ILU Training - Building Churches That Multiply

www.cremministry.org

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Appreciate who they are in our lives, and we pray that Lord you use them to the glory and honor of your mighty name. So thank you, Holy Spirit. You're welcome here in a big way. Take over and do only what you can do. We pray all this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and amen. Amen. So with that, Professor, I want to hand it over to you. You take it on from there. And we thank God for the team is ready and we appreciate you guys being here. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Thank you very much, Brother Isaac, and uh good evening and praise the Lord. It's a joy to be here uh together with my colleagues who will be coming on board shortly to share from different perspectives. Our desire is to be of service to you uh by both encouraging you in your own personal work with God so that you may continue to take the next steps and to know Jesus better and uh to draw on his resources through his Holy Spirit. But secondly, that we may also be more effective in ministry. And I was so glad to hear Brother Isaac saying, you know, how in that Kathy animation, some of what uh you had learned uh in the last uh session when we took focus uh in that particular session for the sake of those who are joining us for the first time, we focus both on the work with the young people and some of the challenges that they are having and how we can be more relevant to them, uh, being able to relate to a new generation. But we also talked about the use of digital strategies, you know, in terms of the fact that uh a lot of the younger people who are the majority now in our society are online. And uh the workers, the harvesters also need to find ways to be able to connect with the online audience using our social media pages, uh, using WhatsApp, whatever other online uh digital resources that we have for the sake of the gospel. So those were the two uh focuses for for the last time. And we are we are very glad that again many of us are back here tonight.

Why This Training Series Matters

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Uh, my role tonight is really to introduce our team. I'll not be a speaker tonight. Uh, many times we've been together, and uh uh so I thought it's better that you get to be blessed by others of God's servants who are here. Uh, before we go on to our team from uh life ministry who will be delivering uh most of the training, allow me to introduce a colleague, uh Dr. Walter Antoga. Dr. Antoga is uh a church leader in his own right, and also uh has been a presiding bishop of one of the uh denominations here in Kenya, the Free Pentecostal Fellowship of Kenya. But currently also now has finished his term. This is good to hear that uh the servants of God who transitioned, who hand over uh after his term, didn't extend it. And uh he then uh joined us at the International Leadership University, uh, where he serves uh both as a faculty member, but also is currently the director for our Institute for Church Renewal and Leadership. Because all these things that we have are really to serve the body of Christ, I wanted him to just take a few minutes to tell us a little bit about what is the Institute of Church Renewal and Leadership, and how can that institute uh serve uh those of uh you know the the Krem family here and the others in the body of Christ. So, Dr. Antoga, without further ado, uh just to welcome you and I trust that you'll be able to uh minister to uh briefly before we transition to the next part of the program.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Thank you, Ruth.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Good evening. I don't know what is wrong with my you can be heard, but it's a bit faint. Maybe get closer to the gadget so that you can be heard. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Okay, uh thank you so much. I was saying my gadget presidents, if you so it's not happening, but all the same, if you can hear my voice, I'm so happy.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

You are audible, yes. Yeah, stay close and continue. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Thank you so much because I'm using the my phone, that's what is bringing this. So I would wish to not to put the the the camera so that at least you can be able to be heard. I hope those who are online may be able to see me shortly, but I'm so sorry that it didn't work and set everything, but it is just not getting through. All the same, I appreciate our prof for this opportunity and for the introduction. As I said,

