Say Hello to TEG 2.0
Today is a day we’ve been working toward for nearly a year.
As The Equipping Group turns four years old (our fiscal year started July 1), we’re “growing up” a bit: our team and board have been examining, improving, and refining every aspect of our ministry efforts, to “narrow the focus and broaden the reach.”
We are truly honored to have done many things – and served many disciples, leaders, churches, and organizations – since we began in 2021. But like many start-up organizations, sometimes those things we did felt scattered: we did a lot of “good,” but wanted to make sure we’re doing whatever “best” God has for us… and we want to do it in a way that’s increasingly accessible to leaders who need help and training around the globe. Today is the culmination of those efforts. There’s plenty more to say, but I wanted to share five snapshots and one request, to introduce to you, “TEG 2.0.”
1. NEW, REFINED FOCUS:
The Equipping Group helps church and organizational leaders make disciples, mobilize leaders, and multiply churches.
Those three interrelated areas (making disciples, mobilizing, leaders) will get all our attention, and will be the primary plumb line to know whether we can best serve, or if we should recommend a partner organization for other topics.
And by equipping leaders, we’ll help churches do what churches are called to do, in “equipping the saints” (Eph. 4:12). God willing, our efforts will also be multiplied as we train church leaders, who train group leaders, who train disciples, and so forth.
2. NEW, TRANSFORMATIVE TRAININGS:
Our value in engaging churches and leaders has always been “deeper over wider” — and we’ve had multi-month residency labs since Day One. But we’ve felt tension in our “drop-in” trainings (e.g. weekend seminars, etc.): they feel quick, and as any learning philosophy will affirm, they’re not enough to lead to true and lasting change.
So we’re introducing semester-long leadership cohorts where seasoned leaders can come together to ask questions, overcome hurdles, and engage both guided and peer learning.
And we’ve developed “core trainings” around TEG’s key topics: we’ll come alongside churches in longer-term, meaningful ways: we’ll prepare local leaders before we’re on-site, and coach those leaders afterward, as groups in their church(es) spend many weeks discussing and practicing the content. The more God’s people own it, the more transformation occurs.
3. NEW, EXPANDED ADVISING TEAM:
In addition to multi-session commitments for TEG advising, Todd Engstrom is developing a team of gifted, experienced, humble advisors that we’ll work with regularly. These men and women have hard-earned wisdom in specific topics like everyday mission, apologetics, mission in community, church planting, marriages in ministry, and more: they’re a great crew!
4. NEW PARTNERSHIPS & MULTI-LINGUAL RESOURCES:
We’re grateful to come alongside other organizations who are also helping churches pursue multiplication. We are currently serving regularly with Exponential, Plant Fort Worth, Saturate, Soma Global, City to City Australia, and Acts29 Europe in various ways, as we value “collaboration over competition.”
AND (exciting news), as a like-minded organization wraps up their many-year ministry this Fall, they are transferring their constituency to TEG — so pray for us as we receive a massive influx of church leader contacts over the coming weeks, that we would onboard, care for, and serve each of them well.
Additionally, in addition to a new book coming next month (details soon…), Lee Ann Woolbright will lead the charge as we continue to develop and publish articles, exercises, workshops, and self-paced courses regularly. Plus, we’re working over the coming year to offer several of these resources in multiple languages, as we’re honored to be working with leaders in countries like Mexico, Canada, France, UK, Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, Nepal, Japan, Australia, South Africa, and Sierra Leone, in addition to the US! (We’ve already begun to serve global leaders by offering each online workshop twice, and with real-time caption translation, to serve across time zones and languages.)
5. NEW BRANDING & USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE:
We have tried to be intentional about TEG’s web presence and branding since we “opened shop” in 2021 — but we mark our transition to “2.0” by releasing a shiny new website TODAY! For the first time it includes a FREE members’ area: The Trailhead will increase our efforts to create a resource community for global leaders, as we all pursue God’s mission together.
And we’ve already started to use our updated branding and logo in some communication. These efforts are intentional: we wanted to mark this moment in our lil’ organization’s life with a shift in our visual assets and a more user-friendly engagement.
THE REQUEST: WILL YOU PRAY FOR THIS NEXT SEASON?
As always, our efforts (especially the new resource creation/translation, global partnerships, and onboarding of new participants) require financial resources. One thing that has NOT changed since we began is our commitment to offer training, advising, and resourcing to those who need it most, even if they can’t afford it: so I’d be remiss not to mention that we’re asking God for $28,000 in new donations as we move into this 2.0 season, and to ask if you or someone you know would help us toward that goal.
But that’s NOT the #1 request: prayer support is! Will you sign up for TEG’s “prayer texts”? We’ll text TEG prayer updates ~2x/month, with that season’s efforts and updates, and specific praises, prayers, and needs. No spam; no seeing other peoples’ #’s (or selling your # to hackers!); nothing other than a couple monthly updates, with specific ways to pray for our team and kingdom work. Sign up here.
WE’RE HERE FOR YOU
So that’s a glimpse of TEG 2.0. Thanks for reading, praying, and being excited with us. Click around the site, and let us know how we can serve YOU. And as always, thanks for believing in this work — we love knowing you’re with us as we step into Equipping Group 2.0!