Church Planting Movements PEACE - Curtis Sergeant

Introduction: Church Planting Movements 1–3

What is a Church Planting Movement? 4–7

Why Start Church Planting Movements? 8–15

What is a Church? 16–23

Seven Non-Negotiable Components of a CPM 24–27

The Culture of Empowerment 28–34

The Culture of Empowerment II 35–41

Passionate Prayer 42–45

Passionate Prayer II 46–55

Instantaneous Personal Witnessing 56–60

Reaching Friends and Relatives 61–68

Intentional Planting 69–76

The Word, the Foundation of All 77–81

Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storying 82–92

The Power of a Team 93–97

Improving Your Serve 98–103

Improve Your Serve Together! 104–109

Starter Pack Adventure in the Word 110–114

Starter Pack Assurance 115–118

Starter Pack My Story 119–124

Starter Pack ACTS Prayer 125–128

Starter Pack The Harvest 129–132

Starter Pack The Bridge 133–137

Growing Others 138–145

Learning Through Curiosity 146–150

Learning Through Listening 151–158

Harvest Time 159–167

Vision Cycle 168–177

Table of Contents

�©2006 Saddleback Church

Objective: To understand some basic characteristics of a church planting movement.

Pray: Take time to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, understanding and insight as we think about his work in church planting movements.

Taking the First Steps: Understanding the Training ProcessThe goal of the P.E.A.C.E. church planting movement (CPM) training is to empower you to train a partner church to reach into their own community and beyond into an unreached people group. The goal of your training will be to enable the partner church to start a church planting movement in their own community and in an unreached group. This is a “train the trainer” course. You will become a cross-cultural trainer of Christians. The curriculum will be limited in graphics and certain kinds of content. Be sure that you present this training with the same level of technology that is readily available to your partner church. When your partner church equips new believers, they in turn will need to limit their use of technology to the level easily available to the new Christians.

Introduction: Church Planting Movements

� ©2006 Saddleback Church

Introduction: Church Planting MovementsThere are three foundations that the training is built on to achieve this specific purpose:• Experiential discovery learning. We ask you to explore, think

about, interact with and discuss the concepts presented. This is meant to be highly participatory and not a lecture course. When you share these modules, it will be very important that you present them in the way that you receive them. You will be a facilitator, not a teacher. Your role is to facilitate the participants in interaction with the material. Research has shown that people will remember what they say rather than what you say.

• The Bible as the foundation for communication. We will use the Word as the basis for most of the discussions and learning for many reasons. One key reason is that it provides common ground for the facilitator and participant.

• Orality-learning issues are significant. Literacy may be very limited among both those you train and those that they reach. You will be asked to study the orality section of the P.E.A.C.E. eLearning Web site. Many or perhaps most of your participants will learn primarily through discussion and storying, rather than conceptual thinking. Thus we will include activities that draw out stories.

• Facilitation rather than teaching is the primary method of this training project. We do not ask you to become an expert, but rather that you present the training as it is written and after you have personally experienced it. We encourage every participant, not just a single leader, to facilitate these materials when he or she is in the field. When you facilitate, you will learn the most. We also recommend that you find a group, or at least an individual, with whom you can go through these modules with before you go overseas.

Other Considerations:• You may discover that your responses to the information and

activities may be sharply different from the partner churches that you facilitate. Go into the project as a learner. Do not see yourself as a teacher, but rather as a servant leader who is a learner alongside the participants. If you take this position and do not see yourself as the “answer man,” or answer person, then you will enjoy discovering the cultural and spiritual differences in your worldview and the participants.

�

Introduction: Church Planting Movements

©2006 Saddleback Church

• You may discover that those you train will have a great passion for evangelism and be very excited by this opportunity. You will probably come away encouraged and enriched, feeling that you have learned as much as you have taught.

• Go with an open mind and heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to take these seeds and bring a harvest of righteousness. Do not feel that you must sort out every conflict that surfaces from the training. Allow the learners to wrestle with the issues with each other, the Word, and the Lord. When you return home, there may be issues still being processed, which is healthy. Your job is to introduce the concepts, pray, and allow the Holy Spirit to be the teacher.


Learning ActivityHave you ever traveled overseas or worked cross culturally? If you have, share with the group two things that you learned from the experience.

What is a Church Planting Movement?“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to start a Church Planting Movement!” The 1960’s Mission Impossible television show in the USA always started by playing an audio tape which gave instructions to Jim Phelps about his next difficult mission. This first module is designed to help you understand the basics of your mission, one that will be difficult and require supernatural help to complete!

What is a Church Planting Movement?

5–7minutes


What is a Church Planting Movement?Today in many nations, the Church of Jesus Christ is exploding! In the past 10 years in North India, more than 1 million former Hindus have embraced the salvation offered by Christ. In a Muslim nation nearby, 500,000 people have come to faith in Jesus in the past five years. China has seen hundreds of thousands in many locations believe and obey Christ in the past five to 10 years.

These movements have not been classical “revivals” where the Spirit is poured out on a people or people group apparently randomly, but rather CPMs that were started by a strategic design of prayer and focused efforts that have intentionally created reproducing churches. There has been a DNA deposited in the hearts of new believers that is quite different from the DNA that is taught and more importantly modeled in most churches around the world! Some say that if we keep on doing the same thing and expect different results, we may be considered insane. CPMs are doing different things than the historical church, which has been centered around church buildings since 300 A.D., and are getting spectacularly different results. CPMs are not cell churches, and although they look similar, CPMs are not “house churches” as we know them in the United States.

CPMs are built on “doing the right things” instead of “doing things right.” Over the centuries, our Christian sense of “doing things right” has erected tall traditions that often prevent the Gospel from racing through a culture or people group. CPMs have been around long enough (more than 10 years) and studied enough that we have a good sense of “the right things to do.” That is what this training is about. It will require changes in your way of thinking about church and being a disciple. It may upset you and drive you back into the Word of God to rethink what a church is and what it means to be a disciple and leader. The people who you equip with this training may have similar reactions. You need to process these modules with your team thoroughly before your trip to make sure you and the team are at peace with the mission set before you.

Definition and Characteristics of a Church Planting Movement (CPM):

The rapid growth of indigenous churches that can reach a whole nation or people group.

A CPM is a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment. The following are key components to this definition:

1. Church starts are rapid. As a movement, a CPM occurs when there is rapid increase in new church starts. In the initial phases, the new church starts may begin slowly, but over time the multiplication factor creates an explosion of growth.

�



2. There is an exponential increase. New churches start new churches that start new churches through multiple generations. A CPM may have as its earliest founders professional church planters or missionaries, but only some are wise enough to understand how to initiate a movement that is not dependent on them nor is hindered by the patterns for growth that they model in the beginning.

3. They are indigenous churches, reflecting the culture in which they are birthed. The look and feel of their music and worship will match their heart language and culture. These churches are generated from within their culture rather than from without. New churches birth new churches, thus fueling the movement.

4. By definition, CPMs involve new believers in starting new churches. Exponential growth means that in a generation or two, new believers form the backbone of the new churches.

5. CPMs do not occur in a top down model of church planting. These are grass roots, bottom-up churches planting churches, racing through their networks of human relationships.

Learning Activity:Draw a relational map, going back three generations, of your Christian lineage. Do the same with three of your closest family members. If you do not have three nuclear family members who are believers, draw the map for three of your closest friends. Compare the maps with others in your group. See how many of your family or friends were impacted by the same person or persons. Use a stick figure to represent each person.

Networks That WorkThe Gospel travels most quickly and effectively across relationship lines. Research demonstrates that 75 to 90 percent of Christians are introduced to Christ through a friend or relative. CPMs run through established relational networks that are usually family and village-based. Where networks are fragmented and disjointed, growth is usually not as fast.

Learning Activity: Discuss with a partner the following ideas. Take 10 minutes, and then debrief as a group for 10 minutes.

10minutes

20minutes

�



1. Tell your partner about someone you have shared the Gospel with who became a disciple of Christ. Was it a friend or relative? Have they led anyone to Christ? Has the second-generation Christian led someone else to Christ?

2. What was your model of discipleship when you first became a Christian? Were you encouraged to tell others what happened to you? Were you asked to concentrate more on learning or doing? Give some examples.

3. Do you think if new believers were taught to actively share their faith with others during their formative months, and they did it, that your church would be different today? In what way?

4. Draw a relationship map of those who need to know Christ in your family network. Discuss ways that these important people could be reached.

What a Church Planting Movement is Not:• Not a foreign entity• Not dependent • Not one multi-ethnic church • Not one church among a people• Not experiencing just incremental growth • Not a denomination that exists for its own purposes • Not a cell church

What a Church Planting Movement is:• Indigenous• Evangelistic • Proactive • Missionary in focus • Maturing • On mission with God

Have you heard of a CPM before? Can you imagine that the Lord would use you to equip others to start a CPM and impact the eternal destiny of thousands of people? He can! Begin to pray daily for the Spirit of the Lord to guide and equip you for that purpose as you go through these modules.


Objective: To consider the challenges of reaching our world with the Gospel and changes that we need to make to become effective.

Pray: Take time to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, understanding, and insight as we think about his work in church planting movements.

Planting churches attacks the spiritual giant of lostness. Less than 10 percent of the world’s nearly 6.5 billion people have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There are 11,800 people groups in our world. However, 6,000-plus people groups are less than 2 percent evangelized and there are just over 500 mega people groups, with a population greater than 100,000 and more than 3,000 people groups with less than 100,000 in population, that do not have any Christian witness at all.

There are more lost people alive today than there have ever been before! The Christian Church, world wide, will not be able to keep up with population growth or reach those who have not heard the Gospel without changes in the way we evangelize and plant churches.

Why Start Church Planting Movements?

World Population 6.5 billionNon-Christian 4.02 billionSaved/day 112,000Die/day 140,000Born/day 365,000More unsaved/day 113,000


Why Start Church Planting Movements?Every four seconds, someone in China enters eternity without a relationship with Jesus Christ. Due to the population growth rate, there is one more lost person in China about every six seconds. The rate of church growth is not even close to keeping up with population growth at this point. Yet China has been the brightest spot on the Christian map in terms of church growth over the past 25 years.

If you care about people’s eternal destiny, then you know why we place so much emphasis on speed and pace. If churches are not reproducing more quickly than population growth, then we are losing the race the Lord has set before us. Once they are gone, there is no chance to save them. If we are to have any hope of making a serious impact on lostness, it will require a rapid multiplication of churches. Business as usual is not even keeping up with population growth at this point. We must rapidly increase the rate of church growth if we are going to save as many as possible.

Learning ActivityHave 90 percent of the people in your group gather to one side of the room you are in and the remainder stand on the other side. This is the condition of the nearly 6.5 billion people in the world today. Ask someone in the 10 percent group to pray for those who need to know Christ in your group, then come back together for the next activity.

Let’s review the basics: In small groups of three, share the definition of a CPM that we learned last week. Make a list of five characteristics of a CPM. Out of these five, which one do you see the least often in your existing church environment and which one the most often? After 10 minutes of sharing, debrief the larger group.

Read the following articles (out loud or silently). The first one is a transcript of an address delivered to a group of missionaries meeting in Asia several years ago.

New Ways for New DaysWe’ve come to a day when the techniques of religious education (with all that they involve of organizations, standards, and procedures not known a hundred years ago) are now making a contribution in many lands around the world. This approach meets the need of our day, with its emphasis on education and training. This particular method could not have accomplished a century ago what it accomplishes today.

That is simply to say that new ages call for new approaches, new techniques. We’re not to be bound by the old ways. Christians must be free to seek new approaches, new ways for impacting a people and their culture with the Gospel.

10minutes

10



Take the famous Old Testament example of Saul’s armor. There was a giant to be faced. A young lad, David, had come and he was ready to face the giant. There was an established procedure for fighting. That procedure was to put on armor and go out armed to meet the opponent. And David, under the urging of those who knew the established procedure, tried it out. Well, it is probably good that he tried out the old way before laying it aside - good both for him and for those around him. If he had simply come and said, “No, I don’t want it,” then there would have been an unhappy reaction. But David found that the old procedure was not the answer.

In fact, if the old procedure had been the answer, Saul or somebody else would have already killed the giant. The giant was still there. And we can look back and feel quite strongly that the old method could not succeed in that particular situation. But there was a new method that nobody had anticipated, and with that new approach, David went out and killed the giant.

We face today a new giant - a giant of an age, a world that is in such turmoil that has not been seen before. We have not talked about it a lot here this week, but I think most of us have thought of it at some time or other. We realize that this world is in turmoil and change. We cannot be unaware of the winds that are blowing through our world today - the earthquakes that are shaking it and the sound of a giant throughout the land.

We must face this giant. In this meeting today, we are approximately 60 representatives gathered with the common feeling that we can go out and face Asia and try to win Asia for Christ. Oh, to be sure you know, we represent others - missionaries, pastors, evangelists, and workers who have not come with us. We represent churches approximately 400 churches scattered throughout the countries in Asia. We also represent approximately 3, 000 to 4, 000 workers in all- missionaries, pastors, evangelists, and their wives and approximately 35,000 to 40,000 church members in the denominations that we represent. It doesn’t matter if we are only a handful of people, not even the ratio of Gideon’s band compared with the Midianites. Somehow, there is the daring that comes not from us, but from God’s Spirit who says, “Go out there and preach the Gospel to every creature.” We’re ready to attempt it.

Yet there is this great crisis. What are we hoping to do in the midst of these immense and growing populations? The population grows faster than we can keep up with. We work for 10 to 15 years, and the number of our church members is a smaller proportion of the population of a country than it was 10 to 15 years before.

What are we hoping to do in these countries? We believe that Jesus Christ is the vital focus around which life can be centered and cultures can be built. We believe that AIDS can be stopped, poverty rejected, illiteracy eased, and leadership with integrity raised up. How, in this age, can we bring people to

11 ©2006 Saddleback Church

Why Start Church Planting Movements?know Christ and experience, on a local and national basis, the benefits of living godly lives fast enough? How, in a country of millions and millions of people, can a handful of us get that message across? Even combined with all believers, we are a small fraction of the population.

Can we get the message of Christ to the people in time to keep all of Asia from chaos and tragedy? That’s what we hope to do. We believe that the establishing of churches is the way to do it - not just individuals going out and preaching. If all of us just went out and preached, we would not do as much as if we bend our efforts toward developing churches - churches that will be active working centers for spreading this message of Christ and churches that will be touching the life of Asia for years to come. Also, churches that will be strong, that will be indigenous in every sense of the word, that will not be foreign in their flavor and in their approaches, that will be dependent on the spirit of God and not on anything in America, that will be evangelistic, and that will be New Testament churches. We believe that developing churches is the key to it, and that is what we’re doing. We’re trying to establish such churches.

Now there is something which disturbs and sometimes dismays me. (Here I am getting to the point of my speculation.) We have an established pattern. That pattern is to have a church building, buy a piece of land, put up a building, and carry on a certain type of program in that building. Through that program and that building we reach in the beginning a few hundred people and usually at the most perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 people with one building. In fact, in most cases here in Asia, we haven’t come that far yet. But even if we have great success, that building and that pattern and that approach will put a limit on the number of people to whom we can minister. We will reach only a certain number of people through that one building.

Now, if we are going to reach more people, how are we going to do it? Our pattern is to buy another piece of land somewhere and put up another church building that will reach another few hundred people. In Hong Kong, for example, we have reached a fairly advanced stage of development in the kind of program and the kind of pattern that we’re following. After a number of years of background and now 10 years of intensive work, we see 14 churches with a membership of about 10, 000 people in our denomination.

Now, the question at this point is: Will that approach ever do what needs to be done?

For those of you who went on the launch trip the other day, did you notice the new housing project at North Point? We were told there are 11,000 families in that one housing project. Now how will our pattern ever reach a housing project like that? How many church buildings built on pieces of Hong Kong land, which is more costly than gold — would it take by using

12



our pattern to reach the 11,000 families in that housing project?

We went on around the island, and we came in by West Point. Did you look at the blocks of buildings there - blocks of flats, solid blocks, four and five stories high, made up of flats? And in many of those flats there is not one family per flat, but one family per room. How many church buildings would it take to reach West Point with the Gospel? If we had a church building in every block, it wouldn’t begin to accommodate the people living in that block. Yet imagine how much it would cost to buy land and tear down the flats on the land, and then put up a building in each 10 to 20 blocks (to say nothing of each block!) Now the question is, will this pattern ever reach all these people?

We might consider the villages of Java. We have hardly touched the villages yet. How many generations would it take - according to this pattern of having a church and a seminary-trained leader for each church along with all the other things that are part of our pattern - for us to begin to get the Gospel into each village in Java? Will the pattern ever do it?

If we project our thinking 40 years in the future - which is about as long as most of us will have an opportunity to project our thinking - on the present pattern, we can only wonder if the percentage of church members in the population will increase much in 40 years. We have limitations with this pattern. And I find myself wondering: Is this Saul’s armor?

As I say, this is in the realm of speculation. And yet there is a very real problem. It does no good for us to close our eyes to the problem. How, according to our pattern, would we ever pay for the number of church buildings that would be needed? How would we ever provide the number of trained ministers that would be needed to reach the world’s billions following this pattern? Perhaps we need a new approach that is radically different from our present approach as David’s slingshot was from Saul’s suit of armor. It wasn’t getting the job done and showed little hope of getting it done.

We’re not getting it done with our present approach.

Is our pattern Saul’s armor? Will it ever do? Will it ever begin to touch the populations to these cities and these countries? Frankly, I don’t know. But I’m convinced all of us must feel this problem. It has to get down inside us until it is working on us, so that when we ride on a train past industrial cities, or look down from a plane on great ports or take a ship and touch country after country, we find something in us saying, “Lord, you’ll have to show us a better way. We’re not doing it yet and we’re not beginning to touch it yet. What’s the answer, Lord? How can we get loose from our pattern? How can we break out of the limitations that the pattern places upon us?”


Why Start Church Planting Movements?We would not wish to sacrifice along the way any of the benefits we have now through our church buildings and our present programs. We don’t want to give up worship; we don’t want to give up Bible teaching and study; we don’t want to give up training. We don’t wish to lose any of these benefits that come through having a church building in which we carry on these activities. Yet we have to get outside these buildings if we are to evangelize Asia. If we let ourselves be limited by the buildings and their capacity, we cannot hope to have enough church buildings to hold one-tenth of the people that we ought to reach with the Gospel. It’s utterly impossible.

We have to get away from the feeling that the preacher must do it all and that he can’t carry on a worthy program unless he has been to seminary. How subtle it is this idea that everything centers in a building and a seminary-trained leader and unless you have those two evangelism can’t go forward. I doubt that you will find that subtle idea in the New Testament. We must break loose from this pattern.

We might think in terms of a cell of Christians in every block as an aim to work toward. I’m not saying a church building for every block and I’m not saying a seminary-trained preacher for every block. What I’m saying is a cell of Christian believers in every block who are committed to taking the Gospel to that block of people, which might have hundreds or maybe even thousands of people. If we plant a church in every block and those church plants reproduce, the impact could reach the population.

Make the home a center. Perhaps that’s a large part of the answer. Let every Christian home be a center of evangelism and Bible teaching and witness and fellowship and prayer, and then from time to time have central meetings. These services in the homes would have to be conducted by laypeople. We will never have enough seminary-trained leaders to do it all. We have to make a change if we are going to impact our world with the Gospel: however, most of us haven’t really felt the urgent need to break loose from a pattern that limits the number of people we can reach, like Saul’s armor.

Learning ActivityIn small groups of five or less, discuss the following questions. What pattern does your current church or denomination use in trying to start new churches? What would have to change for there to be a CPM started in your area? How difficult would it be to make those changes? If we start by doing the right things, is that easier and will our probability of success increase?

10minutes

14



Why Start New Churches?Churches are a bit like ice. If you have a very large block of ice and you want to cool water, it is not efficient to keep the block as a whole. You would, rather, crush it, thus multiplying the surface area that is exposed to the water. This increases the cooling rate drastically. If you break a huge block into a million little blocks, you will increase the cooling rate by a hundredfold.

Assume for a moment that churches are supposed to impact society in the same way the ice is supposed to cool the water. Small churches have the greater surface area with the unbelieving society. Not only is there greater geographic dispersal, but more importantly, the number of relationships that believers have with unbelievers is multiplied. As a church grows and ages, a person’s close relationships gradually become more and more saturated with other Christians. However, if a church is kept small and relatively new in its membership, then the tendency to saturate relationships with other Christians is greatly reduced and slowed.

This gives greater opportunity in smaller and newer churches for evangelism by members of the church. Every person has a limited number of significant relationships he can actively maintain. Think for a moment about how many significant local relationships you have with unbelievers as opposed to Christians. You see, there is a tendency to saturate our relationships with other believers. This is compounded in large churches or old churches. Our relationships with unbelievers begin to stagnate in those situations.

The pattern should be that new believers are not put into existing churches but rather put in churches formed because of their conversion. This was evidently the pattern in the New Testament. Even in places that had many believers, they did not primarily meet as a large group but daily house to house.

Learning ActivityDebrief this second article as a group for 10 minutes. Why does the author contend for many small churches over a few large ones? Do you see this pattern in the New Testament anywhere? During the next week, read the book of Acts in the New Testament, once a day. Keep a journal of the passages that highlight for you how the early church reached out with the Gospel.

10minutes

16©2006 Saddleback Church

Objective: To examine commonly held views of what a church is and to consider the biblical view of a church.

Pray: Take time to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, understanding and insight as we think about his work in the Church.

Learning ActivityTake a piece of paper and pencil, pen, or marker and draw a picture that best represents a church to you. After five minutes, have everyone share his or her drawings with each other.

After two millennia, the word church has accumulated a variety of meanings. Probably the most common one is associated with a building of some type. Historically, the church did not meet in buildings until 300 A.D. when the Roman emperor decided that the church needed a temple like the other gods had. We must eliminate buildings from our thinking if we are going to foster a church planting movement (CPM). Consider that:

1. Many cultures are hostile toward Christianity, and we are simply inviting persecution.

What is a Church?

5–7minutes


What is a Church ?2. The cost of a building and the effort to maintain a structure are too

expensive for most unreached people groups.

3. The time and energy a building requires drains the church of time for prayer, evangelism, and the lifestyle a CPM necessitates.

However, we must acknowledge that in most nations Christianity is identified with a building. Perhaps we should examine the biblical definition of the word church. A great definition of a church is: “A spiritual family called out to life in obedience to the Lord’s commands and to pursue his purpose on Earth.”

Learning ActivityBreak into pairs and take 10 minutes to read these Scriptures and write down the key words from each Scripture that define the church. Then, share your findings with the group. Make a master list for everyone to see. Can the group add to these scriptural descriptions?

Passage Key Words

Ephesians 1:22-23

Romans 2:4-5

I Corinthians 12:13

Ephesians 5:25-32

I Timothy 3:14-15

I Peter 2:4-5; 9-10

Learning Activity In small groups of three people, discuss the lifestyle of the early church described in these scriptures. How was their fellowship, study of the apostle’s teaching, prayer life, evangelism and communion impacted by meeting in

5–7minutes

15–20minutes

18

What is a Church ?


homes? After 15 minutes, have someone make a list of the positive impact that home-based churches made on the early church.

Passage Positive Impact of Home-Based Churches

Acts 4:31-35

Acts 5:42

Acts 8:3-4

Acts 12:11-12

Acts 16:40

Acts 20:20

Consider These Defining Characteristics of a Church in a CPM:

• Baptized believers (baptized immediately after conversion)

• Regular meetings

• Leadership from within

• Studying, obeying, and holding each other accountable to the Word

• Sharing communion

• Evangelizing

• Baptizing

• Church planting

Now Consider These Characteristics of a Church that Inhibits or Prevents a CPM:

• Extra-biblical requirements for church leadership

• Buildings required to “feel” like a real church


What is a Church ?• Seminary-trained clergy

• Cultural overhang from the outside (worship music, style, etc.)

Most churches in the United States are not growing and certainly not reproducing other churches. The church is growing very fast in many nations in the Southern Hemisphere, however, the growth of these churches pale in comparison to the reproduction rates of CPMs. Compare the elephant to the rabbit:

The Elephant: • Only fertile four times per year.

• Only one baby per pregnancy

• 22-month gestation period

• Sexual maturity: 18 years

• Three years: two become three

The Rabbit:• Practically continuous fertility

• Average of seven babies per pregnancy

• One month gestation period

• Sexual maturity: four months

• Three years: two become 476 million (mathematical potential)

Your definition of church matters!

Learning ActivityRead the following transcript from an interview session with 30 church planters among the Bhojpuri-speaking peoples of North India. This interview was conducted in October of 2005 in North India. The movement is 10 years old and has more than one million among the Hindus, so this is a mature CPM. Victor John, the founder of the movement, assisted the translator. None of these men were paid church planters nor did they have formal training.

20minutes

20

What is a Church ?


India Interview #1:

Interviewer: The first thing I want to do is just to ask you some basic questions about your ministry. I’d like to just go around the room one by one and ask the church planters first of all how long they have been a Christian; planting churches, how many people are in their churches and how many churches they have planted. I understand that none of them were paid to plant churches.

Translator: This is Akea and he is in the ministry.

Interviewer: OK, and is he leading a local church?

Translator: Yes, he’s the leader and planter of a local church.

Interviewer: OK. Can you tell me a little bit about the church, how large it is and where it’s located?

Translator: He is from a village not particularly far, about 30 kilometers from (Wadahe). He has 150 church members, and they do have a building to meet in.

Interviewer: OK, so it’s in a village.

Woman: You have one church there?

Translator: Yes, one church.

Interviewer: OK. Have you planted any churches, any new churches since you’ve been working there?

Translator: Yes.

Interviewer: And how many?

Translator: We have started five new churches in different villages.

Interviewer: OK, thank you, Joco. Glad to have you. And your name, sir?

Translator: Pastor Asmarsh

Interviewer: OK, can you tell us about your church and church planting experience?

Translator: He is working in Senden. They have approximately 150 to 200 people, and they have six different groups.

Interviewer: OK, and have they started any new churches?

Translator: They have started five new churches.

Interviewer: Five new churches, great. All right, we’ll come back then. And the next gentleman, his name?


What is a Church ?Translator: His name is Tentelmerpee. He has been working for six years and has 200 people in 12 to 14 villages.

Translator: His name is Jusore Mahti. He has been here for nine years in four villages and has 60 members in six churches.

Translator: His name is Mahti. Pastor Mahti. He came to Derad and has been a Christian for 10 years. He is the leader of people and has four people who are working with him in about 13 villages. He is working with his team and more than 500 people have come to the Lord.

Victor John: He was one of the first ones that we trained and then we had the first baptisms about 10 years ago. The new believer (at that time) personally baptized 75 people he brought to Christ.

Interviewer: Awesome.

U: So that was 10 years ago.

Interviewer: Ten years ago. That was about the time you started.

U: Really, well, 11 years ago.

Translator: God has done great work through him. Even one dead person has been raised.

Translator: Wow! A lot of memories.

Victor John: The Lord has healed a lot of people. The lepers have been healed and those who have lost their fingers you know have become like this – their fingers have grown back. When people see these kinds of miracles, when people see, they automatically become very attracted to Christ and come to Christ. He said that a 12-year-old child who was born crippled was healed miraculously by God and he began to walk. The whole village responded.

Victor John: He can go on, he has a lot of testimony I know. So much that he can fill the whole long time. Are you still listening, can you ask questions?

Interviewer: I’m interested in the stories of God’s miracles, but I know that we could spend the whole day hearing of His works. Let’s continue to try to understand how the CPM looks today, after ten years.

Victor John: In the beginning we had no new believers and much opposition. Now the opposition is very real, and every Hindu who becomes a Christian experiences some form of persecution. However, more than 1 million are believers in Jesus, and we understand more about how to plant new churches.

Translator: His name is Basil, Basil Wilson. He’s been working with the Zion ministry in (in Banbatta Monkey) since 1999.

Victor John: He’s working as a church planter. He has several church planters who work under his supervision. So he’s got about 10 churches going. Plus, he’s supervising and working with two churches.

22

What is a Church ?


Victor John: I know all these guys. He has seven churches with four leaders under him that he has raised. And those leaders go around and look after the work.

