So what is T4T? Well, first we should point out that T4T is not a Western invention. T4T grew out of the
ministry of a Chinese American missionary working in Asia named Ying Kai.
In the year 2000, Ying was pastoring a church in Asia when God began to burden his heart to see the
countless millions of Chinese outside his church come to faith in Christ. In addition to pastoring, Ying
had already been starting a new church every year for several years, but his restless heart knew that this
was simply not enough to reach the millions of lost people living and dying all around him every day.
One day, as Ying was praying, the Holy Spirit seemed to say to him, โYing, what is better than planting a
church?โ Ying could not imagine, until the Spirit seemed to whisper, โTraining others to plant churches.โ
Ying was immediately encouraged, he knew he could train 10-20 new church planters each year, and
each of them could start a new church. Before he finished his prayer, though, the Holy Spirit seemed to
pose a second question, โYing, what is better than training others to plant churches?โ Ying was at a loss.
What could be better? Then the Spirit replied, โTraining others to train others to plant churches!โ Ying
left this time of prayer filled with a desire to obey the Spiritโs leading, and to begin what he called
โTraining for Trainers,โ or T4T.
Ying began with about 30 men and women, laypersons in a local church, sharing with them what he
thought was an ambitious vision to see 200 churches planted over the next 3 years.
As Ying attempted to teach them how to win lost persons to Christ and plant new churches, he kept
hearing the same pattern of objections. Ying realized that these typical Christian men and women had
four questions or challenges that kept them from being effective partners in winning the lost to Christ
and planting new, reproducing churches.
As Ying began addressing these four questions, he watched as God began transforming these average
Christian men and women into confident and competent partners in multiplying new believers and
churches across the province.
In a moment we will look at those four questions, and the answers that Ying provided, but first letโs see
what God did with Yingโs band of training trainers.
Within a few short weeks, Yingโs trainees had started 20 small groups that were already becoming new
churches. Seven months later, Ying could count 327 small groups formed with 4,000 newly baptized
believers. In only 7 months, God had already surpassed Yingโs vision of 200 churches in 3 yrs!
By the end of the first year, the movement counted 908 house churches with more than 12,000 newly
baptized members. The following year saw 3,535 new churches formed with more than 50,000
baptisms.
You can imagine the skepticism that accompanied numbers like these. So, the next year a research
assessment team investigated what was rapidly becoming the fastest growing Church Planting
Movement in the world. They discovered that, rather than exaggerating, Ying had actually been underreporting his numbers by as much as 40%. Some churches reproduced 17 times in one and a half years!
By the end of that year, the movement had added another 104,000 baptisms and more than 9,000 new
churches.
Despite persecution, disease epidemics, and many spiritual attacks, the movement has continued its
remarkable growth. By 2008, researchers report nearly 2 million baptisms have taken place in less than
a decade, and more than 80,000 new churches have been started.
This movement has not taken place in a vacuum. It is happening in a part of the world that has had
more than a century of missionary activity, and yet this region of Asia has been more characterized by
its unresponsiveness and hard soil than by its openness to the Gospel. What changed? How did God
turn this challenging field into one of the most fruitful on earth?