Members of the Kanto House Church Network are meeting monthly to get encouragement, training, and accountability. At the July 25 meeting, the group will focus on evangelism by discussing 4 questions:

1. How can you pray for the lost? 
2. What's your evangelistic "conversation" style? 
3. What are basic Bible truths we need to talk about when evangelizing?
4. How often do you share your faith?

Close the Gap Now worked with the network coordinator to develop the meeting agenda.

“Give your students a Biblical perspective assessment that SCOREs,” a free tutorial, has been posted. This tutorial involves you designing an assessment that:

• Is Student-friendly
• Requires students to Connect content/skills, Biblical principle(s), and life.
• Gives Opportunities for student choice,
• Is Rigorous.
• Is Even worthy of being taught to.

“Leading by Asking Questions” by Michael Essenburg and Janet Kunnecke was recently published in SEND Japan’s Yamabiko. The article encourages the reader to ask questions to help others focus, think through problems, and reach their goals.

"Assessment Helps Students More Deeply Connect Their Studies, Their Lives, and a Biblical Perspective" by Kim and Michael Essenburg was recently published in ACSI's World Report. In the article, Kim (an English 10 teacher) responds to 5 questions Michael asks about a Biblical perspective assessment:

1. What are excited about?
2. What were your students studying?
3. What was the essay prompt?
4. How did you prepare your students for the essay?
5. What did you learn?

Self-assessments help Christian leaders determine next steps. Close the Gap Now had made its self-assessments more accessible by adding a self-assessment category in 8 different blogs:

1. Empower Others
2. Focus on Mission
3. Work Smart
4. Pursue Excellence
5. Target Biblical Perspective
6. Use Questions
7. Use Assessment
8. Meet Student Learning Needs

Three new tutorials have been posted:

1. Lead by asking questions: Want to more effectively lead by asking questions? Then take this self-assessment that covers beliefs about leadership, inquiry skills, and how you use questions. After taking the self-assessment, you’ll design action steps.
2. Empower others to strategically pursue God's calling: Your coaching client wants to clarify and strategically pursue God’s calling. That’s great! How can you empower your client to do this? By asking these 10 questions.
3. Energize, focus, and unleash Christian school staff: As an administrator at an international Christian school, you know that staff play a vital role in carrying out the mission. Because your care about your staff, want to be good a steward of the staff God has provided, and want your school to carry out its God-given mission, you ask yourself, “How can we energize, focus, and unleash staff both personally and professionally?” 

To see additional tutorials, click here.

Christian Academy in Japan staff met in different groups to focus on 6 areas: student learning, program, culture, staff, finances, and physical plant. Groups reflected on a variety of questions including:

• What are key strengths? 
• How do these strengths positively impact student learning?
• What are critical areas for follow-up? 
• How do these critical areas for follow-up negatively impact student learning? 

Close the Gap Now helped develop the meeting agenda and provided training for group facilitators.

“What helps a mission move toward a coaching culture?” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in The Christian Coaching Center’s Missions Coaching. In the article, Michael interviews a missionary, asking questions like:

• If your mission members got coaching, what might happen?
• What helps you move your mission toward getting coaching?

“Help your students connect what they study and creation-fall-redemption-restoration,” a free tutorial, has been posted. This tutorial involves you in reflecting on questions, including:

• What’s creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
• How are you students connecting the course content and Biblical principles they study and creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
• What excites/concerns you about helping your students better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
• To help your students better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to creation-fall-redemption-restoration, what do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?

To see additional tutorials, click here.

Christian Schools International’s new Bible curriculum, Walking with God and His People, includes student learning outcomes collaboratively developed in December 2007 by Dan Beerens (CSI) and Michael Essenburg (Close the Gap Now).

To develop the learning outcomes, Beerens and Essenburg:

• Built on a document formulated by the Eastern Ottawa (MI) Christian schools.
• Reviewed other Christian schooling documents.
• Cross-checked the learning outcomes with the CSI’s head, heart, and hands outcomes.

“What 3 student learning needs will you meet?” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Nurturing Faith. In the article, Michael lists 10 learning needs the reader can address and interviews a high school teacher who is working to meet 3 of her students’ learning needs.

“How Focused Are You on Your God-Given Mission?” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Leadership Insights. The article provides a 17-item self-assessment that the reader can use to find ways to increase focus on the mission.

“Schedule Your Key Priorities First” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in Japan Harvest, the quarterly magazine of the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association. The article emphasizes scheduling your key priorities first, then scheduling email and so forth.

