About the Brethren Training Network
The Brethren Training Network aims to encourage training and leadership development in the worldwide Brethren movement, and to link people who want to improve spiritual and practical leadership in the movement. But all who think that the materials on the site are helpful are welcome to use them.
The site provides, or gives links to, a wide range of materials, including booklists, articles and papers, course materials, and so on. See the different pages for more details. The site also includes links to institutions which offer relevant distance-learning courses and materials.
The site is orientated towards the specific needs of the Brethren movement. We do not want to duplicate the excellent material available from others, and we encourage users of this site to make use of other material as well.
We want to promote at least one or two interactive discussion forums on the site, so as to encourage networking and discussion. The success of such forums will depend on the extent to which users make use of them. We intend that the first forums should be available soon. Please put to us suggestions for subjects that you would like to see discussed.
Responsibility
The
Brethren Training Network (BTN) was set up (as the Brethren Educational Network) following discussions at the third International Brethren Conference on Mission (
www.ibcm.net) in Romania in 2003, and has been monitored by the IBCM4, IBCM5 and IBCM6 conferences in 2007, 2011 and 2015 respectively. BTN makes progress reports at each IBCM conference.
BTN was welcomed and encouraged at the International Consultations of leaders of Brethren training institutions held at Emmaus Bible College, Dubuque, Iowa, USA in June 2005 and June 2010 (
notes of the 2005 consultation and the
2010 consultation). In the 2014 International Training Consultation, BTN steering group was amalgamated with the Consultation leadership group.
BTN and its website are supervised by an International Training Steering Group, comprising Russell Thorp (New Zealand – chairman), Phillip Boom (USA), Ian Burness (UK), Mark Davies (UK), Simeon Havyarimana (Burundi), Joel Hernandez (USA), Luis Mostacero (Peru), Stephen McQuoid (UK), Sunny Phillip (India), Len Smith (Australia), Neil Summerton (UK) and . We have appreciated input from our recently retired chairman David Clarkson (UK) and others who have contributed to leadership in the past such as Ken Daughters (USA) and Felix Muchimba (Zambia).
Additional material
We welcome additional material for the site, especially for the ‘Book-lists’, ‘Articles’, ‘Courses’ and ‘Related sites’ pages. Materials can be in any of the main world languages. They can be published or unpublished material (in the first case, please say whether the owner of the copyright has consented to its being posted on the BTN website).
If you would like to submit material, please send it electronically to BTN. We shall then consider whether it is suitable for the site, whether any changes are needed, and whether any permissions need to be obtained.
