Tag Archives: T4T
Church Planting Discipleship Missions

What NOT to Depend on in Disciple Making

By on Sunday, April 2, 2023
discipleship

Discipleship, especially when you are wanting to make true disciple makers, is a process that can seem long and difficult. We often look for shortcuts.

Have you ever found yourself trying to go somewhere fast and then decided to take a shortcut? You see this little lane and you are pretty sure it will cut through to the main road? “I’ll go for it,” you think. It seems like a good idea that will save you time and get you there faster.

As you are driving along on your motorbike or in your car, suddenly, the road narrows and there is a huge truck parked in the road. You can’t get by because the road is too narrow. That has happened to me more than once. Another time, I came up the road and suddenly found a big pile of rocks dumped in the road for the construction of a nearby building. Then there were the times I took a shorter road but hit an avalanche. When this happens, you back up, turn around, and by the time you get back to where you started from, you are frustrated, annoyed and it is 15 minutes later but you are still at the same place. read more

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Church Planting Discipleship Missions

Staying Focused as Disciple Makers

By on Sunday, October 23, 2022

What is the number one enemy you will face as you pursue the release of a Disciple Making Movement among the unreached? One would imagine that it would be intense spiritual warfare, keeping a visa platform, persecution, or some other kind of external challenge. Those are real and they are there to be sure. In my opinion, however, the greatest obstacle for those pursuing the release of a movement, is the inability to stay focused on what is most important. The tendency to become distracted doing many good things without doing what iblack-and-white-1845826_1280s most important is typical of those who hope to see movements but don’t.

Busyness is a major enemy in our lives. We can easily get so busy that we don’t have time to pray, to listen to God, to share good news with the Lost, or to adequately spend time with those who are expressing interest in coming to faith. These things usually happen in the early stages of our efforts to start a movement. When we don’t see things “take off” as fast as we had hoped, we allow ourselves to get involved in other ministry tasks that give us a bit of a sense of fulfillment. Teaching here or there, doing emails, making a video for a church about what we do, attending a seminar or conference someone invited us to…suddenly we realize we have had little time for the task of disciple making.

Later, when (and if) we do have some disciples and the first church gets going, it is again easy to become busy with things related to that church’s programs rather than continuing to pursue relationships with the Lost, or to invest in quality disciple making. We make the mistake of thinking that a weekly meeting of a few hours will make quality disciples. We fail to truly invest our lives in those God has given us whether it be in detailed prayer for them, or in developing deep relationships.

One of my favorite Old Testament Bible Heros is Nehemiah. In tnature-1984314_1280he sixth chapter of the book that bears his name, messengers come asking Nehemiah to attend a meeting with Sanballat and Geshem. Instead of agreeing he says,

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3)

Nehemiah is completely focused on his God-given task. He is not going to stop his work to go and resolve a conflict, listen to his enemies, or attend a meeting. He knows how to say a clear “no.” He continues to focus on what is most important. We need to do the same.

How hard is it for you to stay focused on what is really important? Do you clearly know in your own mind what is most important in light of your goal to see a movement of disciples?

In a recent training I asked the participants to make a list of everything they had done in the last week that took more than an hour of their time. After they had listed at least 15 things, I asked them to circle which of those things directly related to making disciples among the unreached. It was eye-opening for many of them to see how little time they actually devoted to the task they said was their primary vision. We all would benefit from a similar exercise from time to time.

Feeling convicted? I truly hope you don’t feel condemned. It’s very human to get distracted and not at all uncommon! Instead of feeling bad, look carefully at where you are at. Recommit yourself to stay focused on your true calling as a disciple-maker and messenger of the good news. Be willing like Nehemiah to say no to some things so you can say yes to what is really important.

The unreached wait to hear your message. New disciples wait to be encouraged, trained and mentored. Let’s get busy doing the most important things that lead to the release of movements.

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Church Planting Discipleship Evangelism Prayer

What is a Lost and Saved List?

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Lost and Saved List

Do you have a favorite tool for gardening or working in the kitchen? At our house, we have a favorite knife. It is sharp and the handle is just the right size. It works well for chopping about anything. If my husband and I are both in the kitchen, there sometimes is a competition for who gets to use that knife! Tools are important in seeing progress and becoming effective. The T4T Lost and Saved list is one of the best tools I have used. It will help you train people to start Disciple Making Movements.

What Makes This Tool Powerful?

What is a T4T Lost and Saved List? How does it work? What are the benefits of using one? The simplicity and power of this tool is amazing. It helps us identify people in our lives who we already have relationships with, but they do not know the Lord. The list also shows us who we could begin to train. Using this inventory of people we already know helps to shift our mindset from thinking of ourselves only as a trainee. We begin to think of ourselves as a trainer of trainers. It also gets us started with a regular habit of prayer that will deeply impact our disciple making.

My Lost And Saved List

On one side of my list are the names of my neighbors. The name of the girl who works at the coffee shop I frequent once a week is on my list. My language helper’s names are there too. On the other side of the list are names of movement leaders and people I have trained. Every day I spend time praying for these people. I pray for their children and for their health issues. I pray that their hearts will open to the gospel. Boldness and faith for the movement leaders, as well as protection from persecution, are other things I pray. I keep this Lost and Saved List in my Bible and also on my computer. The daily habit of praying for these people makes a big difference in my heart attitudes. It has affected my fruitfulness too.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Rom. 12:12- NIV

Learning to Make A Lost And Saved List

I first learned about making a Lost and Saved List from Ying Kai, the man who started T4T. I am so grateful to him for teaching me about this tool! Ying came to our region and ran a seminar for us about T4T. One of the first things he had us do was to make a two-column list on a piece of paper. On one side we were to write down a list of “Lost” people we knew. On the other side, we were to write down a list of “Saved” people we knew.