Victor John: If you put together all the members in those churches that’s about 500.

Interviewer: And does he have a church building?

Victor John: No. They are all house fellowships. No building.

Interviewer: And how many house fellowships?

Victor John: Nine.

Interviewer: Nine house fellowships.

Victor John: One church has about 60 members.

Interviewer: Does he have 60 in the house at one time? Every Sunday?

Victor John: Yes, every Sunday, every Sunday.

Interviewer: They can pack into the house?

Victor John: Yeah, most of the churches are like that. He’s got 150 in one church.

Interviewer: In one house.

Victor John: In one house. Well, they own a small building now. They prayed and got the property, and they built a little shed.

Interviewer: Wonderful. Thank you very much. And these churches, they’re all house churches?

Victor John: Yeah.

Interviewer: And about how many?

Translator: Three hundred people are all the members, pretty much.

Interviewer: In how many locations?

Translator: Ten places.

Victor John: He’s more like a leader, like a supervisor over all the leaders. Almost every month, he starts one church,

Interviewer: New church.

Victor John: New church, and then he moves on to the new place.

Victor John: He is a real apostle.

Interviewer: All right.

Victor John: One leader’s meeting is on Sunday, because the rest of the weekdays he’s gone.


What is a Church ?Interviewer: And there are no buildings, at all.

Victor John: He’s got one building, I know.

Interviewer: So, are they all house churches?

Victor John: No, he doesn’t have a building.

Interviewer: No building. I think he told me he had six churches. Any of these guys have buildings? This brother?

Victor John: No, they don’t have buildings. Not one of them. I’m answering for them, but I know.

Laughter.

Victor John: OK.

After you finish the reading, as a large group, debrief the following questions: How do you think that these church planters would describe their churches? What CPM principles do you see fulfilled in their lives? How does their experience compare to the New Testament church?


The Non-Negotiable Seven: Components of a Church Planting MovementAs background research for this training, there was an extensive research project in Bangladesh, North India, China and Cuba. The following analysis is from this research project, which involved 2,000 church planters.

1. Thefirstcomponentwecallcreatinga“cultureofempowerment.” This involves the values and practices of the church or church planter’s relationship to the new generation of Gospel carriers (or new believers). This factor is broken down into the following ideas:

• Modeling how to start new churches for the new convert • Assisting new believers in starting new churches • Encouraging new disciples to start new churches

Seven Non-Negotiable Components of a CPM


Seven Non-Negotiable Components of a CPM• Teaching new believers to start new churches immediately • Teaching them to be accountable to the church and to apply the

Word in daily life• Watching over and releasing new disciples to lead

new churches

2. Passionate prayer is fundamental for success in a church planting movement (CPM). God is the force behind large networks of people becoming believers in Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the role that the Fatherallowsustoplaythroughfaithfulandfaith-filledprayer.

3. Reaching friends and relatives is the primary way that the Gospel races through a population group. There are many strategies for initiatingarelationshipwithapersonofreputationorinfluenceinavillage or town (a person of peace). The ultimate goal is to reach new people with the Gospel and empower them to reach others, who in turn are empowered to reach others.

4. Training a new disciple in instantaneous personal witnessing is the most powerful way to initiate a new believer into the lifestyle of faith that builds a CPM.

5. The Bible is the foundation of the new churches. In order to build an exponentially growing movement, we must never create dependency on man, but always turn the new believer to the Word for his answers about faith.

6. Obedience, or application, and accountability to the Bible form the backbone for discipleship that is Bible-centered. However, this discipleship is not seen as a body of knowledge to be transferred, but rather patterns and practices of living to be modeled and imitated.

7. Intentional planting launches new churches in a strategy for reaching unreached people networks, villages, towns and cities, adding fuel to thefireofthemovement.

Learning ActivityCarefully read (or have someone read aloud) these non-negotiable seven components of a CPM. In pairs, discuss which components are new ideas and which ones you are already practicing. How do these seven components contrast with your early discipleship experience? Make a list of two reasons why you think each component is vital. Do this for each of the seven components. After 10 minutes debrief as a large group and write down all the reasons listed for each component.

5–7minutes


Seven Non-Negotiable Components of a CPMLearning Activity Consider issues that may arise for new believers in your target people group.Ingroupsoffourtakefiveminutesandmakealistoffourquestionsthat might be generated by new disciples in your target group. Then for 10 minutes, brainstorm about how to guide them in looking into the Word for the answer, rather than you giving it to them.

After you have made your list and suggestions for turning the new disciple toward the Word, divide into pairs and role play the process. One person is thenewdiscipleaskingthequestionandoneisthemorematuredisciplewhois directing the new person into the Word. Follow all the way through with the new disciple digging out the answer in the Word. The one playing the more mature disciple cannot give answers or advice, only suggestions about wheretoreadintheBible.Afterfiveminutes,orwhenyouhavecompletedthe process, switch roles.

Debrief the large group. How did it feel to not be able to share answers or give advice? How did it feel as a new disciple to dig into the Word?

Ramping Up the Rate of Reproduction:There are proven methods for increasing the rate of the reproduction of churches. • Filteringisoneofthem.Forexample,ifyoufindamanofpeace

who invites you into a village to discuss the Bible, you may use Bible storying as a method of sharing. Perhaps if you have 10 people who show an interest in the stories and over time continue to come, you might invite the most faithful and interested ones (ideally the man ofpeaceorkeyinfluencer)tolearnthestoriesinprivateandleadthestoryingsessions.Byfiltering,youhavechosenoneortwowhohavethe most potential to take the next step in becoming a leader. There are other examples of storying that we will consider later.

• Immediate turning over of leadership over to the locals. As soon as you have people who demonstrate an interest in the Gospel and certainly when they confess their faith and are baptized (usually this will occur immediately), then those new Christians should lead the local group from that time forward with the church planter acting as a coach in the background.

• Multiple leadership (which enables constant co-mentoring).

30minutes


Seven Non-Negotiable Components of a CPM• Massive exposure to the Gospel. Find multiple ways to share the

Gospel. This will have great impact and is a way in that outside money could be used with less likelihood of damaging the movement. You could purchase audio cassettes or radio time for Chronological Bible Storying to be broadcast, purchase tracts, gospels of John, etc., that could be distributed to the people.

• Discipleship viewed as process or pattern to practice and pass on rather than a body of knowledge to transfer. The Apostle Paul normally stayed a few months in one location and modeled what it meant to be a believer and then moved on to preach somewhere else. He discipled by modeling and coaching.

• Evangelistic or new convert Bible studies done daily, not weekly if the listeners are open.

• Emphasis on the need to share the Gospel as the message of life among the dying. Creating a sense of urgency among new believers willfuelthefiresofgrowth.

• Taking advantage of opportunities for the Gospel follows existing lines of a relationship. We have long known that the Gospel can race through existing networks of relationships faster and with more stability than reaching one by one.

Learning ActivityDivide your group into groups of three. Have each group choose three of these ideas that seem to have the most potential for impact to them. Share why you feel your choices seem powerful. After 10 minutes, debrief the group. At the conclusion, notice which ideas on this list were not chosen. Ask the large group to discuss why the items were not picked.

10minutes


When trying to sort out the complex puzzle of starting a CPM, creating a culture of empowerment is one of the critical pieces of the puzzle. New believers in countries without a Christian presence will understand that what you teach them is what it means to be a Christian. This is a significant responsibility for you as a trainer and for the church planters whom you are training. The very life of a movement, and thus the eternal salvation of many people will be affected by the modeling and equipping process that your church planters introduce. If we model and coach the new believers to learn to just sit and soak, instead of immediately becoming active and leading, a movement will be still born.

What are the right things to do?

• Modeling how to start new churches for the new convert • Assisting new believers in starting new churches • Encouraging new disciples to start new churches• Teaching new believers to start new churches immediately

The Culture of Empowerment

Objective: To understand the power of modeling for new believers and the patterns and processes of discipleship.

Pray: For the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds as we seek to be used by him to equip trainers to start CPMs.


The Culture of Empowerment• Teaching them to be accountable to the church to apply the

Word in daily life• Watching over and releasing new disciples to lead new churches

Learning ActivityHave you shared your faith with someone recently? Have you led someone to faith in Christ? If you have, why not practice these principles with them? Perhaps you could think in terms of helping them start a new home group with a focus on reaching their friends who need to know Christ. If you haven’t led someone to Christ, ask the Lord to give you that opportunity and seek to apply these principles in that relationship.

Break into small groups of four and share with each other along the points listed below. Take 15 minutes to really explore these issues. Consider personal goals for each item. Then debrief the large group by having one person report on some of the activities and new goals.

1. My efforts to share the Gospel

2. The results

3. How I feel that I can apply these practices in my relationship with new believers

4. Pray by name for people I am seeking to reach with the Gospel

5. Pair up for an accountability relationship (weekly reporting) with someone in the group. Could you commit to a goal of sharing your faith at least once each week? Plan for your first weekly meeting.

6. If you have, or when you have, new believers in your life, start a new group with the new believer leading, which focuses on reaching their network of lost friends and family.

Whatever A Man Sows, This He Will Also Reap.Galatians 6:7

Modeling is sowing and you do reap what you sow. What you model for the new believers will be replicated by them. If you do not model appropriate practices, do not expect the new believers to have them present in their lives.

30minutes

30



• You pass on a genetic blueprint by modeling. The DNA of this blueprint is critical to the long-term success of a CPM.

• The effectiveness of modeling is directly proportional to its reproducibility. Be careful not to model what is not reproducible.

• Be aware that if you model the non-reproducible, it will not be replicated.

• If you do not see your practices and values reproduced, examine what and how you modeled. Do not first look to the new believers for obstacles in their lives, but look to your own.

• Consider reproducibility over the long term. Think about third and fourth generation believers. Will the values and practices you are modeling and teaching be able to be transferred from one generation to another?

• Consider reproducibility in terms of “typical” focus members. This means understanding the most common profile of a person in the people group you are trying to reach. What are their demographics and how will you ensure reproducibility of your efforts?

• Remember, you are modeling the who, what, how, when, where, and why of ministry.

Learning ActivityBreak into pairs and make a list of non-reproducible practices in the life of your church and your personal life. Then make a list of 10 practices that are in your personal life that you feel are totally reproducible by the group you desire to reach and will contribute to a CPM.

10minutes

Non-Reproducible Practices Reproducible Practices

1. _____1.

2. _____2.

3. _____3.

4. _____4.

5. _____5.



New believers starting new churches goes against the traditional method of growing churches. We must factor in the mentoring/discipling relationship with the person who will model and coach the new believer. For some this seems almost unbiblical, but often our churches have extra-biblical requirements for leadership.

Learning ActivityRead the following article. Give the group five minutes to read it, or read it aloud, if necessary. When you have completed the article, break up into groups of three and share with each other what impacted you the most about the article? After 10 minutes, debrief the group and make a list of their comments.

Homework: Read 1 Thessalonians and consider this article again in light of that book.

How Did Paul Train Pastoral Leaders?Are you interested in a profound missiological truth? One so simple we are overlooking it now and have continued to do so for centuries? Then place your “blinders” on and tune out the 20th century church and its religious culture. Remove your “tinted lenses” that inhibit seeing scriptural realities and look with me at the Pauline model.

For almost three decades I have labored over the “riddle”- how could Paul go to a place like Thessalonica, stay three weeks or less and leave such fine leaders that later he will write a letter calling them examples? I

Non-Reproducible Practices Reproducible Practices

6. _____6.

7. _____7.

8. _____8.

9. _____9.

10. _____10.

25minutes

32



should have realized that like everything else related to the first century church the answer would be (1) RELATIONAL and (2) SIMPLE. Notice I said I “should have” realized that, but I did not.

Exploring many options, personally I have usually relied upon a “one-on-one” approach, blending content from several excellent sources. These sources contain important concepts, well-developed for training and transfer. Using two to four years, mentoring “on-the-job,” I have facilitated the maturing of many strong leaders on the mission field. Avoiding the model of sending the “called” leaders away to schools or trying to find local jobs for school-trained leaders from outside, our source was local indigenous leaders from within God’s harvest there.

However, decentralizing the training location and personalizing the content imparted did not alter the fact that the paradigm was still one of imparting a body of material (a prescribed set of concepts, skills, and biblical knowledge) to the developing worker. This paradigm cannot be what Paul used in three weeks in Thessalonica or what untrained, pagan-background elders/pastors used in hundreds of house settings in Ephesus. The riddle was still an unsolved mystery.

A trip this past winter to Hong Kong only heightened my growing anxiety over this dilemma of “What did Paul do?” What material did the master-apostle cover in a three-week boot camp or even in three months that could firmly establish new believers who, without even the benefit of a Jewish background, were being called to shepherd small congregations? The church planters in Hong Kong were frustrated with me at times and by me at times as this dilemma became the greatest weakness in being able to envision a true movement of God in planting house churches among the grass roots Chinese. How can the church planter start new work and then quickly “ get out of the picture,” avoiding the dependence upon him that will naturally evolve to the detriment of indigenous reproduction and multiplication? Many ideas surfaced, but satisfactory answers did not come.

I returned to the United States, convinced that we needed a very minimal list of basic ministry skills and basic Bible knowledge. We could match these with Scripture passages that give clear guidelines. Perhaps provide one key verse for memory that addresses each area to be taught. This keeps training simple, biblically based, flexible (each church planter can contextually shape the teaching as he sees fit), and transferable. It requires no book, no costs — only the list. It is cross-cultural and won’t require translations of texts, publication costs, etc. It involves the planter covering a list of basic ministry skills from Scripture.

It is simple and relational —and I will probably keep trying to develop this for more advanced leaders. But Paul did not use this approach. How do I know? Simple. (1) In the early 50’s AD when Paul planted the church in


The Culture of EmpowermentThessalonica there had not been sufficient (New Testament) Scripture written and accessible to accomplish this. It was far too early in the development of the first century church. (2) Secondly, even if copies of the Gospels and epistles had been freely available, this task (imparting a corpus of knowledge and practical skills) could not have been accomplished in three weeks or less. As valuable as the “list” concept may appear to us, it was not the first century “method.”

Four weeks ago, while making a missionary journey, I believe I discovered the solution to our “riddle.” Desiring to interview experienced home Bible Fellowship leaders for insight about lay-led work, we traveled in the Sandhills day and night for three days. Interviewing people by day and trying to solve “the training riddle” in motels at night. As “iron sharpened iron,” our strategist was hard on me - pointing out weaknesses and flaws. Some of these had greatly slowed reproduction, others completely prevented it. Always the problems related to training new leaders and “passing the baton.” A few miles from the South Dakota border, in the shadows of the Buttes, an answer came - almost simultaneously to both of us. It did appear too simple to be true, but since that day, the Lord has affirmed it time and again through Scriptures, through people, through looking back at its presence woven throughout the most fruitful of our plantings. It is simple and it is relational!

Are you ready? Do not reject it until you carefully consider all the ramifications in the first century and now. Here it is: From the very beginning (the initial contacts in a new work start), a man who is thoroughly in love with Jesus Christ, filled by the Spirit, and completely surrendered to the Lord’s control. Exemplify this! Model this lifestyle of love, surrender obedience as you present Christ and evangelize, as you follow up on those who believe, as you establish the Church and entrust it to the Lord and to its constituency. How does this missionary lifestyle manifest itself?

This “ambassador” for Christ is compelled by the love of Christ to a life that radiates a love for Christ (2 Corinthians. 5:14-21). (1) He truly “prays without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians. 5:17) Everything becomes a matter to take before the Father. The new convert learns to pray quickly from observation of a “ceaseless prayer.” (2) This missionary speaks the “Word.” He exhibits an insatiable desire to know God’s written Word and clearly demonstrates that his hunger for it flows from that intense desire to know him (Philippians 3:8,19) (Note: It is not an academic desire to know data or principles or insights.) (3) The new believer/leader saw from the very first that the missionary’s love for Christ drives him to share it. It is natural and normal for one in love with Christ to speak often and freely about him. It becomes almost a compulsion, but has nothing to do with an obligation or discipline to “witness.” (4) This apostle thrives on being with believers. (Hebrews 10:24-25) It both energizes him and affords him his greatest opportunity for ministry. He lays his life “open” to receive and give through the vehicle of genuine

34



fellowship. (1 Thessalonians 2:8)

Can the lifestyle described above be imparted in three weeks or less? Yes! Paul’s lifestyle painted an indelible picture in the minds and hearts of the new believer-leaders, and he recognized the importance of this. Take this new leadership training “filter” and reread 2 Timothy 2:2 and 1 Thessalonians 1:5-7. 2:8, 2;10-11, 3:12-13, 4;1 (Please pause and take the time to read these passages before you continue reading this article.)

A simple group in love with Christ and with each other, sharing freely with each other and with a lost world and constantly in his Word and in prayer. “Together,” discovering more each week about him and his will. If they continue to “abide” (John 15) in a relationship with Christ and the Body (church), they will have everything they need. The Holy Spirit will be their resident teacher (not the church planter) and they will become very Christ-dependent as a Body. Is that not what we desire as church planters? (There is an ego-based dependence upon us that we enjoy “in the flesh,” but it is clearly sin that complicates new work reproduction.)

Nobody, including Paul, can impart sufficient skills nor teach them enough raw data in three weeks to handle everything that will come. But, the Body, functioning as a whole, nurtured by its own Spirit-guided leaders, constant in prayer, faithful to the Scriptures it knows, dependent upon Christ, led by the Spirit - that body is divinely “sufficient”regardless of its age.

Paul’s epistles are full of references to teaching by example. Paul took no leadership lists or books, no resources, but his own life! Everything was relational and simple. If all of this be true...then the greatest single detriment to God-breathed movement of church planting is you and me!


Objective: To learn the basic practices that build a CPM from the bottom up, empowering new believers to start new churches.

Pray: For the Lord to open our hearts and minds as we study what his Spirit is doing in the lives of men and women who are part of a CPM.

Read the following discussion about how disciples are made. At the conclusion of your reading, follow the Learning Activity at the end.

A CPM Requires Rapid MultiplicationThere are more lost people alive today than there have ever been before. Tomorrow there will be even more. If you care about people’s eternal destiny, then you understand that speed and pace are critical. If churches are not reproducing more quickly than population growth, then we are losing the race the Lord has set before us. Once they are gone, there is no chance to save them. If churches are to have any hope of making a serious dent in reaching the lost, a rapid multiplication of churches will be required. Business as usual is not keeping up with population growth at this point. We must rapidly increase the rate of church growth if we are going to save as many as possible. Far from pushing back the

The Culture of Empowerment ll


The Culture of Empowerment lldarkness, we aren’t even keeping up with it. Part of the definition of a church planting movement (CPM) is that it is a rapid multiplication of churches.

There is often a false dichotomy drawn between quality and speed. The frequent assumption is that faster implies weaker or inferior. This is not necessarily the case. For instance, in the discipleship theme pattern of equipping new believers, which was discussed previously, a person may be a believer only a few months and may have already attained a relatively high level of maturity and commitment and gained much experience in equipping others and leading others into life in Christ and to grow in their spiritual life. On the other hand, someone who has been a believer for many years under a traditional style of leadership may not yet have gained a significant level of maturity.

One major reason for this presupposition about faster meaning weaker is our view of discipleship. I believe that deep in our hearts many of us have bought into the idea that discipleship is a body of knowledge to transfer rather than patterns and processes to practice and pass on. Where did we get this idea? Maybe from Matthew 28:19: “Teaching them….” But it doesn’t stop there. It says, “Teaching them to obey…” which is a pattern. Certainly knowledge is involved, but it is not primary. The gaining of knowledge will last a lifetime, but the pattern of obedience should be practiced from day one.

The Chinese have a saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” If we view discipleship training as purely the transfer of a body of knowledge, then it divides the Body into teachers and learners. Where do you draw the line? Look to Jesus’ style of discipleship. He sent his disciples out to minister from the beginning. Paul is the strongest leader of the New Testament church. Did he plant a church and stay around for years before letting them stand on their own feet? He never stayed anywhere for more than a few weeks except in Corinth (18 months) and Ephesus (three years). Let’s look at the first missionary journey. After spending a few weeks in each city and leading a few to the Lord, how did he lead all those new churches? He didn’t! Acts 14:21-23 says:

21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,

22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and (saying) “Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.”

23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

37



Paul did not have time to tell the people everything they needed to know about Christ and their new life in him. He did have time to model patterns for them. How do you interpret, feed on, and apply Scripture? How do you relate to one another in the Body? How do you pray and hear from the Holy Spirit? There are only a few basic processes by which we grow. If Paul could communicate those through modeling, then he could entrust the new churches into the Lord’s hands with confidence. Yes, he followed up and checked back with them, but he did not coddle them. He was not overprotective. Read the epistles in this light. Note how many times Paul said to follow his pattern or example, how often he said to note how others did or did not follow his pattern. 1 Thessalonians is a good example in this regard.

It is also important that discipleship patterns and processes are not only practiced (Matthew 28:19) but also passed on. 2 Timothy 2:2 expresses this well: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” It is imperative for us not only to practice these patterns and processes of obedience and growth, but also for us to pass them on by teaching others. Those who we teach likewise have this dual mandate and responsibility.

In some ways, its speed of development and high expectations and demands of new believers in the discipleship chain is what makes it more effective. Speed is not necessarily inversely proportional to quality.

Learning ActivityThe author of this article argues that making disciples can be done effectively in short periods of time. In small groups of three, look the article over and make a list of the key principles that he or she believes makes a fast growth possible.

How do you feel that the Apostle Paul’s church planting practices reflected the principles mentioned? Can you think of examples from Jesus’ ministry with his 12 disciples that resonate with these ideas?

After 10 minutes, debrief the larger group on these three discussion points.

Training CycleIn church planting it is helpful to keep in mind the training cycle: model, assist, watch, and leave. Generational markers can often serve as a useful guide in knowing when to change roles. That is, the church planting team model, as they plant a church. Then they change roles after the establishment

10–15minutes


The Culture of Empowerment llof the church and take an assisting role. They assist the first-generation church in planting a second-generation church. After the second-generation church is planted, they again change roles and begin watching as the second-generation church plants a third-generation church with the assistance of the first-generation church. Then a new second-generation church is planted by the first-generation church. When this takes place, the church planting team can transition to start work in a new area, modeling again as they do the work in another first-generation church.

Learning to ride a bicycle is a helpful analogy in regard to the training cycle. As a child grows, she will typically see people riding bicycles. This provides a model and gives her a frame of reference for what the activity involves. The parent is modeling.

That child will not learn to ride a bicycle without getting on the seat herself, however. When she is old enough and big enough, the parents or some other person will assist that child. While she gets on the seat, the person assisting will often grasp the seat and the handle bars and help the child maintain balance while she learns to pedal and steer. The child gradually learns how to maintain balance. The parent is assisting.

Then the parent will let go of the bicycle. Then the child will fall and get hurt, but she gets up again, gets on the seat, and the parent gets her going and the child is going again. The child falls. This pattern continues repeatedly until finally the child is able to maintain her balance and rides successfully. The parent is watching.

When the parent is satisfied that the child can do this by herself and understands the basic safety rules, the parent then leaves, and the child rides on her own where and when she wishes. The parent is leaving.

The parent first provides a model by riding the bicycle, then provides assistance by holding the bicycle, then watches while the child rides the bicycle, and finally leaves. This is an illustration of the training cycle.

• We model starting new churches from among new believers.

• Encourage new believers to start new churches

• New believer starts new church immediately

• Accountable to the church to apply the Word in daily life

• Watch over and release new believers in new churches

39



Learning ActivityShare with each other in groups of three how you developed a new skill, such as learning to ride a bike. List five ways that you could help a new Christian experience sharing his faith and five ways that you could imagine that he could start a new group or church. When you are finished, take 10 minutes to debrief the group.

How a Church is Planted:A Story from North India

This is a story told in an interview with 30 church planters in Varanasi, India, in October, 2005. These leaders are part of a 10-year-old CPM which has 1 million believers and 20,000 churches. This story is told by an Indian church planter through an interpreter.

He is telling a story about how the church was started. There were two brothers and they were bad criminals. Even for little things they would pull a gun. It was a real “wild, wild west” situation there. I’ve been there. You don’t want to go there.

So what happened?One of the brothers was so aggressive and so bad and would take all kinds of drugs. He was always high on drugs. If he didn’t have anyone to fight outside, he would fight inside his home. He would beat his wife, and many times he would threaten her to kill her by putting a gun to her head and things like that. He planned to kill his wife.

A friend of his was also in the same situation. I mean, he didn’t live together with his wife, but had a very terrible situation in the house. This friend went to Delhi and there, through a teacher, heard about Christ. But he didn’t know anything about Christians, who to contact, or where to go. So he came back to his own area and asked some of the local people if there were any Christians living in this area.

The church planter said most of the guys in his area are 6 feet tall, big, heavily built, and they look very intimidating. Most of them are high caste. He said one day the man who visited Delhi knocked on his door. He thought that trouble was at the door and figured that somebody probably gave him the wrong information about me. The large guy said, “I’ve heard that there is a preacher who lives here, and I want to meet this guy.” And so he was very scared.

20minutes


The Culture of Empowerment llThe church planter said, “I will tell you more about the preacher but please sit down and have some tea.” He said, “No, no, no, I want to talk to the preacher now!” So he was even more scared but told him that he was the preacher.

He said, “Well, I’m very much disturbed. I’m very much troubled in my heart. I have no peace. And I’m just fed up with all this fighting and for every little thing I have to carry a gun, and I keep someone safe and other people intimidated.” And this big guy was saying, “I need to, to talk about life, and I want to know more.”

When I opened the Bible and began to read and share about salvation, I could feel at that moment that he was changing, that something was happening in his life. His face lit up and he looked so different. Within that hour, he was in the presence of God and he was overwhelmed by everything that happened. And he said “Look, I’ll come back tomorrow. I want to continue this conversation.”

And just before he left he said, “Look, I’ve done lots of worship and stuff like idol worship. I never had this kind of peace that has just come that I have experienced by talking to you.” “I’ll come back tomorrow and I’ll bring my friend also.”

And he not only brought his friend but he also brought his brother-in-law. And his brother-in-law had a migraine type of pain in his head. And so we said, “Well, we can pray for him.” And so he prayed. And he was healed immediately. After that he would bicycle about five or six miles every other day to my house and he would sit and learn. This went on for two weeks. Finally he said “I want to be like you. Please make me your disciple. I want to change my life.”

Late one evening, his friend shared with him that he planned to kill his wife. In fact he wanted to murder his wife, do away with her, that night. The new believer said “Look, I’ll give you a gun and you do what you want. But I want to share with you something before you do that.”

He said, “I have found a guru who has shown me the path. So I want you to come and meet him once before you kill your wife.” So the new believer brought his friend to my house. He came to me privately and said, “Look, this guy is going to kill his wife tonight. So you have to work a little bit extra (laughter) on him more than you did to me so he doesn’t do that, you know.”

The church planter said, “What happened was that I shared with him and I said ‘Look, it’s not good to beat your wife. I mean, this is like you are living in disobedience to what God has ordained. And killing, that’s even a worse thing to do.’” So he stopped beating his wife and abusing her and also gave up the idea of murdering her. And the church planter taught him to forgive her if she had made any mistakes and to reconcile with her. And so about two months later, both of them were baptized, both his friends were baptized, and immediately after baptism they brought 15 people, all their contacts, and said,

41



“You’ve got to hear this message.”

We ordained them for ministry right away. God has given them such a great power of healing now because we live in a rural area, where people get bitten by snakes and they come and they lay hands and the people get healed. And all kinds of medical miracles like that are done through these two men.

And we said “Look, you need to start a fellowship here.” And so now 60 have come to know the Lord through them, through their testimony, and they started a fellowship on their own property. And the odd thing was that this man, who used to abuse his wife because she was barren, asked for prayer. And so we prayed, and the Lord gave him a son. So everything has changed in their relationship as well.