Church Renewal Institute And Partnerships

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I am Dr. Walter Andalga. I staff here at II, and currently I'm the director of the Institute of the New Orleans Leadership. This is a very important institute that seeks to partner with different organizations, churches, and Christian ministries. And therefore, it's a very, very important ministry, and we look forward to work together with you, share together what you are doing so that we can partner. First of all, I have to acknowledge from what was previously undertaken about these changes that are taking place in our society nowadays, we all have to acknowledge that there is a rapid change in our society, and this requires that we should also be positioned to be able to meet those changes and be able to guide our people appropriately. Because if we don't understand these changes, if you don't understand these trends that are going on, we must with uh Dr.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Antoga in the institute is uh supporting Compassion International. They came to us feeling that they wanted to strengthen the quality of the young people that they are training, because as you may know, it's a children's ministry and they work with these people all the way to when they get to university. And so we've had a program where we've been training their staff uh on some of the ways to mentor the young people that they work with, children and youth, so that they are effective uh in uh you know in that process and that they can see the kind of end product that they want in terms of the young people with character, with integrity, with you know, who are capable or competent to serve society and give back, you know, having benefited themselves from the uh you know scholarship programs that Compassion International have. We also have worked with different denominations. Very recently, we were in Kisumu with a large denomination, uh, where we had actually three days, two or three days, I think three, um, with their leadership across the country. And uh we were able to, again, in the area of renewal and leadership, uh, focus on the areas that maybe were strengthening and encouraging the servants of God and uh also challenging them and kind of opening new frontiers. Uh, some of the things that they seem to have appreciated a lot is about, again, we talked quite a bit about the young people and digital uh you know uh transitions that are happening and so that the church continues to be relevant. Uh so these are some of the ways that uh the Institute of Church Renewal and Leadership is uh going to be uh helpful to you. We'll type in the chat uh his email address and phone number. In case you'd like to get in touch in any way, uh, we'll look at ways we can make it's not uh a profit-making institution, we just may cover the costs uh so that we support the body of Christ uh wherever you are. Uh so if you'll be interested, you can get in touch. Allow me to uh stop there uh so that I can we can now

Life Ministry Kenya And Tonight’s Focus

SPEAKER_02 9:08

transition. And I would like now to request uh Mr. Robert Balusi. He is a national director for life ministry, he's a CEO, national director, and uh leads the work of life ministry here in Kenya. Uh, he's previously been a missionary to Malawi uh together with his family. And now um he is uh going to introduce the team uh that's going to focus on the two other areas that will be our areas of emphasis today. So uh, Mr. Balusi, uh, welcome. It's an honor to have you, and uh, we are glad that uh you know we we can partner together in this way. The life ministry is our sponsor, the International Leadership Foundation. I've also you know been associated with the Life Ministry for many years, and uh so it's a joy to uh be able to bring on board the Minister of Life Ministry because I believe it will be a big resource uh to the work of uh creme and all of us, wherever we are serving God. Yeah, thank you very much. Over to you, uh Brother Robert.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Okay, thank you very much, uh Prof. Kiruhi, and good evening and praise the Lord. It is uh such a blessing and a joy for us to be together, and I want to really appreciate the leadership of Krem for the opportunity that you have accorded us, the first training that happened, and uh today we get to do the second part. We are very encouraged by the great work you're doing in the kingdom of God, and it's a blessing that we can partner together uh so that together we can trust God for even greater impact as we serve Him in our generation. Uh, so I will be speaking a little later, and so on the call, I have uh my colleague who leads our work directly with the churches, and so um he will be sharing with us um the about the work that life ministry does with the churches uh so that we can know um the resources available from life ministry that our various churches can benefit from. And then as Krem partners with churches out there, and the churches are always in need of various resources, then you would know what it is that is available from Life Ministry that can be a blessing to the wider body of Christ. So he will go first, and then when he is done, um we will then come back and talk about ministry in the marketplace. And I will uh deal with that section together with a colleague of mine, Kevin Kinusu, who is on the call, and I will get to introduce him a little later. So for now, please join me in welcoming my my brother Reverend Simon Andiki, who leads the work of Life Ministry Among the Churches, the department that we call the Global Church Movements. Uh, over to you, Reverend Andiki.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Yeah,