Lost and Saved List
Ying and Grace Kai of T4T (Training for Trainers).

It was actually kind of hard for me at that point to write down very many lost people’s names. I was able to list three or four. I realized that I didn’t have that many relationships with people who didn’t already know Jesus!

My right-hand column, the “Saved” List, was easier. I wrote down the names of 15 or 20 people.
Then, Ying challenged us to pray daily for these two lists of people in a detailed way. That was the starting point- regular, daily prayer for them. As we prayed, we were also to choose 5 people from each column that we would take an action with.

For the “Lost” people, we were to choose 5 people that we would share our testimony with that week. We might have 15 or 20 names there. Every day, he encouraged us, we should pray for each person. But we don’t stop only with prayer. As we pray, we also share the good news.

The same with the other side. The “Saved” people are those we can train! As we learn how to share our testimony and the story of Jesus, we can train them to do the same. We need to pray regularly for these people too. Pray that God will help them to be bold in sharing their faith. We pray they will put into practice what we are training them to do. We pray for other needs in their lives as well.

Lost and Saved ListMaking a Lost and Saved List, and continuing to use it on a daily basis, is an incredibly powerful tool! It has changed my behavior and made me more fruitful. I have taught this tool to hundreds of local believers, church planters, and trainers. I’ve seen it change their lives and make them more fruitful too.

Why This Tool Is Effective

1) Having a Saved List helps us see ourselves as trainers of trainers.
It shifts our mindset. We are not only being trained, we are passing on what we know to others. It helps identify who those people are that we can train. Your “Saved Lists” of those you are training could be the beginning of 2nd generation groups. But first, the mindset has to shift from being trained to becoming a trainer of trainers.

2) Praying daily for specific lost people increases your love, passion, and boldness.
As I pray for people, my heart connects to them more. I start to feel God’s heart for them. This affects how much time I am willing to give up on other things in order to spend time with them. My priorities begin to shift as I daily pray for this list.

3) Having a list makes us more intentional about developing relationships with lost people.
I now notice the vegetable seller and street sweeper. It encourages me to talk to them more. Now I want to know their name and enough about them to start praying for them. I want to add them to my list.

4) It increases boldness.
As I pray for my Lost List daily, and as I chose 5 people to try to share the gospel with, I become bolder. I am now looking for opportunities to talk to them about Jesus. Watchful for needs they express, I step into those situations more actively. I find myself offering to pray for them when they are sick. My boldness goes up dramatically when I pray daily for these people by name.

Get Started Today!

Do you have a Lost and Saved List already? If you do, set a specific time each day to pray over these names and lift them up to the Lord. Establishing this as a habit will make a big difference in your disciple making efforts.

If you have never made this kind of list before, why not do that now? Take out a sheet of paper and make two columns, one for Lost and one for Saved. Write down the names of people you know on each side. Determine to pray for them each day. Put a star next to the five people you will try to share your testimony with this week (from the Lost side). Train your disciples to do the same! The impact of this tool will be immediate. Give it a try!

Have questions or comments? Post them on our DMM Facebook page!

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Church Planting Generational growth

5 Steps for Moving from 1st Generation groups to 2nd, 3rd and Beyond

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
generational growth in disciple making movements

How Do You Get Generational Growth In Disciple Making Movements?

They were a faithful and passionate team of local workers. They shared the gospel often and led people to the Lord. They worked hard. They had started 10 1st generation groups of disciples. Not too bad by most peoples’ standards. Generational growth in disciple making had not yet begun though.

They were stuck at 1st generation (1G) growth. They only knew how to start groups themselves. They didn’t know how to get the believers in those groups to start new groups. Sound familiar?

Is This Your Team? Or A Team You Are Training?

As we began to work with them, things began to change. Today, they have reached 6th generation growth and the movement has grown by about 400%!

What do you do to get from seeing only 1st Generation growth in disciple-making to seeing many generations?

5 Steps To Increase DMM Generational Growth:

1. Share A Clear Vision For A Disciple Making Movement.

A Clear Vision for a DMM must be understood and owned by the existing churches and believers or you will find it difficult to see generational growth. Do all the believers understand what a Disciple Making Movement is? Do they understand why a DMM will reach more lost people than if you are just a traditional church? Have they prayed and received this as their own? Have you shared scriptures about how the gospel spread and multiplied in the book of Acts?

Regularly share the Vision for a Movement until it takes root in their hearts.

Then share the Vision over and over each time you meet.

2. Train Everyone To Share Their Testimony

Use a simple method to train everyone to share their testimony in 3-5 minutes. I like to use Ying Kai’s 3 steps from T4T.

  1. Before I met Jesus-what was my life like?
  2. How I met Jesus- briefly who shared with me and what they shared.
  3. After I met Jesus- what changed and how was my life different?

After you introduce this, get them to practice it several times. Then set goals for who you will share your testimony within the coming week.

In one place, a church planter did this and one of the believers immediately turned around and led about 50 people to Christ!

3. Filter and Focus On The Obedient Disciples

After you train them on how to share their testimony, practice friendly accountability. Watch and see who is doing what they learned.

Whenever you teach a new skill and set goals, ALWAYS check and see who actually did what they said they would do. Celebrate and affirm those people and invest more in them. These are the people with the potential to start new groups!

4. Lead Them On A Clear And Simple Path Forward To Starting A New Group

Almost everywhere we train, we find that the natural tendency when someone leads a friend to the Lord is to want to bring them to the church (or house group) that they are already a part of. If you want to see second-generation groups start though, you can’t do that. Instead, you have to get them to start a new discipleship group through that new person who is believing.

For that to happen,

they have to gain confidence that they know what to do when they begin to meet that person to disciple them read more

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