Director’s keynote address at Users’ Forum

Keynote talk by MSTEE Director, P. Enkhmunkh at the Users’ Forum
26 April 2011

First of all, I am delighted to announce that the MSTEE has been granted registration as an NGO serving a defined membership. As from May 1, the MSTEE will be operating under its new registration, and with its new stamp. Thank you to all of you for your prayers during this long process!
Now that the MSTEE is officially an independent legal entity, we have additional responsibilities: the responsibility for generating funding, and keeping our house in order rests firmly on our shoulders. We have a clear vision for sustainable operations with funding generated in Mongolia so that we are not dependent on outside funding.

There are four pillars for the future of the MSTEE:
1. Sustainable ministry
2. High performance team
3. Accredited programmes
4. High quality programmes

1. Sustainable Ministry.
Sustainable ministry requires that we work towards independence from outside funding. If funding from sources outside Mongolia dried up, we want to be able to keep providing a service to the Mongolian churches. Therefore the MSTEE Board made a decision last month that we would no longer subsidize the cost of courses to the churches. The School should be able to reprint courses with the income from their sales.
2. High performance team.
We are looking now for a team of people with the vision for ministry with the MSTEE for the next ten, twenty or thirty years. People who will grow in their work, who will know every course book inside out, and be able to provide the high level of support that the churches deserve.
3. Accredited programmes.
The Certificate level program is already accredited by the Asia Theological Association. Those who studied the courses before the Practical Workbooks were added have found the addition stretching and challenging. I can tell you we will be challenging you still further, because our goal is to produce quality graduates! It won’t be easy – in the future, you may find that you are required to prepare longer written pieces of work, or prepare a thesis!
4. High quality programmes.
We are content with the Certificate in Christian Ministry programme, but we are looking again at the Foundation Level programme. We believe that there may be a number of really helpful courses, including ones like Proverbs and Talking with God that could be added. We will work to develop the Diploma level programme structure over the next year.

Tutor training: we will now focus more on quality than quantity. The days of training workshops with thirty or forty participants are over! We are now looking at workshops with a maximum of fifteen participants so that we can make sure that each participant has the skills to lead a group effectively and feels confident about starting up a group.

We look forward to continuing partnership with you and your churches!
P.Enkhmunkh