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| Special News Release |
November 20, 2008 |
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Meridian University of Biblical Training Announces
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| Greetings! |
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We are pleased to announce that Dr Johnny Norwood officially agreed to unite Multiplying Ministries with Meridian University of Biblical Training. He will also work with Meridian University as consultant, faculty member, and curriculum writer.
His first official assignment will take him to Bangalore, Karnataka in India January 26-30 to train 60 national pastors who will in turn train 1,440 other pastors in Karnataka in evangelism, church planting, and discipleship.
Johnny Norwood and his wife, Diana, currently live in Longview, Texas. |
| Johnny's Ministry Experience |
A 36 year veteran missionary with the International Mission Board, Johnny has a wealth of international ministry experience. During the last ten years, he and Diana served on the faculty of LEAD conducting leadership seminars for national pastors in several Asian countries.
The Norwoods spent 16 years in Indonesia as church planters and another 9 years in the Philippines.
Johnny also spent 7 years in the States as pastor in Montana and Texas churches. |
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| Johnny's Educational Background |
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Born in Livingston, Texas, Johnny received his undergraduate degree, B.S., from East Texas Baptist College. At Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he received his M.Div. and D.Min. His doctoral studies emphasis was on Chronological Bible Storying. |
| Johnny's Philosophy of Training |
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Johnny has a burden for the unreached people groups of the world. A majority of these people are basically illiterate. He has gathered a wide range of training experience working with Asians who possess little or no formal education.
An innovative educator, Johnny has developed curriculum now used world-wide and translated into more than 20 languages. He insists that what he teaches must be simple, practical, culturally relevant, and reproducible.
Realizing that training must keep pace with explosive church growth in many of the third world countries, he strongly emphasizes the need to train trainers. For instance, in Bangalore, Baptist nationals sought out Meridian University to train 1,500 pastors. Ideally, classes of 50-60 are best suited for training purposes. To train 1,500 pastors at the rate of 50 per class, it would take 30 continuous weeks without a break to train them. The apostle Paul told Timothy "the things that you have received, commit unto faithful men who will in turn train others." In January, Johnny and Ralph Speas will train 60 pastors and each of these men will in turn train 25 pastors, 1,440 pastors in 2 to 6 months, or a total of 1,500!
Johnny also believes that training is not complete unless those trained are actually doing what they learned to do. His classes are conducted using creative methods of helping students to remember what they learn. Excitement mounts when they understand how to use what they learn. But, training is not complete unless the trainees can actually do what they learn through repeated practice monitored by the instructor.
Johnny Norwood's training philosophy is identical to the philosophy of Meridian. |
| Curriculum Written by Johnny |
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Storying for Evangelism and Church Planting is an effective training course in which believers are trained to share the Gospel with unreached people groups who have never heard about Jesus.
Students are trained to go into a village, seek out a friendly person (person of peace), learn about the people and their customs, listen to their stories, and then introduce some stories they never heard, five stories from the Old Testament and five from the New Testament. These stories are generally told over a 10-12 week period. Typically, listeners want to hear more stories and ultimately want to follow Jesus. They want to know how to receive forgiveness, God's gift of eternal life, and the indwelling Presence of Christ.
In two urban and two rural areas of India, 125 church leaders received this training and in 6 months returned for additional training. In that period of time, 55 of them took the stories to unreached villages, primarily Hindu. In 6 months, 20 churches where planted and 58 fellowships (a few baptized with the rest as inquirers) were started. An additional 85 seeker groups were organized totaling 163 starts in a 6 month period.
The Growing Disciple is a course which takes a new convert to the book of Acts where 12 dynamics of the new believer's life are learned. The involvement of students is unique and within minutes they can memorize and easily recite these 12 dynamics. New believers can return over a period of 12 weeks to learn in greater detail each dynamic but training leadership who will use the material will take about 10-15 hours of classroom time. They will learn about baptism, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, obedience, giving, prayer, true worship, spiritual warfare, the importance of fellowship, and how to witness. This is a partial list.
Other curriculum that has been well received but under revision is a Scriptural approach to effective leadership and the development of healthy ministering churches.
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| What Ralph Speas Says About Johnny Norwood |
 It is amazing to me how Johnny and I, having come from different directions in life, discovered that we have much in common Johnny handed me a brochure he printed explaining Multiplying Ministries. It was like I had written it! I saw my vision, my strategy to reach the unreached peoples of the world for Christ, my philosophy of training, even identical wording for teaching guidelines. Quoting Jehu, the king of Israel who was known to ride his chariot furiously, I said to Johnny "Is your heart right as my heart is with your heart?" He said in the words of Jehonadab, "It is." I replied with Jehu's offer, "Give me your hand....come with me and see my zeal for the Lord." That is when we decided to work together. In May, Meridian adopted his material for training on the mission field because it is simple, practical, culturally relevant, and reproducible . We immediately set up a training seminar in the Tulsa area with Johnny teaching. From that seminar, we trained 37 individuals who plan to take the training to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, Siberia, Liberia, Sudan, and Pakistan. Since May, in addition to three stateside training seminars, an estimated 500 pastors and church leaders have been given the training in Cambodia, Myanmar, two locations in India, Nicaragua, and Siberia.
Johnny and I will be traveling to India during January and February. I look forward to working together with him and taking on the unique challenges that God is currently bringing into our lives. |
| Church Training for Short-term Missions |
 Merdian University is prepared to hold seminars in churches with a passion for Missions.
One Day Seminar: Storying for Evangelism and Church Planting. Learn how to train others to tell five Old Testament stories and Five New Testament stories for the purpose of leading unreached peoples to a faith in Christ and plant new churches. Two Day Seminar: Storying for Evangelism and Church Planting and The Growing Disciple. In addition to storying the Gospel, learn how to establish a new convert in his faith by following a formula in the book of Acts learning 12 Scriptural dynamics that will help him grow in Christ.
Other Seminars: Learn how to organize a short term mission trip. How do you promote a trip, how do you prepare, what about travel details, what security precautions do you need to take in hostile situtations, and how can everyone go on a trip with a purpose and make a difference? Contact us if we can help. Johnny Norwood, Ralph Speas, and other qualified personnel will be happy to schedule with you a 1-2 day seminar or more if needed. | |
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CONTACT US
Ralph Speas, President
Meridian University of Biblical Training
200 South Elm
Sapulpa, Oklahoma
405 570 7099
918 224 4100 |
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