It’s time to put some meat on the structural bones. Time for the rubber to meet the road in all this Acts 1:8 discipleship talk. Previous chapters have laid out the plan. This chapter is about implementing the plan. Making disciples is primarily a process of equipping them for ministry and then giving them opportunities to gain ministry experience. While the equipping takes place primarily before the trip, we must not forget a lot of “on the job” training continues during the trip. On the other hand, while experiencing ministry is expected to be on the trip, there are ministry experiences to be had prior to the trip as well.
With all that’s involved in team meetings, one could easily forget the focus is supposed to be on equipping the disciples to meet the discipleship goals. It is very easy to let a team meeting slide into a lot of activity and fun and not address anything regarding the discipleship goals. For some reason, training that addresses discipleship goals generates an implication of boredom that both the leaders and team members dread. This unenthusiastic expectation needs not to become reality.
Let’s review the goals at each level and look at some practical, active, and maybe even fun ways to achieve them.
Achieving Level 1 Primary Goals:
1) The disciple learns how to give a clear testimony where upon hearing the testimony only, an unsaved person understands why the disciple thinks he is going to heaven. (Why does the disciple think he is going to heaven? Because somewhere in his life, he realized he was a sinner who could not save himself, God loved him enough to send His Son to die on the cross for his sins, and he put his faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.)
The only way a disciple is going to get good at giving his testimony, is if he has a lot of practice giving it. Some people, who are very outgoing witnesses for Christ, become very good at giving their testimony merely because they have told it so many times in the past. Most of your first-time summer missionaries are not going to be in that category. So where are they going to get all of this experience telling their testimony so that they can be very clear in the ears of the unsaved? In your team meetings, of course.
Perhaps you noticed in the Level 1 team meeting agendas that in the very first meeting, everyone gives their testimony and tells why they are going on the trip. Then in every meeting after that, “practices testimonies” is listed. Having everyone give their testimony in the first meeting helps everyone know a little bit about each other. It also gives you, the leader, the opportunity to hear how clear, or not so clear, the testimonies are.
At the second meeting the team is introduced to the components of a testimony of coming to faith that will be clear to the unsaved listener as to how that disciple got saved. This type of evangelistic testimony is what we want to train the disciple to be able to share with others. For, as we will see later, it is this kind of testimony that will be used to make the transition to sharing the gospel.
The essential components are, as listed in the stated primary goal:
a) Somewhere in his life, he realized he was a sinner who could not save himself;
b) God loved him enough to send His Son to die on the cross for his sins;
c) He put his faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Much more can be added, but these three are the bare minimum the lost person needs to hear to understand why the disciple thinks he is going to heaven. There are many ways to weave these three basic truths into a testimony. Everyone’s testimony is different but has similarities. Some people may include many Scriptures and personal details about their journey in their testimonies. Some may not. Either way, the same message of how that disciple came to faith comes through.
I once heard criticism from someone, after hearing such testimonies, that “these are not testimonies but gospel presentations.” I was a bit dumfounded over that. Shouldn’t a testimony about how one came to faith include components of the gospel message that brought them to the Savior? The biggest reason (humanly speaking) the lost world has a wrong idea about what makes a person a Christian is because of the poor job Christians have done explaining why and how they actually came to faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
Don’t let your summer missionary disciples be that kind of vague witness for Christ. These three components must be taught at the second meeting. Then have the team members break up into pairs or trios and tell their testimonies to each other with the components woven in somewhere. As they listen to each other’s testimony, they should point out areas that are not clear or if one of the basic components was missing.
Testimonies should also be rid of Christian and local church jargon that will be unfamiliar to the unsaved, particularly if the team will be ministering on a foreign field. Imagine what a peasant in Central America will think if he hears, “I had worked three years in the Salt Company before I was redeemed.” What would a Buddhist or Hindu think upon hearing, “I was a Pioneer Girl before I was born-again”? If you want to baffle your translator, just say, “I was a Sparky leader in Awana at the Olympics.” (For those unfamiliar with Awana, the Awana Olympics is a games competition between Awana clubs from different area churches.)
If your team members have grown up in or been active serving in the local church, most likely they will need to reword portions of their testimonies in order to avoid confusion in the minds of their listeners on the field. This revising of their testimonies is done in the repeated practice of sharing done in the team meetings. Every team meeting has a portion dedicated to telling, again and again, their testimonies to each other. By the time they leave for their trip, they should be able to give a very clear testimony.
One of the hardest things for those trying to put a clear testimony together is knowing how to end it. At the first meeting, many will undoubtedly just kind of run out of things to say…trailing off with an almost apologetic “…and, uh, that’s about it.” Such unenthusiastic endings tend to leave listeners hanging. To the lost person, it sounds like you aren’t very thrilled with your salvation…which isn’t the message you want to leave him with.
Therefore, team leader, or whoever is teaching about testimonies, you need to give them a way to end their testimonies. I always tell people, if they don’t have a way to end their testimony, then end it with something like, “And if I died today, I know for sure I would go to heaven.” This wraps up the testimony on a very positive point about the results of salvation.
It also sets the stage for a transition to a gospel presentation, which is the second primary discipleship goal for Level 1:
2) The disciple learns how to give a simple, but clear, gospel presentation.
Just as many Christians cannot give a clear testimony of how they came to faith, many also cannot give a clear gospel presentation. By “clear”, I mean one that an unsaved, unchurched heathen can understand. When Christians who are not involved in sharing with the lost give a gospel presentation, it is usually a rambling explanation that only we Christians can understand what they are trying to say. For example…
“Well, God is holy and just, but still loves you and isn’t willing for any to perish. But because we can’t remove the stain of sin on our lives in our own power, He sent Jesus to die on the cross. Now, because God died for the sins of the world, which includes you and me, we can go to heaven because it is a free gift, not of works lest any man should boast. So if you want to be saved, all you have to do is pray the sinner’s prayer, and invite Jesus into your heart, and you’ll inherit eternal life. For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become sons of God. And Jesus said, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock’. So, will you let Him in?”
If this made sense to you, it is because you are already a Christian who has heard all of these lines somewhere before and know what they relate to. However, to a non-Christian who has never heard the gospel message, each of those sentences raises more questions than they answer. Just as a disciple of Christ needs to be able to give a clear testimony, he needs to be equally clear with a presentation of the gospel.
