Day 2 PM, CPM Level One Training Notes (Unedited)

 Evening homework is to fill in some of the gaps. Read Ezekiel 34 and identify the responsibilities of leadership. God speaking to Israel and telling them what He expects from leaders and from followers. Identifying what God is saying to leaders should take you 30 minutes. If you feel like God wants you to do a 3-column study, there is not a better passage for leaders, but that will take 3 hours.

 

What we’ve been doing in the front is modeling team meetings. Some time today your facilitator should have chosen a facilitator. In real life, be one time a model, two times a model, third time identify the natural leader of the group and coach them. It will be like Peewee football. Expect all kinds of strange things to happen.

 

From this point, we will go back to the groups we were in yesterday afternoon. The lists will be posted.

 

Q: In the team meeting, you taught, not just asked questions.

A: Yes, that’s difference, it’s not discovery. I’m bringing in outside information.

 

Worked in groups on passages of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 and 1 Corinthians 7: 17-24

 

Break

 

Came back to affinity groups

 

Area of focus: Reaching unbelievers

 

Start by selecting today’s facilitator; whoever facilitated yesterday does not do it again

 

3–column study on Matthew 28 20-30 minutes

 

Move discussion to focus on strategic question

 

At 5:00 p.m. we will reconvene for report-out as larger group.

 

 

REPORT BACK SESSION

What does the Scripture have to say about reaching unbelievers?

 

MATTHEW 28:18-20

 

I will teach obedience and not teach disobedience.

I will share my knowledge

I will study God’s word

I will be obedient to God with all my heart, not just when it is convenient

 

“Go!” Go out beyond immediate area to reach people where they are.

Active, not passive.

 

Go and be intentional.
Make disciples when we go. Baptize them and teach them to obey everything Christ has taught us.

 

Personally and as a church, carrying out the Great Commission every opportunity I have. I will resist the argument that we will not go elsewhere until we have completely evangelized the local community.

 

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost; not in our name. Churches tend to attract them to denominations, and we like to attract them to ourselves.

 

Knowing that Jesus has all the authority, we can go with that authority in reaching out to the community. We don’t have to be timid. We can do everything if we want to.

 

I think we were impressed that it is a global thing, all different cultures. That means here, too. Not just the ones we are comfortable with. Be intentional about that.

 

To go to all the neighborhoods and teach them to obey ALL things. We highlighted the word ALL. If Jesus is with us ALWAYS. Don’t be afraid because of that.

 

He is always with us wherever we go.

 

ALL authority is given to us from Christ. The things that stop us are fear of rejection or of confrontation. All authority and Jesus is with us. Teaching is key. Making disciples. They have to teach these guys to go (clients). Teaching begins the replication process.

 

He spoke to the disciples. He spoke to all of us. We all have to do this.

 

The Gospel is movement. Go. Get up off our behinds and go.

 

We are commanded to replicate ourselves and we have to go in His power, teaching his principles, with his presence.

 

Jesus’ presence with us is our credibility. We can throw our degrees out the windows, if Jesus is our credibility. Acts 12 – it was clear that they had been with Jesus.

 

2 Timothy 1:7 – God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline.

 

Jesus has given us the power because of His Father who has given him the power to go, out of the comfort zone. Specific instructions: Teaching the commandments.

 

When a man recognizes authority, it causes him to have respect. We have the authority of Christ and that commands respect in others. The authority of Christ within us BRINGS respect. An ambassador in another country; he has respect because of who he represents.

 

When I get to heaven, I don’t want the Father to ask me, “What part of ‘Make disciples’ did you not understand?”

 

STRATEGIC QUESTION

What about this Scripture informs your response to the strategic question?

 

How do I/we identify, train and equip the person of peace to discover and infiltrate unreached people groups outside of my/our immediate or surrounding area without the use of traditional CityTeam resources (food boxes, bags of love, etc.)?

 

John Scott’s table:

How do we get beyond our buildings, camp? We are thinking in untraditional ways. God is using our reputation as an organization in San Jose.