Learning ActivityAs a large group, ask this question, “Which of the empowerment principles do you see employed in this story?” Below is the list of practices:

• Modeling how to start new churches for the new convert

• Assisting new believers in starting new churches

• Encouraging new disciples to start new churches

• Teaching new believers to start new churches immediately

• Teaching them to be accountable to the church to apply the Word in daily life

• Watching over and releasing new disciples to lead new churches

Contrast what the church planter in India did with our typical response when someone becomes a Christian:

It is often a mistake to send them to an existing fellowship. When we win someone to the Lord, we are prone to send him to an existing fellowship of believers. So we send him to just any church, whether they will be cared for, and given a growth opportunity or not. If they go to an existing larger fellowship, they are just welcomed, accepted, taught, and seated. New believers are seldom, if ever, given anything to do. In the midst of much more mature believers, they feel weak, immature and helpless. They may be given some menial task, but in matters of faith (sharing the Gospel, teaching their friends about Jesus, teaching someone how to pray, gathering their family as a spiritually maturing believer), they get the idea that they must mature more before proceeding. Many new believers can witness to and gather friends and family into a group of worshiping believers and become a church.

20minutes


Objective: To understand the critical role that prayer plays in initiating a CPM and also in sustaining a movement. To mobilize prayer for our unreached people group and partner churches.

Pray: For the Father to give us a spirit of intercession on behalf of unreached peoples and the partner church.

Learning ActivityTake time to pray in small groups of two or three. Pray for your unreached people group and your partner church, as well as for your mission. Be sure that everyone in the group has time to pray. Sit quietly when you finish until everyone stops praying or the leader brings it to a close.

Read the following article:

Understanding Prayer as a StrategyHere are some of the basics in our understanding of employing prayer as a strategy:

1. Prayer as a strategy opens the pray-er to God’s direction as to how, what, and for whom to pray. We are not to presume to set God’s priorities, but to seek to discern what he wants to happen, and then pray for that to take place. We seek to attune our hearts to his heart’s desire, and we pray for the fulfillment of His heart’s desire: which is that all the peoples of all the Earth will have opportunity to know and love his Son, Jesus Christ. Prayer as a strategy begins by seeking God’s will.

Passionate Prayer

5–15minutes


Passionate Prayer2. God accomplishes his purposes in this world in response to the

prayers of his people. This is his strategy: He releases his power as his people pray. He combines our specific prayers with his power to make a difference in the flow of the Gospel into remote and difficult places of the world, as well as those peoples and places close at hand. He graciously gives us this essential role of partnership with him.

3. Prayer as a strategy takes the pray-er into realms of spiritual warfare, for prayer is the strategy that breaks the power of Satan and his darkness. He is the enemy, seeking to blind, discourage and destroy. Breaking his hold is a supernatural task. The only way to do so is through spiritual battle, earnest, persistent, and extraordinary prayer. Paul describes the Christian’s armor in Ephesians 6:13-17, and then says, “Pray! Pray at all times in the Spirit.” Strategic prayer is a battle that is fought, spiritual armor in place, on our knees.

4. Prayer is the only strategy that can reach into all nations and all peoples in this world. Countries and peoples can and do close themselves to other Christian strategies, but they cannot close themselves to prayer and to the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of local restrictions in some lands and among some peoples, prayer is the only strategy that can be employed. Prayer must also be the foremost strategy in those lands where doors are open and witness unrestricted. Additionally, prayer is the strategy that makes other strategies effective and fruitful.

5. Prayer is the strategy in which every believer can participate; every Christian of every age, every circumstance and every race. Not every believer can make a significant financial difference in the spreading of the Gospel. Every Christian cannot go to other lands to introduce people to Jesus. Through prayer, however, every believer can have significant impact for Christ in every nation.

6. Prayer as a strategy brings forth laborers into the mission field. When God’s people pray his voice is heard and obeyed. God can speak to those for whom prayer is lifted. He may call laborers to that harvest as they pray.

7. Prayer, as a strategy, is the most crucial work we do. Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not just fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.” Prayer is also hard work. Prayer requires our time, energy, attention, and self-discipline. It demands that we overcome our spiritual inertia. Prayer is work, but it reaps spiritual rewards for the Kingdom.

44

Passionate Prayer


Debrief this article in a large group setting. Ask the following questions:

1. Which strategic point stood out to you the most? Why?

2. Do you agree with Oswald Chambers comment in number seven? Why or why not?

3. What can we do to begin implementing these strategies?

Prayer Mobilizing: Read the following article.

Applying a Prayer Strategy to Your Daily Life and MinistryHow can these understandings be applied to your daily life and ministries as you serve through your life, home, and ministry?

1. Give prayer the central, pivotal place in your daily walk with the Lord. Keep at the front of your mind that all the good, fine things you do for Christ are largely futile unless your plans and activities come from the mind of God are lived out in the spirit of Christ, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

2. Develop a prayer strategy as a part of your planning. The purpose of a prayer strategy is to design a comprehensive, year-round plan for motivating and mobilizing strategic praying.

3. Select a prayer coordinator from your group or team who will help lead the prayer efforts.

4. Put out a monthly prayer guide on your unreached people group and partner church.

• Compile a one to two paragraph topic for that month about the unreached people group that includes two to four ways to pray for them and Scriptures to read.

• Compile these monthly topics in a notebook.

• On the first day of the month distribute this letter to the people who are praying for the unreached group and partner churches.

• Build up the list of people who will receive this prayer letter and commit to praying for these matters.

Two essentials for effectively employing prayer as strategy are: (1) the conviction that prayer is the ultimate strategy that releases God’s power and accomplishes things that simply will not happen until God’s people begin to pray; and (2) the belief that the strategy becomes most effective when prayer is united, specific, and based upon current information related to the prayer involvement.


Passionate PrayerImplement from the following possible components a prayer strategy that comes from listening and discerning God’s leadership for your team and for your partner church.

Emphasize Use of Dedicated Prayers:

• Encourage the use of the prayer guide to be used individually, and as families and with groups or churches.

• Set a monthly day for prayer and fasting for those praying with you for your unreached group. Include this information in your prayer guide.

• Share the specifics each month with your prayer teams about your activities and the activities of your partner church.

• Encourage prayer partnerships or triplets among prayer team members.

Obstacles to Opportunities:

1. Do I pray every day?2. Do I use Scripture passages as prayers?3. Do I write these Scriptures down in my journal or mark in

my Bible?4. Do I fast for the salvation of my people group?

Learning ActivityBreak into small groups of no more than five people who plan to work together in implementation. Work on an overall prayer strategy for your team. Use this module for ideas for developing a comprehensive plan. After 15 minutes, have the groups share their ideas with the larger group. The leader of the larger group should listen carefully to each plan, make notes and then facilitate the larger group in melding the best ideas into one sample plan. Allow for at least 25 minutes for this discussion. Divide back into the small groups and give them 10 minutes to incorporate insights from the larger group into their plan.

They should write action steps and dates and who will do what for each action step and by when and choose a coordinator to help guide the plan and ensure that there is follow through. This will take an additional 10 minutes.

During the first part of our next module: “Passionate Prayer II”, participants will review this plan again and discuss the implementation of it.

60minutes


Objective: To understand the critical role that prayer plays in initiating a church planting movement (CPM) and also in sustaining a movement. To mobilize prayer for our unreached people group and partner churches.

Pray: For the Father to give us a spirit of intercession on behalf of the unreached peoples and the partner church.

Learning ActivityIn the large group, review and discuss the prayer strategy that you developed in the first prayer module. Does everyone have an assignment? Do you need extra time to develop this plan? If so, schedule another time when you can continue to define your strategic plan for prayer.

Read the following interview. This transcript is from an interview session with 30 church planters among the Bhojpuri-speaking peoples of North India. The interview was conducted in October of 2005, in North India. The CPM is 10 years old and has more than 1 million new believers among the Hindus, so this is a mature movement.

Passionate Prayer ll

20minutes


Passionate Prayer llVictor John, the founder of the movement, is interpreting for the church planters.

Interviewer: Tell me about the prayer life in your churches.

Victor John: In his church they pray once a week plus they have a whole night of prayer once a month.

Interviewer: OK. And when you say they pray once a week what does that look like?

Victor John: They meet on Saturday at eight o’ clock in the morning. All the leaders who are involved in the ministry come together from different areas and they share the prayer needs plus they share the report of what God has done for the whole week from Monday through Friday. And then they pray together and spend extended time in prayer.

Interviewer: And so when they get together on Saturday morning how long do they stay together in prayer?

Victor John: From eight o’clock to noon or one o’clock. And they take about one and a half hours sharing and then they pray for specific needs and requests they may have.

Interviewer: This is a gathering of leaders as I understand it. How about in the church itself?

Victor John: Every Wednesday, the church meets, but they don’t meet in the same house; they meet in a different house. And they have prayer two hours.

Interviewer: So each week for two hours?

Victor John: Yes, and also every Monday the ladies meet together and they spend two hours in prayer. Then on Saturday afternoon, all the youth - young people - come together for prayer for two hours. That’s a lot of prayer. This is a natural part of their lives.

Victor John: Actually, different villages choose different days of the week and they rotate their prayer times. Each village prays for four hours on their weekday. You have a Monday village, a Tuesday village and so on. We started the churches in the very beginning this way because of security reasons. Now they meet more often for powerful prayer.

Translator: This is in addition to Sunday meetings.

Interviewer: Is this in one home? I mean, do they all get together in one home to pray?

Victor John: Yes, normally between ten o’clock in the morning and two o’ clock in the afternoon. Most of the Christians are farmers, and they have time away from the fields during the heat of the day.

(Someone comes into the room.)

48



Victor John: He was supposed to be an interpreter for you today. He’s coming now.

Interviewer: We’ll have to cut his salary.

Victor John: He’s making nothing.

(Laughter)

Interviewer: Is there anything else in their prayer life they would like to share about?

Victor John: The church planter is saying that much of our prayer is about sicknesses. When God heals it is very motivating for us to continue to ask for more healing miracles. We have little to no access to medical help, so we depend totally on God, and he often performs healing miracles.

Interviewer: Do they spend much time praying for lost people?

Victor John: They pray for the Lord’s guidance to take them to new villages and they also pray for new people to be saved. We have rabbit churches. Rabbit churches multiply quickly like rabbits do.

Victor John: The village people invite their neighbors in for prayer and share the Gospel with them. They also fast two meals during the prayer days, eating dinner at night. The church planter who is answering this has up to 12 churches, Oh, oh, this is very interesting. Here he says if something urgent comes up, or some situation develops, and one member of the church says, “We need to fast and pray for this issue,” then the whole church will go and fast and pray for that issue.

Interviewer: Tell me about the make-up of these village churches.

Victor John: There may be a wife in the home and three kids and one brother who is not married or maybe a sister who is not married. So it’s not always the mother and father and children who attend the prayer meetings, because many of the men work in Bombay or big cities like Bombay. So many of the men go to a big city to find work and some commute every day and ride a bicycle 15 to 20 kilometers to get to work, and then they come back again. They work for a daily wage, which means that they can’t miss a single day because their livelihood depends on them showing up.

Interviewer: They’re paid by the day.

Victor John: They’re paid by the day. They can’t miss work so it is a great sacrifice for many people to come to a meeting that lasts four days. It’s a great, great sacrifice, in terms of the money they would have earned because we aren’t giving them any money. We have never paid church planters and when we have a meeting, all we provide is food. It’s difficult to explain the kind of sacrifice they have to make to follow Christ.

Victor John: Another pastor says that in his churches they bring all the leaders


Passionate Prayer lltogether on Saturday and Sunday for prayer. We pray for all different kinds of needs and also for all Christian organizations.

Interviewer: What’s the time frame?

Victor John: From four o’clock in the afternoon to nine o’clock at night, every Saturday.

On Sunday, he said they start their church at one o’clock in the afternoon and it goes to four o’clock in the afternoon with people coming from different villages giving testimonies and singing songs. Then on Sunday night the leaders gather again from eight to eleven o’clock in the evening for prayer. This is the same group of leaders who prayed for five hours on Saturday night. The women also meet for prayer from six to seven o’clock in the evening and everyone fasts two meals.

Interviewer: And what’s their prayer schedule on Friday?

Victor John: On Friday prayer and Bible study are combined together for three hours.

Victor John: Also, they have 24 hours of prayer and fasting once a month. He says that they pray for the lost people to be saved, for new villages to be opened to the Gospel, and for different castes that exist in their villages to be set free so that they would respond to the Gospel.

Woman: Castes?

Victor John: Caste. You know, we have a caste system here. You know the high caste, low caste.

Victor John: He says that on the last day of the month, about 30 to 35 people get together and spend 24 hours again in prayer for the problems in the world that they hear about, such as tsunamis, wars, earth quakes and other catastrophic events. They are very global in their prayers.

Interviewer: That surprises me.

Victor John: That surprises me too. They are very advanced, getting some information from the television and newspapers. He says all our churches they have one thing in common and that they pray every Friday for people they have visited, people they have come in contact with, and whatever names that come to their minds that God will bless them.

Interviewer: Well, we should move on. Thank you. This is a very, very encouraging report. I wish the churches in my country would pray like this.

Victor John: He says that if he could show you his knees, you would see the

50



calluses from praying. I know he prays a lot. I remember in the very beginning when he was a new believer and I was visiting the village, when this 11-year-old girl was raised from the dead. And then God raised a second child from the dead, one whose body was on the funeral pyre prepared for burning.

Interviewer: Well, unfortunately in our country we don’t have calluses on our knees, nor do we have people raised from the dead.

Learning ActivityFirst take time to pray in small groups of two or three. Take five to 15 minutes to pray for your unreached people group and your partner church, as well as for your mission. Be sure that everyone in the group has time to pray. Sit quietly when you finish until everyone stops praying or the leader brings it to a close.

In small groups of two or three, discuss the following questions:

1. What stood out to you from this interview?

2. What lessons are there to be learned for our church at home?

3. What practical steps can we take to make changes in our prayer life?

Debrief the large group on their answers to the three questions.

Read the following article. See the Learning Activity at the end.

Prayer WalkingPrayer walking is simply praying as one walks through a community, village, town or city. It is praying with all of one’s senses – sight, sound, smell, touch, etc. As one walks the streets, one asks God to reveal the needs of that particular community. How does one pray in such situations?

First, you should pray for open heavens. As believers, we want God to pour out a blessing on the people to whom he has called us. We are not in the business of pronouncing curses on people simply because they worship false gods or are blinded by the ruler of this world. We want to ask God to open the heavens and pour out his blessings on the people we see as we walk the streets. Obviously, it is our desire that these people come to know that Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way. As they come to know him who is the truth, God will begin to pour out blessings from on high.

As you walk, you should be asking God to show you how he desires to bless the people. Perhaps God wants to transform them out of their poverty. Perhaps God wants to transform their political situation. Definitely, we know that God wants to see them released from the snare of worshiping of false

25minutes


Passionate Prayer llgods. Ask God to reveal to you ways that he desires to bless the people.

Isaiah 64:1 “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!”

Second, you should pray for open hearts. We want to ask God to release his Holy Spirit and touch the hearts of the people. We want to pray for a harvest among our population group. Pray for the church to rightly discern and overcome barriers that separate your focus group from the hope and healing of the Gospel. Pray for the release of the Holy Spirit to soften and prepare the hearts of the people to receive the gospel.

Acts 2:17, 21: “In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people’…and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Thirdly, you should pray for open homes. Pray for spiritual awakening among your population group. Pray for supernatural encounters, resulting in a church planting movement. Ask God to redeem the target group’s unique giftings for his Kingdom purpose where they live and beyond. Pray that whole families would come to Christ, and that homes would be redeemed. Pray that homes would become places where the one, true, and Living God is worshipped. Pray for prayer cells and churches to be established in homes throughout communities where your target group resides.

Acts 2:46-47: “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Fourth, pray for open highways. The overall goal is an indigenous church planting movement among your group. Pray for the effective planting and multiplication of churches among your group. Pray for creative access opportunities to reveal themselves to you and others seeking to reach the group.

Isaiah 40:3-5: “In the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain and hill made low, the ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind shall see it.”

Finally, pray for open hands. Ask God to reveal to you and others working among the people group the acts of compassion and kindness that need to be carried out in communities where your people group resides in order that the love of Christ may be revealed.

Matthew 10: 7-8: “As you go, preach this message: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

As we prayer walk, it is important that we ask God to reveal the strongholds that exist in the communities where our people reside. These strongholds

52



keep the people from responding positively to the Gospel, and we need to pray down those strongholds so that the barriers are broken down and the people will respond to the gospel with open hearts and minds.

2 Corinthians 10: 3-6: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”

In every community, there are strongholds. These strongholds are often found in places of government, places of education, places of commerce, and places of religion and culture.

Places of government – Often governments oppress their people. As we walk through communities where our group resides we need to pray over those places that represent government. The Bible commands us to pray especially for those who are in authority. Therefore, we need to pray that these places of government would rule their people with justice and righteousness. We need to pray for the salvation of those in governmental positions.

Places of education – It has been said, “Whoever holds the hearts and minds of the children and youth holds the hearts of the nation.” Often educational institutions are places where children and youth are taught things that are in opposition to God’s truth – such as atheism, communism, and false religions. We need to pray over these educational institutions asking God to redeem these places and redeem the hearts of those who teach the children and youth. We need to pray that educational institutions would become places where God’s truth might be made manifest.

Places of commerce – It is known that most social injustice is the result of the rich oppressing the poor. Businesses and other places of commerce are often powerful strongholds that keep people from seeing the true light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to pray that God so redeem a society that social justice will prevail. We need to pray that the poor would no longer be oppressed by the rich.

Places of religion/culture – Religion and culture are deeply intertwined. The worship of false, counterfeit gods keeps the people from seeing the truth that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We need to pray that the people group would have their eyes and their hearts open to see that no one can come to salvation except through Jesus Christ. We need to pray that idolatry, which is abominable to God, would be demolished and destroyed so that people would return to the worship of the one, true and Living God.

Learning ActivityIn small groups of three, discuss what affected you the most about this article.


Passionate Prayer llPlan to do a prayer walk in your neighborhood and with your partner church in their neighborhood. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to prayer walk in your unreached people group’s neighborhood.

Take five minutes to debrief the whole group and then read the following article.

Some Instructions about How to Do Prayer Walking

An excellent resource is the book, Prayer Walking: Praying on Site with Insight by Stephen Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick

A. Before:1. Look at a map and determine strategic areas.

2. Memorize Scripture for meditation.

3. Pray for wisdom and protection.

4. Learn some of the significant spiritual history of the place.

5. Determine your identity (i.e. walking/ getting exercise/tourist).

6. Pick a partner and go in groups of two or at the most three.

Personal spiritual preparation:

• Repentand confess sins.

• Spiritual purification and preparedness, clean hands, and a pure heart (James 4:8).

• Spend time studying the Bible.

• Memorize Scripture and choruses/hymns.

• Pray for the opening of spiritual eyes, perception, discernment, seeing and hearing in the Spirit of intercession, and a heart of compassion.

• Overcome personal fear by intercession and putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20).

• Recruit personal intercessors for you while you are out praying.

B. During:1. Use all your senses (sight, smell, hear, feel, sense, taste).

2. Meditate on Scripture and claim appropriate promises.

3. Pray for what you see (schools, mosques, homes, toys, and beggars) to be redeemed for Kingdom’s purposes.

10minutes

54



4. Seek to identify strongholds and pray them down.

5. Pray for the release of captives.

6. Seek a revelation of God’s holiness and redemption through Jesus.

7. Listen for the Spirit’s voice and try to see what and how God sees.

8. Worship, praise, intercede, declare, proclaim and bless.

9. Magnify Christ’s name and character.

10. God reveals and empowers his own goodness in people so that evil is overcome (Psalms 110:2).

11. Fix your heart on what good things God is bringing forth.

On-site suggestions:

• Use your platform identity wherever you go or identify yourself as a tourist.

• Always remember to use generic language instead of the usual spiritual terms.

• Stay focused.

• Be careful of distractions such as shopping; do not be amused or amazed by buildings or things.

• Do not walk too fast; give yourself enough time to reflect and pray.

• Pray in communicative postures and gestures like interacting with one another.

• Do not be critical in your comments and remarks of the country or community.

• Do not raise your hands during worship.

• Smile and be friendly at all times.

• If you greet people, say a blessing/prayer in your heart for that person.

• Show respect for the local authorities.

• Observe rules such as no photography or taking off one’s shoes in temples or worship centers.

C. Avoid:1. Talking to people or stopping for more than five minutes

unless at a holy place


Passionate Prayer ll2. Having a map out

D. Afterward Record your impressions, insights, redemptive keys, strongholds, map shrines, strategies, or locations for church planting.

Learning ActivityEveryone should do some prayer walking in his or her own town.

Learning Activity in CountryMake a plan for prayer walking in the area of the partner church and also in the unreached people group. Write out specific dates and action steps.


Objective: To understand the power of encouraging, equipping, and empowering new believers in Christ to share their conversion experience as quickly and as broadly as possible after coming to faith.

Pray: Ask for wisdom, insight, and knowledge as we seek to understand the dynamics that create church planting movements, and for the courage to model obedience- based discipleship for new believers.

Wisdom from ChinaA couple of years ago I met a man in Austin, Texas whom I will call Pastor Wong. He had been working in China for about three years with the objective of starting a church planting movement (CPM) and had been quite successful. The number of churches started exceeded 10,000 and his methodology was of great interest.

I asked this pastor, who was obviously passionate about reaching the lost, how he worked with new believers. He said something that I will never forget: “When someone receives Christ, I ask them this question. How many of your friends and family, who do not know Christ, can you share with what has happened to you today, by…tomorrow?”

Immediately, I knew that something significant was taking place. The pastor did not suggest that the new believer go to a class, sit in church for six months, learn all about his denomination’s doctrinal belief’s, read

Instantaneous Personal Witnessing


Instantaneous Personal Witnessinga book, or any of the myriad of other hoops that new believers are typically asked to jump through before being released or encouraged to share their faith in Christ with others!

From that point forward, I began to consider the ramifications of the man- made, tradition-laden processes that Christianity has evolved into over the past 2,000 years. Sometimes it seems that our objective is to douse new believers with cold water by asking them to concentrate on doctrinal purity instead of passionately sharing their life-transforming experience with others who need it. Fear rules over faith. By the time new believers jump through all of the hoops we force upon them, they’re wondering why they became a Christian in the first place. Jesus did not disciple people with this model. The early apostles did not disciple people in this way. We must face our fears and seriously consider the damage that our poor practices inflict on the church’s potential for reaching a lost world.

The following is an interview with Mickey Reddy (not his real name), who has helped facilitate a CPM in Bangladesh which has reached hundreds of thousands of Muslims with the Gospel.

Interviewer: Can you share with me your best practices with new believers?

Mickey: You want to look at what we do with new believers? I’ve got a process that is called M.A.W.L., an acronym for model, assist, watch, and leave.

Interviewer: M.A.W.L. represents the same principles that our research statistically confirmed is fueling the growth of the four CPMs we studied, including the one you have worked in.

Mickey: Here is how it works. Some people in an unreached village had heard the Gospel and wanted to become Christians. There was nobody available to baptize these new believers. We practice immediate baptism when someone comes to faith in Christ. The people wanted to be baptized. Even though I don’t have a seminary degree and am not officially ordained, I said, “Hey, well, I’ve been baptized. Let’s go.” So I baptized the first guy, and I had him stand and watch me baptize the second guy. Then, I watched him baptize the third person, and then I got out of the water.

Interviewer: And so did he baptize the rest of them?

Mickey: They continued to do the same thing that I did. The second guy watched the first guy, and then he baptized people, and they broke out into multiple people baptizing. Eighty-three people were baptized in a matter of 30 minutes.

An interesting side note is that because there were some women involved, we had to wait for one of the husbands of one of the wives to be baptized. You see, culturally, I could not baptize a woman who was not my wife or a relative of mine. After the husband was baptized, he baptized his wife. This is where there is some controversy because we encouraged the women to

58



baptize women. There is not another choice in this culture, a man cannot touch a woman who is not an immediate relative, and there were many women ready to be baptized who did not have a male relative who was a believer. What do you do, just walk away and not baptize the person? I get in arguments all the time about this issue, but from my way of thinking, you cannot refuse to baptize a person who wants to become a Christian, and you also must respect their cultural boundaries as much as possible.

Learning ActivityIn groups of three, look in the book of Acts to find examples of people who confessed Christ and were immediately baptized. Make a list of everyone you can find. In most cultures that are not based on Christianity, such as a Hindu or Muslim culture, when someone is water baptized, the non-Christian peoples understand that they have changed their faith and that this new faith excludes the primary population group. This is the point when persecution begins.

Write down five ways in which you can see how encouraging new believers to immediately share their faith with others, as well as modeling for them, how to baptize those who accept Christ gives them great ownership of their faith, as well as empowerment to become active ministers of the Gospel.

After 15 minutes in small groups, debrief as a larger group for 10 minutes, asking the small groups to share their examples and insights.

How to Share Your FaithThere are many ways to share your faith. There are illustrations or outlines you can share such as “The Bridge” illustration or “The Roman Road.” In addition to all of these you can share your personal testimony of salvation. Below are instructions on how to use your personal testimony and “The Roman Road.”

Personal TestimonyThere are many ways to bring up spiritual matters in everyday conversation. Some very direct ways include asking questions such as, “Do you ever think about spiritual things?” or “What is the most important thing in the world to you?” or “Can I share with you the most important discovery of my life?” Once you have turned the conversation to spiritual things you can usually find a way to naturally share an account of how you came to follow the Lord.

Your personal testimony should contain at least four elements. You should be able to share these basics in about three minutes. It is also a good idea to use

25minutes


Instantaneous Personal WitnessingScripture verses in your testimony.

1. Tell what your life was like before you became a Christian.

2. Tell how you realized your need for Christ.

3. Tell how you accepted Christ.

4. Tell what difference it has made in your life since you began to follow him.

Many people in the Bible shared their personal testimonies. Some examples are the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:18-20), the Samaritan woman (John 4:28-30, 39), Peter and John (Acts 4:18-21) and Paul (Acts 9:1-22; 22:3-16; 26:9-18). You should read these passages to get some ideas about how to share your faith in this way.

The Roman RoadTurn the conversation to spiritual matters in the same way as you would in using your personal testimony. Use your Bible if possible and allow the person to whom you are witnessing read it for themselves if they can. Have them explain each verse in their own words and make sure they understand each verse before proceeding to the next one.

1. God’s identity and role (Romans 1:18-20, 28-32)

a. Who is God? b. What angers God?

2. Man’s need for salvation (Romans 3:23)

a. What is man’s spiritual problem? b. Who has sinned? c. What is sin?

3. The results of sin (Romans 6:23)

a. What is the wage/penalty for sin? b. Who will receive this wage/penalty? c. What is God’s plan for man’s salvation?

4. Christ died to pay the penalty for sin and rose again to give new life (Romans 5:6-10)

a. When did God love us? b. How did he pay for our sin? c. How did he save us and give us new life?

5. How can a person receive this salvation God offers? (Romans 10:9-10)

a. What two things must a person do to be saved? b. What does it mean to believe? c. What does it mean to call Jesus your Lord?

60



45minutes

6. Ask them if they would like to become a follower of Jesus. Pray with them to accept the gift of life and commit their new life to God.

7. Assurance of salvation (Romans 10:13)

a. What does this verse promise? b. What did you just do? c. What did God do for you?

8. Begin new believer materials with them.

Learning ActivityTake 10 minutes to write down your personal testimony, including the four elements mentioned above. Then find someone you don’t know in the group, if possible, and take five minutes each to share your testimony with each other.

For 15 minutes in groups of three, role play sharing “The Roman Road” with each other. Two people should act out the role of a person interested in Christianity, and the other person should lead them through the passages in Romans, sharing Christ. Then, switch roles and the two become Christians, sharing with the other person who is interested in Christianity. Take seven minutes for each role playing exercise. Then, debrief as a large group. How did it feel to play the non-Christian? The Christian?

Write down the names of five friends or relatives who need to know Christ. In pairs, take 10 minutes to share briefly about a couple of these people with each other and then pray for them.

HomeworkPray for the Lord to give you a natural opportunity to share your testimony with someone in the next 24 hours. Debrief this experience the next time you meet.


Objective: To emphasize the crucial nature of following family and social networks in sharing the Gospel. CPMs can race through existing networks where influencers within a network share their faith with others.

