CORE VALUES
The MetaFormation Core Values are comprised of four elements:
- Core Training Values – C-H-A-N-G-E-D, and
- Training Approach and Practices, and
- Code of Ethics, and
- Statement of Faith
We have a set of organizational values that define our culture, and a set of training values that encapsulate our learning philosophy.
Our core training values form an acronym – C-H-A-N-G-E-D
Coaching Approach
Coaching is our core methodology for working with personal transformation.
“Coaching is the best way we’ve found to work with a leader’s heart.”
- Believing in people
- Ask, don’t tell
- God moves when I am listening
Heaven
Heaven is our goal, our measuring rod, our joy, and our destiny.
“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
- Heaven’s perspective gives the circumstances of my life story meaning
- Heaven makes all things well
- My destiny is in heaven, not on earth
Authenticity
Authentic relationship is both a prerequisite and a byproduct of living from the heart.
“The New Testament was written by authentic leaders for an authentic community.”
- With God, with others, in my circumstances
- Relationship is the context for transformation.
- Open about my brokenness and my glory
New Testament Leadership Model
We lead from the heart as modeled in the New Testament.
“Leaders whose desires are connected to Jesus will naturally function as empowering servant leaders.”
- Team leadership
- Women in leadership
- Relational influence vs. authority-based leadership
- Empowerment and stewarding people’s destinies
- Building the larger kingdom vs. your own sphere of influence
God Initiates Change
Heart change results from our response to God’s activity, not our own willpower.
“God is the change agent, not us.”
- Change as a process vs. a choice
- Leaning in vs. taking over
Encounter
The heart changes through experience; and our key experience is encounters with Jesus.
“Without encounter the heart lies dead.”
- We focus on the emotional brain, because that’s where the problem lies
- Rhema (the experiential word) changes the heart, Logos renews the mind
- Letting Jesus do all the ministry
Desire
Desire fulfilled in relationship with God is the key to living the Christian life.
“Jesus’ way of change is the way of desire.”
- Desire is the source of human behavior
- God’s way of change is from the inside out, through filled desire
- We were made for desire fulfilled
MetaFormation Training Approach and Practices
The ‘Practices’ are keyways we live those values out in the way our training is designed.
- Desire is the source of human behavior
- God’s way of change is from the inside out, through filled desire
- We were made for desire fulfilled
Adult Learning Approach
Adults learn best from interactive, experiential training with immediate practice and application.
- Practice with feedback on real life issues
- Discovery learning through discussion and debriefing
- Malcolm Knowles’ six guidelines for the adult learner
Key Adult Learning Practices
- The “Four D’s” >Describe>Demonstrate>Discuss>Do model is used when introducing new tools.
- The 85/15 rule: skill-development sessions have 15% Describe (“tell”) and 85% Demonstrate, Discuss and Do.
- Our live sessions include an exercise or example roughly every five minutes.
Experience and Encounter
The heart changes through experience; and our key experience is encounters with Jesus.
- Experiences like learning games, demos, and the Taste of Heaven engage the emotional brain and touch the heart
- We aren’t afraid to trigger people on purpose to heal them
- Encounters with Jesus is the fundamental coaching tool for filling desire
Key Experience and Encounter Practices
- When we touch negative emotions, we make a habit of taking time to meet Jesus there.
- Questions for Jesus are part of every workshop.
- We regularly use games to trigger people and hold a mirror up to their hearts.
Relational Context
Transformation is most likely to happen in the context of safe, authentic relationships.
- Transformation is experiential and relational
- The two great openers of the heart are pain and relationship
- You stay committed to the follow-up sessions for your teammates in the foxhole with you
Key Relational Context Practices
- All the Modules include a Taste of Heaven® bonding experience
- Every module includes cohort followup sessions with a team of 3 or 4 individuals
- Exercises provide for regular self-disclosure by each team member
Retention-focused
It’s not how much you say; it’s how much they remember and apply.
- Practice and repetition
- Immediate application to real life
- Follow-up and feedback
Key Retention Practices
- Important models and skills are practiced multiple times, including during the follow-up and mentor coaching.
- We prioritize high-retention learning styles that activate listeners (discussion, debriefing, practice, teaching each other) over lecture.
- Each Module includes 12 follow up sessions for practicing the skills with your fellow team members for skill retention.
- Feedback is essential for skill retention and development; therefore, there are 8 follow up sessions with fellow team members and a MetaFormation Mentor Coach. In these sessions you’ll practice the skills and receive feedback on your coaching from your coachee, your fellow team member(s) that are observing and your Mentor Coach.
- Core modules are taught over roughly 20 weeks with no more than 5 hours per week of learning to ensure participants have adequate time to absorb the content, and they can maintain a high level of energy for every training session.
Follow the Learning
Our teaching outline exists to create learning experiences, not to be the learning experience
- When people are getting great insights, we camp out there for a while
The goal is breakthrough, not cognition
Key Follow the Learning Practices
- At least once each workshop, we interrupt the outline to help one individual encounter Jesus in front of the group.
- We are free to go off the outline when people are learning or God is showing up.
- We allow plenty of debrief and discussion times
Work with All Streams
- Pentecostal to Baptist
- Putting no obstacles in people’s way
- Avoiding lingo
Key All Streams Practices
- We major in the majors and don’t get distracted by theological controversies
- We focus on helping people meet Jesus instead of helping them believe the right things
- We don’t talk about prophecy or the prophetic even though we are functioning in it
