T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution: The Story Behind the World's Fastest Growing Church Planting Movement and How it Can Happen in Your Community! Paperback – January 1, 2011

I bought this book for a friend and he seems to really enjoy it.

This is a book that will challenge your paradigms about discipleship. Traditionally, we like to see disciples grounded in the Word, and proven in their character before we empower them for kingdom service. Often, we limit the expansion of the church until the congregation has reached a certain size. Whether spoken or not, our measure of spiritual maturity usually emphasizes knowledge rather than obedience. The Training for Trainers (T4T) method presented in this book challenges all of these paradigms of maturing before serving, growing before multiplying, and obedience over knowledge.However, T4T is much more than just a discipleship method. T4T integrates all the basics of a church planting movement (CPM) into one comprehensive solution that accomplishes the elements of a CPM, namely evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and leadership development. CPM practitioners no longer have to resort to an assortment of methods but have what the authors claim is a "Swiss Army knife" amongst all CPM approaches. Built into the T4T method is a repeating process that trains believers, enabling them to practice and eventually progress to become trainers themselves of other disciples.At the heart of T4T is an understanding that discipleship can be reduced to a dual responsibility of following Jesus and fishing for men. Disciples are not only positioned to receive teaching but also to reciprocate by giving of themseves to the expansion of the kingdom. In that regard, T4T uses the term "trainers" for disciples and builds on the goal of multiplying generations of trainers. The T4T process elevates the primacy of the Great Commision and empowers a new believer to witness and share the gospel from the get-go. This approach stands in stark contrast to many discipleship programs which are usually knowledge driven and focused on the spiritual formation of a new believer. For the T4T method, a new believer's being, belonging, and behaving are all occurring simultaneously.But what is radical about T4T is that not only is a new believer encouraged and is held accountable to witness for the gospel, but they are also given the mandate to start new T4T groups and train others that they bring to faith. The infancy of a believer is not a gating factor for him (or her) to begin to train others. The authors point out that many CPMs are stalled because leadership have control issues and fall short on trusting the control of the Holy Spirit in empowering new believers. While I am in full support of the idea of empowering the priesthood of believers, the T4T approach does beg the question of sustainability in spiritual growth. Even though there is a continuing training-on-the-job in the T4T process, the question remains whether a new believer can carry out his leadership and pastoral role in his new groups with divine distinction. In matters of pastoral care and vision-casting, can a person whose own heart has yet to have been sufficiently exposed and trained by a reasonable body of divine content be able to teach others (Mt 10:24, Lk 6:40)? Along the same veins, I also find the lack of discussion on spiritual gifting and calling somewhat troubling. The underlying tone of the book seems to point fruitfulness as a direct result of hard work and resolve. Performance orientation is emphasized as the authors suggest investing in those who are fruitful (identified as "Trainer of Trainers"). The authors also seem to be saying "size matters" when they remarked that the character requirements of a leader is dependent on the congregration size.In conclusion, T4T raises some stirring questions about our paradigms in discipleship that deserve due reflection. However, the theological and pastoral concerns I have of the approach makes me wonder if in God's economy, does the end justify the means?

So I've seen this philosophy up close In Asia, read the book and had lengthy conversations with the proponents. I'm a mixed bag. I really want to believe it's stories but I pause.Bottom line if you are new. T4T is a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement. The proponents want to focus on disciples that produce disciples, who reproduce disciples, etc. Their methods are biblical, firmly rooted in telling the stories of the Bible.At best for use in America, T4T will teach you how to share your testimony in a short manner. And it will encourage you practically how to lead Bible studies with interested people. T4T folks advocate simple (yet not simplistic) ways to study the Bible. The proponents have really good critiques of our American inwardly turned churches, and some good insight to listen in on.Yet, I pause.The downsides for me are the fact that "Jesus alone" is always a tough concept. Missionaries and pastors will tell that new converts will always want to add Jesus to the list of stuff they have been doing for their whole life i.e. syncretism. Thus the need to continued study, mentorship and Holy Spirit guidance.So in a T4T style church planting movement people are pushed into leading often before they are even saved. So what happens is someone starts a movement, we'll call them "generation one"--it's the starter of the movement. So "generation one" people are encouraged to lead a small group (or in a closed country called a church). It is a small group of people study the Bible. Good so far. But it falls apart to me with the mechanism of replication. So picture that generation one person has great results and leads all 8-12 people in what we'll call generation two to Christ. They continue to meet and study often focusing on training the trainer to lead another small group themselves.But if generation two leads people to Christ, they are encouraged to not bring them back to the more mature disciple in generation one but handle their questions his guidance from a distance from generation one. Arguably this is necessary in places where the church can't meet in the open.But picture that in your neighborhood. So the lost man you know at work who is 40 somehow comes to Christ. Great news. But now picture him leading a Bible Study of other lost people. This is ripe for problems. Our American churches are filled with problems in our small groups and we often have screening processes on who leads them. Imagine new and even pre-converts leading a small groups or churches? Not something that seems comfortable for me.The feel of it can look an awful lot like a multi-level marketing company, which if you have ever seen one of those from the inside isn't pretty.But at best if some principles are applied, but not all, will simply have your people turned outward, able to share the faith simply, study the Bible and teach others.I don't mean to be overly harsh since apparently the results are coming in. But I really want to hit the pause button and fully look into it before we adopt it blindly.Button line for me, use discernment. What works for them there might not work for you here.