Most Level 1 team members, especially if they are youth, will need to be taught a simple gospel presentation. Just how “simple” a gospel presentation to teach depends upon how proficient (or deficient) the team members are at explaining the gospel. Whatever simplified version of the gospel is chosen to teach the team, it must at least address the same three basic components that are required in the testimony:
a) Man is a sinner who cannot save himself;
b) God loves us enough to send His Son to die on the cross for our sins;
c) We must place faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
You may have noticed in the January Level 1 team meeting agenda: Teach the “One Verse Gospel Presentation” using Romans 6:23. At the first team meeting, I always assume the whole team cannot clearly share the gospel. If I find out I am wrong, I can always add to this very basic gospel presentation that the whole team will learn.
Most people who cannot give a clear gospel presentation usually do not have much Scripture memorized. In my opinion, the best gospel presentations use Scripture quotes. Those who haven’t memorized Scripture tend to dread any training that requires a bunch of memory work. Thus, I announce we will learn the One Verse Gospel Presentation. It goes like this:
Hold both of your hands out in front of you, palms facing you, and your thumbs sticking up. (If you move your little fingers up and down, you’ll have two dogs barking at each other.) You should have a gap between your hands. (Or the dogs’ noses.) Your right thumb is man. Your left thumb is God. You say, “This is man, here on earth.” Wiggle the right thumb. “This is God in heaven.” Wiggle the left thumb. “Notice the gap between them? That shows how man and God are separated. Do you know why they are separated? It is because man (wiggle) is a sinner and God (wiggle) is holy and cannot have sin in His presence. Man (wiggle) has a sin problem. He breaks God’s rules. Because of that, the first part of Romans 6:23 says, ‘The wages of sin is death.’ That’s bad news for man (wiggle). His sinfulness has earned him something, and that something is death. But the second part of Romans 6:23 has good news, ‘but the free gift of God (wiggle) is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ God (wiggle) wants to give sinful man (wiggle) forgiveness and eternal life. How does man (wiggle) receive this gift of eternal life? By being “in Christ Jesus our Lord’. How does man (wiggle) get ‘in Christ’?”
Now quote John 3:16. “’For God (wiggle) so loved the world’…that’s you and me (wiggle man)…’that He (wiggle) gave His only begotten Son so that whoever (wiggle man) believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ How do we (wiggle man) get in Christ? By believing in Him and what He did for us. We (wiggle) deserve death, but Christ died for us. If we believe in Him, we receive forgiveness and salvation, (Bring your hands together interlocking the fingers.) which is ’the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Does this make sense to you?” If so, invite them to pray to receive the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Pretty simple, isn’t it? But, you say…just as they do in the team meetings… that was two verses! That’s true. You don’t have to use John 3:16. You could just say, “By believing in Jesus and what He did for us,” without quoting the verse. But, it’s a rare Christian that doesn’t already know John 3:16. And the few that don’t won’t admit it. So, with or without John 3:16, we’re only asking them to memorize one new verse. Thus, we still call it, “The One Verse Gospel Presentation.”
Many gospel tracts have used the illustration of man and God on two cliffs separated by a chasm. Using the hands is the same illustration. In a live situation, if they would prefer to draw it in the dirt or on a piece of paper, that is fine. But for the practice at team meetings, they will use their hands and thumbs. Not only does it make practicing it over and over more fun, the visual aid and movement of their hands helps them to memorize the presentation.
By the third meeting, people will have it down without using their hands. Some will experiment using paper and seeing how they like drawing it. Others, when they get stuck, will bring their hands back into play to get them back on track. It may sound like a silly way to teach a gospel presentation, but it works. I’ve never had someone not be able to learn this simple presentation. It includes the three minimum basic components needed for a clear grasp of the gospel. It is a basic foundational framework of the gospel than can be built upon when they move up to Level 2.
Most importantly, the disciple is equipped to share the gospel. Believe it or not, I’ve seen grown men on the mission field talking one-on-one with people, holding their hands up and wiggling their thumbs as they talk. By God’s grace, some have been saved through this simple approach.
Each meeting has time set aside to practice testimonies and the gospel presentation. Practice. Change partners. Do it again. Team leaders, that already know how to present the gospel, need to listen to the team members as they practice. This allows the leaders to further instruct individuals and gage how well the team is developing in their ability to share the gospel. Do not let adult leaders of youth teams avoid learning how to share. The youth need to see their leaders can do this or are learning with them.
Rotating the individual’s practice from team member to team member also helps the team members to get to know each other better and to be encouragers to each other. They learn from each other as they learn together. Time enough is allowed before changing partners to talk about other things after practicing with each other. Team unity is also being developed through the repeated practice as they all have the same goal of becoming a clear witness for Christ.
As they improve in their ability to share their testimony and the gospel, there is a noticeable shift in the team’s overall confidence about being a witness for Christ. They start getting a little excited about the witnessing opportunities that will be on the trip. They are curious about how it will work in a real witnessing situation. Once you see this confidence taking shape. Encourage them not to wait for the trip to find out how God can use them to be His witness. Some may very well take their thumbs out and talk to someone there in your Jerusalem. Pray that it happens!
On the trip, witnessing teams will go out in pairs. One will give his testimony. The other will be responsible for the gospel. A key to the team effort is to allow a point of transition from the testimony to the gospel. That is another reason why it is important to have a good ending to the testimony. That is so the “gospel presenter” partner can pick up the conversation without forcing the gospel into play.
This is why I recommend ending a testimony with, “And if I died today, I know for sure I would go to heaven.” That way the partner can follow up with a series of questions:
1) Can we ask you a question?
2) If you died today, do you know for sure you would go to heaven? (You might ask the next question, or skip it and go to the next one.)
3) Let’s say you did die today and stood before God, and He asked you why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?
4) Can I take a moment and share with you what the Bible says about how you can know for sure if you are going to heaven?
As long as the person is giving you permission to keep talking, then keep talking. At the end of the gospel presentation, ask more questions. Does this make sense to you? Would you like to receive the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ? If they say yes, don’t rush into leading them in prayer. Ask another question. Why do you want to do that? This allows them to explain back to you their understanding of the gospel. If they are a little fuzzy in their answer, you need to review and clear up that fuzzy area. If they sound like they recognize their sinfulness and need for a Savior, invite them to tell God in prayer that they are placing their faith in Christ as their Savior.
