T4T

            Earlier this year, I had lunch with my pastor, Steve DeLisle. George Cooper (a former student of mine), came over to our table and greeted me. I introduced him to Steve, and he proceeded to tell us about T4T – Training for Trainers. And now I want to tell you about T4T.

            About 14 years ago, a Chinese-American missionary named Ying Kai started T4T, a movement in which 158,000 house churches have been started and 1.7 million people baptized (so far!).

Ying and his wife Grace had served as missionaries in an Asian city where they started a new church every year, but in 2000, his mission board assigned him to reach 20 million people in one of Asia’s many crowded countries. This challenge was so overwhelming that planting one church a year could never succeed in reaching 20,000,000 people!

In October 2000, Ying saw a poster: “How many of my people will hear the gospel today?” He knew that ministry-as-usual would never win the millions in his new assignment. Something had to change.

As he prayed and meditated, the Lord brought the Great Commission to mind:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20, NIV).

The Lord gave Ying these insights: 

(1) "Go, not come" -- Jesus says we are to go, not invite people to come to us. We must go to where the lost are, and train the new believers also to go to their factories, homes, shops and neighborhoods. This is in line with my translation of Matt. 28:18 – “As you are going…” J

(2) "Everyone, not some" -- We must make disciples of all, not just a few. We typically choose with whom we want to share the gospel, trying to pre-judge who might accept it. But Jesus said for everyone to share with everyone. We cannot predict who will believe and whom God will use to birth a movement.

(3) "Make disciples, not church members" -- We must not satisfy ourselves with making converts and church members. Jesus commanded much more. He wants true disciples. And what do true disciples do? They obey Jesus’ command to witness to others and train these new believers to do the same. So every disciple must be a discipler. 

(4) "Baptize them" -- as Ying thought, he realized that baptism is in essence a public testimony, so he determined to train everyone to be able to share their faith story in 2 minutes or less.

(5) "Teach them" -- These new disciples must be taught God's word and must be able to teach others also. 

(6) "To obey" -- Ying determined that a major shift must be made from "knowledge-based" discipleship to "obedience-based" discipleship. It is not enough to know God's word, we must obey it. 

Through these insights a simple method emerged: training disciples who train disciples who train disciples. Ying called it "Training for Trainers," which was shortened to T4T.

As a scholar, my first question was, “OK, fine. Well and good. This works in Asia. But what about other contexts? Like mine? North America?”

So I began investigating. I found a local pastor who is well versed in T4T, and has based his whole ministry on discipling others who disciple others who disciple others. His name is Gary Stump. The church is Onward Church in Fishers, Indiana (http://www.onwardchurch.org/).

I corresponded with Gary, then we got together for lunch. I’m convinced that this man of God has one and only one motive: to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to train disciples who train disciples who train disciples.

Gary offered to take me through the training, which consists of six sessions. I accepted.

Then he asked, “Who else could you bring with you?” And I responded like Ralph Cramden, “Hamana-hamana-hamana-hamana.” J

I ended up speaking with my pastor, and together we decided to invite members of our congregation to come to the training. Imagine my surprise when 20 people accepted the invitation and came to the first session! Most returned for the second session.

So we are well on our way to being trained in T4T! At this early point in the process, I recommend it without reservation. I have read the training materials for all six sessions, and heartily endorse T4T. It is biblically sound and good for use in any Christian context.

If you want to know more about T4T, visit http://t4tonline.org/. There are lots of helpful resources right there.