The Ambassador Institute is a ministry of the World Missions department. Our mission is to come along side of church bodies who desire to study God's Word and assist them in developing a conservative evangelical curriculum to train their people.

Training people within their own country has been a part of the ministry of World Missions since the beginning. The seminary in Brazil, the teaching seminars in several countries and the Spanish Sunday School material are examples. The Ambassador Institute wants to continue that emphasis and strengthen it by helping leaders give theological education to the church leaders in their own language from the very beginning. When students are able to study at home in their own culture there are many benefits including: keeping the family together, continuing their work, leading their churches and daily practicing the courses they have studied.

The program must be designed with the end in mind as it answers these three questions.
- What must the students know in their mind? 
- What must the student be in their character?
- What must the student be able to do when they are finished?

Our goal is to offer three levels of training: certificate, diploma and degree.
The training must be reproducible.
It must have the respect of the community and country.
Mentoring must be a part of the teaching process.

The training has begun in Uganda and our target is to begin the work in India this year. 

Contact: Pastor Kevin Olson
Office:   763-412-2029
Email:    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

3110 E. Medicine Lake Blvd.

Ambassador Institute Christmas Greeting

January is a time for intensive two week training courses both here at the Association Free Lutheran Seminary as well as in Chirala, India. The training in India will include: Doctrine of the Means of Grace by Dr. Francis Monseth, Discipleship by Pastor Mark Antal and Congregational Life by myself, Pastor Kevin Olson.

The style of the training in India is different than at AFLTS because the culture, the language and the education of the people is different. A classroom in the U.S. typically includes desks, books, class notes, and a teacher. In India, the training comed.s from an oral tradition in which the lesson is learned by repetition and memory. Books are not readily available in Telugu and so the training style must be varied. Instead of straight lecture, the students will be engaged in a story most often from the Bible that they will learn and apply to the topic of the class. The oral method of training engages the mind in the study of the text, it is more quickly retained because it is a story, and it involves the emotions that go along with the feelings of the people in the story. It can be a challenge to change teaching styles from one culture to another, but it is also a great privilege to be a part of taking God’s Word half way around the world.

 

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