At Connect2Empower's April 2 meeting, JEMA members from 3 missions:

• Shared about their ministry.
• Reflected on home-service debriefing.
• Discussed ways to help others target their strengths.

Facilitated by Close the Gap Now, Connect2Empower is a network of JEMA members (tasked with professional development) that connects to empower Christian leaders and organizations.

“Student reflections on Biblical perspective” by Kim Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Nurturing Faith. In the article, Kim shares student responses to a unit test question: “What else did you learn in this unit that you did not have a chance to show on the test?”

“Develop a Guaranteed, Viable Biblical Perspective Curriculum,” a free tutorial, has been posted. This tutorial involves you in reflecting on 7 key questions, including “Where are you/your school in terms of having a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum?”

To see additional tutorials, click here.

“Use the 1-2-3-2-1 Lesson Model,” a free tutorial to help you develop Biblical perspective lesson, has been posted. The tutorial addresses:

• 1 story you will tell about your lesson content.  
• 2 connections between your “lesson story” and God’s creation-fall-redemption-restoration/fulfillment story.
• 3 questions you will ask about your “lesson story” to help students make connections to God’s story.
• 2 objectives for this lesson.
• 1 assessment you will use to find out if your lesson objectives were met.

To see additional tutorials, click here.

On February 27, twenty-four CAJ staff, CAJ parents, and mission community members participated in a productivity workshop entitled, "It's Self-Management, not Time Management." Participants:

• Analyzed their degree of self-management.
• Identified growth areas.
• Determined their goals.
• Developed action steps.

Michael Essenburg of Close the Gap Now facilitated the workshop.

On February 18, the Leadership Team of TEAM Japan invested 4 hours in reflecting on 5 questions:

1. What’s the big picture?
2. What does TEAM emphasize?
3. What’s involved in achieving the vision?
4. How can improvement plans help?
5. Now what?

Close the Gap Now facilitated this reflection time.

Protocols (sets of questions) help Christian leaders to empower others. Close the Gap Now had made its protocols more accessible by adding a protocol category in 6 different blogs:

• Empower Others
• Work Smart
• Target Biblical Perspective
• Use Questions
• Use Assessment
• Meet Learning Needs

“What Energizes You?” by Kim Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Christian School Teacher. The article recommends that teachers ask an open-ended question on tests (“‘What is something significant you learned this unit that you have not yet had an opportunity to show on this test?’”) and that teachers celebrate the answers by sharing them with students and colleagues.

At today's Biblical perspective training, teachers at Christian Academy in Japan celebrated and reflected. They celebrated that they had met the challenge of helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches by:

• Teaching a Biblical perspective lesson.
• Giving a Biblical perspective assessment.

Next, teachers used a set of questions to reflect on the results of their work.

This training was the final part of a 12-hour workshop, “Teach and Assess Biblical Perspective.” The training was facilitated by Close the Gap Now.

At Connect2Empower's Jan. 29 meeting, JEMA members from 5 missions reflected on the purpose and structure of monthly reviews. Participants:

• Shared about their ministry.
• Reflected on monthly reviews, using questions like: What excites/frustrates you about monthly reviews? What makes a good monthly review good?
• Talked through questions/issues raised by participants.

Facilitated by Close the Gap Now, Connect2Empower is a network of JEMA members tasked with professional development that connects to empower Christian leaders and organizations.

"Know Where You Are and Where You Want to Go " by Michael Essenburg was recently published in Japan Harvest, the quarterly magazine of the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association. The article emphasizes that knowing where you are and where you want to go helps you make effective decisions.

“Show your students what using Biblical perspective looks like” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Nurturing Faith. In the article, Michael interviews an English teacher who describes 2 strategies she uses to show her students what using a Biblical perspective looks like:

• Having students read and discuss an article that evaluates the subject from a Biblical perspective.
• Showing students sample essays in which students apply a Biblical perspective.

During its meeting today, the International Program Team of CRWM explored coaching. The team focused on 5 key questions:

1. What is coaching?
2. What could you work on with a coach?
3. How could a coaching culture help?
4. Are you ready for coaching?
5. How can you apply your learning?

Close the Gap Now facilitated the exploration, using a teleclass format.

“Leadership Tips” by Michael Essenburg was recently published in CSI's Leadership Insights. Christian school leaders want to provide effective leadership, and this article outlines 7 tips and 7 action steps for effective leadership.