Harvest’s Samaritan Strategy Program

Establishing self-sustaining Samaritan Strategy teams in new area.

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATIONBob Moffitt began Harvest Foundation with the vision of helping local churches who lacked resources to demonstrate Christ’s love and compassion to a broken world. Since then, over the past 34 years, God has expanded Harvest’s vision to encompass a far broader focus, to equip local churches around the world to disciple their people to fully respond to the directives of Jesus Christ to “love their neighbor as they love themselves”.This idea defined our passion to see local church members witness about God’s love, not only by their words but also by their actions. Although the Lord has changed our methods over the years, our ultimate vision of discipling His people to disciple their nations has remained the same.

   In 2002, seven Harvest workers in Africa created a ministry model to implement this vision. With the participation of other two organizations, Discipling Nations Alliance and Church Mission Society, they organized activities in phases and steps that could be done, evaluated, and multiplied in a simple way, which was called “Samaritan Strategy” (SamS).

   Later, the seven workers became a task force, and other African leaders joined them, willing to show their obedience to a calling of making disciples of Jesus (Matthew 28.18-20). In the first years, they did trainings funded by American businessmen who also contributed suggestions to improve the strategy. In 2013, the initial seven workers were multiplied in 151 trainers in 35 countries in Africa. After this fruitful experience, in 2012, the method was revised, improved, and the SamS was expanded to Asia and the Americas.

2. VISION, MISSION, AND CURRENT STATUSVision: Every member of every church sacrificially serving in their world as Jesus served in His.Mission: To envision and equip the Church to reflect Jesus, the Chief Servant.

   Currently, Harvest has 42 staff members and 171 partners, serving in 30+ countries. In 2015, we did 5,450 events with 112,929 participants, from which 5,450 were small projects, demonstrating God’s love in every area of life.

3. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
   1. Needs to be addressedIn spite of the growing number of Christians churches, believers struggle to see and use their own spheres of influence as opportunities to witness about God’s love.  The church must encourage and equip its people to impact every area of life and cooperate with God’s big purpose in the world – the restoration of all things.
   2. Target population and number of people to be servedSamS projects serve local churches, training groups of any size.  As observed in last year’s field reports, the average group size was 40, and half of them, 20 people, did small projects to demonstrate God’s love.  The number of people benefited with these projects varied from one family to several community members.
   3. Process to coordinate a SamS project
      1. A Harvest staff refers a candidate to coordinate a SamS project.  Candidate requirements:
         1. Be self-supported
         2. Attended Harvest trainings
         3. Prepared to network, train (participatory method), coach (DOL’s, SP’s, story writing, Excel, financial accountability, deadlines), and commission church leaders (team building and delegation)
         4. Understand, have experience, and communicate the vision of biblical wholsim as explained in Harvest 8 core lessons.
      2. Candidate submits the following forms:
         1. SamS candidate agreement
         2. SamS project proposal (all-in-one form)
      3. Two months after the proposal is approved,funding is released for the first phase.
      4. Subsequent fundingis released phase by phase, based on a report of the previous phase and a proposal for the next step (see chart with phases and steps below).  This is managed with flexibility, but, in most cases, it is recommended to plan two months between each Step of the project.  Some steps may be grouped, as for example 1a and 1b, in the networking phase.  In other cases, a step has to be divided in sub-steps, for example, 2a1 for training module 1, and 2a2 for training module 2.
   4. Goal, objectives, and activities
      1. Our goal is to establish SamS teams in new areas, where they will train people in biblical wholism.  Biblical wholism is the idea of the whole gospel for our whole lives, a love-in-action lifestyle of serving others, so they can grow toward God’s intentions:
         1. It reflects God’s desire for wholeness, the opposite of brokenness.
         2. It reflects God’s care for the whole person.
         3. It is a lifestyle of obedience and love, based on Jesus’ Great Commandment to love God and neighbor.
         4. It is the responsibility of all local churches and all individual believers.
         5. It values the availability of local resources for sustainability.

         Thus, obedience becomes visible and purposefully linked with God’s agency of transformation, the local church. This process looks to God and the application of biblical truth to transform individuals, families, churches, communities, and nations.

         A SamS project has 4 Phases, 8 Steps (described below), and teaches at least the contents of 8 Harvest core lessons (see Appendix for details). The contents include two application tools that make the demonstration of God’s love a balanced and integrated lifestyle. They are called Disciplines of Love (DOL’s) and Seed Projects (SP’s).

