Ying called it Training for Trainers (T4T) because he expected every disciple to train others.
Page 31
Scholars of Acts agree: This movement took place in the power of the Holy Spirit through the lives of ordinary, month-old and even weeks-old
believers as they were equipped
by the apostles and other believers.
This was the original discipleship revolution. Disciples of Jesus
learning to live out the universal twin call to 1) follow Jesus and 2) fish
for men (Mark 1: 17). Their love for their Master and desire to see His
Name glorified in all the earth inspired them to sacrificial commitment that
transformed daily life and interpersonal relationships.
Page 34-35
In Oct 2000, as Ying sat in CPM training, his eyes and mind were fixed
on a poster on the wall that read: “How
many of my people will hear the gospel today?”
The Lord gave Ying these insights:
1. Go, not come: The Great
Commission says we are to go, not invite people to come to us. We must go to
where the lost are, and train the new believers to also go where the lost are.
This was going to mean an ever-expanding wave of evangelism into factories, homes,
shops and neighborhoods. [GO]
2. Everyone, not just some:
The verse says to make disciples of all, not just a few. We typically choose
whom we want to share the gospel with. We try to prejudge who might accept it.
But God said to share with everyone. We cannot predict who will accept the
gospel and whom God will use to birth a movement. [EVERYBODY]
3. Make trainers (disciples),
not just church members: We are often satisfied if someone will believe and
join our church. But the command Jesus gave us is so much more. He wants these
new believers to be true disciples. And what to disciples do? Every disciple is
to learn how to obey Jesus’ commands, including witnessing to others and then
training these new believers to repeat the process. Every disciple should be a
trainer. [TRAINER]
Page 37
Previously, I had a fairly successful ministry in Los Angeles. But the
good ministry tools I already was comfortable
with threatened to become the enemy of what was essential to finish the task in my new people group. Something
different was needed. I was learning that the shape of my ministry had to be
dictated by the end-vision we were
trying to get to, not by what we enjoyed
doing or what bought personal fulfillment.
Page 40
As the couple worked through the training, they wrestled with what
needed to change in their ministry. By anyone’s reckoning, they had already had
a very good ministry. But gain they recognized that good ministry can be the enemy of what is most essential –
especially if the goal is for everyone having a chance to hear and respond.
Page 42
T4T implements New Testament kingdom principles that can:
- Mobilize existing Christians to live out God’s calling on their lives
- Teach believers to witness
appropriately as a lifestyle
- Disciple believers to grow in genuine love relationship of obedience
to Christ
- Start new small groups or
churches (usually both)
- Develop maturing leaders
quickly
- Cascade out into multiple generations
of disciples and churches/groups
- Equip missionaries or church planters to appropriately phase out of leading the movement
themselves and help the indigenous movement stand on the Spirit of God alone
once the discipleship and training process has taken root.
Page 43
We use the word “trainer” instead of “disciple” to denote that the
follower of Jesus should be like his Master and emulate Him in all respects.
Too often, our current understanding of the word “disciple” or the phrase “being disciple” connotes an idea of receiving not giving. Jesus taught His
followers to pass on all they received.
Teaching conveys the idea of transferring knowledge but training
conveys the idea of changing behavior.
Page 44
T4t is a comprehensive process of training believers over the course of
12-18 months to witness to the lost and train new believers to form reproducing
discipleship communities generation by generation.
Page 49
Jesus said, ”Don’t just choose
some. Go to everybody.” Jesus gave the example: one farmer went outside to
sow the seeds. He is a farmer; he knows which soil is good and which is bad.
But this farmer is very strange. He throws the seeds everywhere. Some of the
soil is choked with weeds. However, some of the lad is good, and God multiplies
the fruit 30, 60 and 100 times. Sowing
the see dis our responsibility. Only the Holy Spirit can make the seeds grow.
So don’t miss any change. Don’t miss anybody. Even right now, the soil may not
be good. But one day, God can change the soil; we never know. We can’t miss any
chance.
Page 52
Why Christians don’t share, because we don’t know WHY, WHOM & HOW.
Cast vision:
WHY – The Great Commission
WHOM – Close your eyes and think of people around you.
HOW – It starts with your own story.
Page 54
When you want to share your testimony, don’t ask people for permission.
Just start telling your story.
Page 58
God chooses the person. We never know. Don’t choose. Train everyone!
Then let God choose.
Page 57
I discovered a truth: the Holy
Spirit chooses the person, not us. If I chose, I wouldn’t have chosen him – I might not have even trained him. He
was old and not very handsome. His language was very hard to understand. But
God chose him. That was another CPM lesson for me: we must train every one.
Page 65
Jesus knew that if we could get the kingdom (King’s reign) right, we would get church right. But the
King’s ways are not what we naturally default to. They are counter-intuitive. We must be very purposeful if we would see the
King’s reign, not just the church’s or pastor’s reign.
