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The Bible Training Center has many available uses and benefits to the island of Eleuthera and to the contingency of Americans who serve there. However, where there are resources and potential there must also be clear direction and purpose.
For years the Training Center has served to build the community of James Cistern along with the surround settlements in their love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The center has held training classes, it has been the location for countless vacation Bible schools, and it has hosted a myriad of events all striving to connect people with their Creator.
However, a problem begins to arise in that where there is continual giving there, in turn, develops a continual dependence. Therefore the Bible Training Center is looking into how it can more strategically focus its efforts to involving local Bahamians in adopting the desire to train their own people and move away from the us and them dynamic so that real growth and change will become a product of Bahamian desire.
This means that short term teams will begin to seek out ways to, rather than simply hand out ministry, instead, partner with local churches in their programs and ministries so that after they head back to the states their joint effort in working with local churches will continue.
This also means that training youth leaders will become of primary interest in the goals of EBTC; for it is the youth of the island that will have to launch a paradigm change in ministry strategy. Perhaps one of the hardest demographics to impact effectively is the youth who are easily enraptured with popular American culture, sex, fast cars, loud stereos, and peer pressure of being cool and feeling accepted. Because of this, one of the future primary targets for training and teaching will be those who oversee the youth programs and ministries in the local churches.
The idea behind this evolution of training is seeking to teach people to fish rather than simply bringing meal after meal: a metaphor for how team after team provides ministry opportunities with which the Bahamians are involved but not empowered. There must be a transfer of motivation, so that it is the local church leaders who see the desire and vision for how to engage their youth and thus their future.