Description
I spent last week in Honduras. Our team trained a Honduran church planting team of about 10 men and women. I led most of the training (my first time with a group like that) and David Watson filled in the blanks. Randy, the local Strategy Coordinator, translated the seminar and made sure we communicated everything we intended.
Randy attended two Church Planting Movement (CPM) training events. One in Richardson, TX, in 2006 and the other in Tennesee in 2007. He took what he learned at those trainings and started an Equipping Cente to train Honduran church planters in CPM strategies.
Randy and the church planters he trained work very hard – 14 hour days, riding motorcycles out to each of the 5 Districts in Honduras to meet the needs of villagers and look for persons of peace. They spent a month during the rainy season drilling water wells for communities near the Equipping Center because landslides prevented travel to other districts. By the grace of God, they found some persons of peace through these access ministries and started Discovery Bible Studies, but had not seen multiplication.
David talked at length with Randy about the church planting strategy in Honduras. Together, they identified DNA elements of CPM that were missing from the initial groups. We hammered out a focus for the next three and a half days of training and determined that I would lead the training, Randy would translate, and David would step in when needed to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Training Process
We do all our training using the 3 Part Bible Study Method. We break everyone into small groups where they study Scripture and discuss how it applies to their life and to church planting. At the end of the time, we bring them together to share what they learned and point out things they might have missed.
Schedule
- Monday: Travel Day
- Tuesday: John 6:41-45 and Matthew 28:16-20
- Wednesday: Debrief and Deuteronomy 6:4-9, John 14:21-24, and Luke 10:1-12
- Thursday: (Half Day) Debrief and discussion on Luke 10:1-12 and discussion about how the format of the Discovery Bible Study establishes the DNA of church. At lunch we broke and headed into the main city to stay in a hotel so we could catch our flight early Friday morning.
- Friday: Travel Day
Evaluation and Comments
I feel the trip was a great use of time and resources. By Wednesday, the church planters identified several parts of their strategy they needed to tweak or change. If they make these changes successfully, we should see several church plants within the next 6 months.
I enjoyed the opportunity to lead the training and work through a translator. My Spanish is about 10 years old, but I was surprized at how much I remembered. David helped me tweak my training style and gave me pointers for future trainings.
These church planters risk their lives riding motorcycles out to these villages. The roads are very dangerous and are in poor condition. Their dedication and their committment to Christ and their people humbles me.
Why would an online church planter train and work with offline church planters? As I said before:
Good offline church planting that results in the rapid multiplication of disciples and churches is the result of obeying Scripture. The same is true for good online church planting. Whether you are an offline church planter or an online church planter, you still obey the same Scripture. The context may be different, but obedience is still a requirement. Consequently, offline church planters should be able to train online church planters, if they do it right, and visa versa.
This may seem pretty counter-intuitive, but it’s not if you realize that church planting is about obeying God’s Word and not about tools. If you start with online tools – you fail. If you start with buildings – you fail. If you start with God’s Word, then you will reach the lost in a way that develops mature Christians who will obey Christ, even if it means their death.
And that kind of obedience – online and off – will change the world.
End of Report