What A Vital Church Movement Is

SPEAKER_04 12:06

thank you. Thank you so much, uh Balusi. It's uh such a joy to share this platform with the rest of the leaders. And uh I want to thank God for the amazing work that Crame is doing, especially with the partnership from ILU. As has been mentioned by Balusi, my name is uh Simon Andiki. By the grace of God, I am saved and I love him. I want to thank him for the opportunity to uh be part of the field and continue serving him uh here in Kenya uh through the leadership of global church movement, where we partner with existing churches to trust God for a vital or healthy church for every village in Kenya, and we that do that through strategic partnerships, we do that through um mobilizing concerted prayers, we do that through equipping missional leaders, and we also do that through uh ensuring that we have uh generational multiplication of the missional communities we deal with. So, for the focus of our meeting today, um I was requested to be able to share on how we can be able to have effective uh church growth and multiplication, and that remains to be the focus of my sharing this evening, and I'll be able to build on how can we be able to trust God for vital and sustainable churches or kingdom movements because uh in our focus as GCM and as life ministry, we don't look at church as a building, we look at church as a community of believers who meet together regularly, they practice the characteristics of Acts chapter 2, verse 42 to 47, and they continue to reach their community for Christ, uh bringing around transformation and impact in these areas. Um, the key focus for us thinking about uh vital and sustainable movements or principles that help us to have effective uh church growth and multiplication. John 15 16 is a good verse that can be able to continue challenging us. A reminder that the choice to serve is not our own, but we responded to the missioner, the person who owns the mission, and this is God Himself. And his desire is that as we partner with him, we'll be able to see fruits that we last. And so it is something that God expects of us when we respond to the calling that he gives us in our lives. A simple definition of what we mean by effective church growth and multiplication or vital and sustainable kingdom movements. Uh, this is a work of God. So it is God who initiates it, and this work sparks a chain reaction where people will continually come to follow Jesus, they will grow in obedience to him and his word, and out of that relationship with Christ, they will become catalysts who will ignite the same process in others. So, in other words, we need to see when uh a movement would be considered uh vital and sustainable, growing and multiplying. There is an aspect of empowering uh people to do the same, and that stays alive and continues for generations beyond culture, beyond people, beyond personalities. And so when we talk about uh uh church growth and multiplication, it is God who initiates this. That initiation brings a chain reaction where we have faithful followers of Christ who are growing in obedience and are influencing the people within their social network to be able to continue that spark of the work of God in their lives and their communities. So when we look at this, there are three things that I would want to say based on our experience and the research and our work with churches and missionary communities.

The Three Legs Of Multiplication

SPEAKER_04 16:40

For a church to be able to grow and to be able to multiply, three things are crucial. One of them is conversion. We have to see people coming to follow Jesus, the other one is discipleship, so that people are growing in obedience through small group discipleship, and at the same time, we are seeing multiplication that they are helping others to do the same. So it's kind of uh a three-legged uh stool that when we talk about conversion is about growth so that the numbers are growing among the movement. We are seeing quality that comes through the discipleship. So it's not just about having church or movements, but having quality in terms of our discipleship focus. And at the same time, the third leg of this tool for growth and multiplication within churches is about sustainability. And so when we look at growth and quality and sustainability, when that continues to work, when you look at any movement that is worth noting, those things are there. And the reason why that is crucial, the three-legged tool cannot stand if maybe one of the legs is a short one or it is missing. So our church multiplication, growth and multiplication cannot happen if we miss one of those things. So it must be a tripatriate or a tri-une focus that we focus on growth, we focus on quality, we focus on sustainability that will ensure that the church is able to grow and continue to work. Over time, most of the church planting approach does not complete the job of the Great Commission anytime soon because maybe we say this is how we uh are used to doing things. It's like pulling a cart with square wheels. So that we say that we have a system in place and we say this is how we do it, but the reality is the results we are getting is exactly out of the system that we have in place. And so it calls for us to begin to think some of the uh things we have maybe focused on to help us in terms of growth and multiplication, are they really giving