Pray: Ask the Lord to give you insights that can impact the eternal destiny of thousands of people.

A leader of a church planting movement (CPM) in China has a very practical approach to focusing the energy of a new believer on reaching his or her friends and relatives with the Gospel. When they become a believer in Christ, the leader’s first words to them after they acknowledge the faith in their heart is: “How many people do you know personally who need to hear this message of Christ’s love? Please write out a list. How many of these people can you share what has happened to you by tomorrow?” Then he, or the person who helped the new believer to come to faith, goes with them to visit one or two friends or relatives to share this exciting change in the life of the new believer. The mentor encourages, models, and supports them as they tell what has happened to their friends. This begins a new descipleship chain and is the start of a new church. This approach can be used almost anywhere in the world.

Reaching Friends and Relatives


Reaching Friends and RelativesBelow is a more contextualized approach to sharing in a Muslim setting.

Learning Activity Read the following interview with a CPM worker named Mickey (not his real name) who works in South Asia. This is a comprehensive overview of starting a church in a Muslim rural environment and will be used for discussions in other modules. After reading, share in groups of three what impressed you the most about his approach as it relates to the Gospel traveling through the networks of a village. Decide which of his methods can be used in your group and which cannot. Debrief the applicability of his methodology in your group setting. If you have not chosen an unreached people group yet, which parts of his methodology are applicable universally and which are too culturally bound to be useful in other cultures? What aspects of his approaches would work in your partner church culture but might not with the target unreached people group? Be specific.

This is part of an interview that took place in 2005 with a CPM worker in South Asia where they have seen 300,000 to 500,000 Muslim conversions.

Mickey: OK. You’ve heard what I do with a church planter to open a village to the Gospel where we have no contacts? As a foreigner, I go in with an experienced church planter, and then he comes back with a person who lives close to the village and is learning to be a church planter. At that point, the new planter gets invited back to the village. Because he lives close, he can bring another friend with him. So now, in a lot of instances these guys are brand-new Christians.

Interviewer: New believers `.

Mickey: New believers. And they’re going out and witnessing and sharing the Gospel in a village that they were not allowed to even enter a few months ago or weeks ago or for their entire lifetime in many instances. They live close, so they’re able to go daily, three times a week, or whatever is needed because most of the people are farmers.

During the planting season you don’t have much free time, but once the rice is in and it’s growing, hey, you’ve got some free time so you can go back more often. And they work around that harvest schedule. And it’s a matter of going back as often as they can and sharing the Gospel with the people.

Interviewer: Can you tell me a story of somebody who has done this?

Mickey: Yes, I will tell you about Abdul. I went to his village with a church planter by the name of Alam. Alam and I met Abdul, who was the elder person in the village. Being the village leader normally consists of having the most education in the village. He’s the smartest guy. So guess what he does

30minutes

62



all day? He sits around and has tea.

Interviewer: He doesn’t have to work.

Mickey: He doesn’t work because he owns the village. The village is in his name and most of the people are working for him, which is the feudal system, the standard for this nation typical of South Asian nations. Anyway, so Abdul is in his house, and when we arrive at the village we are directed to him. He receives us warmly because I am a foreigner, and we sit with him and have tea together. I eventually start asking him questions about the Koran. After some discussion about the Koran and the passages that refer to Jesus, I look at my watch and say that I must leave, but ask if my friend Alam could return and talk more with him.

“Oh, sure, no problem,” he says. So we get his name, the village, and contact information and make sure that it’s OK. We make a date for about a week later. Alam comes back, bringing someone with him. He brought Ahminul, a new believer, from a village that is closeby, with him. And they sat down with Abdul Hai and built a relationship by talking about the weather, the crops, and eventually the Koran. Alam mentions that he won’t be able to return, but Ahminul now has a relationship with Abdul, and he will return with other friends. This is how we initiate a relationship with a “man of peace” in a village where we have no contacts. The goal is to connect a new believer with the leader of a nearby village.

Mickey: I am out of the picture now, and Alam is also out of the picture. Although Alam may mentor Ahminu from a distance, he will not go back to the village again. Ahminul lives just 10 kilometers away and brings other people who are also new believers with him on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and sits down and talks with him. After about five to six months of relationship building and sharing from the Koran and telling the stories of the Bible, Abdul Hai says, “Yes, I need this Jesus.”

Interviewer: Tell me more of what they discuss in the first few months.

Mickey: The first thing they do is talk about the Koran. After they talk about the Koran they talk about being a good Muslim and how the Koran says that in order to be a good Muslim you have to follow the commands of Jesus. Where do you find the commands of Jesus? You find the commands of Jesus obviously in the New Testament. In the New Testament, they read Luke and then they go through John. We don’t start at Matthew. By the time they finish John, we find that most people say they need Jesus.

Under Islam, people feel that they’re condemned. They can’t live up to the Islamic requirements because it’s a works-based religion. John 3:17 really speaks to them: “God did not send his son into the world to condemn it but through him the world may be saved.” Also, Jesus say: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” In the salat - which is the prayer that they repeat five times a day seven days a week every day of their life - the second to last line says,


Reaching Friends and Relatives“Show us the straight way.”

The Gospel of Luke has illuminated who this Jesus is, what has happened to him, and his life story - his death and his resurrection. Then the Gospel of John confronts their Islamic beliefs. “I am the only way. I did not come to condemn, I came to save.” Abdul was saved, and Ahminul baptized Abdul.

Interviewer: After five to six months? Ahminul is about 6 months old as a believer when he begins to work with this village elder. Has he had any formal training?

Mickey: Formal training? Pardon me for laughing, but if formal means that Alam sat with Ahminul underneath the tree and shared ideas on how to do with Abdul what was done with him, then that probably happened several times.

There is no formal training that I know of. Now one denomination has a formal training center, but it has not led the church planting at all.

Interviewer: I guess I was thinking about seminars and workshops and things like that.

Mickey: Alam has been to those seminars and workshops on a semi-annual basis for several years, but most of the growth happens among people with no training, but there is mentoring.

Interviewer: What happened after Abdul became a believer?

Mickey: Now that Abdul is a Christian, what’s his job? His job is to tell his friends and neighbors. When he gets five people ready to be baptized, he calls Ahminul.

Interviewer: How long did it take him to get five people ready to be baptized?

Mickey: A month or two at the most.

Interviewer: That is interesting. It took five to six months to build a new relationship in a new village and to share Christ with the man of peace, but when he shared with those that he has known for a lifetime and has influence, only one or two months is needed! What does he share?

Mickey: He’s sharing his testimony. He’s the village leader. He’s somebody that the people are going to listen to, and he can meet with his friends and neighbors every day. I mean he lives right there. He gets five or six people ready. By the way, Ahminul continues to come back, about every two weeks, and his role is discipleship, answering questions that Abdul has about his Bible reading. Now Abdul has been given a New Testament. He doesn’t have a Bible yet, but he’s been given a New Testament.

And now Abdul Hai has five or six relatives, friends, and neighbors interested in the Gospel, and he introduces Ahminul to them. He invites Ahminul to come over and talk to all of them, and that happens a couple time s. Ahminul

64



says to them, “Do you want to be saved?” or one of the guys that is in the group says, “I need Jesus.” At that point, Abdul has his church.

Interviewer: What about baptism?

Mickey: Abdul invited Ahminul to be there to just assist and watch as he, Abdul, baptizes the six new believers.

Interviewer: Abdul is about 2 months old in Christ?

Mickey: Two to 3 months old in Christ. Now he’s planted his first church.

Interviewer: What happens next?

Mickey: The next thing is to repeat this process six times. These six new believers - or seven or sometimes it’s only three, but typically there is an average of five, men - are all encouraged to do exactly the same thing that Abdul did with them. So they go find five or six people and share their faith.

Abdul and Ahminul are a team at this point in reaching out.

Mickey: But during the second generation, Ahminul is dropped off Abdul’s team. He is still there to disciple them, but the new believers are sharing in their own spheres of influence.

Interviewer: Now, so everybody gets a New Testament. Are they all literate?

Mickey: No. Abdul Hai has to be literate and he’s the senior guy in the village. When we made the first break in the village, 99 percent of the time the first break was with a literate man. But from that point on, no, they are not and don’t have to be literate.

Mickey: They find somebody who can read to them, oftentimes a young person.

Conclusion: Later in the interview, Mickey shares that within two years Abdul has extended his church planting to new villages and has started more than 200 churches with an average of 12 to 15 people in each church, by basically repeating what happened to him.

The Resources Are in the HarvestAs Christians, we are all ministers. We are all priests who are to bring others to God so they too can be priests. We are all seed that has been harvested and are to be planted so we can reproduce and bring about an even greater harvest.

If you are working among an unreached people group, the chances are that the greatest church planters, the most effective church planters, among your people group in two years are people who are not yet even believers today. The most effective church planters two years from now will be people who will be won, perhaps, in the next few months. The resources are truly in


Reaching Friends and Relativesthe harvest. If we fail to plan for that and fail to recognize that fact, we are condemning the results to be relatively meager. No unreached people group can afford to rely primarily on outside workers for evangelism and church planting. Outside workers are necessary to get a work started, but once it is started, it must be carried out and carried to completion by members of that group or it is destined for failure.

We naturally recognize this principle in agriculture. Saudi Arabia recently made an agreement with Australia to import sheep. Australia wanted to butcher the sheep before shipping them. The Saudis claimed that freshness would be lost, and they were afraid the sheep would not be halal, so they convinced the Australians to let them butcher the sheep once they arrived in Saudi Arabia. The Australians ensured that it was written in the contract that all the sheep must be slaughtered. None could be bred. The Aussies then built the largest livestock ship in the world to transport them. The Saudis signed the contract but failed to follow through on it and are culling out their own breeding stock so they can save money and reduce dependence upon Australia.

We can all recognize the prudence of that maneuver, even if it is dishonest. Yet we fail to recognize that when it comes to Kingdom issues, such as laborers for the harvest field of souls, we must never forget that the resources are in the harvest. A wise farmer does not buy seed year after year. He keeps some of his best grain to plant the next year’s crop. An African worker recently told me he had seen families allow their children to starve rather than allowing them to eat the next year’s seed corn. Those families believed in this principle. Do we?

In Luke 8:4-15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. He says the seed that fell on good soil brought forth a hundredfold. With this sort of fruitfulness if there are two harvests each year, then starting with a single grain, after four years you could have enough rice to feed every person on Earth all the rice they could eat for an entire year. This illustrates what God can do spiritually through faithful servants.

Learning ActivityDiscuss the concept that “the resources for the harvest are in the harvest” in groups of five or less. Find six biblical illustrations in the New Testament Church that demonstrate this principle. Write them down in your small

66



groups. After 10 minutes, share these Scriptures, why you chose them, share your ideas about the importance of this principle in the larger group.

Discipleship ChainsOne way to ensure participation and maturity development of each believer is to utilize discipleship chains. A discipleship chain relationship is one that takes place outside of the regular church meeting. It is usually a one-on-two discipleship process. It can be one on three, but it is preferable to have a one-on-two relationship. The pattern is that a more mature believer disciples two others from within the congregation, each of whom disciples two others, who then disciple two others. Each discipling relationship involves mutual accountability for putting into practice scriptural truth that is learned and teaching what one has learned to someone else. This two-fold accountability is extremely important.

In order for this process to work, a person need only be one step ahead of the people who he or she is discipling. For instance, a believer who has been in the Lord 10 weeks can disciple others who have been believers for only eight weeks, who could in turn disciple others who have been disciples six weeks, etc. This pattern has many advantages over common disciple patterns in which one person disciples many — either as a large group or individually — but disciplers are assumed and required to be highly mature and experienced believers. I refer to that pattern as “banyan-tree leadership”. The banyan tree is a large tree that continues to put out shoots and roots laterally so that it gradually covers large amounts of ground and has quite dense foliage. Underneath a banyan tree, there is no growth of any other kind of plant. The ground is hard-packed mud. This type of leadership does not allow for other leaders to develop. New believers become accustomed to constantly being on the receiving end of teaching. Only a rare few will ever consider themselves to be potential leaders because the few leaders who do exist are extremely experienced and mature. In a bad sense, they are irreplaceable.

A discipleship chain, however, not only allows but requires the development in maturity of other believers. With a banyan tree type of leadership, newer believers will rarely, if ever, view themselves as adequate to replace their primary disciple whereas in a discipleship chain, every believer is required to become a discipler. Even those believers at the end of the chain are expected to teach what they’ve learned to an unbeliever, whether it be a child, a family member, or a friend. The command to make disciples was given to every believer, so we need to equip and expect every member to do so.

A good model for beginning a discipleship chain is the shadow-mentoring system in which the shadow mentor is mentoring two or three leaders from

25minutes



25minutes

the group outside of the regular church meeting time. This can also serve as a good way to pass on leadership pointers that may or may not be suitable to teach during a regular worship service. The discipleship chain pattern is not limited in its growth potential as is the traditional model, but it also develops more mature believers in a shorter period of time than one-on-many systems.

One important thing to remember, however, is that the top or head of the chain needs to have continuing input and equipping from some source. This can partially be provided by a mutual accountability in discipling between or among the heads of other discipleship chains. It can also be provided within a network of groups by regular leaders’ meetings where more advanced biblical training and equipping is provided by an outside source. Failure to provide for this ongoing equipping and accountability has resulted in the fall of many good churches around the world.

As a rule, a discipleship chain will extend only as far as the local house church or cell and will not exceed four generations (plus the unbelievers the last generation is “teaching”). If a church grows to the point of multiplication, the existing chain dissolves and re-forms in the new church. This provides an opportunity for those who are growing quickly or are able teachers to “move up” in the chain. This brings us to church multiplication.

Learning ActivityDiscuss the follow questions in your small group of three people:

1. What is a discipleship chain?

2. How can a discipleship chain help to share the Gospel through a network of a new believer?

3. What are the two key components of accountability?

4. How can teaching, as well as learning, be of such importance?

5. How can discipleship chains nurture multi-generational conversion growth?

Debrief all of the small groups’ ideas on each question in the large group setting.


Objective: To consider strategic methods that penetrate the social infrastructure quickly and powerfully, empowering us to intentionally start churches where there are none.

Pray: Father, give us insight, wisdom, and understanding of how to reach those who do not know you. Give us the courage to abandon ineffective ways of reaching out, and the strength to try new methods.

Learning ActivityRead the following article on the “Seven Keys to Intentional Church Planting.” I have numbered the key ideas in the article. In groups of three, discuss these methods for outreach. Which ones are you using currently? Make a list of ways that you could apply these ideas in your current environment and among the unreached group. Debrief your ideas in the larger group.

Intentional Planting

25minutes


Intentional PlantingSeven Keys to Intentional Church Planting1. Locating a person of peace whose heart God has prepared is a

proven way to begin new churches in new communities. Such a person can serve as an advocate in the community. Often their family, friends, and neighbors will come to the Lord as well. This person and those to whom they relate, can form a new church. (Read Luke 10:1-20)

2. It is more effective to group unbelievers and win them than to win individuals and group them. It is often very difficult to win individual new believers, disciple them, and then try to form them into a new church. It is often far more effective to group them either based on pre-existing relationships, such as family or friends, or based upon common interest or experience. If people can be exposed to the Gospel in groups, it somehow lessens the fear of letting those people know they have accepted Christ.

Often, individuals will make their decision only in a one-on-one setting in persecuted environments, but it will still help them feel free to meet with and witness to others if they were exposed to the truth in a group setting. Instead of winning a person to the Lord and then having that person tell his family and friends, why not locate someone who seems to be open to the Gospel and have he or she get his family and friends together before he or she becomes a Christian?

A low-key witness in the group setting can go a long way toward diffusing suspicion and distrust among family members later and may open up some tremendous possibilities for witness to them. If you are witnessing in such a setting, be sure to submit to the family authority. This usually means you should focus much of your attention on and direct the conversation toward the authority figure, especially when it comes time for a decision to follow the Lord.

If an individual does become a Christian apart from his or her family, help the individual get his or her family relationships right as part of his or her early steps in following the Lord. Guide the individual to ask forgiveness for past actions or attitudes toward his or her family members that were not right. Help the individual seek reconciliation with family members with whom he or she has strained relationships. Guide the individual to submit to his or her family authorities. These actions will help cement the individual’s decision and will serve as a testimony to his or her unsaved family members.

70



3. New groups of believers should result in new leaders. This was the pattern followed by Paul (Acts 13:14-14:23) even when he was only in an area for a short period of time. This pattern that showed up in Jerusalem, Ephesus, and Rome with churches meeting in multiple homes within the same city also bears new groups of believers and new leaders.

Often opportunities for starting new churches are missed because of people’s default patterns with new believers. The default pattern is frequently to incorporate new believers into existing churches. This should not be the default. The default pattern should be to start new churches whenever you get new believers. There are exceptions when a church is very new or very small, but as a general rule every opportunity should be taken to begin new churches. This can either be done by immediately assisting the new believers to pursue the salvation of friends and family members or by dividing an existing church and sending some of the members (including whoever led them to the Lord) to join the new believer or believers to form a new church.

4. Studying church growth around the world reveals two constant patterns. The first is that smaller churches grow faster than bigger churches. The second is that newer churches grow faster than older churches. This is one good reason to seek to start as many new churches as possible rather than incorporating new believers into existing churches.

5. One way to significantly impact the cycle of churches reproducing churches is to immediately place local believers in leadership positions in planting a church in a pioneer area. If this is not done, then it could take years for local believers to view themselves as competent to replace someone from outside who may have significantly more training or experience. This has been a 40-year process in the church I currently attend. It was planted by a foreign missionary and still has not found “suitable” local pastoral leadership. We have been without a pastor for three years since the church planter’s retirement. An outsider never taking an upfront leadership position also avoids many serious problems inherent in leadership transition.

6. Another leadership issue that can seriously affect the reproductive rate is the use of multiple leadership forms, which enables the leadership training to be done primarily on the job and to stay ahead of the growth curve as extra leaders are always available to start new churches. Since


Intentional Plantingsending people away to some residential school is avoided, this can greatly shorten the necessary preparation time for leaders.

7. Another factor that can only help the rate at which people come to the Lord is through massive societal exposure to the Gospel. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14a) “Now this (I say) he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)

When the tide comes in, all the boats in the harbor rise. Spiritually speaking, exposing people to the truth of the Gospel will help the tide of the Holy Spirit to come in, changing people and the society. If large numbers of people are being exposed to Scripture then you will accelerate the work. “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

“So will my Word be which goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding (in the matter) for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) God will honor his Word. It will have an effect.

Learning Activity

Read Acts 2:46; 5:42; 20:18-21; 14:21-23. In your small group make a list of the seven factors mentioned above that you see in these Scriptures. Debrief your lists in the larger group.

Learning ActivityRe-read the interview with Mickey (not his real name), a missionary focused on nurturing a church planting movement in a South Asian nation. This interview also was used as a case study in the module “Reaching Family and Friends.” We are going to look at the same story through a different lens.

In groups of three, review the interview and identify the keys listed above that are used in this process. Beside each leader’s name in the list below, write the

20minutes

25minutes

72



numbers of the keys that each leader used. Be prepared to tell how each one used each of the keys you have listed. Debrief the large group and discuss each of the leaders and the keys they employed.

Don

Alam

Ahminu

Abdul

Are there any other principles we have studied that you can identify in this story?

Mickey: OK. You’ve heard what I do with a church planter to open a village to the Gospel where we have no contacts? As a foreigner, I go in with an experienced church planter and then he comes back with a person who lives close to the village and is learning to be a church planter. At that point, the new planter gets invited back to the village. With the fact that he lives close, he can bring another friend with him. So now, now in a lot of instances these guys are brand new Christians.

Interviewer: New converts.

Mickey: New converts. And they’re going out and they’re now witnessing and sharing the Gospel in a village that they were not allowed to even enter a few months ago or weeks ago or, or for their entire lifetime in many instances. They live close so they’re able to go daily, three times a week, whatever is needed because most of the people are farmers.

During the planting season you don’t have much free time, but once the rice is in and it’s growing, hey, you’ve got some free time that you can go back more often. And they work around that harvest schedule. And it’s a matter of going back as often as they can and sharing the Gospel with the people.

Interviewer: Can you tell me a story of somebody who has done this?

Mickey: Yes, I will tell you about Abdul. I went to his village with a church planter by the name of Alam. Alam and I met Abdul, who was the elder person in the village. Being the village leader normally consists of having the most education in the village. He’s the smartest guy. So guess what he does all day? He sits around and has tea.

Interviewer: He doesn’t have to work.

Mickey: He doesn’t work because he owns the village. The village is in his name and most of the people are working for him, which is the feudal system, the standard for this nation typical of South Asian nations. Anyway, so Abdul is in his house and when we arrive at the village we are directed to him. He receives us warmly because I am a foreigner and we sit with him and have tea together. I eventually start asking him questions about the Koran. After some


Intentional Plantingdiscussion about the Koran and the passages that refer to Jesus, I look at my watch and say that I must leave, but ask if my friend Alam could return and talk more with him.

“Oh, sure, no problem.” So we get his name, the village and contact information and make sure that it’s okay. We make a date for about a week later. Alam comes back, and who did he bring with him? He brought Ahminu, a new believer from a village that is close by with him. And they sat down with Abdul Hai and built a relationship by talking about the weather, the crops, and eventually the Koran. Alam mentions that he won’t be able to return, but Ahminul now has a relationship with Abdul and he will return with other friends. This is how we initiate a relationship with a “man of peace” in a village where we have no contacts. The goal is to connect a new believer with the leader of a near by village.

Mickey: I am out of the picture now and Alam is also out of the picture, although Alam may mentor Ahminu from a distance, he will not go back to the village again. Ahminul lives just 10 kilometers away and brings other people who are also new believers with him on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and sit down and talk with him. After about 5-6 months of relationship building and sharing from the Koran and telling the stories of the Bible, Abdul says, “Yes, I need this Jesus.”

Interviewer: Tell me more of what they discuss in the first few months.

Mickey: The first thing they do is talk about the Koran. After they talk about the Koran they talk about being a good Muslim and the Koran says that in order to be a good Muslim you have to follow the commands of Jesus. Where do you find the commands of Jesus? You find the commands of Jesus obviously in the New Testament. In the New Testament they read Luke and they go through Luke and then they go through John. We don’t start at Matthew. By the time they finish John, we find that most people say they need Jesus.

Under Islam people feel that they’re condemned. They can’t live up to the Islamic requirements because it’s a works-based religion. John 3:17 really speaks to them that “God did not send his son into the world to condemn it but through him the world may be saved.” Also, Jesus says that “I am the way, the truth and the life.” In the salat, which is the prayer that they repeat five times a day, seven days a week every day of their life, the second to last line says ‘show us the straight way.’

The Gospel of Luke has illuminated who this Jesus is, what has happened to Him and His life story, His death, and His resurrection. Then the Gospel of John confronts their Islamic beliefs. “I am the only way. I did not come to condemn, I came to save.” Abdul was saved and Ahminul baptized Abdul.

Interviewer: After five to six months? Ahminul is about six months old as

74



a believer when he begins to work with this village elder. Has he had any formal training?

Mickey: Formal training? Pardon me for laughing, but if “formal” means that Alam sat with Ahminul underneath the tree and shared ideas on how to do with Abdul what was done with him, then that probably happened several times. There is no formal training that I know of. Now one denomination has a formal training center, but it has not led to church planting at all.

Interviewer: I guess I was thinking about seminars and workshops and things like that.

Mickey: Alam has been to those seminars and workshops on a semi-annual basis for several years, but most of the growth happens among people with no training, but there is mentoring.

Interviewer: What happened after Abdul became a believer?

Mickey: Now that Abdul is a Christian, what’s his job? His job is to tell his friends and neighbors. When he gets five people ready to be baptized then he calls Ahminul.

Interviewer: How long did that take him to get five people ready to be baptized?

Mickey: A month or two at the most.

Interviewer: That is interesting. It took five to six months to build a new relationship in a new village and to share Christ with the man of peace, but when he shared with those that he has known for a lifetime and has influence, only one or two months is needed! What does he share?

Mickey: He’s sharing his testimony. He’s the village leader. He’s somebody that the people are going to listen to and he can meet with his friends and neighbors every day. I mean he lives right there. He gets five or six people ready. By the way, Ahminul continues to come back on about every two weeks and his role is discipleship, answering questions that Abdul has about his Bible reading. Now Abdul has been given a New Testament. He doesn’t have a Bible yet but he’s been given a New Testament.

And now Abdul has five or six relatives, friends and neighbors interested in the Gospel and he now introduces Ahminul to them. He invites Ahminul to come over and talk to all of them, and that happens a couple times. Ahminul says to them “Do you want to be saved?” or one of the guys that are in the group says “I need Jesus.” At that point Abdul has his church.

Interviewer: What about baptism?


Intentional PlantingMickey: Abdul invited Ahminul to be there to just assist and watch as he, Abdul, baptized the six new believers.

Interviewer: Abdul is about two months old in Christ?

Mickey: Two to three months old in Christ. Now he’s planted his first church.

Interviewer: What happens next?

Mickey: The next thing is to repeat this process six times. These six new converts, or seven, or sometimes it’s only three, but on the average it is five, men are all encouraged to do exactly the same thing that Abdul did with them. So they go find five or six people and share their faith.

Abdul and Ahminul are a team at this point in reaching out.

Mickey: But during the second generation, Ahminul is dropped off Abdul’s team. He is still there to still do discipleship with them, but the new believers are sharing in their own spheres of influence.

Interviewer: Now, so everybody gets a New Testament. Are they all literate?

Mickey: No. Abdul has to be literate and he’s the senior guy in the village. When we made the first break in the village 99% of the time the first break is with a literate man. But from that point on, no, they are not and don’t have to be literate.

Mickey: They find somebody that can read to them, often times a young person.


Objective: To consider the critical role that the Word of God plays in the formation of a Church Planting Movement (CPM). Also, to assess discipleship methods that facilitate exponential growth rather than impede it.

Pray: Lord, may we seriously consider how you invested your Word in your disciples and released them for ministry, even when they did not fully understand who You were. Help us to unleash the power in the Word through the lives of Your people.

Movement DynamicsOne of the most important things we can do to prepare the way for a CPM is to saturate the target group with the Word of God. How can they believe if they have not heard? Saturating a people with the Gospel needs to happen in as many ways as possible. It is definitely a task that is best done with multi-processing. Utilize radio, utilize television if possible, newspapers, magazines, tracts, Gospel portions, whole Bibles, Bible correspondence courses, personal testimonies, testimonies on audio-cassette as well as live ones. Utilize all of the above Scripture, tracts, portions, etc., in an audio-cassette format. Utilize video-cassettes.

The Word, the Foundation of All


The Word, the Foundation of AllUtilize any and every available medium which is appropriate to the setting. The best way to evaluate how appropriate various means are is to see what media are used. This will tell you what methods are appropriate in terms of learning style or preference, affordability, and so on. It is important that the methods used can be supported and expanded with local resources since that is the only way they can be reproduced.

Short term teams may be very helpful in distributing the Word in various mediums, which will vary, depending on the circumstances of the target culture. Outsiders may find many avenues into the heart of a culture. This can be a very powerful way to prepare the soil for the church planting that is to follow. You will need to investigate the communication systems of the target culture. Is television commonly used? I am currently involved in producing a Bible storying program for television broadcast to an unreached group in India. Radio is more common and often an excellent method for Gospel saturation with Bible storying.

Storying can provide a profound inroad into the hearts of unreached peoples. Many, if not most, cultures highly value stories as a way to transfer information. Even in western culture the popularity of movies and television is a testimony to the power of stories. Bible storying is a proven, effective method of Gospel transmission, and short term teams can provide a catalytic push using storying methods. Storying is a powerful tool for indigenous church planters and will be addressed more completely in the next module.

Learning ActivityIf your group is ten or less, do this one together. For larger groups, break out into groups of three or four.

Discuss methods of mass distribution of the Gospel in the target group. Brainstorm! Spend five minutes writing down everything that comes to mind. Then rank the ideas in terms of practicality, with the most likely to be used first.

