Day 1 AM, Level One CPM Training Notes (Unedited)

Pat Robertson, President of CityTeam:

Greetings to those listening on the internet, both in Spanish and English. Translated live. Those who would like to listen in to live transmission on the internet, www.ustream.tv/cityteam .  For Spanish, www.ustream.tv/cityteam2.  It can be watched real time (1 second delay).

 

A number of years ago we had been working in Cuba and Cesar Buitrago went to a training conference in TN, at which David Watson was the speaker. Cesar went to David’s room and spent several hours there and called Pat Robertson. CityTeam had just written its “hedgehog statement” from the book Good to Great. A statement of the one thing you can absolutely excel at. We wrote that we could be great at catalyzing Christ-centered discipleship movements around the globe. It was a great statement, but we did not know how to do it. Cesar called me after midnight, very excited. He said, “Pat, I’ve met the guy who can help us get to where we want to go. We have to bring him to San Jose!” Upon his return he told me about someone who had planted many, many churches in India using a Biblical methodology. We invited him up here to do a training for us. I told him to give us “everything you’ve got.” Well, it was lots of PowerPoints somewhat different than we do today and we went through them and it was like drinking from a firehouse. New concepts, huge volume of information. That training caused us to realize that there were new things that could create a movement of disciples making disciples in a very rapid manner and that’s what we really want. This training is the things Jesus taught about making disciples so that disciples can make disciples who can make disciples who make disciples. When it kicks into gear it becomes viral, explosive. It’s really a lot about our methodology and the way that we get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do the teaching and not us. That’s very difficult; it’s hard for us to not have to be the “hero” or the teacher. We will learn this week how God has designed and equipped a process so the Holy Spirit, through His Word will be the Hero and the Teacher and disciples will make disciples and gather together in spiritual communities and those communities can reproduce at a rapid rate. We want to happen here in the US what has happened in East Africa under Dave and Ayla. I’m delighted, Dave, that you’re back here to help us do it.

I used to argue a lot with David. Some of the concepts went against my whole Bible School training. He talked about family-based evangelism and personal evangelism was not productive. David would just send me back to the Scriptures, saying, “Go study the Bible.” And I did, just so I could prove him wrong. Instead of me being able to change David’s thinking, the Word and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and I learned that the principles were true and that if we could incorporate them, we would see rapid multiplication of believers.

 

Our entire Development Department is here with us. A few years ago, Cesar did a study on the Men of Peace in the New Testament and he came back and said, “Pat, guess what? Many of the men of peace in the NT were philanthropists, givers, donors.” When Cesar said that to me, I said, “Wow! I wonder how many of our donors are really men of peace?” We would run ads in the newspaper with a picture of a homeless person and people would respond and send in money. What would possess them to do it? Because they have a spiritual heart. So we believe many of our donors might be persons of peace. We’re really excited to see what God’s going to do.

 

Over the months and years that I’ve had the privilege of traveling all over the world with David Watson, I’m excited because there’s never a workshop where I don’t learn more about the work of the Kingdom. I remember being in Freetown, Sierra Leone in early March of 2005. Since that very first training, we’re just under 8,000, probably 7,800 churches, with over 300,000 new believers since the first training, just a little over four years ago. One of the things we hear every place we go – now in India there are 80,000 churches and over 3 million new believers – is that “Yeah, that would work in India, but not here.” But, it’s working in East Africa, West Africa, and in Indonesia. My belief is that after today, after this week, we will start seeing these principles applied here in the US and we’ll see an explosion of new disciples. It takes some time. The process takes time, but I believe in it. Will you believe that with me? (yes.)

I have become best friends with David Watson, with his son, Paul, who is here doing the internet. But Paul’s main job is making disciples on the internet. There are a very few people here who are young enough to understand the internet generation. Email is out – texting is in. He has 10 missionaries working with him this summer in training doing church planting on-line.

 

I want to introduce a great friend, a great leader, a real apostle for Christ. Please join me in welcoming David Watson.

 

David Watson: The greatest misconception is that this training is about church planting, but it’s really about you. If you don’t have a desire to share the Lord who saved you, then this is not the place for you. We need to be the men and women God has called us to be, regardless of circumstances. Faith – obeying God in every situation and every circumstance, regardless of consequences. So, I will not lie, even if it makes me lose money. I will not do things, even though it might cause me to go to jail. I will share the Gospel, even though it makes me uncomfortable. I will be obedient. This is the starting point for everything we want to do in church planting.

