Steve Smith with the help of Ying Kai has written a book
that is actually “the story behind the world’s fastest growing Church Planting
Movement (CPM) and how it can happen in your community.” In short this process
is known as “Training for Trainers” or T4T. The story is written in such a way
that it gives the foundation for T4T, the process of T4T, and the application
of T4T.
Smith
proposes that the main idea behind T4T is training Christians in church
planting movements. This idea came about when he was tasked with planting a
single church every year for five years, but somehow mistakenly had planted 200
in three months. The difference between what those over him had instructed him
to do and what he did was he expected those he trained to train others, which
turned into T4T.
Smith turns
to the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit fell and through his power there was
a movement of people that came to faith and the church was started. Although
these church planting movements are not happening in the same way, the power
behind them is the same Holy Spirit. In its most simple form this movement
comes from one following Jesus and fishing for men (Mark 1:17).
Smith looks
to the church at Ephesus in Acts 19 for his basis of a discipleship revolution
where Paul won a few people and then trained them that led to a movement spread
by new believers. He contrast this to most of what is observed in the church
today with only the professionals trained, leaving the majority of the church
on the sidelines. The movement started in Acts was due to the everyday,
ordinary new believer.
A key
component of the T4T story is the interpretation of the Great Commission. Smith
shows how many have misinterpreted this passage or have it confused. He believes
that the church should view it this way: “Go, not come, everyone, not some, and
make trainers (disciples) not just church members. He proposes that the next step would be to
implement Paul’s strategy of investing in young Timothy (2 Timothy 2:2).
Smith
realized in his own story that many Christians were simply not sharing the
gospel and he came up with three reasons why. First, people were not aware of
the reason for sharing the gospel. Second, people were not aware of whom the
gospel should be shared. Third, people were not aware of how to share the
gospel. As a result Smith started to train everyone because he realized that is
what it would take.
Some have
questioned the validity of T4T, but many just want to know why and how it is working.
Smith believes that the basis for its success is its biblical principle. The
only way to discover good soil is to sow a lot and within the soil a CPM is
birthed. Another reason that Smith believes it is working is because the push
is not for decisions, but for disciples. The way in which a T4T trainer
assesses ones maturity is not their knowledge, but their obedience to what they
do know.
Smith makes
sure to point out that T4T is not a lesson, but an ongoing process. He points
to the problem of the spread of a CPM throughout history has been the
unwillingness of laborers (Luke 10:2). Although he distinguishes that a CPM
must be Holy Spirit driven, Smith believes that by following the general T4T
process one will see a CPM. The beginning process of a CPM is evangelism,
discipleship, church planting, leadership development, and a recurring cycle.
Smith
firmly believes in training everyone, but he also shows that likely only twenty
percent of those trained will actually go on to become trainers themselves. Although
filtering is part of the T4T process, most of this will happen on its on through
what Smith calls obedient based discipleship. In other words, most people will
naturally filter themselves out of a group by failure to show up or by
disobedience.
Smith
presents the T4T model as a three-thirds process. First, is looking back, which
includes: pastoral care, worship, accountability, and vision casting. Second,
is looking up, which includes a new lesson with short-term and long-term
discipleship plans in place. Third, is looking ahead through practicing the new
lesson and setting goals for the future.
Once a
group gets started, Smith shows what things need to be in place in order for it
to continue and to sustain the movement. Although he recognizes that in order
to have growth, one will have a mess because it easily gets out of control.
What Smith hopes to do through T4T is help you to know what to do at each stage
of a group and a movement.
In the
final section of the book, Smith gets away from the story of T4T and moves into
the practical side of how one can apply it in their own ministry context. He
simply starts with sharing the gospel, make disciples of those that respond
with baptism being the first step of discipleship, form the new disciples into
churches, and reproduce leaders. In sharing the gospel, Smith points out to sow
broadly because we do not know whom God has prepared to respond. Looking back
to the command to make disciples in the Great Commission, Smith proposes that
there be both a short-term and long-term discipleship plans in place.
PERSONAL REACTION
Smith has
written a book on the story behind the world’s fastest growing Church Planting
Movement and then shows how it can happen in ones own community. Although it is
a story, it does not read like most stories, but more like a book that gives
facts about what happened and how one can hopefully transfer the same happening
into their context. If the goal was a story then the job was not completed, but
if the goal was to give some parts of the story with the foundation, process,
and application then the goal was met.
Personally,
I did not mind the way in which the book was written because it helped me break
down each stage of how this story unfolded. I can see where it may be slightly
confusing to someone their first time hearing or reading about this process
though. In my current ministry context
my team has implemented much of T4T so in reading the book it was not my first
exposure to training for trainers.
The way in
which Smith chose to break the book up into three main parts was helpful
because in laying the foundation as he did and then showing the process, it was
not a stretch to see how the application would work. If he only reported what
happened but did not give us the foundation and process then it would be much
harder to believe how one can apply it in any context. The encouraging thing is
how it is being reported that the T4T process is working all over the world
now.
This book
rightfully points out that this process is not a revolution but a rediscovering
of a revolution that if applied can help see church planting movements all over
the globe. Smith helps the reader see that this was not something magical that
himself and Ying Kai developed, but that it was simply returning to a simple
process that can be seen in the New Testament. It is encouraging how it is
written and the process shows that any Christian has the potential to be a
trainer and see great things happen for Jesus.
Although I
have already recognized the importance of the foundation and the process, my
favorite part of the book is the application section. The reason being that
people are often told the “what” or “why” without the how. Smith has done a
good job of giving the “what” and “why” with the “how.” In this case the how or
application section of the book is the majority of the book. The foundation and
process are a combined ten chapters whereas the application is eleven chapters
by itself.
Overall I
enjoyed reading this book and agree with the overall presentation. A major
reason that I am in favor of this book is because it is very similar to the
current practice that I have been implementing in my own life and ministry in
India for the past two years. If more people in the Western context would
implement a T4T type of strategy then I believe we would see many more
communities reached for Jesus in a much quicker way than with some of the
current models being practiced.
In
concluding, this book is a helpful piece into the story behind a noteworthy
church planting movement and what it will take to see it happen in other
contexts. I personally know many people implementing it around the world and
for that I am grateful; but I sense that the majority of the American church
will ignore its significance. As for me, I plan on continuing to implement its
three-thirds process and plan to reference it in my own ministry for years to
come.
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