ESOL Outreach in London, UK

Christian TEFL is training individuals on a Co-Mission Churches ESOL Outreach project in London, UK.

Members from Christchurch Mayfair, Dundonald Church, Mosaic Multicultural Church, New Life Church, Catford and St. Peter’s Church, Fulham have all enrolled and are currently on courses.

Trainees are taking either the 120 hr Classic TEFL or the 250 hr Worldwide TEFL courses, working with Christian tutors as they progress. They’re so eager to reach people with the Good News of Jesus that two trainees have completed the courses already!

The churches are looking at how best they can reach their local communities using a variety of resources and training. Most are aiming to start English language cafés or English language classes in September.

Webinar for ESOL outreach

At a one-hour webinar this week, William Bradridge led 14 members from the group through three different ESOL outreach model approaches. He spoke about the importance of building a team around the café project or classroom experience. In this way, you can support one another, so that the burden doesn’t fall all on one person!

He offered some guiding principles for ESOL set-up, answered questions, and distributed a planning strategy document designed to get teams preparing for their next step.

William also provided specific case studies of how churches in the UK are reaching the unreached through English language teaching. This included feedback from churches who has seen real fruit from both their classes and their intentional befriending outreach. He shared stories of second language speakers making the commitment to follow Jesus and joining the local churches where they study.

Funding for this project was made possible by generous donations from Christian TEFL supporters via Localgiving.

Opportunity for your church?

If your church would like to reach out to its local community and provide English classes or an English friendship café, please contact us. We’ve recently received a small amount of additional funding to support 1-2 more churches this year.  Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

It might be that you are already engaged in some form of English language teaching. Would you like further help and resources? Alternatively, were you teaching before lockdown and just need some help to start again? If that’s the case, we be glad to speak to you.

Watch out for more news from the Co-Mission churches as they move forward with outreach. We are just as excited as they are!