to potential I.L.T.I. teachers. Instead I.L.T.I. will conduct this course with an open enrollment for any clergy or Christian educator to attend.

Improve the Format and Presentation of I.L.T.I. Material
One consistent complaint sited while conducting the ILTI-15 Year Evaluation was that it was "too hard." Because of this, the I.L.T.I. Board of Directors ordered all our material throughly examined, reviewed, and critiqued. The subsequent review agreed with the findings of the ILTI 15-Year Evaluation, that the material is difficult to study.

This was due to a lack of transitional statements between major points ("lack of flow.") Although the I.L.T.I. material had been constructed line upon line, precept upon precept, there was often a lack of explanatory statements, which allowed the student to follow the transition from point to point smoothly. The critique concluded that only those who are academically minded could easily follow and understand how one point modified or enhanced the next. Those who were not used to this type of academic approach often did not comprehend the transitions. (Most I.L.T.I. students do not come from an academic background)

The Board decided that both the format and presentation of our material needed a complete revision. We need to add transition statements where required, explain concepts more thoroughly, and above all make lessons more interactive. As a result, we will be injecting more modern and more intuitive teaching methods into the I.L.T.I. courses.

Instead of a precept by precept presentation that the student is expected to comprehend and learn by rote, we will take the student through a series of exercises designed to guide him through the process of understanding. We will design their new lessons to make each student think and discover the answer for himself.

These lessons will include study objectives that will focus the student’s attention toward parts of the text they should attempt to understand and comprehend. We will also ask questions designed to make the student use their acquired skills to develop a true understanding of the text. Once he has done this, the lesson will present a thorough explanation of each principle to assure the student has a complete understanding of it. Finally we will reenforce the lesson by a series of questions designed to make him explain his thoughts.

With the insertion of new material, individual units of study will be larger and take longer to study. However it is our firm belief that new material will greatly enhance the comprehension and retention level of each student. By using this new format I.L.T.I. can retain its in-depth approach to Biblical studies, while providing a forum that allows greater understanding of our material. It is our hope that without sacrificing depth of study I.L.T.I. will no longer be 'too difficult' to use.