Debrief the large group and write down the top five ideas from each group. As a large group, create your “Top 10” list of ideas that you feel may work well with the target group. You will probably have ideas that you will have to research in order to make them a part of your strategic plan. For example, if “broadcast the Gospel on the radio” is one of your ideas, you will need to discover if the people have radios and listen to them, the language that is used for broadcasting, and the expense involved.

For each of your Top 10 ideas, ask for volunteers to do the research. Chose a reporting target date and have one of your detail-oriented people gather the

30minutes

78



research into one document and distribute it to your team in preparation for a follow up discussion. The goal is that when you travel to the country to equip your Partner Churches, you will be prepared to discuss practical ways that you can assist your partners with ideas on massive Gospel distribution. Of course, as always, be very flexible realizing that your learnings in that country may confirm or eliminate certain ideas in your Top 10 list.

Discipleship Issues Discipleship is not merely knowledge. There is a knowledge component, but it is primarily patterns and processes to practice and pass on. This means that as much is taught by example as by content. The methods and principles of Bible study, the patterns of prayer life and worship, and the encouragement, fellowship, support and equipping of the Body are all being learned as the leaders model. An attitude of servanthood, humility, urgency, faith, passion for extending God’s Kingdom, and love for fellow believers and the lost on the part of the leaders are also vital aspects of this approach. These aspects of discipleship are caught more than taught.

Discipleship is nothing more or less than the process of following Jesus, and learning to walk as He walked. In I John 2:6 it says, “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Jesus was a great leader and a great servant. As His followers, we too should be leaders and servants. Leadership and servanthood are intimately related. Christian leadership is influencing others through servanthood. A CPM is about leadership development. It deals with how to influence people by serving them and modeling for them. CPMs are nurtured in an environment where new believers grow in maturity and become reproducing leaders in their own right. In John 15 we learn that those who abide in the Lord will bear much fruit. This kind of fruitfulness produces exponential growth. If a new believer can be encouraged, assisted and modeled for to help plant a church which will in turn reproduce, this will bring glory to God. In John 15:8 Jesus said, “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

We want to focus on patterns and processes which can be quickly passed on. We are suggesting that the Bible study below represents one of those processes which can empower new believers to understand and apply the Word. Not every question will be appropriate for every Bible study. The key is to present a concise range of questions which will provide the tools and principles for a lifetime of Bible study.

The format or setting of this approach can vary. Discipleship chains, or groups based on relationship evangelism and personal mentoring, are possible settings. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians in II Thessalonians 1:11-12.


The Word, the Foundation of All“To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Bible Study ApproachObservation—what does it say?

Who was involved?

�What happened? Ideas are expressed? Are the results? Is the purpose?

Where did this take place?

When did it take place?

Why did it happen?

How are things accomplished?

Interpretation—what does it mean?

What did it mean to the original audience?

What does it mean now?

What is the main idea?

How does this passage relate to the rest of the chapter/book?

What other Scripture passages might shed light on this one?

Application— ideas from II Timothy 3:16

Teaching: what we should know

Rebuking: what we should avoid doing or stop doing

Correcting: what we should do differently

Training in righteousness: what we should begin or continue doing

Discussion (optional)—to be answered by everyone.

What did you like about the passage?

What did you not like about the passage?

What did you not understand about the passage?

What will you take with you, or remember, about the passage?

80



What was the main idea of the passage?

What should you do as a result of knowing this passage?

Application formula: In order for change to occur…

Dissatisfaction with the status quo plus

• knowledge that there is a better way • knowledge of how to take the first step must be greater than

inertia (forces which are creating/influencing the current pattern)

This means we can help people discover why they should obey (the consequences of disobedience and obedience), and how they can obey. The latter might include role playing and helping them develop a plan which includes:

• When they will obey, • When it will be difficult to obey, • What they will do to obey, and • Where they will be when they obey

Accountability includes:

• Accountability to teach others what one has learned (II Timothy 2:2) and

• Accountability to apply what one has learned. Application includes items of both omission and commission.

Learning ActivityBreak into groups of four and each group has four minutes to choose a passage for a Bible study. Choose from a passage where Christ is interacting with his disciples or Paul is exhorting a church plant.

For the next 20 minutes, go through the list of questions and discuss each one in light of your passage. Consider what applications you can make to your own life and also commit to teach, or share with someone what you have learned.

Take the final 15 minutes to debrief the large group, first on the specific learnings, and secondly on the impact of this approach to Bible study.

30–45minutes


Objective: To introduce to the trainer and church planter the idea of Bible storying. To explore some of the issues that frame the need for (and process of) storying, and motivate the trainer to find stories appropriate to the partner church and the people group. The trainer should be prepared to teach a storying track to the partner church. The P.E.A.C.E. Web site (www.peace.gs) has storying tracks and additional information on this critical strategy.

Please Note: Depending on the educational level and communication style of the partner church you will engage, this module may or may not be appropriate to share with them.

Pray: Ask our Father to help us identify with and become effective communicators to oral learners.

Learning ActivityRead the following section from a white paper written by J.O. Terry and James B. Slack, A Methodology for Presenting the Gospel to Oral Communicators. When you have finished, break into groups of three and discuss the following questions:

1. What affected me most about this article?

2. Give some examples from your own life of when you have been affected by stories. Are you primarily an oral learner?

3. Do you find that sharing the Gospel in the form of testimonials is more effective than sharing in an outline form?

Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storying

25minutes


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storying4. Has the Scripture been translated into the language of your people

group? If not, how can we equip our partner churches to reach them? If so, are they available in sufficient quantity, and can the people read?

Debrief the entire group and highlight the most common responses.

Presenting the Gospel to Oral CommunicatorsThe Gospel is being proclaimed to more people than at any other time in history, yet many of those to whom it is being preached are not really “hearing” it. To understand how this failure is occurring, it is necessary to examine the dynamics of discourse. Discourse is a two-way street. Both the preacher’s presentation of the Gospel message and the hearer’s understanding of that message are involved. Dramatic differences in the levels of literacy between the presenter and the hearer can be fundamental barriers to effective discourse.

Only a few presenters of the Gospel have the slightest idea that there might be a problem. On the other hand, most of the hearers affected by the problem know there is a problem. Caught by this problem are the oral communicators of this world — nonliterate, functionally nonliterate, and semi-literates — and those church leaders who preach and minister to them. Even worse, more than 90 percent of the world’s ministers are literates who use expositional formats when presenting the Gospel. When the Gospel is presented to an oral communicator using the literate’s expositional means of communication, it is seldom “heard.” To be heard, the communicator must package the Gospel in a narrative, or story format. That is the format oral communicators understand and identify. Because a remembered story can and will be retold, the story format also provides the oral communicator with a means of communication. Expositional formats such as outlines, steps, precepts, principles, teachings, lists, and similar constructions are seldom understood by oral communicators much less remembered by them.

At least 2 billion (36.4 percent) of the world’s 6.5 billion people are oral communicators. One-fourth of the world’s population are primary oral communicators — nonliterates.1 Primary oral communicators cannot read or write. Not just nonliterates, but all oral communicators, find it very difficult to understand, internalize, and recall messages that do not come through proverbs, prose, or carefully constructed stories compatible with their learning preference and cultural presentation style. Their preferred learning and communication style, or format, is the oral narrative. If they are to “hear” the Gospel of Christ, it must come to them through a narrative format.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible StoryingWell-meaning ministers and missionaries assume that anybody, even a child, can understand simple outlines of the passages they use to present Christ’s Gospel. Social, anthropological, and linguistic research reveals that is a misconception. Primary oral communicators do not understand the Gospel when it is presented to them by means of expository outlines, principles, precepts, steps, and logically developed discourses.2 Even if they do understand, they are helpless when faced with the need to remember and reproduce what they heard. Oral communicators — nonliterate, functionally nonliterate, or semi-literate — use different means of constructing, internalizing, recalling, and reproducing information and beliefs than do literates. An oral communicator’s patterns are the exact opposite of literate, word-culture patterns. Most ministers and missionaries have never faced these issues. Consequently, one-third to one-half of the world’ s people has few advocates who understand their plight and who are working to communicate Christ’ s message in culturally compatible formats.

The challenge to learn the skills of orality has staggering implications for ministry. I cannot help but wonder what might happen if Christian evangelism and prophetic ministry took form in oral expression and in faithful folk theologies.3

Tex Sample thinks that the issue is even greater than these figures reveal.

“It is my contention that about half of the people in the United States are people who work primarily out of a traditional orality, by which I mean a people who can read and write — though some cannot — but whose appropriation and engagement with life is oral. More than this, I am convinced that most churches have a clear majority of their membership who work from a traditional orality.”

When one moves out of the United States into most of the rest of the world, the mass of oral cultures, both primary and traditional, looms even larger. Two-thirds of the people in the world are oral.4

1 David Barrett, Our Globe and How To Reach It (Birmingham, Alabama: New Hope, 1990), 25 and 28.

2 Walter J. Ong, Oralitv and Literacv: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Routledge, 1991), 8, 9, 39, 42, and 123.

3 Tex Sample, Ministry In An Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus & Minnie Pearl (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1994), 9.

4 Miles Smith-Morris, ed., The Economist Book of Vital World Statistics (New York: The Economist Books Ltd., 1990), 210.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible StoryingDemographers and researchers such as Miles Smith-Morris have evidence that global literacy levels will not improve appreciably by AD 2000.5 Also, at least 9,100 languages or dialects have no Scripture or portions available.6 Even if literacy were successful among them, there would be no Scripture, or Scripture portions, in their language for them to read. A narrative, chronological storying approach to the communication of the Gospel is of an even greater necessity.

In summary, one can say: To the degree that a person is nonliterate, the chance of that person “hearing” the Gospel of Jesus Christ diminishes. This fact is especially true when the majority of the Gospel communicators are literate. Today, while most Western countries boast of literacy rates of 90 percent or higher, at least 61.7 percent of the world’s population — about 3,335,000,000 people, possess an oral communication learning preference and lifestyle. Herbert V. Klem says, “Perhaps as much as 70 percent of the world’s population is not likely to take an interest in the Bible if we take a literary approach to teaching...” (This was written in 1998, so the numbers will be significantly larger.)

Learning ActivityConsider the following excerpt from Terry and Slack’s paper on categories of learning styles. Re-engage as small groups about which category you fit into, which ones your partner church matches, and also the unreached group. What challenge do you face as a trainer as it relates to the category you have chosen for each group? What is your response to the final two paragraphs of this piece? Debrief as a large group, spending time on the challenges and strategies and how to meet them.

Categories of Learning Abilities There are at least five different categories of learning abilities: nonliterates, functional nonliterates, semi-literates, functional literates, and highly literate individuals. Nonliterates are individuals who cannot read or write. A primary nonliterate has never seen a word. To them, a written word is nothing more than a meaningless scribbles. Words do not exist as words, but as pieces of a picture, of events and situations they are seeing and experiencing. In fact, for oral communicators, words, as such, have no exact dictionary-type meaning.7 Nonliterates are oral communicators. The story is their

25minutes

6 Barrett, 28. 7 Ong, 75.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storyingdominant communication style.

A functional nonliterate is one who has begun to read and write within a school setting, but who did not progress beyond eight grades and did not continue to read and write regularly after dropping out of school. Within two years of dropping out of school, these individuals often can read simple writings but no longer receive, recall, or reproduce concepts, ideas, precepts, and principles through literate means. Values, for them, are not received through literate means. Even though this type of individual is classified in every country of the world as a literate, he or she learns primarily by means of narrative presentations. Therefore, functional nonliterates are, like nonliterates, oral communicators. In France, the common terminology that is used to describe the functional nonliteracy situation is “educational wastage.”8

Semi-literates have usually progressed to at least the 10th grade in a school that has middle school grades consisting of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. For those countries that do not have these middle school grades, the semi-literate level would extend to the equivalent of a high school graduate. These individuals function in a gray transition area between oral communication and literacy. If their personal high school training included a significant emphasis on reading, writing, and liberal arts skills, they have probably progressed to a literate classification rather than semi-literate. However, those individuals who completed 10 years of school or secured a high school diploma but did not spend a lot of time in developing reading and writing skills, almost always test out to be semi-literate. Semi-literates learn best and most comfortably by means of oral communication presentations rather than through literate style presentations. Even so, they would be classified by every school system and every country as literate, when in reality most prefer and can best handle oral communication learning styles.

The fourth category is literate. Some countries and some of those who work in literacy education refer to this category as functional literacy. This is not to be confused with a previous category of functional nonliteracy, which is just the opposite. Literates are usually those individuals who have continued to exercise their ability to read and write up to and beyond the equivalent of 10 grades of school.9 They are literate learners. Information such as ideas, precepts, concepts, and principles are easily understood and handled by them through literate means. Functional literacy is a term that has been chosen to describe literacy in a way that is not dependent upon the number of years in school. A gifted and/or applied learner could become functionally literate after only a few years of study, whether in or out of school. It would also be true that some could study well beyond ten years and not be functionally literate.

The average literate person, on the way to becoming literate, has lost or given

8 Ibid. 9 Ibid.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storyingup a measure of his oral communication skills. That is the price of becoming literate. The literate’s memory has become less and less dependent upon recalling what has been heard orally and has progressively become dependent upon recorded notes and information contained in books and other repositories. These individuals are no longer classified as oral communicators. This does not mean that they do not appreciate oral communication or that they will not respond to oral communication.

Highly literate is the fifth and final category. A highly literate person has usually spent time daily developing and using reading and writing skills. Such individuals have usually attended college and are often professionals in liberal art fields. They are thoroughly word-culture individuals. Like literate-level individuals, they are no longer predominately oral communicators but are literate communicators. They have, through education, moved progressively from being an oral communicator to a highly literate communicator.

Not only does the status of a person change as they progress from oral communication levels to literate communication levels, but their style of communication has changed drastically. Oral communicators — nonliterates, functional nonliterates and semi-literates — are not comfortable with and cannot easily understand information that comes in the form of outlines, precepts, principles, and steps in a process. It is difficult, if not impossible, for them to engage in true analysis. They cannot outline and reduce bodies of information to “bottom line” statements. Oral communicators prefer that information come to them in the form of narratives or stories. They cannot handle information that comes by other means. In fact, if they have a teaching, a concept, or a principle they want to remember, they will clothe it in a story. Narrative styles are the common vehicles that oral communicators use to process and “carry around” information. Expositional presentations such as outlines, steps, principles, or lists of any kind are formidable obstacles for them. They find it difficult to understand them, and certainly cannot recall them. They cannot use what they cannot recall. Knowledge for oral communicators, and especially nonliterates, consists only of what can be recalled.

There are two important considerations. First, oral communicators — nonliterates, functional nonliterates, and semi-literates — can learn as well as literate persons. Their ability to learn is just as good as a literate’s, and their memory is superior to the average literate person’s memory. The problem is not that of learning but of the presentation format through which information comes to them. Information must come to oral communicators through stories, parables, poems, ballads, and similar types of formats. Format is the key for them. Second, and conversely, most literates mistakenly believe that if they can outline the information or put it into a series of steps or principles, anyone, including oral communicators, can understand it and recall it. That is a misconception



30minutes

concerning learning and how different individuals process information. Most oral communicators do not understand outlines, steps, or principles, and they certainly cannot remember them. For that matter, neither can the literates, but they store information in notes and can “look it up” to refresh their memory. Nonliterates cannot “look up anything,” and have no personal means of refreshing their memory if they have forgotten something.

It is very important when literate individuals prepare to communicate with others that they determine what learning category — nonliterate, functional nonliterate, semi-literate, literate, or highly literate — the hearer represents before choosing the presentation format.

Until recently, Christian ministers and missionaries expected oral communicators to become literate and then be introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, until a few years ago, in most pioneer mission settings, a nonliterate who became a Christian would not be baptized until he or she learned to read and write.10 This approach illustrates how much a bias toward reading and writing can be developed within a highly literate individual. Literates assumed individuals could not hear and understand the Gospel rightly unless they became literate. Even today, among many literate ministers and theologians, it is almost unthinkable to suggest that a nonliterate Christian could become a leader, shepherd a church, and be ordained as a pastor.

Since the majority of oral communicators today have little hope of becoming literate, they will never know Christ if they must first become literate to “hear” and understand the Gospel.

Learning ActivityDivide into groups of three to five. Divide the Scriptures below and share what you have read with each other. Choose a teacher or story teller: Whose birthday is closest to Jan. 1? Take five minutes for that person to tell the story. Ask five of the questions listed below for five minutes. Have the group retell the story with each person sharing a part of the story for five minutes.

Debrief the larger group on this experience.

God Created the Angels and Spirits For the Teacher:

1. Read Isaiah 14:12-14; and Ezekiel 28:11-19. Study the lesson.

10 David Barrett, Schism and Renewal (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 127.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storying2. Can you tell the story?

3. Show the people the Bible from which you will be teaching.

Texts to read for preparation:

1. God made the spirits: Nehemiah 9:6; Job 38:4-7; Psalms 48:2, 5; Psalms 68:17; Psalms 99:1-3; Psalms 103:19-21; Colossians 1:15-16; Hebrews 1:13-14

2. Satan in rebellion to God: Luke 10:18; 1 Timothy 3:6; Jude1:6; Revelation 12:7-9

3. Character of Satan: 1 John 3:8; John 8:44

4. Concerning Satan: Job 1:7; Job 2:2; John 12:31; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12

5. What God has prepared for Satan: Nahum 1:2-3; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 20:10

6. Hell: Mathew 25:41, 46; Mark 9:47-48; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10; Revelation 14:11

7. Verses traditionally used to describe the fall of Satan: Ezekiel 28:1-19; Isaiah 14:3-23

Themes: There is one God; God made everything; God is all-powerful; God is holy, He detests sin and will not be in the presence of it; Satan is always in rebellion to God; Sin brings consequence and punishment.

Tell the Story… Introduction

There are many books in the Bible. Many men wrote these books and the writing of these books took many years.

The first book of the Bible is named Genesis, which means, “beginning.” In it is written what happened in the very beginning, before there was the forest, mountains, animals, or people. We learn in the book of Genesis that God is a Spirit. God had no beginning and he will not die. God is all-powerful and can create what he wants to create.

Read Isaiah 14:12-14

God Created AngelsIf someone were to ask: When was God born? When was God’s beginning? Many would not know how to respond. But the Bible clearly teaches us the answer.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible StoryingBefore there was man, the world, the sun, or the moon, God already existed. He is Spirit. He was not born and does not have a beginning. God does not age like us and he will never die. God does not have an end. He has always been and always will be.

A long time before God made people, God made thousands of angels that lived with him in a place called Heaven. He made them good, without sin. The angels were also spirits. God created them to serve, worship, and obey him. He also created them to help and protect man. One of the angels created by God was more intelligent and more beautiful than the others. His name was Lucifer. God put Lucifer in charge of all the other angels.

After some time, Lucifer became very proud and decided he would cause himself to be as important as God. Many of the other angels also chose to rebel against God. But were they able to overcome God? No. God is all-knowing and knew what Lucifer and the other angels were thinking. The revolt (going against) failed because God is more powerful than Lucifer, who was created by God.

Because of their sin, God cast the sinful angels out from the place where they lived with God in Heaven. God is holy and righteous and would not be in oneness with those in sin or in rebellion against him. God also said that one day he would punish the sinful angels because of their sin and one day send them to a place he created, called Hell.

God changed the name of Lucifer to Satan. The name means “Deceiver” or in other words “Father of Lies.” Satan and the bad angels became God’s enemies. They oppose the plan of God when they can. Now, those angels who followed Satan, they are the evil spirits. They follow Satan and rebel against the truth. Satan does not want us to listen to God’s Word.

For a time, God is allowing Satan and his demons to do evil in the world. Satan is trying to get people to disobey God. But this will not go on forever. Satan will not win. God loves his people and has not forgotten or abandoned them. Rather, he has given us resources to resist Satan and his demons. This is the story we find in the Word of God.

Now we are going to review the story with some questions:

Questions:

1. When was God born? He was not born. He has no beginning or end.

2. How would you describe God, what is he like? He is Spirit, All-powerful, and sinless.


Reaching the Oral Learner with Bible Storying3. What did God make before he made the Earth? The angels

4. Do the angels have bodies like ours? No, they are spirits.

5. Why did God create the Spirits? To serve, worship, and obey God. Also to help and protect man.

6. What happened with one of the angels? One of the angels was filled with pride and his heart turned bad.

7. In his pride, what did this angel do? He wanted to be like God and therefore disobeyed God.

8. From this, what do we learn about disobedience? It is sin.

9. How did this angel change? He was filled with pride and lies.

10. Was this the only angel that rebelled? No.

11. After they disobeyed and sinned, were the angels able to stay in Heaven with God? No, God threw them out of Heaven.

12. Why? God detests sin. He is holy and righteous and cannot be in oneness with those who rebel against him.

13. What did God change Lucifer’s name to? Satan or Devil.

14. Satan desires that we don’t obey God. What does this teach us about Satan? That he is always in rebellion with God and that he hates men and wants to see them fall.

15. Can Satan overcome God? No.

16. Why? Because God is all-powerful. God created the spirits so he has total power over them. They are only able to do what God allows them to do.

17. Today, how are we able to see that Satan and his demons are at work in the world? We see the results of their activity: hate, violence, immorality and many other things.

18. How do we know that God and his angels are at work in the world? In the midst of the hate, violence, and other bad things – there are people who love, who have patience, who have peace and self-control.

19. If Satan is “The Father of Lies,” how is it that he gets people to disobey God? He deceives them.

20. Who has more power, God or the spirits? God. He created the spirits.

21. Did God leave us alone to battle with Satan? No. God is always with us, helping us.

22. What do we learn about God in this? That he is kind and has mercy and compassion on us.



Tell the Story Again…After you finish, ask: Who can tell the story back to us?Let someone do so with help from the group. Then ask:

1. Did our ancestors teach us about Satan’s revolt against God? (No)

2. How is God different from man?

(God is a spirit.God had no beginning. No one created Him because

He was before everything. God will never die.)

HomeworkGo on the P.E.A.C.E. Web site (www.peace.gs) and download several sample stories. Review them and have each person share a story in groups of three during the beginning of your next meeting.

Also, if storying is a viable communication tool, take time to explore the Web site and find a story track for your team to use.

©2006 Saddleback Church 92

Objective: To equip believers with a framework for understanding the role of planting churches as a team rather than flying solo.

Discovery Activity

Draw everyone’s attention to the picture of the geese in flight. In smaller groupings, ask people to respond to the question next to the picture. Give them two or three minutes to think out loud.

The Power of a Team

10-15minutes

What are some of the reasons that geese fly in this particular formation?

The Power of a Team


Next, take a few minutes to talk about some of the unique features of why geese fly in a “V” formation. Encourage people to fill in the blanks as you read the information below.

Geese FactsGeese take turns in the leadership position. When one goose gets tired, it rotates to the back of the formation and another goose flies to the lead position.

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the birds that are behind it. By flying in “V” position the birds are able to fly 70 percent farther than they could “flying solo.”

Geese honk at one another while they are flying to offer encouragement to those flying in the front of the “V.”

When a goose gets sick or injured, two geese will drop out of the formation and will follow their comrade down to the ground. They stay with the wounded bird until it dies or is strong enough to fly again.

The “V” formation enables all of the birds to the see the direction the group is flying.

Next, (in the original groupings) ask people to respond to the sharing questions:

Question #1: Tell about a time when you did or did not experience “flying in a V.” It could be at church, sports, in the workplace, family, etc.

Question #2: Bring the group back together and ask the room to reflect on the stories that they heard by asking this question: What themes or threads ran through the stories that were shared in your group?

10-15minutes Learning Activity

After you have had your discussion about the geese and the flying “V” draw everyone’s attention to the article entitled “The Flying V.” Encourage folks to read the article slowly and to underline key thoughts and phrases. After ev-eryone has read the article, take a few minutes to discuss it by asking:

Question #1: What grabs your attention from this article?

Question #2: How does it challenge you personally?

Question #3: Which myth is the strongest in our church and why?

The Power of a Team


THE FLYING VLessons for the church come in the most unusual places sometimes. Take geese for example. Who would have thought that geese could teach the church a thing or two? In particular, the way geese fly is a tremendous il-lustration about the power of teamwork. It’s been said that a team will outperform an individual every day of the week. God has designed us to “fly” in cooperation with others. We can accomplish so much more through the power of a team. So, let’s take a look at a few myths which flying geese dispel in our churches.

Myth: The pastor can do it aloneIn the West, we have constructed an oddly shaped “V” when it comes to the pattern in which we fly in our churches. In many congregations, the paid staff are the ones who do ministry while the rest of us stand on the ground and watch them fly. Our pastors have become superheroes who are capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, running faster than a locomotive, and can stop a bullet with their bare hands! We have built a model of “do-ing church” that suggests that the goose who is flying in the lead position is meant to always stay there. The reality is that the pastor can not fly alone, nor can he fly at the head of the “V” without assistance and shared leadership.

Myth: I’m not giftedOh yes you are! The New Testament clearly teaches that every believer is equipped by God with spiritual gifts that He expects to be used for the build-ing of his Kingdom. God has graciously bestowed on each one of us unique ways that we can serve him and others in a fulfilling way. Make no mistake about it; you are gifted! You are gifted by God to make an incredible contribu-tion… one which will have eternal impact.

Myth: I can fly aloneAs the geese so amply illustrate, we need the “updraft” of others around us. Sure, we can try to fly solo, but the wind resistance is much more demanding. When we fly with others, we have the support and encouragement we need to fly faster and farther. God has made it clear from many passages in the New Testament that each believer has a role to play in the “V.” The Apostle Paul likens the church to the human body and he suggests that each believer has special part to play in how the body functions. You need the “V” and the people sitting around you in church need the “V.”

The Power of a Team


Practice ActivityAssign participants into groups of two or three. Give everyone 10 to 15 minutes to work through the various passages. Then, bring everyone back together to talk about the principles and ideas that each passage is reinforcing. Capture the comments of the group on a legal pad.

The Flying V in the New TestamentLook up each of these passages and record a few insights about how the church is meant to fly in a “V.” In particular, what do these passages have to say about the role of the pastor, the nature of teamwork, spiritual gifts, and any other “flying geese” principles that you notice.

Passage Flying “V” Principles

Romans 12:6-8

1 Corinthians 12:1-10

1 Peter 4:10-11

Ephesians 4:11-16

20-25minutes

15minutes Application Activity

After you have had a thorough discussion on the four passages, allow every-one to have some individual time to reflect on what the flying “V” means for them personally. Once everyone has had four to five minutes to write down some thoughts, ask them to get into group of three to share their reflections.

DebriefQuestion #1: Which myth from the “Flying V” article is the most

challenging to you and why?

Question #2: What specific action steps do you need to take to contribute toward where the church is flying?

The Power of a Team


Question #3: When you think of making a contribution that would have an eternal impact, what do you think of doing for God?

Question #4: What is one thing that could get in the way of you putting this into action?

Wrap-upTake a few minutes as you close out the session to celebrate new learning around the room. Ask everyone to stand and for a few people to share their response to this statement:

“One highlight for me from today is ______________.”


10-15 minutes

Stories of KindnessAsk the group to share about a time when someone did something kind for them that was totally unexpected.

DebriefGive everyone in the group a chance to share… the more stories the better for this opening activity. After the stories have been shared, ask the group to reflect together about these acts of kindness by asking:

Question #1: How did the act of kindness impact you personally? How did it make you feel?

Question #2: What makes kindness so powerful?

Question #3: Who comes to your mind when you think of kindness? How did or does that person embody kindness?

Improving Your Serve


Improving Your ServeBible Search on KindnessPair people up for this next activity. Ask people to look up the Bible passages that have been provided and to record insights about kindness and compassion. Ask people to work quickly so that they have time to look up all of the passages. After 10 minutes, bring everyone back together to share their insights. Ask people to be brief and concise with their comments.

Passage Insight About Kindness or

Compassion

Romans 2:4

Titus 3:4-5

Zechariah 7:8-10

Proverbs 3:3-4

Hosea 10:12

Isaiah 58:6-12

20-25 minutes


Improving Your ServeNext, ask everyone to slowly work through the article entitled “Improving Your Serve.”