Phases	Objectives	Activities </th
Phase 1 Network Step 1a	– Within 2 months, a SamS coordinator will create a network of at least 8* church leaders in a defined area.	– Collect the best possible information about costs to implement a SamS project in the new area, write and submit a proposal to Harvest (this will be adjusted as needed for each Step). – Identify a new area. – Mobilize people to pray for the area (and keep them informed throughout the process). – Call church leaders. – Contact leaders and explain the process and desired outcomes for the trainings.
Step 1b	– 1 SamS coordinator will meet with 8 church leaders and make 1 vision casting presentation.	– Visit the area. – Establish relationships with local leaders. – Make a presentation to cast the vision.
Phase 2 Training Step 2a	– 2 SamS team members will travel to the new area and hold a 12 h* training for a group of at least 20* local leaders, using Harvest 8 core lessons (basic level).	– Teach Harvest 8 core lessons (basic level). – Help leaders understand and embrace the vision. – Encourage applications of DOL’s and  SP’s.
Step 2b	– 2 SamS team members will travel to the new area and hold a 16 h* training for a group of at least 20* local leaders, using Harvest 8 core lessons (advanced level).	– Teach Harvest 8 core lessons (advanced level). – Ask for reports of DOL’s and SP’s and debrief. – Identify leaders with potential to become part of a self-sustaining SamS team.
Phase 3 Coaching Step 3a	– 2 SamS team members will travel to the new area and hold a 10 h* training for a group of 8-12* local leaders, helping them prepare and practice presentations of Harvest 8 core lessons.	– Define a potential SamS team to participate in the training. – Ask for reports of DOL’s and SP’s and debrief. – Teach principles of participatory learning. – Help participants plan, implement, report, and evaluate DOL’s and SP’s.
Step 3b	– 1 SamS team member will travel to the new area and hold an 8 h* training for the same group that participated on Step 3a, helping them prepare reports and evaluations.	– Refine the training and reporting skills taught on Step 3a. – Ask for reports of DOL’s and SP’s and debrief. – Teach about financial reports and accountability.
Phase 4 Commissioning Step 4a	– 1 SamS team member will travel to the new area and observe participants of Phase 3 as they train, and give them feedback.	– Observe leaders in their trainings. – Ask for reports of DOL’s and SP’s and debrief. – Identify signs of a lifestyle of service in local churches: conviction, repentance, commitment, application, ongoing teaching, accountability, acknowledgement (See book If Jesus Were Mayor, p. 189).
Step 4b	– 1 SamS team member will travel to the new area, observe participants of Phase 3 as they train, and commission them as full-fledged SamS team.	– Plan event in conjunction with new team. – Commission a self-sustaining SamS team in the new area.

*Estimates based on trainings done in urban settings and non-restrictive areas.  They’ll vary in different settings.

1. 5. ResultsAfter the training, the participants will be able to:
      1. As individual believers, become aware and equipped to personally reflect Christ’s character in four areas of God’s concern (wisdom, physical, spiritual, and social) in the world in which they live (family, church, and community.
      2. As local churches, express God’s love to their communities through the use of local resources.
      3. As communities saturated with these small projects, move towards God’s intentions for their life, flourish, and experience transformation.

APPENDIX
Synopsis of Harvest 8 Core Lessons

1. Role of the Church in Society

God’s grand agenda is the reconciliation and restoration of all things that were broken in the fall.  This agenda will not be completed until the return of Christ; however, until that time God has established the church as the primary instrument for the administration of that agenda.

2. Irreducible Minimum

Scripture reveals to us the summation of the Law. We are commanded to love God and love our neighbor. The main way we demonstrate our love for God is by loving the “neighbors” he has placed in our lives. If we neglect this love for others, the love of God is not in us.

3. Jesus’ Model for Growth and Service

Luke teaches us that Jesus grew physically, spiritually, socially and in wisdom. Jesus became all God intended Him to be as the ultimate servant. He is our model for growth in our personal lives and for serving others to help them grow into all God intends for them.

4. Disciplines of Love – APPLICATION TOOL

The image of God is best reflected in man through sacrificial servanthood.  This is a simple spiritual discipline that is an effective discipleship tool designed to help followers of Christ learn to demonstrate God’s love through serving others. Believers will become aware of the need to personally reflect Christ’s character in four areas of God’s concern (wisdom, physical, spiritual and social) in the world which they live (family, church and community).

5. The Wheel of Wisdom

Biblical wisdom is God’s instructions for living. We achieve the blessed, balanced life God intended, when we carefully follow His instructions for all areas of life. There are three primary relationships – spiritual, physical and social – out of which all other relationships come. Knowing and applying Biblical wisdom in each of these relationships will move us toward God’s intentions for our life.

6. Kingdom Math

God invites us to give Him whatever is already in our hands no matter how small it is so that we have the privilege of being participants with God in the extension of His Kingdom. God supernaturally uses our sacrificial obedience and multiplies what we entrust to Him. God’s way sets us free from depending on outside resources for growth and development.

7. The Church as a Window (God’s Present and Future Intentions)

Sinful man’s condition is hopeless without God. God’s compassionate and glorious intentions for broken man include forgiveness of sin, restoration of the relationship between man and God and restoration of the broken creation. He has made a perfect provision for our redemption and has promised a wonderful future at Jesus’ return.

God’s present intention is obedience. Believers’ obedience to Christ’s commandments demonstrates the goodness of God’s intentions for salvation and restoration both in the future and in the present. Our disobedience creates a wall that keeps the world from knowing about God’s great love for them. The Church is like a “window” through which the broken world can see God’s intentions.

8. Seed Projects – APPLICATION TOOL

God multiplies small actions (seeds) of obedience to extend His Kingdom. Seed Projects are an effective tool for enabling local churches to express God’s love to their communities through the use of local resources. The process for planning a Seed Project is a simple model for identifying and carrying out small Kingdom projects. Reporting allows us to learn from completed Seed Projects and to plan future projects that make the demonstration of God’s love a balanced and integrated ministry lifestyle.
Planning is biblical. Seed Project planning is a simple model for identifying, planning and carrying out small-scale kingdom projects in local communities.