 

Latinos have a lot of problems. One family, Elias, somebody introduced me to him because they know about CityTeam. This guy had a big problem with the City. He made a mistake and he was about to be deported. A lady asked me how we can help him. I said we could make a letter. I wrote a simple letter on CityTeam letterhead saying I was mentoring this man. The judge saw “CityTeam” and he gave the man another opportunity because of his involvement with CityTeam. I started a DBS with him. He is discovering God and for the past 9 months he has not had any alcohol. I submit to Jesus’ authority.

 

So, it was a personal relationship that was formed through your living in the community that touches people’s lives. God has his persons of peace out there.

 

Being facility-based as we were, now we are going, finding facilities and opportunities out there that we don’t have to pay for because people are inviting us.

 

We will see the growth happen when we get outside of our institutional systems; not that those are bad, but it speaks to a different way of doing ministry than we are used to.

 

Chris Anderson’s table:

Intentionality and a strategic way of living your life. There has to be looking, praying, seeking for the person of peace and being aware of once that person of peace is there. Also, strategic. Outside of CityTeam there are lots of ways we all interact with people, i.e., school, shopping, etc. Jesus told them to go and gave them specific commands of what to do and how to live their lives.

 

Mentoring and discipling the person of peace. Ricardo lived his life with that man. He met this man’s family, he helped him out in court. He actually discipled this man through practical life application. That’s a key thing. Jesus taught us a way to live our lives and that’s what we have to teach others, which is the lifestyle.

 

Another thing we have to do is to let go of control and trust the people and it has to be right away. Jesus did that. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go. Because he has all authority and he’s going to be with them forever, why do we feel we need to control it? We disciple, we mentor, we trust and we let go.

 

 

Armando Cruz’s table:

Identify real needs in the community and organize the community to be able to meet that need, work towards that goal. Example neighborhood by House of Grace has to be cleaned, so everyone can bring a broom and we’ll all work together. So we’re going to do street cleaning this coming Sunday. The guy said we could organize refreshments. The man from the neighborhood is owning that. We can accomplish a lot of things in the community. When we give people a lot of things, their reason for them to come to the meeting is not pure, because when the resources aren’t there any more, they go away. Giving people stuff is not bad, but something I would like to apply in my life is not giving them lots of things so they are coming because of the things. When the prophet came to the widow’s house, he asked her what she had in her house. What assets do we have in our communities that will meet their need. I know there are people who have things and those who are in need. So we can work with the community to organize itself to provide for those in need within the community. This will cause the leaders to emerge. This will help to identify the person of peace.

 

 

Rhunda Boudreaux’s table:

We talked about practical things in reaching unbelievers. Talking about the miracle isn’t going. We just do it. If we go out and knock on doors, don’t be afraid to wear CityTeam cap that identifies who you are. Find out if the people have any needs. Juliette shared about a woman she approached at a store and asked if she could pray for her. If we try to pick and choose who we are going to share the Gospel with, we’ll miss people. We have to realize God’s got our back the whole time. We don’t have to be too afraid because we know He’s there. During prayer walks, it is a time to meet and greet and smile. Don’t be afraid to ask if a person would like to engage in a discovery Bible study. Let them know we’ll teach them so that they can teach others.

 

 

 

Question: Donnell – in the beginning of the seminar someone mentioned about the person of peace. What is that? How does that look?

 

Answer: The challenge in a training like this is putting all the pieces together, but the answer to that question is coming tomorrow. I know some of you are feeling – especially in our western linear way of thinking – that you’d like to have all the pieces. But by the time we get near the end, it will begin to come together. Don’t stress. Relax. Engage. I went through this thing many times before I began to feel I was getting 80% of it. Just continue to take it in. Some of them will get answered by the end or the next time or because you try to implement. We’re on a journey. There’s not an exam. It will come together mostly by the end of the week and afterwards. Don’t wait to do something just because you don’t understand it all.

 

STRATEGIC QUESTION: How will I implement what I’ve learned today in my context, in my ministry, community, family, etc.?

