9 more lessons on church planting movements

He's the last nine lessons Tim Scheuer learnt on his visit to North Carolina.

1. I realised I hadn’t fully understood how important it is to ensure those in the group are confident in teaching the lessons they are learning to others. I have still been in an old mindset that has seen the goal as “covering the material”. I think I “saw” how important it is to keep things clear, simple and reproducible. Generational growth depends on it!
2. Jeff asked very good questions of those he is training in order to help them get to the next generation. i.e. He asks his Timothy’s who are the 2 or 3 Timothy’s in your groups? Who are the 1 or 2 Timothy’s most likely to reproduce? What do they need in order to take the next step?
3. Jeff provides ongoing support for those he is training. He recommends there should be something for them at least weekly. He is very accessible but often uses times for training that sift out the keen from the not so keen. i.e. I attended a training meeting at 6am on a Saturday morning at a fast food restaurant. There were about 10 men present.
4. Jeff allows members of his groups to lead elements of the meeting to gain confidence. He uses MAWL very effectively (model, assist, watch, leave).
5. “Precision harvesting,” describes the discernment of emerging leaders who are most likely to reproduce and investing additional time in training them.
6. In Nepal Jeff says he kept the “new horses” from the “old horses” to protect new believers from the unhelpful habits and traditions of older “churched” believers. Two works emerged at the same time; one separate from existing church structures and one within. The work within church structures grew from 27 – 127 churches in six years. The work outside and separate from existing church structures grew from 0 – 58,000 churches in the same six year period. The key leader of that movement was a national church planter that Jeff was able to train because the leader of the church organisation of which he was part judged him as the “greatest problem person”. Jeff took this man and trained him and it was through him that the CPM grew.
7. In talking with numbers of pastors seeking to implement CPM principles it appeared there was general agreement that it is best to “firewall” new believers and new CPM work from existing church structures and traditions. However most examples I observed are seeking to integrate aspects of existing church with the new.
8. Jeff says his best workers are risk takers, entrepreneurs, fire in their eyes… many who were formerly drug dealers.
9. Jeff is training many and varied people in a whole range of groups and contexts over a significant geographical area. In order to see a CPM emerge many people need to be trained because only about 20% will actually be able to train others who train others thus leading to generational growth.