The format of the two-person witnessing team is used in all of the trip levels. While one person talks, the other prays quietly and is there to speak up if the other gets flustered or stumped. Level 2 expands upon the basic Level 1 gospel presentation. More memory verses and a variety of gospel presentations are introduced. Level 3 continues to offer more varieties of gospel approaches and illustrations.
Whether your Level 1 team uses the “One Verse Gospel Presentation” or not, isn’t the key. The key is to teach the Level 1 team a simple gospel presentation that everyone can easily learn and then allow them to develop confidence, through repeated practice, in sharing that presentation. If you would have a different presentation to teach, then do it. The “One Verse Gospel Presentation” is merely an example for those of you out there that need all the step-by-step help you can get.
As a part of the preparation for the trip, the team will be involved in local ministries that will give them the opportunity for sharing testimonies and the gospel. It could be tract distributing on the streets, taking part in an evangelistic outreach, visiting a homeless shelter, or putting on a VBS. These are good opportunities to see your disciples in action. Some team members will take advantage of the opportunities to share. Others will be reluctant and try to avoid having to share. That’s when the leader needs to come along side the individual and help them get involved.
I’ve been known to take the shy, nervous one with me to talk to someone. After we get past the initial small talk and begin to switch over to spiritual things, I just say, “Part of the reason we are here is to share with people what God has done in our lives. Would it be okay if Shy Anne, here, tells you what God has done in her life?” Then Shy Anne gets her first opportunity to share here testimony with a stranger.
Afterwards, we talk about it. Inevitably, Shy Anne will say, “I was really scared at first. But it wasn’t so bad.”
For the youth, the end-of-the-school-year “testimony nights” took up the last three youth group meetings in May. All summer missionaries were expected to at least share their testimony as to how they came to faith. Usually the testimonies went beyond that to more recent things God had done. Testimony nights were not limited to just the summer missionaries. For it was a celebration of what God had done in the lives of all the members of the youth group. Many youth not going on mission trips would also share. Oftentimes, adult summer missionaries would show up those nights to share and be a part of the celebration. For most of our summer missionaries, the testimony nights became the first place they ever shared their testimony before an audience. It’s a great experience to prepare summer missionaries to speak before crowds or congregations on the mission field.
On the trip, there are several possible opportunities for the team members to share their testimonies and/or share the gospel. This message must be repeated at every team meeting. The team members must understand that they are going to be Christ’s witnesses somewhere along the way on the trip. Otherwise, why practice so much in the team meetings? The Level 1 trips always stop in a city in route to their destination to hand out tracts on the streets. While they are only required to hand out the tracts, some will end up in conversations that will give them the opportunity to share their testimonies or the gospel.
What other opportunities are presented on the trip depends much on the location and the type of ministry the team will be doing on the Level 1 trip. It is up to the team leader to keep his eyes open for the opportunities. A VBS is always a place where testimonies and the gospel can be presented. If there is construction on someone’s home, team members can always witness to those living in the house. A construction crew of summer missionaries usually attracts the attention of the neighbors. They can be talked to as well.
Somewhere in the discussion with the residents of the house or their neighbors, the summer missionary says, “While we are here to work on this house, it’s not the main reason we are here.” That statement is guaranteed to generate some curiosity. For, as far as they can tell, the building project is the main thing the team is doing. Once the curiosity is raised, then continue with, “The main reason we are here is because of what God has done in our lives. Can I share with you what God has done in my life?” Once again, you are asking permission to share your testimony. Most likely the answer will be “yes”. Most likely, there will also be the opportunity to follow the testimony with the gospel.
The team may be invited to local church services to share. If the team is taken to a nursing home or any kind of facility full of people, there are always opportunities to share with people in groups or one-on-one. If the ministry includes some kind of outreach event, there will definitely be opportunities for the team members to share with people. There are always opportunities to share if you keep your eyes open for them.
Achieving Level 1 Secondary Goals:
1) Have the disciple in the Word of God for a good amount of time, by means of the assigned preparation work. The Word of God changes lives!
The assigned preparation work requires time in the Bible. Don’t neglect this!
2) The disciple learns to trust God for his support to come in.
Remember, while we hope to achieve the secondary goals, we can’t guarantee they all will occur, nor can we always measure to what extent they were accomplished. For example, we cannot measure how much an individual’s life is changed by his time in the assigned Bible study preparation. Nor can we tell how deeply he trusted God for his support to come in, or if his serving was done with a humble heart.
3) The disciple develops confidence to pray aloud when situations call for it, by means of small group and team prayer times and being called upon to lead in prayer at different times throughout team meetings and on the trip.
Throughout the team meetings and the trip, every team member will be called upon to lead the team in prayer and to pray with others. While we may see a fading of hesitancy and awkward phrasing of prayers, we cannot measure how much confidence is being gained. The key is to provide the team members the opportunities to pray aloud on a frequent basis for the team as a whole, with and for individual team members, and for the ministry. Fellowship is strengthened with God and the team members through prayer. Then the real bonus, with so much praying going on, is getting to see God answer many prayers over the course of the trip.
Teaching team members, who have never done so before, to pray aloud is not as hard as one may think. The first time should be in small groups of three or four. Most will be very nervous about how they are going to sound to the others. The biggest fear is, “What should I say?” Therefore, tell them what to pray for the first few times they pray together.
“Pray for the person on your right. Thank God for putting them on this team and ask God to use them in a mighty way. Everybody got that? Just say, ‘Thank you, God, for ol’ Betty Lou Thelma Liz being on the team. Use her in a mighty way. Amen.’”
And that’s it. The really terrified will say exactly that. Then they will discover most everybody else prays about the same way. By the third meeting, they will be getting used to praying out loud with each other. For most, it will be the first time someone has sat next to them and prayed for them.
While on the trip, the team should be having prayer time together on the bus, every morning before starting the day’s ministry, and every evening before calling it a night. If there is a construction site, set up a “prayer chair”. It may not even be a real chair. It may be a rock or stump or a patch of ground in the shade. The purpose of the “prayer chair” is to keep the day bathed in prayer by rotating team members into the chair every fifteen minutes. If your team is small, you may not be able to keep it going all day. But you can designate a time each morning and afternoon as “prayer chair” time and rotate the whole team through it.