Square Wheels And Missing Discipleship

SPEAKER_04 19:15

us uh the results we desire or just taking a lot of our time and energy and not bringing the quite desired results? Because when the wheel is changed from a square to a circular wheel, which is a continuous process from one point to the other, it's even easier to move the the vehicle or the group in an easy way without a lot of effort and pain. And so sometimes we put a lot of effort into things and systems of doing things, uh, and majorly most of the times uh churches and groups focus on outreach, making conversions without paying attention to the quality in terms of discipleship and how these people can be challenged to continue reaching out to others. And one of the things that I loved when I was being trained as a missionar within life ministry at the introduction, I was reminded the clear uh relationship between evangelism and discipleship. So that evangelism leads to more discipleship, and discipleship should lead to more evangelism. So it becomes more of a circular process that continues to propel the movement. So if we focus on conversion without thinking about the discipleship aspect, then we could be continuing to try to pull a vehicle with square uh wheels rather than circular. And so for us, even as leaders and as people whom God has called us to think about how we can ensure that the movements that we are involved in are able to grow and multiply.

Four Essentials For Generational Growth

SPEAKER_04 21:10

Four essentials are crucial. There must be a multiplication mindset. Second Timothy 2.2, Paul speaks to Timothy and tells him the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, this and trust reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. So we must have the desire to see that we can trust God to see up to fourth generation and beyond in terms of our engagement as leaders. One disciple in one event should not be enough. We should work with them to the point that they are able to bring others. We also see obedience based discipleship because in Matthew 28, when Christ gave the command, after that he said, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. And so the observation here is about being obedient. Obedient to what Christ requires of us. And then when you look at also Acts chapter 14, verse 23, the leaders are supposed to come from the harvest. So we say that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are in the harvest. And we must be able to see that we can trust God to see that we are able to bring uh leaders who will continue the work from the harvest and the discipleship that we do. But also the fourth essential is crucial, is about generational accountability. As I speak here today, um Balusi was the one who discipled me into ministry, I think around 2002-2003, when I had just finished high school. That discipleship, that initial discipleship process began to lay the foundation for me to continue serving full-time uh to the point that I'm even now we are serving together in the national leadership team. And that is because of generational accountability over time. And my prayer is that also in the near future, I would be able to trust God and see that out of the commitments that I make, there are more other leaders who can be able to come and join and continue the work. So we must have that generational accountability where we continue to ensure that growth happens. Now, allow me to share two slides here to just give us a glimpse into the recent global research that was done about movements that are sustainable. And the multiplication question in those movements, the clarity was that for movements that were multiplying and growing, the leaders were healthy, the churches and missional communities were healthy, but they also had a strategy of movement sustainability so that it continues beyond one particular leader, one particular group to the other.

What Stalls Multiplication In Practice

SPEAKER_04 24:00

But also in that report, there was a caution to what brings or stalls multiplication within the movement. One of them the focus on buildings, the form of the church rather than the essence. The other challenge is single gifted leaders. The other one is training the same same people and not bringing in fresh and new uh disciples for training and continuing to deploy them. Unclear processes is also a challenge that stalls multiplication, so that from one point to the next, the disciples should know what happens. Inconsistent evangelism, maybe being done as a one-of-thing rather than a continuous process. Issue of being busy and overloading of staff and volunteers who should be able to help us do the field work. Reality of insufficient resources in terms of people, in terms of skills, in terms of finances, but also sometimes in some nations and some places, the legal and religious opposition. And maybe as I share this, you could pick from your point as a leader maybe what are some of those things that are stalling you from accomplishing your goal. Um let me finish in my part of sharing by giving us some two uh resources that are available at Life Ministry Kenya that we use for training.