 

We have a house church. We need to simplify our lives so we have more time and energy to develop small groups and develop leadership so we can shepherd more than one house church.

 

Dave: You’re thinking about replication. Reason for replication may not be because it’s getting too big. Reason for replication is because it expands to other communities. We’re not about keeping them small, but about beginning many, many, many groups.

 

Based on the Great Commission, we have 2 guys at San Francisco State, Tom is working in a house church, Arash is working in the Iranian Christian Fellowship with primarily second generation Iranians and Mahsoud is also part of that church, but working primarily with internet, TV broadcasting in Iran. According to Mahsoud, in a decade, 30% will be followers of Jesus.

 

Discipleship begins with us. What is the one critical thing we can take away and apply? The idea of giving up our security for the sake of Jesus. Arash, for wisdom. For Tom, willingness to take the initiative with people, no fear. For Elton (House church network) wants to stay the course. He is now encouraged that Jesus is doing something new. For Mahsoud, he feels the need for prayer. For me, find new fields of faith within my community (simple church movement).

 

Being the guest table, we had all different backgrounds. Aila shared applying these lessons directly, “I will go with all authority, knowing Jesus goes with us and He has all authority.” “I will allow others to hold me accountable for obeying Jesus.”

David shared, “I will go to my community and make disciples at my workplace and my neighbors. So he’s committed to talk to his neighbor, Billy.”

 

Meseret shared that she’s going to a store owned by Indians and also goes to a Japanese restaurant. She is talking to the owners there and she will go with intentional outreach.

 

“I will teach my youth kids to obey.” I also committed to talking to my neighbors with whom I’ve started to have some kind of relationship. I’ve been distracted. I’m waiting for a job to end and have been distracted. I will talk to my neighbor.

 

“Being able to model in my life that I’m a disciple before students I am trying to disciple.”

 

This was good, you focused in on actionable items. Intentional focus. Obeying.

 

Strategic question: How do I own the vision for CPM in my area? How do I train my paid staff, clients, volunteers and donors to own, implement and replicate what we’ve learned today?

 

In order to own it, we have to model it. I have to be willing to go first before I can expect anyone else to go.

 

Mike Pounds: The training department – training can be an access ministry. We have stuff to give, meeting needs of the community regarding anger management, sexual addiction, recovery, etc.

 

Denise Hadley: We talked about what it would look like to train trainers to reach the lost. Many people have issues, domestic violence, anger management, parenting, things they are required to do to continue to live outside of a jail cell. What would it look like to train people who are not Christians and shape the training in such a way that they’re actually DBS’s? That way they’d be immediate leaders. Look at access ministry as delivering knowledge, which is not a material resource, but a needed point of access.

 

Our traditional ministries are not the only point of access. It’s our history, it’s where we’ve come from. We’re looking beyond this. Sometimes we can partner with other groups that become our access into the community and as we access the community we have the opportunity to discover the person of peace, etc.

 

Strategic Question: How do I train my clients to seek out prospects, (addicts still in their disease), to share and give away everything they have learned about the way out?

 

As the word talks about making disciples, we are teaching our men and women to give back to the person right behind them. Share with men still in detox. DBS is another thing. Immediately training our men and women to use DBS process to quit hurting others.

 

Reading page 89, we pulled some statements out of the Big Book that relate to church planting and to Matthew 28:18-20. Building relationship. BB: Do not reform or evangelize. Teach how to not be critical but just help others. Show them how starting groups can cure loneliness. Show them importance of helping new people who are coming into recovery.

 

Modeling, using baptism as a new beginning. Each of these guys have client groups; their goal is to teach their groups to go out. Go hang out at Burger King, the park, do bags of love. The key things is as they work in their DBS, to ask, “Who did you share it with?” Then ask them “Who did you talk to at Burger King, in the park, etc., so they see that they do have contacts. These clients all do have lots of people in their lives. Goal is to teach them to go to these people and share.

 

Closed in prayer by Pat Robertson.