Improving Your ServeOur words about God, Christianity, and the basic Gospel message will most likely fall on deaf ears until we have won the right to speak. Compassionate and thoughtful acts are one sure-fire way to melt the icy resistance of someone you know who may seem resistant to the Gospel.

In the book, Irresistible Evangelism, a working definition of kindness is suggested as “demonstrating God’s love by offering to do humble acts of service, in Christ’s name, with no strings attached” (Irresistible Evangelism, p.91). The authors go on to say,

We’ll never shine brightly in the Kingdom of God until we can sign up for activities that bring us no immediate, tangible, specific gain. We need to learn the lesson Jesus taught in Luke 6:35 about giving without expecting to get anything back, not even gratitude. The only reward we need is knowing that we’re acting like sons of the Most High. The watching world will never be genuinely interested in our message as long as we come across as self-seeking promoters of our little piece of the Kingdom. However, the world hungers for generosity in Christ’s name when those expressing it don’t care who gets the credit. If we don’t take seriously the phrases in Christ’s name and with no strings attached, we’re just using a manipulative marketing strategy. (Irresistible Evangelism, p.94)

When we serve one another, with no strings attached, we are operating in a way that is counter-cultural. Doing something for nothing is unheard of these days. A posture of a servant can easily be drowned out by the “me, my, and mine” slogans of Madison Avenue. But let’s remember… it is the kindness of God that has drawn us into a saving relationship. Through his kindness, God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and pulled us out of the miry clay. Through his many acts of kindness in the New Testament, Jesus gives us a model of what it means to be kind.

Steve Sjogren, one of the co-authors of Irresistible Evangelism, shares a powerful personal story about acts of kindness. He was in the midst of recovering from a life-threatening surgery gone bad. While he was in the hospital he shares:

I was at the lowest point of my life in every way — physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I desperately needed to give something away to get better. All I could think of that was available to me were popsicles. So whenever visitors asked if there


Improving Your Servewas anything they could do for me, I didn’t even let them finish the sentence. “Have you got any pocket change?” I would ask. If they did, I’d have them roll me in my wheelchair down the hallway to the popsicle machine. They would spring for a lap-full of the tasty treats, and then we would go up and down the hallways looking for patients to give them to. The only guideline: Only patients not on ventilators could get a popsicle!

I can’t prove it, but I think I got better much faster by giving away all those Popsicles. It was my way of cooperating with God in my healing process. I had to get out of myself and get into principles that are much bigger than my circumstances. I got better and better as I gave away what I didn’t even have in the first place.

DebriefOnce everyone has read the article, lead the group in a discussion with the following questions:

Question #1: What gets in the way of you performing acts of kindness?

Question #2: In what way are you personally challenged by what you just read?

Putting Feet to Your Service

Allow people to individually work through the worksheet entitled Kindness Ideas. Have them mark ideas that would be possible acts of kindness that they could try out in the next week or before the next session. After everyone has scanned the list, have them share their ideas in small groups. Before you wrap-up the session, give everyone the challenge of doing something on the list before the next time you meet as a group. Close in prayer in the small groups.

15 minutes


Improving Your Serve

Public placesSoft drink giveawaysNewspapersVinyl glovesUmbrella escortsWindshield washingCoffee giveawaysRestroom cleaningUrinal screensRestroom deodorizerGrocery bag loading assistanceBag packing at self-serve grocersGrocery cart returnsQuarters attached to cards for phone calls or parking metersDonut giveaway during morning trafficCookiesLifesavers candyDollar dropQuarter dropChewing gumLollipops / blow popsSmall bags of taffyGourmet chocolates (truffles)Bottled water giveawayFlower seedsFreshen-up packs - (mints and moist

towelettes)

Sporting eventsCoffee giveawaysSoft Drink giveawaysPopcornPopsiclesWindshield washingPeanutsSunglasses (cheap ones!)Hand cleaning towelettesFreshen-up packs - (mints & moist towelettes)Trash pick upBottled water giveawayGlow in the dark necklaces

DowntownWindshield washing Soft drinks for shoppersParking meter feedingUmbrella escorts

Business window washingToilet cleaningCart token for shopping cartsEmployee soft drink giveawayCookiesCappuccinoPolaroids at carriage ridesShoe shinesHand cleaning towelettesStamps in front of post officeSeeds on cars

ParksDoggie treatsPet festivalsHot dog grilling Helium balloons for kidsPolaroid family photosPicnicIce cream couponsGatorade at biking trailsPictionary in the parkFlower seed packetsFace paintingDoggie dirt cleanupDoggie washGolf ballsGolf teesGolf ball cleaningPump-up spray water bottlesClowningBottled water giveaway

AutomobilesCar wash Windshield washingCheck oil and fillSingle mom’s oil changeWasher fluid fillTire pressure checkInterior vacuumingInterior window cleaningBulb replacementWindshield ice scraping at apartment complexesWindshield ice scrapersFreeing cars stuck in the snowCar drying at car washesWindshield washing at self-serve gas stationsBuy down gas to bargain price

Hand cleaning towelettes at gas pumps

Roadsides & traffic lightsParking meter feedingSummer car washesCoke giveawaysWinter car washes/ desaltingPopsicle giveawaysTrash pick-up with “Kindness in Progress” SignsTowelettes giveaway on side of the road

College campusesBike fix-up Pen and pencil giveawaysPost cards and stampsPhotocopyingFloppy discsTutoringSoft drinks, Gatorade, and lemonade at class sign-upDorm room cleaningDrinks at intramural athletics Drinks at Greek eventsBreakfast pop tartsTest essay bookletsExam answer sheetsCoffee and tea during late night Study sessionsPizza on move-In day at dormsQuarter dropLong distance phone cards Ice cream couponsCare packages for studentsGum, blow popsSnacks (chips, crackers)

Malls & Shopping CentersChristmas gift wrappingDollar dropMeal purchasing at food courtQuarters in coin returnsLong distance phone cardsIce cream cone couponsPackage check-in

Kindness Ideas


Improving Your ServeChildcare during Christmas shoppingCoffee/hot chocolate coupons

HolidaysChocolate gearts on Valentine’s Roses on Valentine’s Green foiled coins at St. Patrick’s Day paradesEaster baskets for businesses Butterfly cocoons for EasterEaster candy giveawayFlower seeds for SpringMother’s / Father’s Day carnation giveawaysIndependence Day destival glow in the dark necklacesJuly 4th picnics house to houseIndependence Day festival Giveaways: blow pops, gum Labor Day - school supplies Halloween - reverse Trick or Treat (house to house to give them candy)Thanksgiving - door to door TurkeyDoor to door mumsFall candy giveawayFall leaf rakingChristmas: gift wrap at mallChristmas: giveaway special Caroling and candy canesDoor to coor poinsettiasScotch tape giveawayChristmas tree giveawaySnow shovelingWinter survival kitCocoons on Good FridayChurch match booksScotch Ttape at Christmas

High School & College Sports Oranges for football practiceHigh school sports partyWatermelon after practiceGatorade after a hard practiceFacilitate a community service projectMake hospital visitsGreet students and parents and help the freshmen move inBaby-sit for the coachesPhysical therapy rehab

Care packages for finals weekOffer tutoringHonor a team at your athletic meetingShovel manureGo to lesser followed sportsSet up social settingsMake own Appreciation DayCapture seasonal times with high touch ideasTake a camera to practice/gamesClean up after a sporting eventMeet with freshmen for a cokeOrganize surprise mini-birthday partiesGive away peanuts/popcorn at sporting eventsOffer to do videoing of a practiceOffer to keep statsFree car washes for the athletic department

House to HouseFruit giveaway Sunday morning paper and coffee GiveawaysLeaf rakingLawn mowingGrass edgingScreen cleaningRain gutter cleaningGarbage can return from curbFood delivery to shut-insKitchen CleanupGeneral yard cleanupDoor to door carnation Tulip bulbsPotted plant giveawaysFlower seed packet giveawaysSidewalk sweepingWindshield washingSnow removal from walks and drivesWindow washingMinor house repairsGeneral interior cleaningCommunity dinnerDoggie yard cleanupWeed sprayingTree limb trimmingLight bulb replacementSeal blacktop drivewaysFireplace ash removalRadon detectors

Carbon monoxide detectorsSmoke detector batteriesFragrance sprayingDog washingFilter change for AC / heaterGarage cleaningFireplace kindlingBark and mulch for yardsSalt for snowy drivewaysHouse number painting on curbsShopping assistance for shut-insPoinsettias at ChristmasPicnics at Independence DayEaster baskets

MiscellaneousSteaks & salmon for firefightersGasoline for your neighborCleaning up at food courtsToilet seat covers Birthday party organizingPay library finesWinter survival kitSuntan lotionSurf waxSummer survival kit“Biggie Size” food orders in fast food drive thru lanesBlood pressure dcreeningMother’s Day varnation Car frying at self-serve car washesGrocery store bag packingFree bird feeders and refills to convalescent home residentsChristmas tree collectionChristmas tree giveawaysBait at local fishing spotsCoffee at bus or subway stopsPay laundromat washer & dryerMemorial service for unchurchedCarnations to cemetery visitorsEaster basketsPizza on moving day at apartmentsMove in welcoming partyLawn mower tune-upTime change reminder flyer


10 minutes

Improve Your Serve Together!

Ice Breaker

Before you jump into the session ask folks to report about how things went with the kindness ideas from the last module. Celebrate any sense of advancement or taking steps in the right direction!

After the initial check-in transition to the opening sharing question: Share about a time when you were part of a group that made a difference in other people’s lives. What was the experience like for you personally, for the group, and the lives you touched?

Once a number of people have shared, ask the group to reflect on the stories by asking: What are some of the benefits of working together when you are trying to extend love to others?


Improve Your Serve Together!Improving Your Serve TogetherSpend time in the book of Nehemiah to underscore what happens when a group of people put their minds toward “improving their serve together!” Allow everyone time to look up each of the passages on their own first and then discuss each passage individually. There is a progression as the book of Nehemiah unfolds. Try to highlight the dynamics of a group of people going after the project together. Instruct the group: Look through these passages and reflect on how vision for working together emerged and became a reality in the life of Nehemiah and those around him.

The book of Nehemiah continues the history of the Jews upon their return from exile in Babylon. Nehemiah was commissioned to go to Jerusalem to lead the people in repairing the protective walls around the city. Nehemiah was a spiritual leader who led with vision and passion.

Passage Insights about Improving Your Serve Together!

Nehemiah 1:1-4

Nehemiah 1:11-2:5

Nehemiah 2:11-13

Nehemiah 2:17-18

Nehemiah 2:19-20, 4:1-3

Nehemiah 4:12-21

Nehemiah 6:15-16


Improve Your Serve Together!After you have had time to discuss Nehemiah, ask everyone to read the short article about Improving your Serve (Together!).

Improving Your Serve Together!The book of Nehemiah reminds us that a group can accomplish great things for the Kingdom. It started with a legitimate need and a compassionate response. Once Nehemiah heard about the broken walls in Jerusalem his heart was moved. Eventually he was able to motivate others to join him in the quest to rebuild the protective walls around the city.

In the book Irresistible Evangelism, several helpful principles regarding serving together are discussed (pages 97-105). Let’s consider a few of those principles for a moment…

Keep it Simple: Acts of kindness don’t have to be elaborate, expensive, or complicated to do. With some creativity and brainstorming there are a number of ways to extend love to others that are easy to pull off. In the initial stages of improving your serve, the simpler the better.

Low Risk, High Grace: When deciding on a project, choose something which is low risk for you and your partners. Handing cokes out at a community soccer match might be considered high risk for some people. But putting a packet of flower seeds in mailboxes could be more comfortable. But be forewarned…acts of kindness are contagious. Once you start blessing people with no strings attached it can become addictive. So get the ball rolling and watch what opportunities the Lord lays on your heart.

It’s a Process: Remember, people don’t care what we know until they know that we care about them as individuals. Acts of kindness and compassion are one way to demonstrate care that moves folks down the fairway. It’s a process for us, too! Many of us need to develop our under-used serving muscles. We’re not used to extending kindness to others with no strings attached.

Have Fun! Improving your serve together can and should be outrageously fun. Blessing others can bring tremendous enjoyment. What better way to speak into our culture today but by having a great time through service? That’s the kind of Christianity that is winsome and attractive in a culture that has lost its way.

Just do it…like now! The old adage, “There’s nothing like today!” So, go on…get out there and just do it. Don’t procrastinate. Take some of the improving your serve ideas and just start lovin’ on some folks. Team up with some people you know and go make somebody’s day.



10-20 minutes

DebriefQuestion #1: What idea or principle stands out to you from this article?

Question #2: What are you personally challenged by in the article?

Taking it to the StreetsGive some advance thought as to how you would like to handle this final activity. It could be a whole group activity or in smaller teams. The goal is to put a simple plan of action together from the Improving Your Serve Together Ideas. Many ideas are the same as the previous session’s list. Give them the freedom to generate an idea that’s not on the list. Review the article on page 6 for a real life example. If you have time at the end of the session ask folks to report in on what they intend to do. Close in prayer in groups or in the large group.



q Soft Drink Giveawaysq Newspapersq Windshield Washingq Coffee Giveawaysq Restroom Cleaningq Grocery Bag Loading Assistanceq Grocery Cart Returnsq Donut Giveaway during Morning Trafficq Cookiesq Bottled Water Giveawayq Flower Seedsq Popcornq Popsiclesq Windshield Washingq Hand Cleaning Towelettesq Trash Pick Upq Glow in the Dark Necklace Giveawayq Parking Meter Feedingq Hot Dog Grilling q Helium Balloons for Kidsq Polaroid Family Photosq Picnicq Ice Cream Couponsq Gatorade at Biking Trailsq Face Paintingq Doggie Dirt Cleanupq Doggie Washq Clowningq Single Mom’s Oil Changeq Summer Car Washesq Popsicle Giveawaysq Trash Pickup with “Kindness in Progress” Signsq Tutoringq Drinks at Athletic Eventsq Care Packages for Studentsq Snacks (chips, crackers)q Christmas Gift Wrappingq Childcare q Oranges for High School Practiceq High School Sports Party

Improving Your Serve Together Ideas

q Facilitate community service projectq Make hospital visitsq Greet students and parents and help the freshmen move inq Baby-sit for coachesq Take a camera to practice/gamesq Clean up after a sporting eventq Give away peanuts/popcorn at sporting eventsq Offer to do videoing of a team’s practiceq Fruit Giveaway q Sunday Morning Paper and Coffee Giveawaysq Leaf Rakingq Lawn Mowingq Grass Edgingq Screen Cleaningq Rain Gutter Cleaningq Garbage Can Return from the Curbq Food Delivery to Shut-Insq General Yard Cleanupq Door to Door Carnation Giveawayq Tulip Bulbsq Potted Plant Giveawaysq Sidewalk Sweepingq Minor House Repairsq Community Dinnerq Weed Sprayingq Tree Limb Trimmingq Garage Cleaningq Bark and Mulch for Yardsq House Number Painting on Curbsq Steaks and Salmon for Firefightersq Free Bird Feeders and Refills to Convalescent Home Residentsq Move In Welcoming Party


Improve Your Serve Together!VOLUNTEERS CHANGE OIL, HOPE TO CHANGE LIVES

Auto outreach is the latest way Thompson Station Church is ‘touching’ community

By SUE McCLURE Staff Writer, The Tennessean, Nashville, TN Published: Thursday, 06/30/05

THOMPSON’S STATION — The sign was intriguing enough to catch the eye of most passing motorists. It read

“Free Oil Change, Because Jesus Changed Us.”

The buzz of activity in the parking lot of Thompson Station Church, where three oil-changing bays were set up, was enough to convince many motorists to pull in and see what was happening.

“Are you having a garage sale?” one man asked. “If so, I’d like to buy those ramps.”

“No sir,” answered Stephen Witt, pastor for evangelism and discipleship at the church. “But we’ll change your oil.”

Witt and his helpers were met with stares of disbelief, then big smiles of gratitude as they steered SUVs, pickup trucks and four-door sedans onto steel ramps for a free oil and filter change, along with a 14-point check of fluids, tires and lights.

The unique outreach program — a part of the church’s weekly G.R.O.W. (God Rewards Our Work) ministry — was a way to help residents in the community, Witt said.

“We want the community to know we’re here, so we do something different every week,” Witt said. “Last week, we had a free carwash. And we’ve helped clean up the nature trail at Heritage Elementary. And one week, we went into the subdivisions and prayed over each of the houses.

“This is an awesome community, full of kind people, and we want to back give to them,” he said.

But an oil change?

“It’s something everyone needs,” Witt explained. “We’re hoping some single mothers might take advantage of it, but also anyone else who needs one. “Sometimes you’re just so busy, you can’t find time for one,” he added.

That’s exactly why Ronda Lunceford, a child-care worker who lives in Spring Hill, was first in line for the free service.

“I’m overdue for an oil change, so this is my lucky day,” she said. “This is a real blessing in disguise.”

No disguise about it, according to Kyle Davis, 15, a church member who was helping out.

“The Lord wants us to outreach, so we do,” he said.

His friend, Brian Easterday, 15, agreed.

“Changing oil is a good way to service people,” he said as he tested a car’s turn signals and headlights.

Inside the church, Easterday’s mother, Sue Ellen, was busy with another aspect of the outreach ministry.

“I’m writing letters to people who have visited the church, saying we appreciated their visit and telling them what other things we have available to them,” she said.

It’s all a part of making a tangible difference, according to Duane Murray, executive pastor.

“We want to meet the community’s needs,” he said. “Our motto is ‘Touching the world from Thompson Station.’

“And we want to physically touch the community,” he said.

Well, those workers in the parking lot were certainly doing that — and they had the oil under

Starter PackFor New Disciples

This section is somewhat unique in the learning process. It will serve the trainer to equip the partner churches with vision and practical application for empowering new believers to reach others with their story. It will also highlight several of the “Non-Negotiable 7 Components of a CPM” and strengthen their understanding of the critical nature of principles five & six.

As always, there is absolute freedom in the contextualization of these principles into the lives of the partner churches and especially in the application within the target population. We encourage you as a trainer and church planter to spend focused prayer time in asking for wisdom and insight as you make the application in your world. Don’t be satisfied with making one effort, but realize that you are in a learning environment; doing things that possibly no one has done before you. Expect to create a learning cycle in which you make application, evaluate the results with a 360 degree feedback loop (which means getting feedback from everyone involved, including people in the focus population when possible), and with a team, redesign your efforts to strengthen weakness and go through the cycle again.

Objective: The next six modules will inform and illustrate many of the “Non-Negotiable 7 Components of a CPM”, with an emphasis on numbers five and six. These modules could also serve as a training guide for new believers.

Pray: Ask the Lord to give us his grace and wisdom as we seek to establish patterns of training for new believers that will instill the DNA of reproducing disciples, laying the foundation for a CPM.

Adventure in the WordAssurance

My Story

ACTS Prayer

The Harvest

The Bridge


Adventure in the Word

The Bible is Your CompassRick Warren challenges us when he writes:

Receiving, reading, researching, remembering, and reflecting on the Word are all useless if we fail to put them into practice. We must become “doers of the Word.” This is the hardest step of all, because Satan fights it so intensely. He doesn’t mind you going to Bible studies as long as you don’t do anything with what you learn. We fool ourselves when we assume that just because we have heard or read or studied a truth, we have internalized it… Without implementation, all our Bible studies are worthless. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (The Purpose Driven Life, page 191)


Adventure in the WordThree Principles to Help You “Just Do It”#1 Be specific: When you read, study, or discuss a passage from the Bible, be as specific as possible in your application. In other words, be careful to name a specific action step that relates to you personally. Resist the temptation to talk about all the other people who need to change. Talk about “me, myself, and I” when you are making an application.

#2 Take action: Just do it. Follow through with what you have committed to do and the sooner the better. Try to close the gap between your action step and actually taking action.

#3 Be accountable: Ecclesiastes 4 reminds us that: “Two are better than one.” Ask other people to hold you accountable for follow-through. A friend or your group can provide the needed encouragement to stay the course, especially when your action step is difficult for you.

Question: What makes “obedience” so difficult for us?

1 Corinthians 13: 1-8 (1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (2)If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3)If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (4)Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (5)It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (8) Love never fails.

For Next TimeRead through one chapter of the Gospel of Mark each day and answer the Adventure Questions each time. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you. Be sure to cover Mark 1-6.


Adventure Method Questions1. What part of the passage stands out to me or got my attention? How so?

2. What questions do I have about what I’ve read?

3. What does this teach me about God?

4. What example is there for me to follow?

5. What warning is there for me to pay attention to?

6. What promise is there for me to hold on to?

7. What action steps can I take this week to apply this teaching to my life?

8. Who can I share what I have learned with during the next seven days?

One thought Date:________________

What’s one thought I need to take action on from the passage?Specifically, what have I learned and what do I need put in to action asa result of my reading?

Adventure in the Word


Personal UpdateQuestion #1: What are a few personal highlights since we last saw each other?

Question #2: What is one challenge you are currently facing?

Checking InQuestion #1: What has God been teaching you through your time in the Bible?

Question #2: What have you been able to put into practice from your Bible reading? What are some next steps?

Question #3: What have you been able to put into practice from the discipleship material we covered last time we were together? What are some next steps?

Assurance

Assurance


Discipleship - AssuranceToday, we’re going to focus on reviewing some powerful truths about who you are in Christ.

Who You Are in ChristOne of the fantastic truths that the Bible teaches is that when you turned your life over to God, you became a new creation with a new identity. You are now a part of God’s family, which the Bible calls being “in Christ.” That little phrase, “in Christ,” is rich with meaning. Below you will find a list of things that are true about you now that you are in Christ’s family.

Knowing these truths and holding on to them as promises will pour steel into your soul and keep you standing on a firm foundation... no matter what life or Satan throws your way.

I am accepted in ChristI am God’s child ~ John 1:12As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ ~ John 15:15I have been justified ~ Romans 5:1I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit ~ 1 Corinthians 6:17I have been bought with a price, and I belong to God ~ 1 Corinthians 6:19-20I am a member of Christ’s Body ~ 1 Corinthians 12:27I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child ~ Ephesians 1:3-8I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins ~ Colossians 1:13-14I am complete in Christ ~ Colossians 2:9-10I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ ~ Hebrews 4:14-16

I am secure in ChristI am free from condemnation ~ Romans 8:1-2I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances ~ Romans 8:28I am free from any condemnation brought against me, and I cannot beseparated from the love of God ~ Romans 8:31-39I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God ~ 2 Corinthians 1:21-22I am hidden with Christ in God ~ Colossians 3:1-4I am confident that God will complete the good work he started in me ~Philippians 1:6I am a citizen of Heaven ~ Philippians 3:20I have not been given the spirit of fear but of power, love, and a soundmind ~ 2 Timothy 1:7I am born of God, and the evil one cannot touch me ~ 1 John 5:18

Assurance


I am significant in ChristI am a branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine, and a channel of His life ~ John 15:5I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit ~ John 15:16I am God’s temple ~ 1 Corinthians 3:16I am a minister of reconciliation for God ~ 2 Corinthians5:17-21I am seated with Jesus Christ in the Heavenly realm ~ Ephesians 2:6I am God’s workmanship ~ Ephesians 2:10I may approach God with freedom and confidence ~ Ephesians 3:12I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me ~ Philippians 4:13

Adapted from Victory over the Darkness by Neil T. Anderson. For more information, contact Freedom in Christ Ministries.

For Next TimeEach day, look up several of the verses included in the Assurance material and continue in the Gospel of Mark. Use the Adventure Questions to help you write down what you are learning. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you.


My Story

Personal UpdateQuestion 1: What are a few personal highlights since we last saw each other?

Question 2: What is one challenge you are currently facing?

Checking InQuestion 1: What has God been teaching you through your time in the Bible?

Question 2: What have you been able to put into practice from your Bible reading? What are some next steps?

Question 3: What have you been able to put into practice from the discipleship material we covered last time we were together? What are some next steps?

118

My Story


Discipleship - My Story Today, we’re going to focus on learning how to comfortably and naturally talk to others about what God has done in our lives. As you go through the exercises on the following pages, consider who you could share your story with in the near future.

Step 1: Identify life and heart themes.Step 2: What my life was like before I met Christ.Step 3: How I realized I needed Christ.Step 4: How I committed my life to Christ.Step 5: The difference it has made in my life.

Life and Heart ThemesqWorries/anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inner peaceqGuilt/shame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ForgivenessqAnger/temper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patience and loveqEmptiness/lack of purpose . . . . . Purpose in lifeqGrief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comfort and joyqStress/burnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . Power for livingqLow self-esteem . . . . . . . . . . . . Significance to GodqPoor health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strength to go onqDisappointment . . . . . . . . . . . . Trust in his good plansqInsecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Confidence and securityqRegrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A second chance at lifeqDiscontent/always busy . . . . . . . Contentment and peaceqFears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Faith to face my fearsqLoneliness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . He’s always with meqAddictions/habits . . . . . . . . . . . Power to changeqSelf-centeredness . . . . . . . . . . . Love for other peopleqDespair/depression . . . . . . . . . . HopeqCheap Thrills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Real, lasting happinessqBoredom with my life . . . . . . . . Adventure with GodqFear of death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Assurance of Heavenq“Something was missing” . . . . . Sense of fulfillmentqBitterness & resentment . . . . . . Freedom from my pastqPain of rejection . . . . . . . . . . . . God’s unconditional loveqMarriage problems . . . . . . . . . . Changes in my marriageqFinancial problems . . . . . . . . . . Changes in my financesqBusiness problems . . . . . . . . . . . Changes in my business

Step 1: Life and Heart Themes

Looking at the list of life and heart themes, check the boxes that were present in your life before your relationship with God became meaningful. This list is provided to get you thinking about your life before God.

119

My Story


Step 2: What my life was like before I met Christ.

What common circumstances in your life would an unbeliever identify with?

What attitudes did you have that an unbeliever would identify with?

What was most important to you?

What substitute for God did you use to find meaning in your life? (sports/fitness, success at work, marriage, sex, making money, drugs/alcohol, having fun, entertainment, popularity, hobbies)

If you’ve been a believer since early childhood, then reflect on this question: “What are some difficulties or challenges that God has helped you face that could serve as a connecting point, as a window of grace, with a non-believer?”

Step 3: How I realized I needed Christ.

What significant steps led up to your conversion?

What needs, hurts, or problems made you dissatisfied with the way you were living without God?

How did God get your attention?

What motivated you?

120

My Story


Step 4: How I responded to Christ.

What specifically did you do as a response to the faith God placed in your heart?

Where did it happen?

What did you say in your prayer? Be specific.

For the early childhood believer... How did you ask God to help you? How did you ask God to get involved?

Step 5: The difference it has made in my life.

What benefits have you experienced or felt?

What problems have been resolved?

How has Jesus helped you change for the better?

How has it helped your relationships? Give a current example.

121

My Story


Who Could You Share With? Who would you like to share your story with in the next week (or your own predetermined period of time)? Consider creating the opportunity by saying something like this: “I’m taking a class (or course) at my church and one of my assignments this week is to share a story with a friend about my life with God. Would you mind if I grabbed 10 minutes (now) or sometime this week to tell you a little bit about my life?

For Next Time1. Read through one chapter of Mark each day and answer the

Adventure Questions each time. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you.

2. Try to share your story with at least one person before your next meeting.


ACTS Prayer







Discipleship- ACTS Prayer Today, we’re going to focus on learning a simple way to talk with God in prayer.

The ACTS pattern - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication has been a helpful structure for many Christians. Let’s look briefly at each component:

AdorationAdoration is to adore God, to worship him and to fulfill the commandment to love him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. As we spend time in adoration, we praise God for who he is. We are simply telling God what we appreciate about him. One way to do this is to pick a letter of the alphabet and think of words about God. For example: “B” – Beautiful; “E”– Excellent, Exceed; “H”– Holy; “M” – Magnificent, Mighty, Merciful.

“Lord, I appreciate that You are merciful to me. When I look at nature I see that You are magnificent....etc.

ConfessionConfession allows us to clear away the things between us and God that are displeasing to him. All of us have sinned. During this time we are simply asking God to forgive us for actions and thoughts which are sinful. When we are specific with God about the things that need repair in our lives, God can cleanse our conscience. John writes in 1 John 1:8-9 : “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrigh-teousness.”