Praying for fifteen minutes is a long time for most people. So it will be a stretching experience for most people. At the end of the first day, talk about it with the team. Did people have a hard time staying in prayer for fifteen minutes? How did they use up the time? This is a good time to suggest other prayer practices beyond going through the same “help us on this trip” type of prayers. Suggest spending time just praising and adoring God for who He is. Try to come up with an attribute of God for every letter of the alphabet and praise Him for it. Pray through a psalm, rewording it so that it is a personal prayer to God. Meditate before the Lord on what it means to “Be still and know that I am God.”
4) The disciple has opportunities to practice servanthood in team meetings and on the trip.
When it comes to practicing servanthood, some team members need more practice than others. Some team members are natural servants and are always quick to help out or do the menial. Others may think they are above serving. It doesn’t take long to figure out which ones need more opportunities to allow everyone else to go first and to stay behind to clean up afterwards. Please note: sometimes it is an adult leader that needs the practice the most.
5) The disciple gets a taste of biblical fellowship through the victories and trials of living, serving, and worshiping as a part of a team for the duration of the trip.
Fellowship is something that is addressed at the end of the trip. Review all that the team has been through, from team meetings, to travel time, the ups and downs of the trip, the answered prayers, and the praises. Then point out what the team has experienced together is biblical fellowship. The typical eating and socializing that local churches call fellowship just scratches the surface of biblical fellowship. Being partners in our journey for Christ, experiencing its joys and trials together, is true fellowship.
6) The disciple gets to experience being a public visible witness through distributing tracts on the streets of a city in route to the trip destination. The disciple is not required to try to share the gospel with people. (However, many will find themselves doing so as they get into discussions with people.)
Being a visible public witness for Christ, even if it is only handing out tracts, is a milestone for those who have never done it before. It would be nice to do that prior to the trip. Since our Level 1 trips are always in the church bus, we always stopped for a “tract blitz” in a city in route to our trip destination. There may also be opportunities at your ministry location. The only requirement I make is that they have to say something to identify themselves as Christians or that the tract is about Jesus.
7) The team is always to be prepared to minister through singing.
Singing together contributes to team fellowship and worship in team meetings and while traveling on the bus. Since music is the universal language, it can be used as a ministry tool on the field, whether you sing together before a church or while painting somebody’s porch.
8) The disciple has a ministry role in a VBS program, beyond being simply “crowd control” or games.
If your ministry includes a VBS, then make sure every person on the team has a ministry role to perform. It is hindering a disciple’s development to limit someone to strictly doing games or crowd control. Remember, you want to build upon this experience at the next level. Everyone should have at least one opportunity to give a Bible or missionary story, give a testimony, lead in a memory verse or singing, or do puppets or a skit. Sometimes it takes a lot of creative scheduling to give everyone a chance to do one of these things at least once, but it can be done.
The best way to insure everyone has opportunities to gain ministry experience in the VBS is to divide up the children according to age after the opening exercises, then have simultaneous programs going on for each group. So, instead of one person trying to give the Bible story to fifty kids of all ages, instead of the craft time being for all fifty at once, you divide the group into four or five groups. Then in separated rooms, or in separate corners of the yard or playground, there are four or five different team members giving the Bible story to much smaller and manageable size groups. Since they are broken up according to age, the lessons can be tailored to a particular age group’s understanding.
The smaller groups enable a more effective teaching time and relationship building environment with the children. This does not mean every group is doing the same thing at the same time. For, that creates problems at game and craft times if everyone is back to doing it at the same time. So the different aspects of the VBS must be staggered from group to group so that there is no bottle-necking of all the groups in the same activity. So, as one group does the Bible story, another is doing games, a third is doing crafts, a fourth is doing memory verse-testimony-gospel presentation, and the fifth is doing the missionary story. This approach allows the crafts coordinator to rotate from area to area and work with smaller groups. Again, it just takes a little scheduling ahead of time.
A suggestion from experience: the craft coordinator and other ministries rotate to where the children are. It may sound like a nuisance, but it is far easier than trying to rotate fifty…or a hundred children from station to station. Moving the children every twenty minutes is like herding chickens. By the end of that first day of trying to corral children at every shift, your team will be voting to leave them as one big hoard the next day. Rotate your workers, not the children.
If you have a puppet program, it is best to do it at the beginning, after opening exercises, while you have everyone together. There are two reasons for this. First, you will probably need your puppeteers to help out in other parts of the VBS. Second, unless you have a secluded puppet show room, children in other areas will turn their back on the Bible story, or whatever they are supposed to be doing, and watch the puppet show from across the courtyard, sandlot, or open field you are ministering in. Even if you have a secluded room, then you are back to rotating children in and out of the puppet show. Another alternative could be to hold the puppet show at the end, just before closing exercises with everyone gathered together again.
What about skits, mime, and sports evangelism?
As mentioned in Chapter 4, while being useful tools for ministry, skits and mime are not essential to disciple-making. Skits and mimes can be used on a trip on any level. Just make sure their use aids in accomplishing, rather than supplanting, the discipleship goals. As long as the performers in the skits and mimes are also equipped to share their testimonies and the gospel, then, by all means include them in your preparation. However, if your actors cannot be clear witnesses, then sacrifice the skits and mime for the witnessing training.
Sports evangelism falls into the same category. Many untrained witnesses for Christ will volunteer to play soccer or basketball on the mission field and call it “sports evangelism” even though no evangelism really takes place. Remember the comment of the young men in El Derramadero?
“We have had many Americans come play soccer with us, but you
are the first to talk to us about Jesus.”
Most likely, those previous teams that played soccer with these young men called it “sports evangelism”. However, if no testimony was shared, no one shared the gospel, then it definitely was not sports evangelism. It was just sports. No real ministry was taking place. Sports can be used to build relationships, credibility and respect. Yet it is not a ministry for Christ unless the playing stops and Christ is talked about.
Skits, mime, and sports are very useful means to open doors for the gospel. So, if you are going to use them, make sure the players can step through those open doors to share their testimonies and the gospel.