T4T (meaning Training for Trainers). The goal is to multiply generations of trainers by using the three-thirds training process.Smith’s T4T process is in contrast to David Watson’s methodology, with emphasis to begin small. Watson had six (himself included) for his first group. “You and your team must sow the gospel broadly to win the first believers to train.” Smith said, “The CPM that has emerged in Ying’s ministry has challenged common discipleship and church-planting expectations of today. It harks back to the original discipleship revolution.”The value of this work is that it provides a strategy to work on for the process of church multiplication. Since, according to the book, it works well in an Asian context. But one may find it difficult to grasp the content for the "training for trainers," making it strong in context but poor in content.It also suggested a useful format for small group meetings, which comprises of 3 thirds: First Third: 1. Pastoral Care 2. Worship 3. Loving Accountability 4. Vision Casting; Second Third: 5. New Lesson; Final Third: 6. Practice the Lesson 7. Set Goals and Pray for each other. This could serve as a useful alternative to the commonly used 4 "W"s (Welcome, Worship, Word, Work) in many cell group meetings, which some may find boring and lacking (e.g. accountability and lesson practice).

Great resource for how to be a disciple that is making disciples who make disciples. Christians really need to focus on what is important to God.

This book with blow your mind about Discipleship.You'll look again at what Jesus was doing with His own Disciples.It's doesn't take years to train people to serve the LORD.Your own traditions will be challenged afresh.

It is good to see what God will do when we step out simply trusting in him. This book describes how people and communities, in the most unlikely contexts, are changing for the better as a result of the Gospel being communicated by ordinary people in ordinary ways.

I first heard of T4T from a missionary who was having remarkable success in a hostile country. He could not recommend this book heartily enough. I was therefore eager to take it up, and to apply what I could in my own community.T4T sets forward a bold vision for what missionary work can be: not laborious and slow, but rapid, intense and regenerative. The greatest lesson, I think, is its encouragement to set God-sized goals in one’s missions: that is, to work for the salvation of entire nations, soul by soul, rather than just to found a new little church. Although I have not yet had the opportunity to implement any of the ideas (as I just finished reading), the basic method seems sound to achieve its result. The method (and, as is repeatedly emphasised in the text, it is a method, a way of working, rather than just a set of lessons or structures) is most suitable for groups that believe that, once he is saved, a man is saved forever regardless of his succeeding actions, as well as for groups whom God has blessed with many missionaries and groups that maintain a congregational form of government.Churches that require their members to grow in holiness or submit to the episcopate will not however be able to use T4T without significant adaptions. The reason for this is that the groups to which T4T gives rise are constantly living in the initial excitement of conversion (this being how it can maintain such astonishing growth), which I think will hinder their ability to reach godly maturity. This focus on growth, furthermore, means that the method is heavily focused on numbers: a movement is successful or a failure depending on the number of new converts made and new groups formed. Retaining disciples and growing them into the depth and height of the faith is of little concern in the T4T method. As I said above, this method moreover relies on missionary-type Christians, and it does so to a fault. Christians called to other vocations, such as contemplatives and those that minister to the needs of the poor, regrettably have no place in this vision.Let me, finally, say a word on the quality of the book as a book (that is, as a work written in the English language). It is, unfortunately, very poorly written, and I often found myself skipping passages in which the writer was repeating himself verbatim. The content is also poorly organised, and the book regularly uses unnecessary jargon, which is often left unexplained.In light of the above, therefore, I can heartily endorse this book to those groups for whom it was undoubtedly written: groups with a evangelistic zeal that expresses itself in missionaries making as many new converts in as short a time as possible. Churches whose gifts require a different expression of their zeal will not, I think, be able to apply this method without significant adaption.

this book is practical, biblical and describes missionary work in its most effective way. you are sad because so few people come to christ? read here how you can start not only a small group, to start not only a new house church, but how to start groups which start groups and churches who then plant new churches, a planting multiplying movement, wow.

This book contains so much profound truth and deep insight that it should be a must-read for every follower of Jesus.