 

The best way for you to train this is for you to teach other and see training and experience training. If you have questions that the group can’t answer or the larger group can’t answer, then I’ll step in. If you’re in this room, your responsibility is not to start a church personally, but to coach someone else to start churches. It’s the same as in Peewee soccer league. The coach gently encourages them. By the end of the first season, they are running in the same direction, and they know where the goal is. The coach never steps on the field. His job is to stay on the sidelines and train those children, those youth, those teenagers, those college students, on how to become better at playing soccer. Your job is to coach people in starting churches. We’re not asking you to stop doing what you’re doing, to leave your churches; what we’re asking you to do is to add to what you do at least one day a week when you’re coaching someone else in starting a church. If you follow the process you’re learning, you will be able to see at least 5-6 churches started every month. I will coach 6 people up here who will then coach others and out of that you will see hundreds of others. I think the greatest misunderstanding is that you have to leave your church, your friends, your family. What you do have to do is spend 3-4 hours a week coaching people about starting churches; taking them from being a Peewee league to eventually being a professional league. We want to give you the experience here, so when you get back to where you live, you’ll have an idea of how to do this. We will not look at church planting passages you would use in the field. This week we’ll show you the biblical theology behind church planting. We want you to understand the rules of the game, the how-to and the why-for. We will do it in the same format as in church planting. The other thing is to have an understanding of all the DNA elements required so that the churches will be the right kind of church. Usually we start a Bible study and try to inject into them the DNA. HOW YOU START THE GROUP WILL DETERMINE WHAT THE GROUP WILL BECOME. If you start it as a Bible study, it will be hard for it to become anything else. How to start with lost people and from the very first meeting, begin to establish the DNA so it will become a church. We can teach lost people to move into prayer, to intercession, to ministry, to worship. All of these things can be put in the process. The methodology we use for all our Bible study is the 3-column Bible study.

 

A very simple inductive process of studying the Word of God that lost people can use and even those who have multiple seminary degrees can use to go deeper in the Word. Take your notebook, fold right-hand page in half. On lefthand page, right your Scripture, then in second column (first half of righthand page, right your “in my own words” and in the second half of the right

 

Why do I need to write the Scripture? If you write it, you’ll learn it quicker. If you write it, say it, and tell it to someone else, you’ll learn it even more quickly. If you happen to be working with Muslims, it is very rude and considered bad to write in a Bible. When you work with Muslims, you need to have a Bible that has no markings in it. Then you can write on your copy. The first column, you copy the Scripture. The second column is writing the Scripture in your own words. You’re out in the public with friends and someone asks you a question, you want to give them Scripture. It’s not about memory, but did you get the essence. We don’t want it to sound like it comes straight from the Bible, but like the Word that is in your heart. The reason we write the words is to practice the ability to share with people. Your third column is your obedience column. Every obedience statement starts with “I will” – it’s not about anybody else in the room. It’s about what “I” will do about the word of God. I find people with problems with all 3 of these columns. This process we use all the way through from the beginning until people are old. It develops your understanding of the word. With lost people, we use the 3^rd column, we say, “What does this Scripture teach us about God or about man?” Our goal in the Discovering God series is for people to know who God is, why man is separate from God, and what God has done to repair the breach between God and man. We will do one or two of the Discovering God passages if we don’t run out of time. Any questions about the Discovering God Bible study?

 

Now, I want you to sit in your groups, talk among yourselves and select a group leader who will be the leader for the next week. It doesn’t need to be the “obvious” leader.

 

We are not about making converts, but about making disciples. The command of Jesus is to make disciples.

 

Do you think Peter and the rest of the disciples were Christians when Jesus picked them? Even at the ascension, some of them still doubted. We always think of them as these strong men of God, but the reality was even after seeing the life of Christ, seeing him die, rise again, and ascend, some of them still doubted. Salvation in our western context, we say at this point in time you became a believer. Salvation is a process of commitment that grows all the time. It’s a process of obedience that continues to develop your whole life. Once you enter in with your heart, you continue with your heart. It is who you are. How do we help people become disciples, because we’re not interested in convert. Nobody wants your religion. When we look at the 5%-25% who are attending church. Anywhere from 95%-75% don’t want our religion. They see the ugly side of what we’re about as well as the good side and the reality is that the worst enemy of Christianity is those who misbehave, who treat others poorly, Christians in name only and not disciples of Jesus Christ. I have no interest in religion. I do have extreme interest in my Creator, Jesus Christ and relating to him at a heart/personal level. The discipleship process is the one He taught. When we read the gospels, we need to read with new eyes. Most of us read them saying, “What is Jesus trying to teach us?” but we need to read it asking, “What is Jesus doing to make disciples so I can learn to do the same thing?” We read for knowledge content, but we need to read for action. We need to be asking the questions, “What did they do?” not just “What did they say?” It changes your understanding. We want you looking at both: what you can learn from the passage, but also how you can learn to act, what you will do as a result of this passage. I want you to see all the DNA elements of why you do it this way.

