7. Training For Trainers (T4T)

1. BACKGROUND

Ying Kai was a missionary to China who planted 11 traditional churches over a number of years in the 1990’s. Then he saw his small struggling movement of converts and followers turn into a multi-million person mass movement of over 2 million strong disciples by changing the way he did things.

He changed by moving from the Western model of church to a DMM model. He wanted to see a movement that would touch China and knew he had to motivate his traditional church-going Christians to do the job. So after searching the scriptures for how things were done in the Gospels he started training his people in DMM.

It is very hard to change traditional Christians into DMM workers. Ying Kai found that the process of transformation from fruitless Christians to highly productive servants of God did not come instantly. But, as he often says, neither was it rocket science.

As Ying dialogued with the Christian men and women who came to his very first training sessions in the new system, he discovered the fears and limitations that bound them and prevented them from being fruitful servants. As he listened and prayed he was able to summarize their core concerns into four key questions. When he provided them with answers to those questions, they were then able to effectively share their faith with family members and friends.

Their questions boiled down to four consistent ones. These were:

  1. What do I say?
  2. Who do I speak to?
  3. Why should I do this?
  4. What if they say yes to Jesus?

As Ying Kai trained them in these four areas he began to see great fruit and the amazing DMM movement was born.

2. QUESTIONS ONE

What do I say?

The first common question was surprising. Ying sadly realised that he had never taught his people how to witness! As he prayed he felt God give him an answer to that question:

The answer was simple. Ying started to teach them to formulate their own life and salvation in a 2-3 minute presentation to share with others. This helped overcome fear, which is the greatest stumbling block to evangelism. Therefore the starting point of T4T training simply involves writing and practicing your salvation story. Here is a sample of what they were taught to say:

The message of salvation

God created us because He wanted a special relationship with us. Every day He provides for us so many things that we take for granted, like the air we breathe, our daily food and drink, our loved ones, and much more. We take these things for granted because we don’t really know God. God is calling you right now to stop living in ignorance of Him, to come close to Him and know Him. Jesus has changed my life.

Then they would share their personal transformation story.

3. QUESTION TWO

Who do I speak to?

The next common question Ying’s people asked was equally profound and simple. His people didn’t know who to witness to. After more prayer Ying realised the obvious answer was people they knew rather than people they did not know, their oikos. These nearby people are better prepared to listen to what you say because they know you and respect you.

Ying asked his people to write a list of all the people they knew. Then pray and ask the Lord for the names of those who they should prioritise in this list.

4. QUESTION THREE

Why should I do this?

Then he realised he had also not taught them why we evangelise! In the first week Ying asked his people to share their story with their friends and family. However he found at the end of the week that most did nothing. Two shared twice and one share around 13 times! Those that did nothing justified it by asking why they should be evangelising. So Ying then realised he needed to create an accountability system to make sure his people made evangelism a priority.

He decided to introduce a system of accountability that would spur his people on to good works. He told them they had to make a personal commitment as a group to share their story with five in the next week. It worked. The increase in Gospel seeds sown resulted in a bigger harvest.

This became the most important part of T4T: A public commitment to regularly share your personal salvation story with X number of people around you, especially with those whose hearts God is preparing to listen and respond positively.

5. QUESTION FOUR

What if they say yes to Jesus?

Finally, Ying started to see results. So the next question people were wondering about was what to do if someone whom God had prepared said yes to Jesus. He developed a simply plan that they learnt off by heart and it looks something like this:

Here is what God did for us:

  1. What does sin do in our life? It separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2)
  2. Who has sinned? All have sinned (Romans 3:23)
  3. Can we work our way into God’s favour? No, it is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  4. Why is it a free gift? Jesus paid the price (1 Peter 3:18)

This is how we respond:

  1. We put our faith in him (Romans 3:22)
  2. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth (Romans 10:9-10)

The result is amazing

  1. Eternal life in relationship with God (John 10:28)
  2. God’s Spirit lives inside us (John 14:15)

The Prayer of salvation

Dear God, I know that I have sinned and that my sin has separated me from You. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my way of life toward You. Please forgive me, and save me. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, was raised from the dead, is alive today, and hears my prayer. Jesus, I invite you to become the Lord of my life from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Expect change.

Here are some of the new experiences and changes they were told to share with the new disciple:

Desire to read the Bible

Concern for others

My life is now moving in the right direction

Inner peace

Awareness of sin

Awareness of God’s love

Ability to overcome sin

And if we stumble and fall in the future, it’s Ok (1 John 1:9)

The system Ying Kai developed is now known as T4T was born and is now being used around the world. It is simple and quickly reproducible in new disciples. That’s why it works. Following a person’s salvation there were a series of discipleship lesson Ying Kai developed. However they are very similar to the 4 Fields pattern in this seminar so we will stick to the 4 Fields format.

6. ACTION

Task one:

  1. Write your 2 minute salvation story.
  2. Practice it until you have memorised it.

Task two:

  1. Write a list of the people you know.
  2. Group them into fives and prioritise until you find the top five that need to hear your story.

Task three:

  1. Decide and make public that you are going to share your faith X times in the next week. with people who don’t know Jesus.
  2. Pray every day for the Holy Spirit to set up divine appointments so this can happen.
  3. Plan who you will share with and organise to meet them.

Task four:

Practice the scriptures and system details of question T4T. Learn everything off by heart so you are ready to lead someone to Jesus.