Question: Must a Level 1 trip be limited to a somewhere in the United States? Can’t these goals be accomplished in a cross-cultural setting?
Answer: Going to a non-English speaking foreign field requires moving a Level 2 ministry goal down to Level 1: The disciple ministers, through translators, in a cross-cultural context. It can be done. However, going international creates greater distractions and demands upon your inexperienced team members. Keeping the ministry the main focus of the trip is more easily done with first-time summer missionaries when they are in an English-speaking sub-culture. Take them overseas and it is very hard for them not to slide into the tourist mindset because they have yet to experience the summer missionary ministry mindset.
There are always exceptions, particularly with adult teams. Yet, remember, this is a discipleship program. Another question must also be asked: Is going international with a team of inexperienced people striving to meet Level 1 goals the best thing to do? Admittedly, sometimes God opens unique doors of opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up. However, my experience has shown that most inexperienced people (people that cannot give a clear testimony or gospel presentation) that want to do a trip overseas rather in the U.S. are more interested in seeing other lands than in ministering.
A Level 1 trip can be done in another country that speaks English, like in Canada or the Caribbean. I don’t want to belittle the uniqueness of the English-speaking culture in Canada, but it is much more of being another sub-culture of North American English-speakers, than it is a true cross-cultural encounter. On the other hand, the English-speaking Caribbean nations would present more of a cross-cultural challenge that would have to be taken into consideration as the team prepares for their ministry.
While there are exceptions for churches in Florida and states along the Canadian border, for most of the country, going to Canada or the Caribbean will significantly increase the price of the trip. For a large wealthy church, that may not be an issue. For the smaller church, particularly one planning its first mission trip, a low-price trip that is a day’s drive away may be a real test of faith for that team and the whole church family. While a secondary goal is for the disciple to trust God for his support to come in, in reality, it is a step of faith for the whole church body to grow through together. Most churches need to see God provide for a $400-per-person trip before a $1500-per-person trip is proposed.
Achieving Level 2 Primary Goals
1) The disciple sharpens his evangelism skills.
2) The disciple ministers, through translators, in a cross-cultural context.
Now that the disciple has mastered being able to tell a clear testimony and simple gospel presentation through the Level 1 experience, we now want to build confidence in the disciple’s ability to share his testimony and the gospel. We will teach the team several different gospel presentations, with illustrations. Each disciple picks a presentation he prefers and learns it well. There will be ten hours of street evangelism in the U.S. before ever getting to Mexico. In Mexico, while there may be VBS and other outreach program opportunities the ministry focus is door-to-door evangelism. Team members evangelize in pairs. One gives his testimony. The other follows up with a gospel presentation. The one not talking prays silently.
To sign up for the Level 2 trip, the disciple must want to sharpen his evangelism skills. This is discipleship and Great Commission ministry, not just a trip to Mexico. Not all people who have done a Level 1 trip are ready for or interested in a trip with such focus on evangelism. Leaders must resist recruiting those that are not ready. Leaders must also be courageous enough to recommend a repeat of Level 1 for those who struggled with meeting Level 1 goals.
This should be obvious, but let me say it any way:
Those signing up for Level 2 to sharpen their evangelism skills must be saved.
The last thing the team (or your church) needs is to send out a lost person to reach others with the gospel of Christ. Only God truly knows a person’s heart and we must rely upon a person’s profession of faith. Still, to the best of our ability, we must take care not to knowingly take the unsaved individual on such a trip. That person needs to be directed back to Level 1 to review the basics of the gospel for himself.
Usually, the unsaved have no desire to be out evangelizing all day and will withdraw once the trip’s focus is explained. The problem comes when the saved friends of the unsaved are all moving up to Level 2. This is a frequent occurrence with youth teams. Usually the suspect one can give all the right answers regarding a profession of faith. Then the suspect one’s friends and parents challenge you if you have doubts about the reality of their salvation.
When this happens, recognize there is no way to prove someone’s profession of faith is not real. Also recognize, he just might really be saved after all. So, if he is a Level 1 veteran who professes to know Christ and there are no behavioral grounds to deny him a spot on the team, accept him on the team and leave the rest in God’s hands. God will work on him through the process of the preparation, team meetings, and the trip. Be ready to lead him, wherever he is on his spiritual journey, up to the next level of commitment to Christ.
Recognize everyone going on the Level 2 trip will have to step up their commitment. It takes above average commitment to agree to join a team whose number one priority is to learn the share the gospel clearly and confidently in order to approach strangers and share Christ. It takes above average commitment to sign up for a team that is going to do ten hours of street evangelism before ever getting to Mexico, not to mention door-to-door all day long in Mexico.
Also recognize, Team Leader, that that commitment starts with you. Your team will only be as committed as you are. Yes, team leaders must step up their commitment, too. If you need to sharpen your evangelism skills too, then, welcome to the team! The whole team will practice and learn together.
The team leader must round up four or five different ways to present the gospel. There are plenty of tracts and other evangelistic materials out there to help you do this. Bring enough copies of these different gospel presentations for every team member to your first team meeting.
At this first meeting, everyone is going to give their testimony and share a gospel presentation. Most will use the “one-verse” version taught on the Level 1 trip. Some may have already expanded their presentation beyond the Level 1 version. This will give the team leader an idea how well each team member can do already.
The team leader, or someone else designated to do so, needs to demonstrate, or read, each of the different gospel presentations. Distribute the different material to the team members and have them practice with them in pairs. By the end of that meeting, most will have chosen the gospel presentation they want to learn and use on the field. If someone hasn’t, let them know they have to have one picked out by the second meeting.
Sometimes none of the gospel presentations suit an individual. They will want to use a little bit of one kind, a little bit of another, and then add their own touch to it. That’s great! As long as it is still a clear and accurate gospel presentation, God can use it.
Once everyone has their chosen presentation to work on, wait until the third or fourth meeting to introduce a couple of illustrations to clarify points in the gospel. Some presentations offer illustrations. Some don’t. What is sin, what it means to fall short of the glory of God, and what is saving faith are places that illustrations can easily be inserted. Encourage the team members to learn at least two illustrations and incorporate them into their presentation.