Page 68-69
CPMs are birthed in the good-soil persons. We need methods that enable
us to sow the gospel to a great number people, not pre-judging who will respond, so that we find the fruitful
ones. We must not be distracted by the many who will respond but prove
unfruitful.
Instead, in CPMs we need to spend most of our time discipling the
fruitful obedient disciples. Only by investing in the small percentage of
good-soil people will a multiplying movement emerge. Unfortunately, the intuitive way we often default to is to pre-judge
who will respond (thus not sowing enough) and then spend most of our time with
people who walk in disobedience and prove unfruitful. Such “intuitive” ways
actually prevent us from cooperating with the King’s work in the lives of
people around us.
If we help non-believers discover the value of the King, not simply try
to get them to make decision, we will help them become fervent followers of
Jesus. People often will joyfully five up all if we hold up the King
appropriately.
In CPMs, we must present the
true value of the King and His claims, and then call people to total
commitment to Him and His kingdom. Only by elevating the King can a movement
start. We must press for disciples not
simply decisions. That’s what T4T attempts to do.
Page 70
No matter how well we sow, the enemy is fighting against us.
Counterfeit followers will arise in any kingdom movement. That is normal (e.g.
Judas). We should not be surprised when some fall away. There will be problems.
But the fact that there will be problems should not distract us from planting
and harvesting the good seed!
Page 71
Large movements start from small
beginnings. If we plant the right
DNA of the kingdom, the growth of the kingdom is inevitable. It is critical that we get the beginnings
right! This is why T4T focuses so
heavily on the initial expectations for the new disciple.
For example, a common practice in the first few movements after a
person comes to faith is to help him think through the implications of being a
follower of Jesus and a fisher of men. Within minutes he receives encouragement
to think about his lost family and friends and learn a way to witness to them
(and eventually train them). From the movement of this salvation he is
receiving a vision to be the mustard seed of a movement.
As T4T is implemented, it looks small in the beginning, but the
exponential nature of the process means that before long it grows far beyond
our human efforts.
Obedience is the mark of true
discipleship. Obedient disciples are not those who give verbal assent only,
but actually obey what the Father commands. Ideally we want people who both
“say” yes and “do” yes. But bottom-line, we are looking for people who “do” yes!
T4T is built on an obedience-based
discipleship model. Disciples move on as they obey each lesson from
Scripture. As they do “yes” at each stage, they move on to the next – from
salvation to baptism to early discipleship to forming a church to leadership
development and training others. Loving and mutual accountability is a
foundation expectation in the T4T process.
Page 72
T4T helps us not only start from scratch in winning new believers, but
gives a practical process to mobilize
existing believers with lots of Bible knowledge to live out the
counter-intuitive ways of the Kingdom. When they do, they can be great
force-multipliers.
Page 75
And He [the Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
(John 16: 8)
The Holy Spirit is our there all around your neighborhood, city or
people group attacking lost people.
He is doing three things:
1. He is showing them their sin.
2. He is creating a desire for a different kind of righteousness.
3. He is creating a longing to avoid the fear of death which is eternal
judgment.
Page 77
Jesus’ discipleship depended on his own physical presence with the
disciples because they had not yet received the Spirit! Many of our current discipleship models overly depend
on our frequent and continued physical presence with our new disciples.
When we are not there or when we finally exit the group, they struggle and
sometimes stop meeting.
But this neglects a critical teaching about the Spirit. After the
Spirit has come, our physical presence is not nearly as essential. Personal
involvement is not unimportant. But we need a discipleship process more akin to
the post-Pentecost that depends less on human intervention. It is a model that takes the great risk of depending on the
presence of the Spirit in the life of the new believer. This is the essential
nature of the priesthood of the believer.
Page 79
In some Christian ministry, we assess how mature a believer is based on
how much he knows. But the New
Testament assesses the maturity of a believer based on how much he obeys (eg John 14:15, James 1:22-25)
Page 80
Ephesians 4:11-16 teaches a radically different order. In verse 11
leaders are given to the church. In verse 12 they equip with God’s people (to
know Christ, serve, etc). In verse 12, God’s people serve or do the work of
ministry. In verse 12-13, the result is that they and the body mature through
this process. The biblical progression of maturity is…
- Not “believe – mature – serve”
- BUT RATHER “believe – serve – mature”
Page 91
T4T enables believers to naturally progress from one stage to the next
as they are trained: evangelism, discipleship, church planting, leadership
development – repeating the process generation by generation. When the results
consistently generate 4th+ generation disciples and new churches in
several places in a short period of time, then a sustained church-planting
movement emerged.
Page 99
A bridge is simply a way to transition a conversation to spiritual
matters, especially the gospel.
Source: T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution - Steve Smith (Author) & Ying Kai (Contributor) (2011)
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