 

The firs column is writing it in your own words, the second column is about saying it in your own words, the third column is about obedience.

 

The discovery Bible study begins with a person of peace of a known relationship. If you know somebody who is willing/wanting to have a Bible study. The POP model is about places where you know no one. It’s still a good model even when working with friends. Some people are open, some are not, to spiritual things. The purpose of the DBS is to lead a person, a family or a group to discover God and his salvation. It’s about discovering salvation, not having it crammed down your through. It’s about discovering your creator and falling in love with him, understanding you are separated, and moving to a relationship with him. What have you learned about God? Remember: Do not teach. FACILITATE DISCOVERY. Many of you, all of you are going to experience someone facilitating. If they start teaching, shut them down. Your job is not to teach, it is to facilitate. Facilitators ask questions, teachers answer questions. Your job is to facilitate, not to do it on your own.

 

Here are the elements:

 

Group interaction

that leads to prayer, ministry and worship.

Ask What are you thankful for today? In your DNA element, this leads to prayer. When they become believers, we say to them, now you can express your thanks to God. That’s moving from a lost person saying, “I’m thankful” to a saved person praying and thanking God.

What needs do you have?

What needs does someone else you know have?

This becomes intercession; praying for others.

 

How can we help meet the needs expressed here today?

Now we move from just saying things to doing ministry, even before they’re saved, even before they accept Jesus as their savior, they can begin doing ministry. Church is about ministry. Discipleship is about ministry.

 

Accountability

With whom did you share last week’s lesson? (Evangelism)

How did you apply what you learned last week? (Obedience)

 

Just read or listen to the focal verses. Don’t explain or teach. Your job is not to explain Scripture, but to present it and let them do it on their own. Regarding complicated passages – we don’t use them with lost people. Those are for later on. For pre-believers, start with creation and work your way through the Bible, focusing on who God is, His attributes. For new believers, work through the Commands of Christ. You may never have done this. We need to understand that our relationship with God and with one another are covered by over 250 commands Jesus taught.

Focus on Scripture, not human opinion. Stay focused on the passage you are focusing on. The group needs to be self-correcting. If this is established early, you won’t have problems down the road.

 

How would you restate this in your own words? This is about understanding. If people can’t do this, then they may not understand it. Close your Bibles and say what the passage says. Get them to do it in their own words. It’s about getting them to understand. If they significantly misstate anything, ask them, “Where did you get that in this passage?” and you keep focusing back to the one verse of Scripture. There are always people who want to take the group a different direction. The facilitator’s job is to keep asking questions, “Where did you get that?” And then you get them to focus back. It may take a while, but if you continue focusing them back, they will stop chasing the rabbits. Hopefully, the group will start asking the question.

 

In the Bible study itself, we say, “What does this teach us about God?” This the whole point, that people would know God.

 

“If this is true, what must we do to obey this?” If they say they don’t believe, you say, “Fine, but hypothetically, what would you do about it?” We want them to start thinking about the consequences.

 

“With whom do you plan to share what you’ve just learned?” (Replication and evangelism). From the very first Bible study we ask them to share. Take names. Next week, ask them, “How did it go with so and so?” You don’t scold them, you just encourage them. They are lost people. Don’t expect lost people to act like saved people. We have a different measuring stick about behavior, about language, and everything else. They are lost, they’re going to hell. Don’t expect them to adopt Christian language, Christian demeanor, Christian dress, etc. Don’t expect Christian behavior. Don’t get shocked at their language, don’t get perturbed. Our job is not to make them ACT like Christians. I am going to model using good languages, being the kind of person I need to be. I don’t adopt their behavior, but neither do I condemn their behavior. That’s the role of the Holy Spirit. He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. This is the overview of the meetings

 

 

Order of the Discovery Bible Study Meetings:

 

Opening (this becomes prayer time)

What are you thankful for? (prayer)

What needs to you or others have? (Intercession)

How can we help meet needs expressed? (ministry)

Review of last lesson

What did we learn last week?

Did last week’s lesson cause any changes in behavior or thought?

Reports about sharing during the week

New lesson

Plans for sharing in the coming week

Plans for meeting the needs expressed in the coming week

 

 

Q&A

If we are dealing with lost, what’s difference between pre-believer and new believer?