Once the team members have selected a gospel presentation and illustrations, they need to practice them over and over with each other in the team meetings. By “over and over”, I mean ten, fifteen, even twenty times at each team meeting. They need to be able to share Christ as easily as telling someone what they did over the weekend. Encourage the team members to practice their gospel presentation with family and friends. On the Monday after a team meeting, when someone asks, “What did you do over the weekend?” You can say, “I was practicing for my mission trip. Want to hear?”
At some point in the course of the months preceding the mission trip, the team members should be involved in a local evangelistic outreach that can give the members opportunities to reach out in their Jerusalem. Hopefully, your church has evangelistic outreaches that your team members can plug into. If your church does not have such opportunities, then it falls upon the team leadership to plan an outreach for the team to engage in witnessing to the lost.
Such outreaches can be street evangelism in your own or a nearby city, a Super Bowl or college basketball Final Four party where testimonies and gospel presentations are shared at half-time, visiting rescue missions, homeless shelters, nursing homes, or calling on visitors to your church. Remember, this is Acts 1:8 discipleship. Being a witness in your Jerusalem is not to be ignored as you prepare your team to be witnesses to the remotest parts of the earth.
Going beyond the U.S. borders, whether it is to Mexico or Bhutan, usually means going where English is not spoken. Thus, most Americans will need to speak through a translator in order to be a witness in the remotest parts. The Level 2 trip is to give the disciples that type of cross-cultural witnessing opportunity.
Again, let me say, the disciples’ greatest witnessing tool is their ability to clearly share their testimony and the gospel. Yet, we don’t want to neglect showing love, respect, servanthood, and humility in the cross-cultural context. That is how doors are opened for sharing. But, no one comes to Christ until the Good News about Him is shared. It is because of Jesus we love, respect, serve, and humble ourselves before others. It is because of Jesus we have come to their land. Never fear sharing the reason you have come all that way to their country is because of what Jesus has done in your life. In fact, just as it was mentioned with the Level 1 construction project, that reason is a great way to make the transition from casual chit-chat to having the opportunity to share your testimony.
“One of the reasons I have come to your country is because of what God has done in my life. Could I take a few minutes and tell you about that?” It is a great way to move a conversation over to spiritual things. If the person agrees you may tell them, then quietly praise God for the open door and share your testimony!
Sharing in English to fellow English-speakers is already a big challenge to keep your thoughts organized and to present your story and the gospel clearly. That’s why there is so much emphasis on practicing testimonies and the gospel in team meetings. We don’t want our disciples wondering what they should say next as they share. Lack of confidence in what to say or a disorganized presentation comes across like the speaker isn’t sure he believes it himself or he isn’t really sure what he believes. Neither of which is the message we want to project.
When we add the necessity of witnessing through a translator, keeping your train of thought and not getting distracted become even greater challenges. Even a seasoned veteran witness for Christ can stumble about the first time he speaks through a translator. So then, how do you prepare your team to practice witnessing through a translator?
It’s quite simple, really. And your team members will have a lot of fun practicing. There are two main things to do to successfully speak through a translator. If you can master these two things, most of your struggles working through translators will be solved.
1) Knowing how much to say before stopping to let the translator talk.
2) Not letting how it is translated into the native language distract you from knowing what you are going to say next.
How much do you say? Obviously, a person can’t rattle off ten or fifteen sentences and expect the translator to remember all of it for an accurate translation. However, a common mistake is to say too little:
“Hello…
… my name is…
Mabel Mumblebucket…
…and I am…
…from…
…Cornfield, America…
…even though…
…I now…
…live…
…in Hay Mound…
…with…
…my grandmother…
…and three cats.”
This will drive your translator nuts. You cannot give a translator a word or two at a time or speak in sentence fragments. For, most languages do not use word order or phrasing in their sentences the way English does. There is no way to say “I now” in many languages. “Live” can mean “being alive” or “where I reside”. Until the sentence is completed, the translator does not know which way to translate it.
Rule #1: Speak in full sentences.
If you say the whole sentence, most likely the translator will remember it all and translate it accordingly. Sometimes, you can say two sentences. How do know how many sentences to say? Grab a partner and have them be your translator. You say your full sentence. They repeat it. You say your next sentence. They repeat it. You say a couple of sentences. If your partner can repeat it, your translator probably will be able to do so as well.
What this exercise does is give the speaker a feel for how much he can say at a time and expect the translator to grasp it. It also gives him a feel for how the timing of having to wait for the translation affects the flow of the presentation.
Rule #2: Reduce the length of pauses between the translator and your next sentence. As soon as the “translation” is repeated, the speaker immediately says the next sentence or two. Long pauses between the speaker and the translator interrupt the flow of the message you are trying to convey. While the translator is doing his speaking, you should be preparing yourself with your next sentence or two.
A common mistake is to be marveling at how what you said sounds in the other language instead of keeping focused on what you have to say next. The translation can be particularly distracting if it sounds much shorter or longer than what you just said. Therefore, when practicing in team meetings, after you have master the pacing by having the “translator” repeat in English, have the “translator” mumble some kind of gibberish that isn’t the same length of sentence just spoken. While this is quite funny the first few times the partners practice this way, eventually the novelty wears off and the English speaker begins to tune out the gibberish and focus on what he is saying next. When your team members can communicate at a steady pace with the “gibberish translator”, they are going to be ready to speak through a translator on the field.
Since the Level 2 trip is, by design, full of evangelism ministry and working with translators, those who go on the trip will definitely accomplish these two primary goals. Their ability to evangelize will be much better than before they left and they will have successfully ministered through translators. By the end of the Level 2 trip, most team members will be in awe of how God used them and now confident in their ability to share Christ with others.
Achieving Level 2 Secondary Goals:
1) Have the disciple in the Word of God for a good amount of time, by means
of the assigned preparation work. The Word of God changes lives!
This is the same for all three levels. Don’t neglect this!
2) Building off of last year, there is a heavy prayer focus on all aspects of the
trip. If the disciple prays a lot, he’ll see a lot of answered prayer. The
disciple learns to trust God for this higher level of support to come in.
