Giving Up Control: The art of mentoring

By Richard Crespo Many years ago I read an article about mentoring called, “Coaching Without a Paddle.” The author used the analogy of floating in a canoe without a paddle to describe the mentoring process of not being able to control the outcome. As a new convert, the Apostle Paul was mentored by a more
Read more
1 Comment

How do people learn?

We are pleased to offer you this exclusive interview with Martin Manser, author of the new book, Effective Training in a Week.  Q: Tell us about the different learning styles you’ve encountered when training writers or others. The main different learning styles I’ve encountered when training are the following: Visual – those who like to see information in the written word, pictures, videos or
Read more
3 Comments

Tan’s Pursuit of Publishing with Passion

Improve your sales strategies with tips from our next webinar, “Selling Online,” featuring CEO Aleks Tan on June 20. (See details below.) In his 20s, Aleks was known as the “PowerPoint Guy” who helped prepare presentations for the CEO of OMF Literature. A self-described “fly on the wall,” he strove for excellence. Find out why
Read more
No Comments

Truth Is Costly

By Miriam Adeney From Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon they walk in, sit down, and plug in laptops or lay out pens and paper. These 17 writers are each working on a book in Arabic in the Christian Arab Writers’ Initiative, a joint effort of MAI and Ophir Publishers of Jordan.  Topics include women’s oppression
Read more
No Comments

How We Cultivate Writers

By Stephen Bryant Many of us associated with MAI are working to cultivate writers. Our goal at Discipleship Resources International of the United Methodists is to expand the faith community’s access to affordable, contextually appropriate Christian resources by building local capacity to write and publish them. One of the most important things we can do
Read more
2 Comments

Africa: Watch out for trained trainers

By Lekan Otufodunrin, Nigeria Before attending the Train-the-Trainer workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 13-15, Marcelin Vounda Etoa of Editions CLE publishing house in Cameroon was planning to hold a workshop in partnership with the Protestant University to train pastors on writing scholarly theological papers. Having participated in the three-day workshop organized by Media
Read more
4 Comments

MAI Training Booklets Now in E-books!

Free shipping, no snail mail, and you save a tree! You’ll find our practical training booklets and bestsellers now available in digital formats for Kindle, Apple and Nook products: How to Write Missionary Letters by Alvera Mickelson: Kindle, Apple, Nook The Christian Publisher: Strong in the Storm by Ramon Rocha III: Kindle, Apple, Nook Your
Read more
No Comments

How to Critique Manuscripts in Languages You Do Not Read

By Miriam Adeney  Working with writers using languages you don’t read can be tricky. However, even if you cannot read every word of every piece, with a little help you can still provide critique.  Here are a few hints on how to help writers make the most of workshops. 1. For your first public critique,
Read more
No Comments

Lipsticks, beards, bananas and more (a writing exercise)

Larry Brook, trainer and MAI board member, led writer workshops in several Asian countries last year. He shares about his Indonesia workshop here: We’re driving to Puncak in the Bogor Mountains outside of Jakarta, Indonesia. It’s time for the writer workshop organized by Robby Chandra of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I worked with this same
Read more
1 Comment