A - Adoration

C - Confession

T- Thanksgiving

S- Supplication


Thanksgiving We need to consistently be thanking God for his blessings. In writing to Tim-othy, Paul makes it clear that we also need to be giving thanks for everyday, worldly things. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in author-ity, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (1Timothy 2:1). Spend some time thanking God for specific ways he has been good to you.

Supplication Supplication simply means to come to God for our needs and the needs of others.

Prayer for others: You can pray for other Christians, and encourage them to pray for you. Pray for your familiy members, and for neighbors and friends. It’s also good to pray for those who don’t know Jesus to come to faith — many Christians have come to believe in Christ through the prayers of others.

Prayer for yourself: This is a time to ask God for his guidance, strength, and love to be at work in your own life. Be specific with what your needs are and bring them to God. Read Philippians 4:6 and James 1:5.

For Next Time1. Read through one chapter of John each day and answer the Adven- ture Questions each time. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you.

2. Incorporate a short time of ACTS prayer into your time with God.

3. Share what you are learning with a friend or an unbeliever.







Question 4: Who have you shared with during the past few days

The Harvest

126

The Harvest


Discipleship- The HarvestToday, we’re going to focus on what the Bible calls the harvest field. There are people all around us who are “ripe” for a relationship with God. We will learn creative ways to pray for our friends who need Jesus.

Praying for your friendsOne of the most intriguing aspects of our Christian lives is that God calls us into partnership with him. The Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:18-20 indicates that God expects us to share the Good News with those around us. Not only does he ask us to co-labor with him (Romans 10:14-16) but He also asks us to pray about the harvest of people God is drawing to himself.

Dick Eastman, in his book Love on its Knees, talks about some creative ways that we can pray for our unbelieving friends, acquaintances, and family. He has found it helpful to pray that God would stir six questions in the mind, heart, and experience of those that need to know Jesus. The six questions that he has made a practice of praying revolve around the simple framework: who? What? Why? When? Where? How?

Who? We can pray that our friends will become more and more curious about who God is. We can ask God to cause circumstances and experiences to stir questions about how they relate to the God of the universe.

What? What does the person you are praying for need to know and believe? You can pray that they would they would have the opportunity to hear the Gospel clearly presented. Pray that God would make it clear to them about his plan of salvation and his desire to be Lord of their life.

Why? When it’s quiet, God often stirs the heart by nudging an unbeliever to answer the question, “Why am I here?” We can pray that our friends would be convicted to ask the ultimate questions about what direction their life is heading toward. In the searching, we can pray that they would seek after the Lord diligently.

When? The world asks the question, “When will I be happy?” or “When will I experience fulfillment in my life?” We can pray that they will experience emptiness with what the world has to offer to these questions. We can ask God to show them that they will only find peace and contentment when they have turned their life over to the Savior.

127

The Harvest


Where? We can pray that our friends will slow down enough to muse over the question, “Where will I go when I die?” or “Is this all there is and then it’s over?” We can pray that these penetrating questions will stir their soul and will lead them to ask questions that will lead them to the Bible. We can pray that we will have opportunities to talk with them about eternal things.

How? All of us at times ask the question, “How can I cope?” We can pray that life circumstances will force our friends to ask God for help. In a loving way, we can pray that the difficulties and stress of life will create an openness to spiritual things.

For Next Time1. Read through one chapter of Luke each day and answer the Adven- ture Questions each time. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you.

2. Incorporate a short time of ACTS prayer into your time with God. When praying for others who need God, try using the six questions.

3. Keep looking for opportunities to share your story.







The Bridge

129

The Bridge


Discipleship- The Bridge IllustrationToday, we’re going to focus on learning a simple way to talk to others about the Gospel message. As you go through the exercises on the following pages, consider who you could share your story with in the near future.

Only one passage is used in this method: Romans 6:23

The key to this method is to ask questions and to allow the sharing to be conversational. As you are unpacking the verse, circle the different key words (wages, sin, death, gift, eternal life) as you go. Ask the other person to give their input on what each of these words means to him or her.

This has been adapted from One-Verse Evangelism®. To order the booklet, contact Dawson Media at www.dawsonmedia.com.

What’s the problem?Write out Romans 6:23 at the top. Start by drawing the left side of the picture with the cliff. Circle the word “wages” and ask your friend, “When you think of the word ‘wages’ what comes to mind?”

Highlight that this verse teaches that all of us earn wages from God for the way that we have lived our lives.

What’s the problem?Next circle the word “sin.” What words come to mind when you hear that word? Clarify at this point that sin means to miss the mark, to come up short of God’s perfect standards. Both actively and pas-sively, all of us have disobeyed God. The wages of our sin is death.

Add God to the second cliff and under-score the separation that now exists between us and God. Add the three words “wages,” “sin,” and “death.”

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord


Man

Man

God

GodWages

Sin

Death

130

The Bridge


Man God


Wages

Sin

Death

God’s solutionNext, focus on the word “but.” God didn’t abandon us at this point. He decided to provide a gift. Circle gift. Ask, “What’s the difference between wages and a gift?”

Highlight: God loved us so much to send Jesus as a gift and to allow him to die on the cross as a penalty for our sin. He died in our place. His death is a free gift and offers a bridge to a fulfill-ing and eternal relationship with God. Draw the cross as a bridge between the two cliffs.

Gift

Man God


Wages

Sin

Death

Gift

Eternal life

God’s solutionCircle the words “eternal life.” Ask, “What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, eternal life?”

Point out that eternal life is the opposite of death. It is living in harmony and peace with God for-ever.

By faith, God wants us to move to the other side by humbly admitting that we need to be for-given for rebelling against him and that we need to come under his leadership. This simple act of trust and obedience results in our sins being pardoned and our debt being paid. By trusting in Christ we have the assurance of eternal life.

Ask your friend if he has any questions. Then you could ask: “If you were to place yourself in the diagram, where would you be?”

“Is there any reason why you should not trust God for forgiveness right now and start fresh in your friendship with God?

If the person is ready to admit his need for forgiveness then you could lead him in prayer to open his life to Christ.

131

The Bridge


For Next Time1. Read through one chapter of the Gospel of John each day and answer

the Adventure Questions each time. Come prepared to talk about what God is teaching you.

2. Try to share The Bridge Illustration with at least one person before your next meeting.


Growing Others

Growing LeadersHomework check-in: Spend time as a group debriefing the learnings and highlights from the homework.

Facilitator Instructions: Have participants pick one of the following stories to share in groups of three:

• Share a story about your experience with an overly-controlling boss.• Share a story about a time when you felt incompetent.• Share a story about your experience with a great manager.

After everyone has shared their stories, bring the whole group back to-gether to discuss the following questions. If you have a whiteboard or flipchart you might want to consider capturing the discussion.

• How would you describe an overly-controlling boss?• What’s it like to feel incompetent?• How would you describe a great manager?

133

Growing Others


A situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation. Most of us do this anyway in our dealings with other people: we try not to get angry with a nervous colleague on their first day; we chase up tasks with some people more than others because we know they’ll forget otherwise. But Ken Blanchard, the management guru best known for the “One

Situational LeadershipFacilitator Instructions: Turn the group’s attention to the article entitled “Situational Leadership.” Encourage them to read slowly and highlight impor-tant or intriguing points as they read.

Situational Leadership

THe Four LeaderSHIp STyLeS

Key point: As you transition the group into the reading, highlight the fact that this module is about growing as a leader and manager of people. We want to help develop leaders who feel confident and capable.

SupporTIve

beHavIor

dIrecTIve beHavIorLow

Low

High

High

High Supportive and Low directive behavior

High directive and High Supportive behavior

High directive and Low Supportive behavior

Low Supportive and Low directive behavior

S3 S2

S4 S1deLeGaTING

coacHINGSupporTING

dIrecTING

134

Growing Others


Minute Manager” series, and Paul Hersey created a model for Situational Lead-ership in the late 1960s that allows you to analyze the needs of the situation you’re dealing with, and then adopt the most appropriate leadership style. It’s proven popular with managers over the years because it passes the two basic tests of such models: it’s simple to understand, and it works in most environ-ments for most people. The model doesn’t just apply to people in leadership or management positions; we all lead others at work and at home.(adapted from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/sitleader.htm)

unpacking the ModelBlanchard and Hersey’s model suggests that there are four styles of leadership that are available to a leader in any given circumstance: Directing, Coaching, Supporting, Delegating. The challenge for the leader is to decide which style is needed in working with a particular individual. Over time, they argue that a leader should be able to move from directing, to coaching, to supporting and finally to delegating. In any given situation, a leader will need to balance directive behavior with supportive behavior. In working with a volunteer, the question must be asked, “What does this person need from me right now?” The Situational Leadership model provides a nice template for assessing how to support and develop people in our sphere of influence.

Second, we need to appreciate that people come to an assignment or a minis-try task with varying levels of skill, knowledge, competence and commitment. Some folks are simply “wet behind the ears” and have very little ministry expe-rience. Others are seasoned veterans who need a different kind of support to stay motivated and engaged in ministry. Our goal is to work with people where they are and to help them grow in their development.

The vertical axis of the model relates to the varying levels of support a leader offers to an individual. Supportive behavior would encompass listening, en-couragement and nurturing the other person’s competency and commitment. Effective leaders consistently match the level of support with the needs of the one being managed and led.

The horizontal axis of the model corresponds to the level of direction and su-pervision that a leader needs to exercise. Directive behavior involves commu-nicating precisely what is needed, when it is needed and how a task is to be accomplished. Again, effective leaders are able to determine what level of di-rection is needed in the situation.

The beauty of the Situational Leadership model is that it is flexible. Life is a series of changes and nuances, and leaders need to be able to react accordingly. In some areas, someone might be quite confident and competent. And yet, in another area such as conflict resolution, or goal setting, or public speaking, a

135

Growing Others


person might have very little experience or know-how. This “situation” would require you lead from an S1 or S2 posture, even with the same person. All this to say, the situation and the other person’s development must dictate our lead-ership style. Emerging leaders will need you to dance in all four quadrants as you coach and mentor, to teach and develop them.

a closer LookS1: Directing. In Situation 1 (or S1), the situational leader finds himself work-ing with someone who is quite low on the skill/will matrix. In other words, the person being managed or led has very little understanding, background, or competency with the role or task involved. In addition, this individual may have little overall confidence that they accomplish or perform well. The leader-ship style in this quadrant dictates that a leader needs to be very specific and communicate clearly when working in S1. Much of the interaction in S1 will by necessity need to be one-way communication. Individuals need significant levels of direction and supervision from you. Your goal, as a situational leader in S1, is to move a person to S2 over time.

S2: Coaching. In S2, the situational leader is working with someone who needs moderate levels of direction but increasing levels of support. The leader contin-ues to define roles and tasks for the other person but communication becomes more two-way. Effective leaders begin to draw on the creativity and initiative of the emerging leader. Praise, affirmation and recognition are cornerstones of the S2 quadrant. Decisions still rest in the hands of the leader, but he knows that the long term goal is to move the other person to S3. With that in mind, ministry roles and tasks are more collaborative in nature.

S3: Supporting. In S3, leaders pass day-to-day decisions such as task alloca-tion and processes to the emerging leader. The leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, but more and more control is given over in this quadrant. This is the quadrant where directive leadership behavior truly begins to diminish and supportive behavior is at premium. In S3, the individual has shown measures of competency and commitment. Effective leaders start handing the baton over in S3 with healthy doses of feedback, affirmation and new opportunities. Re-member, the goal is to move the individual in their development into S4 ulti-mately.

S4: Delegating. In S4, the situation dictates that supportive and directive behaviors diminish significantly. A competent and committed individual has grown to a place where he can work on a project or ministry task with little su-pervision and guidance. The situational leader is still present from time to time to help with decisions and problem-solving. But the role of the leader is to help, to come along-side and not to control. The emerging leader decides when and how the leader will be involved, because at this point, it’s his baby.

136

Growing Others


debriefAfter everyone has read the article, spend a few minutes talking about the four quadrants. This would also be a good time to view the PowerPoint presentation together if you have the equipment available.

Question 1: What kinds of things happen when the needs of the emerging leader or apprentice do not match the leadership style of the leader?

Question 2: Why do you think so few emerging leaders make their way into the S3 and S4 quadrants?

Question 3: Which leadership quadrant or situation is most challenging for you personally and why?

137

Growing Others


SupporTIve

beHavIor


Low

High

High





S3 S2

S4 S1

Situational Leadership in the bibleFacilitator Instructions: Break into groups of 3-4 for this exercise. Instruct the group that they are to brainstorm about Situational Leadership examples in the Bible. Think about different leaders throughout the Bible and try to find several examples of each of the four situational leadership styles (S1, S2, S3 and S4). Try to determine what kind of leadership they used in a situation and in what way they used it.

Biblical Leader What kind of Situational Leadership and in what way?

Me and Situational Leadership Facilitator Instructions: This is a time for each person to grapple with the Situational Leadership model on their own. Give everyone 5-10 minutes to think through different people in their life and how they need adapt their leadership style. After everyone has had time to work on their own, have them share their reflections with a few other people. “Consider different people in organization and other people that you are trying to develop (such as your children). First, try to find at least one person for each of the quadrants. In other words, which person would you put in S1 (a person in your life that is just getting started in a role or a task that needs close supervision). Who would you put in S2, etc.? Put a name in each quadrant and then write down specific leadership actions you can take in each situation. Consider these questions:

138

Growing Others


SupporTIve

beHavIor


Low

High

High





S3 S2

S4 S1

Question 1: What help does this person need from me right now?

Question 2: What kind of direction and/or support does this person need from me?

Question 3: What do I need to stop doing with this person that is counter-productive?

Question 4: How can I help develop this person toward the next quadrant?

139

Growing Others


Homework and Wrap-upFacilitator Instructions: Read the homework assignment together and then close in prayer.

Homework: Over the next several weeks, keep the Situational Leadership model in the foremost of your mind by keeping a weekly journal. Be prepared next time the group meets to discuss how you have been applying the model, with whom, what you are learning, and insights that you have gained. Stretch yourself by working with at least one person who requires S1, S2 and S3 leadership from you.

Training cycle In thinking through the Situational Leadership model, it is very similar to the training cycle of church reproduction, which also emphasizes four cycles. We discussed many of these in earlier modules. In church planting it is helpful to keep in mind the training cycle: model, assist, watch, and leave. Generational markers can often serve as a useful guide in knowing when to change roles. That is, the church-planting team model as they plant a church. Then they change roles after the establishment of the church and take an assisting role. They assist the first-generation church in planting a second-generation church. After a second-generation church is planted, they again change roles and begin watching as the second-generation church plants a third-generation church with the assistance of the first-generation church. Then a new second-generation church is planted by the first-generation church. When this takes place, the church-planting team can transition to start work in a new area, modeling again as they do the work in another first-generation church.

Learning activity In small groups of three, compare the Situational Leadership model with the church planting training cycles. In what ways are the models similar or dissimilar?

Debrief the large group after 10 minutes of discussion.

15minutes


10-15 minutes

The Question GameBreak the room up into teams of 3-5 people for a group competition game. The assignment for each team is to come up with as many questions as possible that could be used in getting to know someone better.

For example, you could ask: “What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most these days?” or “What did you like about the area where you grew up?”

Let the group know that prizes (make sure you get some candy before the workshop) will be awarded in the following categories:

Category #1: Most thought-provoking questionCategory #2: Group with the most questions

Each group has three minutes to generate their questions. All questions need to be recorded on paper. The Facilitator is the final judge for which group wins the prize in each category.

Learning Through Curiosity



10-15 minutes

DebriefAfter the presentations and awards have been given out, gather everyone back together in a large group and discuss together this question: What happens inside of you when someone asks a great question?

Learning Through CuriosityAsk everyone to slowly read the article below entitled Friendships Through Curiosity.

Learning Through CuriosityCuriosity killed the cat or so the saying goes. But curiosity is a basic building block for any relationship. Curious people are pretty rare these days though. In a time-poor, fast-paced culture, who has the time to be curious? Most of us live life with this as our motto: “Just give me the facts, please, and then I can move about my business.”

However, pausing enough to slow down and show genuine, authentic interest in the life of an unbeliever is powerful. Earlier in the Natural Evangelism series we compared sharing the love and message of Christ to the game of golf. Our friends are at different places on their way to God. Some are just getting starting in “the tee box,” while others are moving down the fairway in their journey toward God. Demonstrating curiosity enables us to make significant emotional deposits, no matter where our unbelieving friends are.

Listen to what a few authors have to say about curiosity:Authentic curiosity is also a powerful builder of relationships…Imagine yourself at a dinner party seated next to a stranger who seems infinitely curious about you: your life, your work, your interests, what makes you tick, what ticks you off. This kind of curiosity is not only flattering but encouraging. It allows you to reveal a lot of yourself in an unchallenged way, and so you build a connection effortlessly. (Co-Active Coaching by Whitworth, Kimsey-House, and Sandahl p. 66)

So, what will it take for you to become a more curious person? Here are a few things to consider:


Learning Through CuriosityPrinciple 1: Jesus was a curious personJesus loved to ask questions and to engage in open–ended conversations with people He met. He engaged the woman at the well, the disciples, the prostitutes, and the lame with authenticity that indicated He was truly interested in the other person. The world screams, “It’s all about me!” while Jesus demonstrated over and over again that, “It’s all about you!” He was quick to identify the needs, concerns, and passions of those He touched. To be curious means we need to get out of ourselves and our own worlds. It means we need to look at life from someone else’s vantage point by simply being curious.

Principle 2: Listening and curiosity are cousinsWhen we listen well we have the opportunity to keep a conversation going. In Irresistible Evangelism the authors liken conversations to tennis matches. A good conversation goes back and forth on both sides of the net. When we show that we are listening and hit the ball back over the net we keep a conversation going. Which leads to the third principle…

Principle 3: Being curious means asking questionsAsking questions that get people talking about their lives is a critical part of cultivating a friendship. Learning to ask questions that open people up is something that anyone can learn to do with a little practice. There are a few clear characteristics of a great question. The list below underscores a few of the qualities we should strive for when framing a question. A good question should:

• be easily understood• not be complex• require thought• encourage self-disclosure• not allow for one word answers

Using open-ended questions that draw out the person is a skill that takes practice and the discipline of listening rather than talking. We must expand our capacity to ask the “second question.” That is to say, as we listen actively, we need to consider the next deeper question we can ask that will keep the “tennis match” going. The “second question” is often the question that will yield the greatest insight and connection with another person.



15 minutes

DebriefAfter a few minutes discuss the article with a few open-ended questions:

Question 1: What stands out to you in this article?Question 2: What is the most challenging part of asking questions for you?Question 3: What are some of the varied benefits of asking questions?

Questions You Could Ask

With a partner develop questions that you could ask another person with the various categories provided below. Work hard at creating curious and open-ended questions! After everyone has had 5-7 minutes to generate some questions bring the group back together to cross-pollinate and share what they’ve come up with.

Category Questions You Could Ask

Someone just moved into the neighborhood

What they enjoy to do in free time

Career

Family background

Family events

Religious background

Current events

Someone experiencing change


Learning Through CuriosityBeing Curious PracticeMix up the room for this activity so that people are paired with someone different. Instructions for the group: “This is a practice session highlighting the skill of listening, being curious, and asking questions. That’s all you get to do…no commenting, no advice giving, no talking about yourself. This is completely about being curious in the other person! This is a time to dig deeper and to practice the skill of asking the ‘second question.’”

• One person gets to talk and share about any topic (work, home, background, hobbies, etc.).

• One person listens and asks questions that draw the other person out further.

“You have 7 minutes for your conversation. At the end of 7 minutes, I’ll have you give a little feedback to your partner and then we will switch roles.”

DebriefAfter all of the conversations have concluded, ask the group to comment on the whole experience by responding to:

Question 1: What was it like to be listened to?

Question 2: What was it like to stay in a curious posture?

Wrap-Up

20 minutes

5 minutes In in groups of 3s, close out the session by asking everyone to respond to

these two questions:

Question 1: The major insight I’ve gained from this training module is....?

Question 2: What unbelieving friend will I practice being more curious with in the next week?

After sharing, close in prayer in the groupings. Pray especially for the future conversations folks are hoping to have. • Current events • Vacation • Someone experiencing change


Learning Through Listening

Back-to-Back DrawingRound #1Pair participants for this exercise. Have partners sit back to back. One part-ner has a simple picture (Four different pictures are provided so that you can provide variety around the room.). The other partner is given a blank piece of paper with which to draw on. Partner #1 (holding the picture): “You have 3-4 minutes to describe your picture to your partner.” Partner #2 (with blank paper): “Your job is to try and reproduce your partner’s picture from the verbal cues he or she gives you. You are not allowed to ask any questions or give your partner any verbal feedback. You are to quietly draw your picture.” See the end of the lesson for samples.

15 minutes


Learning Through ListeningRound #2Simply reverse roles. Make sure to hand out two different pictures to the pairings so that they are drawing a fresh picture and one that they have not heard other groups trying to draw. Same ground rules for the pairings as there were from Round #1.

Debrief Question #1: What was it like being the clue giver?

Question #2: What was it like being the drawer?

Question #3: In what ways does this exercise illustrate effective listening?

Question #4: What was it like for you personally when you felt really listened to?

15 minutes

Learning Through ListeningAsk everyone to take a few moments to read the enclosed article on listening. Encourage them to feel free to underline and mark principles that stand out.

Learning Through ListeningMy dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:19-20

It’s been said that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. One of the gifts that we give to those that we listen to is focused attention through our listening. All of us long to have someone who is interested in our circumstances, our challenges, and our triumphs. Building friendships with unbelievers requires attentive listening. People all around you have a hunger to be heard... by you!

Becoming a focused listener takes practice though. It’s an art that takes work and effort on our part. One of the primary issues that we must wrestle with is our propensity to listen autobiographically. Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about four ways that we allow autobiographical listening to get in the way of true listening.

First, we often evaluate what others are saying to us. We begin wondering if we agree or disagree with the other person’s perspective. Are they right or wrong? Are their values in-line with what I think they should be or not? Next, if we’re not careful we will probe the person we are listening to from our own frame of reference. Did they handle this the way that I handled it in the past? Did this impact them the way it impacted me?


Learning Through ListeningThird, we can be guilty of interpreting the other person’s circumstances based on our own motives and behavior. We try to figure people out and explain their motives and behavior through what we would do or what motivates us. We project ourselves into their story. And finally, we then move to giving advice from what we have found helpful from our past experiences. We start fixing the other person from what has worked for us. Surely what has worked for me will work for you.

When we listen autobiographically, we rob the other person of an opportunity to be listened to without obstructive filters. Our past, our motives, our emotions are not what people need from us. They need someone who will get himself out of the way, open up his ears, and give his full undivided attention. Cultivating a friendship means that we understand the principle, “When we’re talking, we’re not listening.”

Most of us will need to tame our desire to listen autobiographically at different times. However, there are three core listening skills that will go a long way toward taming “me-centered” listening. Those three skills are: (1) Clarifying, (2) Word Pictures, and (3) Acknowledging.

Clarifying One of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re listening is to simply mirror back what you hear them saying. Phrases that clarify sound like:

“Is this what I hear you saying?”

“I sense that this is what you are saying...”

“It feels to me as if you are describing… Is that accurate?”

“Let me reflect back to you what I’m hearing...”

Clarifying demonstrates that you are listening for emotional texture and factual connections. It helps the other person know that you are tracking with them and that you understand how they view things.

Word Pictures Word Pictures tap into the right side of the brain and help the person to access feelings. Creating word pictures is a skill that takes practice and demonstrates effective listening. For example:

For someone who is confused you might say… “it sounds as if you are in a fog.”

For someone who is irritated you might say… “it feels like nails going down a chalk board.”


Learning Through ListeningFor someone entering a time of risk… “you’re about to get up on a big wave.”

For someone in a chaotic work environment… “it sounds like a cyclone.”

Acknowledging When we acknowledge we are communicating that we are able to “read between the lines” of what the other person is saying. Acknowledging is a powerful way to demonstrate that you’ve been listening on more than one level. It is a way to validate and affirm the person for what you see in them. It’s more about who they are than it is about what they are doing. Some acknowledging comments would be:

“It sounds as if this has been a very fulfilling time for you.”“It feels as if you are making significant progress.”“I hear a sense of disappointment from you when you talk about this setback.”“That took a tremendous amount of courage on your part.”“You are showing significant commitment to make this change in your life… Way to go!”

Debrief

Take some time as a group to talk about the article on listening. A few framing questions to get the discussion to started could be:

Question 1: How do we fall into the trap of autobiographical listening?

Question 2: Which of the four autobiographical listening tracks do you find yourself taking when listening to others?

Question 3: What stands out to you about the three listening skills of clarifying, word pictures, and acknowledging?

Case StudyHave everyone read the case study and then break up into in groups of 3s to work through the case study interaction exercises. After 10 minutes, bring everyone back together for a discussion on the case study and ask the groups to report in about the various kinds of listening responses they record.

15-20 minutes


Learning Through ListeningA neighbor you have befriended had this to say in a recent conversation:

“I’m really disappointed with the experience that my son is having in Little League this year. We weren’t sure if we should let him go up to the upper division this year. Now, we know we made a mistake. I feel so bad for him. He gets to bat once a game and play two innings in right field. On top of that, the coach keeps yelling at Tommy which has only made things worse. My husband would like to strangle the coach! I mean, where are the good old days, when youth sports used to be fun and not so competitive? At this point, my son is telling us that he doesn’t want to play baseball anymore. Can you imagine that? Baseball used to be so fun for him. He would play endlessly in the neighborhood. And now, to have it all come to such an abrupt stop because of one lousy coach. It’s soooo frustrating... and I feel partially to blame because he could have played in a lower division this year and we probably would have avoided all of this!”

Case Study InteractionRound 1If you were listening to this neighbor in the above case study, what would be some examples of autobiographical listening on your part? In other words, pretend that you have an opportunity to listen to this frustrated mother. How would you do it autobiographically?

Autobiographical Listening Examples:Evaluating

Probing

Advising

Interpreting


Learning Through ListeningRound 2If you were the listener in the above case study, what would be some examples of three core listening skills? In other words, pretend that you have an opportunity to respond to this neighbor. How would you do it through clarifying, word pictures, and acknowledging?

Core Listening Skills Examples:Clarifying

Word Pictures

Acknowledging

20 minutes Listening Practice

Break the room up into partners for some real life listening practice. “You’ll each have 7 minutes to listen to one another. When you are the person sharing, determine an area of your life that you would like to talk about. It could be a problem, a challenge, an opportunity, or a circumstance you find yourself in. When you are listening, try to talk as little as possible. Try to practice the three core skills of clarifying, word pictures, and acknowledging.”


Learning Through Listening5-10 minutes

Wrap-Up

Debrief

Bring the group together for a time to debrief and celebrate the learning by asking:

Question 1: How was it for you to practice the listening skills?

Question 2: What was it like being on the receiving end of someone listening to you?

Question 3: What is a new insight you’ve gained through this module?

Question 4: What is one way that you can improve as a listener?

In pairs or in groups of three, have each person identify an unbeliever that they would like to practice listening with this coming week. Close by praying for those conversations.


Harvest Time

Big RocksFacilitator Instructions: Read the following illustration to the group:

Imagine if you will a bucket and enough fist-sized rocks to fill the bucket. If you carefully arrange the rocks so that they fit into the bucket would it be full? Before you answer, now imagine you had some sand. You might be surprised how much sand you could pour into the bucket which had seemed to be full of the rocks. Guess what? The bucket would still not be full. You would find that you could pour a significant amount of water into the apparently full bucket. Question 1: Can anyone guess what would happen if you took the same amounts of rocks, sand, and water and tried to put them into the bucket in reverse order?

Question 2: How is this illustration like life?

Question 3: What does each of the objects (the big rocks, the sand, the water and the glass jar) represent?