The first secondary goal is the same on all levels and has already been explained under “Achieving Level 1 Secondary Goals”. The second secondary goal is a combination of “pray and trust”. As on Level 1, team meetings will have prayer times, yet this time the prayers include more intercession for the lost. It is an evangelism trip. Therefore, much prayer for open hearts and divine appointments must be made. We trust God has raised up this team to be His witnesses. So we cry out to God to use the team in that way to bring the light of the gospel into those blinded by darkness. Since most of the team members have never led someone to faith in Christ, the prayer time is one of total dependence upon God to use them in this new way. Trusting God to use them is a big step of faith for such young disciples. They must also trust Him in a greater way to provide for their support, which is substantially higher than Level 1, to come in.
3) The disciple learns perseverance through the trials of hot weather,
unreceptive people, and culture shock.
Sometimes a Level 1 location can have hot weather. The Mexican border in the summer time is guaranteed to be hot. The team must be careful not to allow the heat to sap their motivation and energy. (Drink lots of water!) Not everyone they encounter will want to talk with them. That can be discouraging, but they must move on to someone else, praying for an opportunity to share. As alluded to earlier, Mexico is a different world than the U.S. that is just across the border. There will be many frustrations and tensions to keep in check. That’s culture shock.
4) The disciple gets a taste of biblical fellowship through the victories and
trials of living, serving, and worshiping as a part of a team in a cross-
cultural context.
Trying to adapt to a foreign culture together as a team of missionaries is fellowship. Helping each other through culture shock while faithfully continuing their ministry is fellowship. Once again, fellowship is discovered to be more than having fun together.
5) We seek to minister not just to the U.S. people on the streets and to the
Mexican people, but also the project leaders, other church groups on the
project, and to our fellow team members.
The mindset to develop as a minister of Christ is one of being ready to minister to whomever you encounter on the trip. Oftentimes project leaders and team leaders of other churches are hurting and in need of encouragement.
6) Always be ready with the universal ministry tool of singing. Songs in
Spanish will be learned. The repertoire will include both children’s
songs for VBS, and songs appropriate for a worship service.
7) The team is to be prepared to put on a program of songs, skits, and
testimonies in case they go to a worship service, nursing home, rehab
clinic, or orphanage.
These last two go hand-in-hand. If you have number 6, you are halfway to accomplishing number 7. Number 7 can be practiced before the youth group before leaving. Better yet, go to a local nursing home.
Translator Choreography
No, this isn’t about dancing. It is about where people should be standing when using a translator. A very experienced translator knows these things already and will position himself accordingly. However, it is always good to discuss “body placement” with your translator before the ministry opportunity takes place.
There are two types of ministry formats: speaking to a crowd and speaking with individuals.
Speaking to a Crowd
When addressing a crowd, remember, you are the featured speaker, not the translator. The translator should not be stepping in front of you or positioning himself out in front of you anywhere. People like to see who is addressing them. If you are behind the translator or in the background it is frustrating to your audience.
There are three acceptable places for the translator to stand: over one shoulder behind you a few steps; off to one side and back a step or two so as to not upstage you; and, right beside you. The space available to you in these settings will dictate much. In some tiny third-world churches, shoulder-to-shoulder may be your only option. Yet, realize that having the translator right beside you can be distracting to you, the speaker, especially if he is very animated. So if space allows, it is usually best to have a few feet between you and the translator. Once they translator has his spot, he stays in that one place until you are finished speaking.
If you have the space and are one prone to walk about as you speak, your translator should remain where he is and not be moving around with you. Having both of you roaming about is a distraction. The goal is to keep the audience’s attention on you and your message. Just as you don’t want US audiences looking up at the speaker system in their churches, you don’t want them with their eyes glued to the translator. Just as the speaker system in the US church is there to project your message to the ears of the audience, the translator is there to project your message to the ears on the field.
Therefore, you, the speaker, must not encourage them to be watching the translator. When addressing a crowd, maintain eye contact with the people. Maintain eye contact and prepare for your next sentence while the translator speaks. When you pause for the translation, you may glance quickly at your notes, but do not look over at the translator. Wherever you look, the people will look. Guiding the people to look back and forth from you to the translator gives the audience the feel of watching a tennis match. Eventually they will tire of looking back and forth and will just key on the translator since that is where you are directing them to look all the time.
Usually, your translator will be looking at you when you speak, which helps direct the audience’s eyes upon you. However, if you never look at the audience, they will tend to look back to the translator, who probably will look at them when he speaks. So, be careful not to be staring at your notes, Bible, or the floor the whole time you speak. Speaking for the first time to an audience through a translator is trying enough without looking up, for the first time, halfway through your message to see that no one is looking at you.
Speaking to Individuals
First, find out if maintaining eye contact when talking to someone is considered rude in that culture. If so, find out from the translator how to show attention with respect while conversing. In most of the world, eye contact, or at least looking at the person, contributes to the relationship building process. So, unless directed otherwise, look at the person you are addressing and not the translator. Also look at the person while they talk. Continue to look at them while the translator tells you what they said. For, you will undoubtedly show some sort of facial reaction to what was said and you will want that reaction to go to the original speaker, not to the translator.
The best positioning of the translator when you are addressing an individual, or even two or three people, is to have him stand to the side between you and the person(s) you are addressing. Think of three sides of a square. The top and bottom sides are you and the person(s) you are addressing. The third side is the translator. This enables you to maintain a face-to-face conversation while the translator is able to turn and speak into either person’s ear. This positioning of the translator puts him where he can hear both parties well and is, at the same time, in the least distractible place. Both you and the person you are speaking to can see him out of the corner of your eye. If necessity dictates, both of you can also speak quietly, not risking being overheard by others, and yet still being clearly heard by the translator. This positioning is also most beneficial when tender moments for prayer come into play, particularly when one is praying for forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Achieving Level 3 Primary Goals:
Team leaders, part of your responsibility on a mission trip is to keep up with how well each team member does in reaching each level’s primary goals. On a Level 2 trip, sometimes a shy, less confident, or spiritually immature team member can just tag along with bolder, more mature teammates and never talk to anyone. They can’t accomplish the Level 2 goals if they rarely, if ever, talk to anyone. Team leaders must ensure all team members are thrust into the fray.
At the end of the trip, the team leaders should have a meeting to discuss how they think each team member did. Sometimes there is a team member that, for whatever reason, just did not make much progress toward achieving the Level 2 goals. When such a team member is identified, then it is best for the development of that disciple to repeat Level 2. If the person struggled with confidence and boldness at Level 2, it is not good to advance them to Level 3 just because they have been on a Level 2 trip.
