Two more tutorials have been posted:

1. To enhance your organization's improvement system, take this self-assessment
2. To learn more about enhancing organizational improvement, explore these 6 questions

To see additional tutorials, click here.

Two new tutorials have been posted:

1. How focused are you on your God-given mission?
2. How can peer coaching help your students apply a Biblical perspective?

To see additional tutorials, click here.

January 29-30, over 40 staff from Mountainview International Christian School and Bandung Alliance International School learned more about:

• Evangelism
• Christian coaching
• Personal productivity
• Helping students to connect God’s world and God’s Word.

Close the Gap Now facilitated some of the workshops.

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.

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.

At its meeting today, Christian Academy in Japan's board reflected on policy governance ends statements. For 90 minutes the board:

• Considered questions like "What's the significance of CAJ's primary end?"
• Connected ends and executive limitations.
• Explored which ends statements a given staff member focuses on.

Close the Gap Now facilitated the reflection.

SEND Japan missionaries participated in a 1-day workshop on increasing self-management. During the workshop, participants completed a self-assessment, identified goals, brainstormed options for addressing the goals, developed action plans for achieving goals, and scheduled action steps.

Michael Essenburg of Close the Gap Now and Jon Winter of SEND Japan facilitated the workshop.

August 22-24, the EurAsia Team of Christian Reformed World Missions worked together for 3 days in Manila on strategic planning, accountability and reporting, new ministry options, and team building.

Close the Gap Now provided team building activities based on the following:

• Connect, Don't Silo: Connect with others. Pursue God's calling—together.
• Reflact, Don't Act: Reflect, then act. Practice reflaction.
• Ask, Don't Tell: To provoke others to reflect, ask questions.

In preparation for doing annual personnel conferences, 13 SEND International staff participated in a 4-hour DRAWLIFE Fundamentals workshop. Said one participant, “I’m prepared to do conferences better.” Added another, “As a result of this workshop, I value doing conferences more.”

During the Feb. 1 workshop, SEND staff:

• Used the DRAW inquiry process (Define • Respond • Analyze • What’s next).
  
• Enhanced their LIFE skills (Listening • Inquiry • Focusing • Encouragement).
  
• Explored 5 Christian beliefs about drawing out the blessings God has put in His people.
  
• Developed a list of hot tips for drawing out.

Asian Access missionaries involved in church multiplication participated in a 3-hour workshop on self-management. On Oct. 20, participants discussed the difference between self-management and time management, used self-assessment data to find ways to increase self-management, and used tools to identify goals, develop action plans, and schedule priorities.

Commented one participant, “This training really helped me figure out what I really need to focus on.”

September 20-22, the EurAsia Team of Christian Reformed World Missions worked together for 3 days in Manila on 5 goals: building relations, clarifying goals, brainstorming new ideas, developing a better understanding of the big picture, and networking.

Close the Gap Now provided training around foundational concepts, including:

• To accomplish your God-given mission, start by defining its achievement.
  
• Measure your current level of mission achievement.
  
• Take action to achieve your mission.
  
• The body of Christ works together.

Said a EurAsia Team member, “It was great meeting folks from other countries, many who are doing similar work to mine. Discussions centered on the global mission of the CRCNA and were fruitful.”

Feb. 13, the board of Christian Academy in Japan participated in a 90-minute training by Close the Gap Now entitled, “To Achieve Your Mission, Start by Defining It.”

During the training, the board considered questions like:

• If you don’t define the mission, how effectively can you and the headmaster work?
  
• You’re the headmaster—what do you need to know?
  
• How can a definition of mission achievement empower a headmaster?
  
• How can you define your mission effectively?

As a result of the training, board members were able to:

• Recite the mission.
  
• Understand and recite the MOSAIC school improvement process (Mission, Objectives, Standards-based Assessment, Improvement plans, Collaboration for results).
  
• Use the MOSAIC scorecard to explain the big picture.

In an e-mail to Close the Gap Now, one board member wrote, “THANK YOU again for using your coaching skills yesterday with the board. There were a lot of individual comments made to me about how helpful and insightful the presentation was.”

Dec. 12, the board of Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) explored the importance of a scorecard. During the 90-minute training by Close the Gap Now, the board considered several questions, including:

• How can a scorecard help CAJ to close the gap?
  
• To what extent are CAJ students achieving the student objectives?
  
• Is CAJ doing everything possible to support all students increasing achievement of the student objectives?

As a result of the training, board members were able to:

• Recite the mission.
  
• Understand and recite the MOSAIC school improvement process (Mission, Objectives, Standards-based Assessment, Improvement plans, Collaboration for results).
  
• Use the MOSAIC scorecard to explain the big picture.

Said one board member to Close the Gap Now, “Thank you for your time with us this past Tuesday. The way that you laid out the presentation was very clear.”