New Life Training Center Overview

SPEAKER_04 25:26

One of our renowned training is called New Life Training Center, NLTC, that has five modules that can be done between four to six months based on the mode of focus. And we have the basic module, the intermediate, the intercessory, the advanced, and the leadership. So when we look at the basic module, it helps one to learn how to effectively communicate their faith in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The intermediate module, one learns how to build an intimate relationship with God and respond to the needs of the new believers within the movement. The third one is intercessory. So learning how to effectively pray for the fulfillment of the Great Commission, adopting a prayer ministry where you pray for people in your area, your community, looking for opportunities to care and to share the gospel. And then the advanced module is one learns how to build multiplying disciples by teaching and discipling them in small groups because we know that is where things happen. And the leadership module is where leaders or the people within the movement will learn how to live with an eternal perspective, but continue to offer leadership to the growing number of multiplying disciples in the movements. One good example I can give is in Eldoret. Eldoret, the Northlift region, has about six counties. And the leaders who are non-staff and are helping us to give leadership to this region and other counties from Eldoret are products of NLTC. And they have continued to influence within their churches and their areas and give their leadership to help continue the movement across the North Rift region.

MC Squared And The Four Fields

SPEAKER_04 27:22

The second resource is what we call MC Squared. It's a tool that we are using to accelerate multiplication of biblical churches and faith communities. This one is connected to the vision of the father's heart and the four fields processes. So it's about asking how many missional communities do we need for a particular target area? The seed is about planting acts to communities through the gospel. The model is ensuring multiplication happens. And this happens through Mark chapter 4, verse 26 to 29. The story of the kingdom of God with a man who is scattering seeds. And this gives us the four fields process of kingdom growth. So entering a new field, uh, sowing the seed that is God's word, growing the grain, harvesting the bundle, but the unseen worker who is the Holy Spirit. So from this four fields process, we will train leaders and teams on how to use the skills in the critical pathway. So in new places or empty field, we talk about new peoples and places. We talk about persons of peace. We talk about the prayer, care, share, focus. In the sharing of the gospel, we learn about means on how we can share the gospel. In making disciples, it's about doing obedience-based Bible study, discipleship processes in small groups, and forming the acts to communities, groups of five to ten, meeting regularly, praying, caring for one another, and reaching their region. But that happening in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so that is what we use. And this training can take uh either they're about nine lessons. So they could be one lesson per week or uh three days of continuous training, and people can go to implement, and uh it's one of also those tools that are available that we can be able to use. Let me finish by sharing two upcoming opportunities that we have within the global church movement and life ministry.

Upcoming Outreach And Sports Campaigns

SPEAKER_04 29:30

Uh, the month of May globally is known as the Global Outreach Month. Uh and in GCM, we talk about the church planting month. So it involves global outreach day or week. So the last week of May, uh every believer is challenged to mobilize each other so that each one may reach another person. And for Life Ministry Kenya, we have practically chosen Tuesday 26th uh to in our different places to come pray together, then go out and share one-on-one in different places. And also on Saturday, so it can go like a whole week up to Saturday as the final day. And then also there's also the focus of the Pentecost Sunday being the birthday of the church, is a challenge to ask existing churches to consider could you plant another church or another new church, either as a missionary community, a cell group, or a particular church in an area. So that's an opportunity for partnership. But also during the month of June and July, we have uh the World Cup. And so globally we are doing the campaign in partnership with uh athletes in action, global church movements, and other strategies. And this is our goal for the soccer outreach in Kenya in June and July. We are currently identifying people we call champions. We'll bring them for one national training in the first week of June. We deploy them to go train others, we give them sports kits that they can use to be able to reach their communities. They'll launch sports outreach events like clinics, tournaments, uh, watch parties. Uh-huh. And those who get saved will be connected to a missional community. But our desire is that out of that, we'll have at least 350,000 reached with the gospel with about 80,000 decisions, and we hope to see 1,000 missional sports communities of about 8 to 10 believers. So we welcome you to consider to pray with us and where you would want to partner with us or ask more questions on details on how we can come alongside. Please feel free. The last slide is able to share my details and my contacts for you to be able to use. My time, I think, has been exhausted, so allow me to stop here.