Vision
Motivated by Christ’s Great Commission to preach the gospel to every creature, Training Evangelistic
Leadership’s primary objective is to recruit, train, and send forth local Gospel teams that reap public
decisions for Christ with personalized follow-up. In countries where public preaching is possible, teams are
sent forth to publicly proclaim the gospel. In others, personal evangelism is emphasized. Emphasis is always
placed on shepherding those who make decisions for Christ into local churches.
TEL teams operate with three primary ministry distinctives:
- SERVING the national culture and local society by leaving the fruit of our evangelism and follow-up within the local churches.
- BLENDING missionaries and nationals together with equal status and opportunities into a mutually uplifting relationship.
- CONTINUING our missionaries on a lifelong basis by their bonding with the language and culture and continuing to develop a living fellowship with Jesus Christ.
TEL labors to train Asian evangelists for the harvest in a home environment. We apply Mark 3:14 by inviting
Asians to live “with us” in full-time training programs of several months duration, where they are quipped
both in the classroom and on the job for effective evangelistic ministry. Graduates of TEL training programs
serve in churches, mission agencies, and as TEL staff. TEL also helps equip church leaders in effective
evangelism and disciplemaking through training seminars.
In addition to team evangelistic ministry, all TEL missionaries and national workers labor to multiply their witness through personal disciplemaking.
The world's most populous country with over 1.3 billion people, China also has one of the world's most
rapidly growing Christian populations. Due to the spiritual vacuum that was left by the ideological
upheaval of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960-70's, Chinese are seeking for truth to fill the void.
They are responding eagerly to the peace that the gospel provides while economic advancement competes
for their hearts.
The Pearl of the Orient, this former British colony still enjoys the freedoms granted by the British
Empire. At the 1997 handover, the Chinese government promised not to change anything for at least 50
years. So there remains total freedom to do any kind of ministry on the streets as well as in church-run
schools. An incredibly busy and developed city of more than 6 million souls, it desperately needs to
hear that success is measured not in terms of earthly wealth, but by the depth of our relationship with
Jesus Christ.
The Vietnamese people have suffered much through the years of conflict that they have endured. They have
come out a resilient people. Many are looking to the hope of economic improvement that urban living
provides while there is still much rural poverty. Vietnamese are friendly with foreigners and eager to
learn English. Although the majority of the population is Buddhist, many are open to learning about the
gospel.
Indonesia is the world's 4th most-populous nation. It also has the largest population of Muslims in the
world but many of them are animistic in their beliefs. Although the percentage of evangelical Christians
in the country is still less than 10%, there has been consistent growth over the past few decades
especially among the rural poor.
Despite its long history of Christian belief, the United States is turning away from its foundation.
Christianity continues to move toward nominalism and there is interest in alternate forms of
spirituality with some based on Eastern religion. The US population is also becoming multiethnic. Young
people continue to be the most open to the gospel while there is also openness among people of Asian and
Hispanic ethnicity who study or work in the States.
Training Evangelistic Leadership (TEL) was launched in Singapore in 1970 by Rev. Roy Robertson, who
recognized the need to develop more full-time Asian evangelists. He invited six men from five Asian
countries to live in his home for a year to receive on-the-job training in evangelistic ministry. The vision
of TEL continued to expand as Roy and his wife Phyllis conducted similar training programs through homes in
Japan, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.