What is the thinking behind Potencial?
For more than twenty years of association with the Church in the Czech Republic, I have had two burdens: to be an encourager and to help to develop leaders. I think both came out of many years working as a church leader in the UK. One of the things I found was that some of our best people, who also do a great deal of the work in church, have no training and will probably have little opportunity for personal development. They will never go to Bible College and the pastor just doesn't have the time to concentrate on them in this way. For years, I sent some of these folk to a year long course in UK which was very helpful and in some cases changed their lives. They came back envisioned and even more eager to serve God. One I think of is now preaching, administrating and on eldership, very largely thanks to the course he attended (he also has a growing vision for work in central Europe!).
With this in mind I started thinking of the needs of some of the people in the Czech Republic. The UK course met for a day or weekend every month and, of course had an excellent team of teachers. The students were encouraged to research for themselves and use the teachers as resources for their study. Between the gatherings, they could do as much personal research and study as they wished, guided and encouraged by the teaching team.
From this model we have developed Potencial.
Over the last year I have thought a lot about this UK course and have now developed something which I think fits what is needed in the Czech Republic. To be truthful, I ought to say that God has done this, as I have a real sense of the leading of the Holy Spirit in all our preparation. I also believe it is true to say that Potencial, taken as a whole is probably unique.
Dennis, September 2009