 

Everyone you’re starting with is lost. Don’t try to pull groups of Christians and lost people together. It’s not about making a new group, it’s about redeeming existing groups. It’s a different relationship when you think this way.

 

You mentioned that the coach never gets on the field. You said this group’s role is to coach. What of some of the people here have never experienced CPM style, what is the minimum experience necessary for you to start coaching people?

 

You can do it after this training. You will not do it well. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, of having problems. But still, I don’t want you LEADING new groups; lead once or twice, find the facilitator and then coach the facilitator. It’s about you taking the Gospel into an existing group.

 

I’m writing as fast as I can. You talked about accountability, and now I don’t see it. How does accountability fit into this order?

 

You tell them to share with someone. Then the following week you ask them how it went. And the I will statements; you ask them the following week how it went with the “I will statements” – we set up the expectation that they will be asked about how they applied what they said they were going to do. It builds the expectation that they will be asked. Encourage them. Most of the people will do something. Some will become very active at obedience and reporting on obedience. These often become your next generation of leaders.

 

Reports about sharing during the week, can you share about that?

 

Take names of who they say they’re going to share with. Ask them about it the following week. Every week you ask them, “Who are you going to share with?” Every week yo

 

What motivation should catalyst provide to make sure the group continues?

 

Because you’re not forming the group, but going into an existing group, it’s not will the group continue, but will they ask me back? It’s about a relationship with a community that is already formed. The POP is one who will have hospitality. But it may be a relationship you’ve had for years. Whatever the relationship is that gets you into the existing community. You need to work that relationship and keep talking about it. You want to maintain a relationship that gets it open. Once you do it about six weeks, it becomes a pattern and it will happen automatically, but it does take that six weeks. You have to be very disciplined, not to call meetings off. Even if you’re dying, drag yourself to that meeting.

 

What do you recommend, the meeting is going, and they want to invite more friends 4 weeks into it?

 

We never bring new people into the group after two weeks. We say, “Let’s just start a new group with the friend.” Even when it becomes church, we say, “Church is for saved people.” If you bring lost people in, they don’t know what’s going on. We prefer all lost people go through a discovery process; once they become believers, bring them into a church. If someone reveals themselves as being a nonbeliever, tell them you have meetings just for them. Try to encourage them to get involved in a different kind of meeting than the one we use for worship time.

 

Now that we know how to do this discovery Bible study, and if we had a group in mind that we see would good to do this with, how can we get them to want to do this?

 

Good question. We will cover that this week.

 

So, if you have someone who wants to start a new group and you’ve met 3 times, what do you do with that new person? What if they don’t have another free night? What do you do?

 

If you have people on your team, you ask someone else. Or I may do it. As a full-time Christian worker, I have the time to do 20 groups a week. Your coaches give up one night a week in order to be trained. If I am training coaches, I can train 5 leaders a week.

 

I’m still thinking about a friend of my friend, and if she can’t be in that group, she won’t want to be in that group.

 

We’re bent to be a success at everything we do and if not, there’s something wrong with us. I’ve made more mistakes. I’ve failed thousands of time. Every group we start will not work. Some things will work, some things will not work. In obedience, we keep introducing this into new groups. We may fail 10 times, but that 11^th one may lead to thousands of believers. Things you thought were failures really weren’t.

 

Youth and adults – would you combine them together or separate them?

 

It depends on the community. If the community combines them, then combine them. If not, then no. It depends on the culture. Even in America, there’s not just one culture. We have to flow with what the community. That’s the reason you go two-by-two, by the way. One is a new coach, one is an experienced coach. Then, if there has to be a division of the group, you’ve got someone to start a new group.

 

I was wondering what the ideal size was. Can a group be too big or too small?

 

Absolutely too big. Studies show optimum group is 4-6. Up to 10, but once you’re over that, the meeting will take two hours instead of 90 minutes. The more people you add into the discovery process, the longer the meeting is. It’s better to keep it small and start multiple groups than have one big group.

 

The lessons, how many lessons, before you let them know to branch out?

 

The core discovery lessons are 15. Don’t ask people starting out if they want to do a 15-week Bible study. Just keep it week to week and ask them if they would like you to come back the following week. If a group decides they don’t want to continue, it’s okay. Don’t get hung up into trying to always make things a success. Our definition of success is not God’s definition of success. Think about it. Jesus spent 3 years teaching. At the end of 3 years, there were 11 guys. Does that sound successful to you? Some of them doubted? Is this who you’re going to turn the church over – 11 doubters? Go back and read the Gospels. Perfection is nowhere to be found, except in the face of God. And it seems to be okay, even though it’s messed up. We need to relax a little bit. The more relaxed we become, the more willing people will be willing to listen with us and work with us.