154

Harvest Time


Key Point: The big rocks must be placed in the glass jar first. If the gravel and water is poured in first, there would be little room for the big rocks. It’s the same way in our lives…we must get the big rocks (our top priorities) in first by being proactive. After you have debriefed the illustration ask them to reflect in their notebooks. This is a time for them to brainstorm what the big rocks and the dirt and gravel represent in their own lives. Give them 3-5 minutes to work through this reflection piece. Take some time in pairs or as a whole group to share what various people identified as “big rocks” and “dirt and gravel.”

ReflectionThinking about your life and the Big Rocks illustration, what does each of the various elements represent for you?

My “Big Rocks” My “Sand and Gravel”

◊ ◊◊ ◊◊ ◊◊ ◊

155

Harvest Time


A Biblical View of the Big RocksFacilitator Instructions: Take time to read through the Mark 1 passage out loud and then work through the discussions questions together or in smaller groups.

And when evening had come, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was. And in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there. And Simon his companion hunted for Him; and they found Him and said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” And He said to them, ”Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, in order that I may preach there also; for that is what I came out for.” (Mark 1:32-38)

DebriefQuestion 1: What stands out to you from this passage?

Question 2: What do you think caused Jesus to get up so early and depart to a lonely place?

Question 3: What kind of reaction do you think the disciples and the people in town must have had when Jesus said it was time to move on to another area?

Question 4: What did Jesus indicate was His calling in life?

Question 5: In what ways did Jesus model “getting the big rocks in first?”

Question 6: When do you experience the “city at the door” in your life?

Question 7: In what other ways does this passage challenge you?

156

Harvest Time


Creating “Harvest Time”Facilitator Instructions: Ask everyone to slowly read through the article entitled, “Creating Harvest Time.”

Creating Harvest TimeIn his Summer 2001 Leadership Journal article entitled “The Art of Self Leadership,” Bill Hybels wrote:

Last summer I read an article that created some disequilibrium for me. The author, Dee Hock, challenged leaders to calculate how much time and energy they invest in each of these directions—people beneath them, over them, peers, and leading themselves. Since he’s been thinking and writing about leadership for over 20 years and is a laureate in the Business Hall of Fame, I wanted his wisdom. His recommendation: “We should invest 50 percent of our leadership amperage into the task of leading ourselves; and the remaining 50 percent should be divided into leading down, leading up, and leading laterally.” His numbers bothered me so much I put the article away…

While that was simmering, I read an article by Daniel Goleman, the author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence. Since that book was released in 1997, Goleman has been spending his time analyzing why some leaders develop to their fullest potential and why most hit a plateau far from their full potential. His conclusion? The difference is (you guessed it) self-leadership.

The on-going challenge of self-leadership is to not lose sight of the big rocks. Interestingly, very few leaders in the church have people hold them accountable for focusing on the big rocks, the truly important priorities, including personal evangelism.

One of the things that separate leaders from others is that they must see what no one else is seeing. They must exercise perspective and an ability to have bifocal vision: seeing both the immediate issues but also that which is out in the distance. But just like Jesus experienced in this passage...the whole city is at the door. There are incredible demands placed on leaders in today’s church. Needs are in every direction and all of them are legitimate and urgent! How is a leader to see what no one else can when there is so much “crowding around the door?” How is a leader to stay focused and fresh in an environment that consistently challenges the soul, mind and body? And where is a leader supposed to find time for people who are in the harvest field?

A part of the answer must be in a leader’s ability to take a page out of Jesus’ life and to exercise the discipline of retreat and reflection. Jesus must have been exhausted after ministering to the kinds of needs we see in Mark 1. But he departed and went out to a lonely place. And something wonderful happened for Him. Vitality, perspective, strength and a reconnection with the call that was on His life all began to seep back

157

Harvest Time


into His soul. So much so that He confounded His disciples by telling them that He needed to move on to another town. Other people’s agendas did not dictate what Jesus was going to give His life to.

God has invaluable treasures awaiting the leader who regularly withdraws from the battle front to replenish and refocus his life. Many leaders find that a monthly day-away has become the cornerstone of their effectiveness and vitality. Withdrawing has become for them the most important activity of the month! Let’s be honest though, ministry is often an adrenaline rush. We go from one meeting to the next, from one project to another, from one deep need to an even deeper need. Everything around you, “the city at the door,” will tell you that you can not withdraw. The enemy knows that life change is awaiting you at the summit where you meet with God and He shows you the next steps for the journey. Don’t be robbed of all that God has for you.

By taking time away from the office you will have the opportunity to slow your engine down long enough to get fresh perspective on your life. A part of the reflection needs to be centered around lost people. We need to ask ourselves confronting questions on a regular basis, such as:

• Are lost people one of my big rocks?• How much priority have I given to building into non-believers’ lives this

past month?• What is God asking me to do this month to invest in a friendship with

a non-believer?

DebriefQuestion 1: What stands out to you as you read through the article?

Question 2: Why don’t we reflect more often about our lives?

158

Harvest Time


Take a Personal RetreatFacilitator Instructions: Draw everyone’s attention to the “How to Have a Personal Retreat” section. Ask everyone to read through the components and then ask if anyone has anyone questions about the retreat format. Instruct the group that they will have an allotted period of time to give the 14 Personal Retreat Questions a try. Depending on the time you have, you might encourage individuals to work through all of the odd questions or all of the even questions. After the mini-retreat, bring everyone back together to debrief the experience by asking:

Question 1: What was the experience like for you?

Question 2: Which question generated the most reflection on your part?

HomeworkYour assignment is to schedule a personal retreat in the next month where you pilot the reflection process from this module.

Wrap-UpTo put a wrap on the session, pair people up to discuss the questions below and then to pray for one another.

Question 1: What was an insight you gained from this session?

Question 2: What will be a few obstacles you will face in having a personal retreat?

Question 3: When will be a good time in the next number of weeks to have an extended personal retreat?

159

Harvest Time


How to Have a Personal RetreatSlow Down JournalingHere are some ‘start-up’ sentences that will help you slow down and pry loose some thoughts and feelings as you start your day:

Lord, it is good to be together. It has been a long time since we....

Dear Lord, I invite you to invade my life this day. I desire to be with you. Lord, I want my life to...

Lord, I need to share my honest thoughts and struggles with you today. This is what’s on my heart....

Lord, my mind and heart are heavy right now. It’s tough to slow down because....

Enjoy God!What are the things that help you enjoy God? Bring some things with you that will help stir your heart towards the Lord. Here are some ideas of what others have found helpful

• Worship music on CD or cassette• Playing worship music• Praying through several of the Psalms• Writing about God’s love for you personally• Bring some songbooks and enjoy Him through song

ReflectionSpend 45 minutes journaling how you are doing in each of the unique roles that you have. Make sure to take time to celebrate “the good” of the last number of weeks as well as being honest about blockages or frustrations that you are facing. Take a look at your goals from the previous month. What went well? What could have gone better? What patterns are emerging?

Listening to GodWith pen and paper (refer to the 14 Personal Retreat Questions), prayerfully work through your next number of weeks and the various roles that you have. Simply ask, “Lord, what do I need to act on this coming month in this role?” Allow the Lord to bring issues and key leverage points to mind for you. Don’t rush through this time. Allow God to help you focus on what He thinks are the important issues for you to give attention to. What He is calling you to, He will also empower you for. How do you need to give priority to lost people?

160

Harvest Time


Crafting your Next MonthAt this point you should have a good handle on the core issues/goals that you need to act on in the next month. Now is the time to block out times in your diary in advance. This point in the day takes real effort but can pay huge dividends toward effectiveness and vitality. Operate off of the 80% rule: Don’t put a block of time in your diary unless you are at least 80% confident that you will act on it. The goal of this exercise is to integrate what you believe you are meant to focus on with your diary. Be wise and thoughtful about how you put the month together...it’s well worth the effort. Make room in your life for lost people.

Other tips for Monthly Days-Away1. Get out of your office for your time away. Preferably book a retreat center or

someone’s home for the day. Isolation and quiet will greatly enhance your ability to focus and experience God.

2. Block out your days away for the entire year. Get them into the calendar and stick to them with ruthless conviction. If you’re having trouble getting started or keeping the commitment, try going away with someone else for added accountability. Share lunch together and briefly pray for each other before re-engaging in the afternoon.

3. Unpack the mental suitcases when you first arrive (and throughout the day): Have some paper off to the side to jot ideas and “to-do’s” that come wafting into your mind during the day. Sometimes it’s helpful to simply write down everything that’s on your mind (burdens, worries, frustrations, action items, etc.) at the very beginning of the day. Do not allow them to become focal points or distractions. Simply jot them down and get back to where you were in your day.

161

Harvest Time


14 Personal Retreat Questions(to get you thinkin’!)

1. What is one thing that I’m not doing, that if I committed to doing, would make a significant, qualitative difference?

2. Who do I need to build or repair a relationship with?

3. How can I make deposits into the emotional bank account of another?

4. Where do I need to give attention to prevention?

5. In what ways can I increase my production capacity?

6. In what ways can I increase the production capacity of someone else?

7. In what ways do I need to be proactive as a parent and as a spouse?

8. What are the significant goals I need to prepare for?

9. Who are my customers and how can I seek to serve them?

10. What are some new opportunities to seize?

11. What do I need to dream and plan more effectively for?

12. Are lost people one of my big rocks?

13. How much priority have I given to building into non-believers’ lives this past month?

14. What is God asking me to do this month to invest in a friendship with a non-believer?

Notes


Vision Cycle

Speech ImpressionsHomework check-in: Spend time as a group debriefing the learnings and highlights from the homework.

Facilitator Instructions: You have two choices for opening up this module on vision. Option #1 is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech which you will ask the group to read. Option #2 is from the movie “Miracle.” Both op-tions will impact your group. You simply need to choose the one that works best for you. After debriefing the speech or the movie clip, pair people up for some personal sharing with the sharing questions.

Option 1: Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Turn to the last section of this module and read the Martin Luther King Jr. speech “ I Have a Dream.”

DebriefQuestion 1: What did reading the speech stir inside of you?

Question 2: What impresses you about this speech?

Question 3: What are some principles about Vision that we can apply in our

163

Vision Cycle


own lives?

Option 2: Miracle Movie Clip. The clip is entitled “This is your time” which starts at 1:36:15 and ends at 1:41:00. (If you have time, watching the whole game against the Soviet Union is a lot of fun…you’ll need about 20 extra minutes though.) Set up the clip up by letting them know where the scene picks up: “The film Miracle chron-icles the improbable true story of the U.S. Men’s ice hockey team from 1980. In this scene, Coach Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, gives an inspiring pre-game talk to his team before they meet the vaunted Soviet Union team that had not lost a game in international competition for years. Many of the Soviet Union players had been skating together for over a decade and were being opposed by a U.S. team made up of mainly college players who had only been playing together for a few months.” After the clip allow the discussion questions to guide the interaction on the scene. Debrief the movie using the questions below and then break the group up into smaller sharing groups for the sharing question.

Question 1: What dynamics did you see in this scene?

Question 2: What was going on inside of Coach Brooks?

Question 3: What was going on inside of the players in the locker room?

Sharing Question: In pairs, share about when you had a time or an experience when you worked hard on something, had a dream, met a need, accomplished a goal, or took a risk to make a difference. What was that experience like for you?

DebriefQuestion 1: What obstacles did the missionaries face? How did they overcome them?

164

Vision Cycle


Vision QuotesFacilitator Instructions: After the sharing ask people to turn to the Vision quotes and react to them by asking, “Which quote grabs you and why?”

“Every person has only enough strength to complete those assignments that they are fully convinced are important.” Goethe

“If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.” Senge

“A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.” Mahatma Gandhi

“The soul never thinks without a picture.” Aristotle

“Goals can be energizing when you win. But a vision is more powerful than a goal. A vision is enlivening, it’s spirit-giving, and it’s the guiding force behind all great human endeavors. Vision is about shared energy, a sense of awe, a sense of possibility.” Benjamin Zander, Conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

Understanding VisionFacilitator Instructions: After the discussion on the Vision Quotes draw everyone’s attention back into the article entitled “Understanding Vision.” Encourage everyone to read slowly, highlighting ideas that grab their attention.

Understanding Vision Stephen Covey in his bestseller, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, popularized the phrase “begin with the end in mind.” In today’s “time poor” world, the notion of vision for our lives can get lost somewhere between the bills, household chores, children’s activities, and the pressures at work. Some principles to consider…

George Barna puts it this way: “Vision is a picture held in your mind’s eye of the way things could or should be in the days ahead. Vision connotes a visual reality, a portrait of conditions that do not exist currently…It is not somebody else’s view of the future, but one that uniquely belongs to you…Vision is about stretching reality to extend beyond the existing state…To create a better situation you can either rely upon random circumstance and hope that the result is better than what has existed, or you can assert control over your environment, based on God’s empowerment and direction, and make a better future.” (from The Power of Vision, p. 29)

165

Vision Cycle


Vision is the ability to see God’s preferable future. It captures in a word picture what God wants to accomplish through the unique contribution of our lives. He has a unique purpose in mind. It is a purpose that is greater than just experiencing life. His purpose extends to shaping your life to have a significant impact for His Kingdom.

Andy Stanley has this to add, “What is a vision? Where do they come from? Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is emotionally involved-frustrated, brokenhearted, and maybe even angry- about the way things are in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for a vision. Visions form in the hearts of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo…Vision carries with it a sense of conviction. Anyone with a vision will tell you this is not merely something that could be done. This is something that should be done.” (from Visioneering, p. 17)

Consider the Vision Cycle for a moment. As you look around you, there are a number of “needs” that you could seek to meet. However, as you move through life, God may plant a “concern” in your heart for only a few needs- perhaps only one need. As that concern is nurtured through prayer, time and activity on your part, that concern could grow into a “burden.” As God gives you opportunity to minister to others through your sense of burden, a true sense of “passion” is born. And that passion becomes a “flame” as you minister to the need and grow in your conviction about the need.

Vision Cycle Case Study: Angel TreeMary Kay Mahaffey was released after serving over five years as a convicted bank robber. She soon married ex-prisoner Don Beard and joined the ministry, Prison Fellowship, as an area director for Alabama where she created Angel Tree.

One of her first jobs was to come up with a Christmas project. Her churches and volunteers asked which prisons they would visit and what gifts would they take. “I said, ‘Everyone does that. Let’s do something different.’”

She remembered the six Christmases she had spent behind bars. “Some Christian groups would come to the prison, and they would bring little trial size tubes of toothpaste, bars of soap, and bottles of shampoo. I noticed that women who never went to chapel or did anything Christian always went to those programs.

“I thought they were just greedy, but I saw them bring the items back to their cells and start organizing the stuff and trading with each other. And then they would divide the items up into piles and I realized that each pile was for one of their children. They would gather bits of colored paper and would

166

Vision Cycle


wrap those items. That’s what they would give their children as Christmas gifts because it was all they had. And I thought, ‘Just because she’s a thief or a drug addict, or possibly even a murderer, doesn’t mean she doesn’t love her children. Doesn’t mean she’s a bad Momma.’

“The week before Christmas, the children would come to the prison for their annual visit with their mothers, and they would receive these little gifts. The children would tear the wrapping off and barely glance at the gift but would throw their arms around their mother and say, ‘Oh, Momma, thank you, thank you.’

“You see, children don’t care about things if they know they are first of all loved.”

That Christmas, Mary Kay went back to the same prison where she had spent seven years and gathered names and addresses of children. Then she, her sister, and a handful of volunteers put up Christmas trees at two malls in Montgomery and Birmingham. “And we made paper angels—red for girls and green for boys—and on each angel we wrote the name and age of a child. And then we put them on the tree, an Angel Tree! That’s how we got the name.

“And I submitted an article to the newspapers about how children are the real victims of crime they are not responsible for what their adult parents do and yet they suffer. Children who have one adult in prison are six times more likely to get into trouble themselves as other children. So we advertised for the public ‘to come by and purchase a Christmas gift for an angel.’ I hoped that we could get Christmas for two or three hundred children. I had no idea what God would do with that project.

“Within six days we were out of names and I had to go back to the prison to get more. At the end of that first Angel Tree in 1982, 556 children had received up to four different gifts each.”

Then Mary Kay saw something else happen. “In January, all of my Bible study groups at that prison doubled or tripled. The newcomers were the inmates whose children had received gifts. They said, ‘Anyone who would get my child a gift is something special, so I decided to come and listen to this Bible study.’

“Well, many of those men and women came to Christ because you, the Body of Christ, the Christians on the outside, bought a gift for a child. You may never go inside a prison and yet the gift you purchase for a little child may be the very thing that God uses to touch a stony heart and redeem it for eternity.

“So the seed was planted at that county jail, where I was first incarcerated, Christmas 1972, when I thought about Christmas away from home. I was in prison and yet it was the church that remembered me. The Church is the only one to have the message of redemption, we are the only ones to have the answer to crime, we are the only ones who can reach people for eternity. You don’t necessarily have to go to a prison.

167

Vision Cycle


Sometimes it is just going out to the mall and buying a few gifts, but it can have eternal consequences.”

She saw another result, too — families reuniting as children who had not heard from dad for now received gifts from him. “Angel Tree was not my project; it wasn’t even my idea. It was God’s idea. He just allowed me to be the instrument that He used to plant the seed. It was the church, the Body of Christ, who came along to water and to nurture it.” The program branched to 12 states the following year and was soon restructured as a church-based program. Nearly 600,000 children were reached at Christmas 2000, bringing the cumulative total to more than five million children served by Angel Tree since Mary Kay Beard first thought about those little tubes of toothpaste.

DebriefQuestion 1: What stood out to you from the article?

Question 2: What impressed you about how Angel Tree got started?

168

Vision Cycle


The Vision Cycle (through the life of Nehemiah)Facilitator Instructions: After the discussion about the article, break the group into pairs for this opportunity to apply the Vision Cycle to the book of Nehemiah.

Remind the group about who Nehemiah was: Nehemiah continues the history of the Jews upon their return from exile in Babylon. Nehemiah was commissioned to go to Jerusalem to lead the people in repairing the protective walls around the city. He was a spiritual leader who led with vision and passion. Look through these passages and reflect on how the Vision Cycle played itself out in the life of Nehemiah and those around him.

Passage WhatdoyounoticeabouttheVisionCycle?

Nehemiah 1:1-4

Nehemiah 1:11-2:5 Nehemiah 2:11-13

Nehemiah 2:17-18

Nehemiah 2:19-20, 4:1-3

Nehemiah 4:12-21

Nehemiah 6:15-16

You and the Vision CycleFacilitator Instructions: Now it’s time to allow folks to personally interact with the vision material. This reflection exercise will focus on the vision cycle. Ask people to work on their own through the “You and the Vision Cycle” questions. Then pair them up in two or three to share about what they wrote.

1. When you look at your life over the last five to ten years, what are some needs that you have been drawn to?

2. What needs are you aware of in your church, workplace, neighborhood, and your sphere of friends?

3. Which of the needs that you’ve been drawn to have developed into a concern?

169

Vision Cycle


4. Have you ever experienced the dynamic of a need and a concern growing into a burden? How so?

5. Have you experienced the dynamics of ministering with a strongly felt passion?

6. Over the last 12-24 months, what needs and concerns have shown up on your radar screen?

7. In what ways do you feel like God may be trying to nurture a burden for one of these needs and concerns?

8. What would it look like in the future (12-36 months out) if you met this concern? What lives would be touched? What would be different specifically?

Homework and Wrap-Up

Facilitator Instructions: As a way to put a wrap on the session, highlight the two homework options. Remind them that this will be a way to put the Vision Cycle into practice by concentrating on needs in the community. If you have time, ask the group to share highlights from the training session and then close in prayer.

Option 1: Find a need and meet it. Over the next month, keep your ears and eyes open for a need in the community that you (or a group) could meet. The sky is the limit in regards to the possibilities. It could be a widow down the street, a homeless person, a crisis-pregnancy center or a local school. A part of the “magic” of the Vision Cycle is getting out into the community and finding out what the needs are. Concern in our hearts only grows when we are exposed to needs. Be prepared to report in next time on what the experience was like for you.

Option 2: Community assessment. Make it your aim over the next month to talk with people who have a pulse of the needs and concerns that your community is facing. You can call or visit a variety of places such as a school’s principal’s office, police station, social services office, child protective services, fire department, etc. Simply indicate that you are doing a project for your local church to find out what needs there are in the community. This can be a fantastic opportunity to talk with people who truly understand the heartbeat of your community. Bring your findings to the next training session.

170

Vision Cycle


“I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South.

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

171

Vision Cycle


When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”


Change Dynamics

Change Dynamics: Exodus 18:13-27Facilitator Instructions: As a whole group, read Exodus 18:13-27 and then discuss the passage with the following questions. Then break people up into pairs for the sharing question.

Question 1: What can we observe about Moses in this passage?

Question 2: What can we observe about Jethro?

Question 3: How do you think the situation had gotten so out of hand for Moses and the people?

Question 4: What does this say about changes Moses needed to make in his philosophy on leadership?

Sharing Question: In pairs, share about a time when you were a part of an organization in a change process that did or didn’t work. It could be a school, church, work or in the community. What was involved in the attempted change and why did (or didn’t) it work?

173

Change Dynamics


Picturing ChangeFacilitator Instructions: In the space provided, ask each person to take a minute and draw a picture representing a change and then to share it with a few others.

Draw a picture representing change:

174

Change Dynamics


Leading ChangeFacilitator Instructions: Direct everyone’s attention to the article entitled, “Leading Change” and have them slowly read it.

Leading ChangeOne of the most intriguing aspects of leading a church is the challenge of spear-heading and managing change. The local church is quite unique in that it is a volunteer organization which complicates any meaningful change process. However, one of the best thinkers related to organizational change dynamics is the author, John Kotter. In his breakthrough book entitled, Leading Change, Kotter studied a number of organizations who had attempted some type of transformation. He found that

“…in too many situations the improvements have been disappointing and the carnage has been appalling, with wasted resources and burned-out, scared, or frustrated employees. To some degree, the downside of change is inevitable. Whenever human communities are forced to adjust to shifting conditions, pain is ever present. But a significant amount of the waste and anguish we’ve witnessed in the last decade is avoidable. We’ve made a lot of errors…” (from Leading Change, p. 4)

Kotter’s Eight Stage ProcessAfter doing extensive research, Kotter was able to distill his findings into eight key transformation principles that embodied a successful change process.

Step 1: Establish a sense of urgency. Right from the very beginning leaders must ask themselves the key question: “Is there a significant sense around here that a change is necessary? This is more a matter of the heart than of the head. Is there a fire in the belly? Do people really want to change? Does everyone understand why a change is important? If a leader skips these questions and blazes into a transformation journey, he does so at his own peril. There must be emotional buy-in for people to make the necessary sacrifices that change inevitably requires. The preferred future that you are asking people to invest in must be compelling enough and urgent enough for them to roll up their sleeves and participate. Wise leaders, who are effective change agents, take the time to establish a true sense of urgency.

Step 2: Create a guiding coalition. In our culture, we have become enamored with the self-sufficient, go-getter, make-it-happen leader. We have built myths around superman sized leaders who are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and are able to change organizations through sheer determination and the force of their will. Yet, Kotter found that all meaningful change efforts were championed by teams of people and not by supermen. Change initiatives that gained traction were spear-headed by teams who had significant buy-in and

175

Change Dynamics


were representative of the organization. All this to say, organizational change can not be accomplished single-handedly. There must be a group of leaders who fight for the process and help sell it to the wider organization.

Step 3: Developing a Vision. Effective change is built on the ability of the leader and the guiding coalition in clarifying why change is needed and what changes are needed. The key words are clarify and clarity. At the end of the day, people want to know why a change is necessary. They want to be able to match current reality with the future reality that they are being called to. Much has been written in the last decade about developing vision. However, stated simply, people need to see the big picture when it comes to change. There must be a compelling reason that people can see, touch, taste and smell. Without it, leaders run the risk of not having buy-in when folks are asked to create that future with you. Kotter suggests that “developing a good vision is an exercise in both head and heart; it takes some time, it always involves a group of people, and it is tough to do well” (Leading Change, p. 79).

Step 4: Communicating the change vision. “…the real power of a vision is unleashed only when most of those involved in an enterprise or activity have a common understanding of its goals and direction” (Leading Change, p. 85). This step could also be summed up by the phrase, “What we have here is a failure to communicate!” Getting people on the same page takes consistent effort for a change process to be successful. People have so many demands coming at them that vie for their attention, and your change strategy is just one them. Creatively reminding folks in as many ways as possible will go a long way toward people staying on board. Kotter suggests that effective vision communication incorporates:

• Simplicity• Word pictures (metaphors and analogies)• Multiple forums (large and small gatherings of people)• Repetition• Interaction (engage others in two-way communication)

Step 5: Empowering others for action. A significant part of any successful change strategy must include equipping people with the skills and knowledge necessary to behave differently. Simply telling people to help create the new day without giving them the tools necessary to get there is very frustrating. Training and ongoing coaching need to be imbedded in the process so that individuals feel empowered to live differently. In addition, some activities in the organization may need to be discontinued or re-purposed so that people are freed up to give as much creative energy as possible to the fresh vision.

Step 6: Generating short-term wins. Church isn’t like professional sports where winning is the bottom-line. But leaders in the church must pay attention

176

Change Dynamics


to the development of momentum. Planning sessions, brochures and training courses are a part of the transformation journey. However, people need to see that progress is being made…that the ship is turning…that we are moving in the right direction. One of the critical pieces to this sense of momentum is short-term results. In other words, how can your church create a win in the near future that is related to the change process? A short-term win builds credibility and provides evidence that the sacrifices are worth it. Kotter suggests that most organizations will need some sense of at least one short-term win within six months of the change process starting.

Step 7: Don’t declare victory too soon. How long does it take for change to take root? In our microwave culture, we must remind ourselves that change is often slower than we would like. Gravity pull on a change process is always present and that’s why leaders need to be careful to not declare victory too soon. Whenever you let up before the job is truly done, critical momentum can be lost and an organization can start slipping (Kotter, p. 133). Resist the temptation to take a breather. Stay the course, keep after it; get your second wind.

Step 8: Anchor new approaches. Over time the new ideas, methods and approaches need to grow roots, ones that sink deep down into the very fabric of church life. Roots need constant watering if they are going to go deep. This means that the changes need to be monitored, discussed and revisited lest we grow shallow roots that will dry up in a year’s time. Keep in mind that new approaches will embed themselves in your church culture only after it’s become clear that they work.

DebriefQuestion 1: What did you find intriguing in the article?

Question 2: What did you find most challenging in the article?

Question 3: Which step(s) is hardest for you to lead and why?

177

Change Dynamics


Kotter’s Change Principles in the BibleFacilitator Instructions: Assign groups of two for this exercise. The goal of the exercise is to find several examples of Kotter’s principles scattered throughout the Bible. Give each group 10-12 minutes and then compare and contrast as a whole group for a few minutes to share insights. “Find several examples of Kotter’s various steps (it doesn’t have to be all eight steps) scattered throughout the Bible. Think of leaders like Jesus, Paul, Peter, Nehemiah, Moses and others to see which of Kotter’s change steps can be found in the Bible.”

Biblical leader Kotter’s Change Steps

Me and KotterFacilitator Instructions: Now the application of Kotter will turn specifically to each participant. This will be a time to reflect on how Kotter’s ideas can and should influence how they lead and manage change. Pair people for sharing and a time to pray for each other regarding what has been shared.

DebriefQuestion 1: Which ideas stood out to me from the article?

Question 2: In what way(s) do I need to lead change more effectively in the future?

178

Change Dynamics


Biblical leader Kotter’s Change Steps

Sense of Urgency

Guiding Coalition

Developing Vision

Communicating Vision

Empowering Others

Short Term Wins

Not Declaring Victory

Anchoring the Change

179

Change Dynamics


Homework and Wrap-Up 1. Teach Kotter’s eight step process in the next 30 days (elders, a committee,

a sermon, a council, etc.).

Saddleback would like to thank Dwight Marable of Missions International for his assistance in putting together this training. He also provides personalized training and consultation for churches.

Email: [email protected]: 615-599-5499Fax: 615-599-5349Mail: P.O. Box 681299 Franklin, TN 37068-1299

Church Planting Movements PEACE - Curtis Sergeant

Documents

Transcript of Church Planting Movements PEACE - Curtis Sergeant