Let’s review the summation of the Level 3 Primary Goals from chapter 4:
By this stage of the discipleship process, the disciple has proven ministry skills in a variety of areas, the first and foremost being in evangelism. The disciple will also be capable of conducting a VBS or teaching discipleship lessons in a small group setting. Level 3 teams are told very little about what their ministry will be. They are to prepare themselves for any type of ministry they may be called upon to conduct. Spreading the gospel is the primary ministry. However, much may need to be done in order to build bridges of relationships and understanding prior to getting the opportunity to share the gospel. There may be servanthood and other less glamorous forms of ministry required of the missionary in order to win a hearing for the gospel. The challenge is to discern how to best build a cross-cultural bridge by which one may carry the gospel across to an open heart. Working with national Christians, teaching them how to minister, is often a part of the ministry.
As you review the performance of your Level 2 team members, this summation is the measuring stick. Do not take people on Level 3 trips that have not proven to be very capable and willing witnesses for Christ. The one who struggled on Level 2 knows he struggled. He also knows he is not ready for Level 3. It is not unusual, nor is it a shame to repeat Level 2. Some summer missionaries are content to stay at Level 2. That is no problem. Just as not every disciple aspires to be a deacon or elder, not all summer missionaries aspire to Level 3.
Level 3 Primary Goals:
1) The disciple, now equipped and experienced, learns how to spot and seize the open doors of opportunity for ministry in a cross-cultural context.
2) The disciple, while held accountable, capably and confidently ministers with little or no supervision.
3) The disciple, working with the other team members, can quickly put together an impromptu ministry program on very short notice.
On the Level 3 trip, the team has ten to fourteen days in the country for ministry as opposed to the five days in Mexico. This additional time allows for a more relationship-building approach to ministry. The team’s primary ministry is always to be evangelism. However, the open door for evangelism is often framed with relationship building and servanthood.
Since, on this trip, they won’t know exactly what the opportunities will be, they will prepare themselves for all of the ministries of Levels 1 and 2, plus increase the number of songs and skits in their repertoire. As the team leader, I want my team to have more songs and skits ready than I think we can ever use. I also want them equipped for VBS and teaching discipleship lessons just in case the opportunity arises on the field to do those ministries. The most common Level 3 ministry is to be just left all day in a village or neighborhood district to build relationships and see what ministry opportunities present themselves. A Bible school program is always a door opener into neighborhoods and a means to meet the parents and other curious adults. The team must be ready to step through such open doors. I don’t want to get to the field and discover the team is not prepared for a certain type of ministry
In the team meetings, much of the planning and preparing is put in the team members’ hands. They decide what VBS material to use. They decide how to divide up the responsibilities. In other countries teenagers and adults often show up at Bible school programs. Therefore some basic discipleship lessons need to be picked out in order for the team to be ready to present lessons for such older attendees. The team members are also responsible to put together ministry programs of varying lengths: 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and one hour. They must select songs, skits and where to fit in testimonies and the gospel.
As team leader, I offer suggestions and encourage them. I will be able to see leadership development in action at the meetings. If someone is grabbing too much leadership responsibility, I will intervene and suggest one of those with less responsibility to step up and take more of the load. Leadership loads cannot and should not be spread about equally. All team members should take some leadership roles. Some can handle more than others. The goal is to challenge everyone to rise up and take the lead in various ministries.
It is seeing the team members grab the reins of ministry preparation in team meetings that enables me as the team leader to unleash them unsupervised in ministry on the field. Because they already have proven experience in most of the potential ministries that could occur on the field, and I have seen their preparation in team meetings, I can be fairly confident they will be able to minister without me supervising their every move.
This doesn’t mean I sit in the shade sipping lemonade while the team heads out to minister. I am still in the vicinity observing some team members, or conferring with project leaders, or involved in a ministry of my own. It’s very much like a Christian Education director at a church on Sunday mornings. There are ministry opportunities for me to be involved in and I’m still nearby if someone needs me.
Achieving Level 3 Secondary Goals:
1) Have the disciple in the Word of God for a good amount of time, by means of the assigned preparation work. The Word of God changes lives!
2) Continue to bathe all that we do and need in prayer.
3) If songs can be found, the team will be prepared to minister in song in the native language of those on the field.
4) Strive for opportunities that will push team members to practice leadership skills.
The first three are self-explanatory. The fourth can be seen to be implied in the primary goals. Leaders are self-starters. While there is some guiding the team on the field, most of what the team members do is up to them to take the initiative, such as in seizing an opportunity to minister. Ministering without supervision from a team leader means the team member takes the lead in the ministry. If the disciple is to put together a ministry program and implement it, leadership is required of the disciple to get it done. The team leader mostly hands the leadership opportunities to different team members and then becomes the cheerleader from the sidelines.
As a team leader making disciples, there are few things as exciting and fulfilling as seeing your disciples leading the charge in ministry on a foreign field. Realize, team leaders, such disciples can lead in ministry back in Jerusalem too, if you provide them the opportunities.
The trips to Lima, Peru, discussed in Chapter 3, and El Derramadera, Mexico, discussed in Chapter 5 were Level 3 trips. Almost all summer mission team leaders wish they could have trips like that. They wish they had youth who could minister like that. The good news is that every church has youth like that. They just haven’t been in a discipleship program that will equip them for Level 3 ministry. Having clearly defined discipleship goals and a training process to equip disciples to meet those goals at each level is how any local church can have a team ministering like a Level 3 team.
Bathe the whole process in prayer. Be willing, as a leader, to step out of your comfort zone and be a learner with the rest of the team. Be patient. It takes a minimum of three years to get to Level 3. It may take four or five years before you have a team (or yourself) ready to step up to the Level 3 challenge. That’s okay.
Unless the Lord returns, your church will still be here in five years. What kind of summer missionaries do you want to have by then? What kind of disciples do you want to have in your church? God has done wonders in our church out here in Cornfield, USA, simply because we are committed to a plan to make Acts 1:8 disciples.
And we’re just getting started! There’s more to do beyond Level 3. Why not take some time praying about it now? The next chapter can wait.
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