T4T (Training for Trainers) A discipleship revolution

CPM CPM = Church Planting Movement The spirit empowered rapid multiplication of disciples and churches generation by generation Mechanics: – Begin with God’s vision for a movement – Majors on the practical ministry steps needed to be taken to move toward that lofty vision

Basis/parallel Acts 2:41 – Baptized; added three thousand souls Acts 2:47 – Adding to numbers day by day Acts 4:4 – Message, believed, five thousand Acts 6:1 – Disciples increasing in number Discipleship revolution: spread throughout the Roman empire within 20 years

T4T – Is an all inclusive process of training believers over the course of 12 to 18 months to witness to the lost and train new believers to form “reproducing discipleship communities” generation by generation

CHAPTER 3: THE T4T STORY

The T4T Story Personal history – Family from China then transferred to Taiwan – Father=pastor Started 28 chapels in 28 years – Ying became a pastor; 1978 moved to the US Started new Chinese church First year: 100 members Second year: 200 members Third year: joined and 20 were lost – 1994 – missionary to Hongkong Told to plant one church every five years But they were planting one church/year (thought he was ok)

The T4T Story 2000: invited to go to a “hard country” by a businessman who wanted to share the gospel to his factory workers – Nov. 1, 2000: went to the “hard country” – The “field” Factory1=3,000 workers Factory2=10,000 workers Biggest factory=70,000 workers workers – After two weeks: Offered their church leader: the people needed the gospel The answer: “We have been waiting for this a long time”

The T4T Story Start of training: – Question: “How many will hear the gospel today?” – The work 5.8 million local factory workers 15 million immigrant factory workers Total=20 million people – Challenge: they used to share to people/year; how can they do it with 20 million people?

The T4T Story Strategic insights given to Yang – Go, not come - the first key word Jesus’ “Great Commission” is the battle plan – Everyone, not just some Go to ALL nations – Make trainers (disciples), not just church members A disciple learns everything a teacher teaches Then he follows his teacher and teaches other people – 3-year CPM plan: start 200 churches and lead 18,000 to come to the faith

The T4T Story The first T4T – Approach: “teach a fast way to share the gospel” – not to start CPM Initial target population=618,000 Districts=22 Villages per district=100 to 200 Villages = small (=30 to 40 families); large (=100 families) – Plan/strategy: bible study at home – Initial goal: 3,000 family bible studies within 3 years Reaction by Hongkong colleagues: impossible?

The T4T Story The first T4T – 1 st weekend – 30 people signified interest to attend Only one person waiting outside the church Told to go to another church (on a motorcycle) – one hour ride Arrived 6PM; 60 member church, but only 1 person was waiting; told them to wait 2 hours 8PM: 30 people came, all farmers All had no dinner.

The T4T Story Message: “Why Christians don’t share?” – First reason: why? Did not get the Great Commission message All believers need to share – Second reason: we don’t know whom to share? Everyone given piece of paper – write down names of all who they would like to share the gospel (family, neighbor, relative, friends... ) Prioritize who to share: 5 names – first priority; second 5 – next priority and so on Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work in their lives

The T4T Story – Third reason: Don’t know how to share; How? Start with your own story (one page, 15 minutes, not too long) – Before you became a Christian – How you became a Christian – What happened after you became a Christian Read aloud 5 times; memorize Split to two groups; speak and listen to each other, then give comments and improve on the testimony – The lessons - excited wanted more lessons

The T4T Story – Lesson1: teach a lost soul how to gain eternal life through Jesus Lesson taught very slowly; wrote down every sentence Everyone asked to teach the lesson Then each to go home and teach the first five persons in their list and work from then on through the rest of their lists Approach: – Share their testimony – After sharing, teach lesson one Very important: when you want to share your testimony, don’t ask permission just start telling your story Finished 10PM – wanted more

The T4T Story – Second week: Of the 30 people 11 reported they shared – Lesson: not everyone will pass on the training Of the 11 who shared: – One shared with 3 – 1 believed – One shared with 5 – no one believed – One shared (old farmer) by knocking on every door – 11 became Christians – Lesson: the Holy Spirit chooses the person who will share – Succeeding weeks: Lesson on prayer Once they believed, they were told to share at once

The T4T Story – The old farmer? 5AM read the Bible 2 hour devotion 7AM to 5PM: worked in the fields Goes home, shower, cooks, take care of his mother 7PM to midnight: leads four different groups Y2001: in one year alone he led 110 groups Now one of the key trainers – Lessons: Don’t choose Train everyone God chooses who will share

The T4T Story The aftermath: – Nov 30: 30 led to Christ – In 3 months: these were leading small groups of 300 people – In 2001: 906 small groups began – Schedule: due to the busy schedule of the people – visits are done once every two weeks – Remarkable testimonies: 67 y/o: in one year led 46 families to Christ 26 y/o: led 26 to Christ Doctor: led to Christ through the Jesus film

Ying and Grace Kai Ministry YearBaptismsNew churches 153,3403, ,5329, ,6489, ,85912, ,62515, ,05518, ,95119, ,59828, ,23124,005 First 9 months of year ,20418,368 TOTAL1,738,143158,993

CHAPTER 4: WHY T4T IS WORKING

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? Kingdom kernels – Jesus mentioned “kingdom” 100 times and “church” only 2x – If we could get the kingdom right, we could get the church right We should understand the King’s ways first before we can act on them and move forward

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? The ways of the king’s reign from the kingdom kernels – Sower and soils (Matthew 13:3-9) Sow first then you will know the kind of soil – The treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price (Matt 13:44-46) Press for disciples not decisions – The tares or weeds (Matt 13:24-30,36-43) Be aware that the enemy is working; counterfeit followers will arise

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? The ways of the king’s reign from the kingdom kernels – The seed growing quietly and the mustard seed / leaven (Mark 4:26-29) Starts small, but it will grow big – The two sons (Mark 21:28-32) Obedience = mark of true discipleship – The scribe in the kingdom (Matt 13:52) Document!

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? The Spirit as attacker and teacher – Abide in Jesus and be effective (John 15:4,16) – Absorb the role of the Holy Spirit as: Attacker Teacher – Attacker: (John 16:8) Show the sin Desire for righteousness Fear of death and eternal judgment

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? – Attacker: We use a gospel witness to filter who the Holy Spirit is already attacking – Teacher: (John 14:26; 1John 2:27) Currently the Holy Spirit is overlooked Relearn to depend on the Holy Spirit to make the changes on the life of the new believer

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? Turning discipleship maturity on its head – Ephesians4:11-16 – Obedience based versus knowledge based maturity Maturity = how much one obeys

Chapter 4: why is T4T working? Can T4T work where I am? – All fields do not yield the same harvest, but all are harvestable – The very same group of people have two traits (Romans 11:25): Harvestable Hardened Hard nations contain harvestable individuals – T4T is just a tool: adopt the tool, but do not violate the kingdom principles