 

[Change of tapes]

 

Mostly everybody I know is super busy. If a person is super busy and they have a heart for CPM, one of the ways is to have smaller group, but are you going to give us other ways to do CPM with a really busy schedule?

 

Yes, we’ll talk about that.

 

I asked a question about how many lessons and you said, “Take a week at a time.” Somewhere in there, we need to take a look at breaking away and someone else taking the group. I need to break away, right?

 

We’ll talk about that.

 

My experience in starting groups is that 6 say they’re interested, but 2 show up, do you go ahead and start?

 

When other people show up, you ask those who have been with you to catch those people up. It’s not a bad thing to go over it and then go forward, but not beyond 3 weeks, because then you’re constantly circling.

 

 

Here’s the process we’re going to work with. I want you to see the trainer-of-trainers, leader-of-leaders process. We can’t bring 17 facilitators up here. We can do about 6 at a time, 10 at the most. Today, I want these 6 tables to send their facilitators up to the front. Now, you are watching a training meeting. Pay very close attention to what we’re doing, because this is going to be the process.

 

“Guys, I’m glad you came over. You are here because you’ve said you want to see lots of churches started. What we are going to do is help you as you go out and facilitate. I want us to walk through the passage that we’re going to start with and walk through the elements of a meeting, so they’re fresh in your mind. What’s the first element of a meeting?”

 

1. What are you thankful for?

I’m thankful my car got me here.

I’m thankful to be a happily married man.

I’m thankful that I’m single.

I’m thankful for my health and the health of my family members.

I’m thankful I’m vertical and not horizontal.

I’m thankful for this wonderful holiday today.

 

1. What needs do you have?

I need help with my family.

I need help with my strength in doing what my doctor tells me to do.

My health.

I need help to be the right person.

I need help losing a few pounds.

I need more sleep.

 

1. How can we help each other?

I can encourage people. I can use Facebook, Twitter, texting, emailing, phone calls. I could help encourage someone to do what their doctor asked them to do.

I could probably do the same thing.

As a registered nurse, I would love to help develop a reasonable game plan to help people with their health.

We can stay connected and continue to support each other in whatever way we can.

I could ask Charles to walk with me several days a week.

 

4. Since this is our first meeting, we won’t talk about what happened last week, we’ll go to the study. Reminder this is a meeting of people wanting to do church planting. Passage of Scripture about listening to God and doing what He tells us to do. Even the three-column process is all about this. We’re going to do it orally here today. A lot of the groups we work with, writing is hard for them. So we need to practice doing this orally too. I want us to practice so we know how to work with oral groups. Turn in your Bible to John chapter 6, verse 43, 44, 45. David Lee, would you read it for us, please? (Reads passage in The Message then someone else reads it from another version). (Then they go around the group saying it in their own words, verse by verse. Facilitator asks questions.) Whose role is it to save them? It’s Jesus’s isn’t it? Then they do the second verse. “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him will come to me.” How will God today teach them? They will hear from God. How? They’re lost people. God has written what He wants us to know. How do we get people to listen to God? Give them in the Word of God. It’s about establishing a pattern of listening to God from His Word, rather than listening to man. If we establish this in a new church, what have we just taught them? That God’s the authority. It’s a two-phase. First column who is speaking? God. Second one is the person. Third one is bringing it into their life and changing them. We don’t want you teaching. We want then to listen to the Word, work through the Word and to change their behavior as a result of it. The promise is that everyone who listens and learns will come to Jesus. One of the things I know is that many of you come out of a teaching and preaching background. What is teaching and preaching about? Why do we teach or preach? It is about knowledge, but the ultimate goal is that people will change. The DBS is teaching and is preaching; it’s just a different style of doing the same thing. Instead of someone standing up in front and it being a one-way thing… We have an idea that teaching is something we do on our own and no one asks questions, and particularly in preaching. But in the New Testament, there were questions. You can’t learn without questions. He who hears and listens and learns will come to Jesus. If we establish environments where people can’t ask questions, they can’t learn. We want to establish environments that allow for maximum learning, so we need to let them ask maximum questions. There’s only one source for answers: The Word. Your job is to facilitate the meeting. Part of coaching is to demonstrate. I want all the facilitators to lead the group through this process that’s up on the screen. This is the first time, so you have to model for the first two meetings. By the third meeting, you’ve found a person to lead the meeting, to facilitate. In first meeting, there is no review section, since there’s nothing to review.