FSM 362 CM/FM

Special Action FSM #2

09/00

Copyright © 2000 by The Family

The Charter on Live-Outs 3

A Bit of the History of the Work in São Paulo5

Years of Follow-up Prepared the Way: So Schtick!5

The Vision from the Lord for 1996: Consolidate Our Gains6

The Live-out Discipleship Revolution in São Paulo8

Regular Retreats Helped Feed and Unite Our Friends8

Can a Live-out Be a Disciple?10

Quality of Our Investment = Quality of Our Fruit!11

The Key Is Commitment—Ours!12

Our Curriculum: Make It Simple to Teach Others to Teach Others!13

Choosing Your Disciples Is Important!14

Strict Course Requirements: Word Time, Memorization, and Punctuality16

The Action Committee16

Keep the Vision Simple and the* Objectives Clear17

The Importance of Fellowship and Personal Time17

Memories of the Third National Retreat18

Charter on live-outs (point 62.C.1, p.359)

LIVE-OUT MEMBERS: Friends who are saved, regularly fellowship with a Home, attend meetings, witness and help a Home, and tithe or give substantially to a Home or WS. (Occasional visitors who drop in once in a great while, or even DF/Follow-up members whom you visit and feed are not to be counted as “live-outs.”)

Live-outs are required to tithe or give regularly to either your Home or WS. A person who does not have any personal income may not be able to tithe, but those who have a job or any income at all should be taught to tithe, regardless of the amount of the tithe. Live-outs can read the Letters designated FM or CM/FM at the Home teamwork's discretion. In special cases, WS may grant permission for a live-out member to read CM publications at the teamwork's discretion.

Eligible for the following publications:

GP and DFO publications. Certain CM/FM publications, as well as older CM publications which FMs are eligible for, at the entire Home teamwork's prayerful discretion. (Permission to read other CM publications can be granted by WS leadership in special cases, and these may be taken off the Charter Home's premises at the Home teamwork's discretion.)

The Live-Out Discipleship Explosion!

Part one

By Tommy, Brazil

Can you imagine our Family Homes each having a group of sold-out friends who are sold-out and dedicated as true disciples, growing spiritually, being a blessing with the organization of events, helping protect the Family during future persecutions, and actually becoming leaders … on a live-out level? Over the last few years we have seen our live-outs grow to this point, slowly but steadily. Those who feel called to serve the Lord but are unable to drop out now feel that they can help us more, assume spiritual responsibilities themselves, receive prophecies, and train others—things that were totally new to them at first. And they love it! We have seen that when one live-out gets on fire and feels there is a future for him with us even without joining full time, then others get turned on and the movement grows from there. All we need to do is continually pray for the Lord's direction, and try to stay a step ahead of them.

It is actually quite amazing that just a few of us have been able to keep up with the growing number of live-out disciples here in São Paulo, Brazil over the last few years. Many times we just have to ask our live-outs to have patience with us, as well as encourage them to grow up a bit faster so they can help us take care of the incoming sheep! It reminds me of what Dad wrote in “For God's Sake Follow God” (ML #4, Vol.1), when so many new people were coming in; the only difference is that we don't have to stick all the newcomers under the same roof, but we do have to ask the Lord to help us keep them all happy and challenged.

Over time, the Lord showed us that He was interested in more than just forming a little Bible study group for our little Home, but that He was raising up a national church and our job was to be that of coordinators, teachers, and shepherds. This vision took a while to actually unfold, as we ourselves didn't really know what to do, how far to take a live-out member, or what kind of courses or guidance to give them. We found out bit by bit how He wanted us to proceed, and in this first FSM about this live-out discipleship explosion, I'll share how it all started.

(Editor's note: Dear Family, the history of this live-out movement in Brazil is an inspiring example of how live-outs can grow to be active, producing, fruitful, and trustworthy members of a Home, even though not living in. If you haven't already done so, please pray and ask the Lord for His specific leading for your Home's follow-up and for the shepherding of your friends. We pray that this example will inspire you that you can take sheep, friends, contacts, and live-outs to a deeper level of dedication and love for the Lord, according to how He leads you in your particular situation.)

When I read The Perfect Ones (Heaven's Library #12), the vision the Lord showed us was well summarized in the following explanation by Giles of what his ministry consisted of: “I came to see that love is the greatest thing, that love is the way to true perfection. I began showing people from the Scriptures how these things be so. People listened. Soon I had small groups of believers who looked to me as their guide. Now I count myself a teacher of about 25 such groups, scattered throughout our city and surrounding towns. ... I thought it best not to join all these groups into one big fellowship, but rather to keep each one small, so that they may survive in the evil time that is to come. For evil shall come, and it shall not be long in arriving.”

This is pretty much what our ministry has become, and what we also believe most any Home that feels called to this ministry could also become: a training center, quietly and privately training leaders.

We have found, much like Dad and Mama did during the FFing days, that there are tons of lonely, broken people in large cities looking for exactly what we have to offer—the Lord's love, Heavenly fellowship, friendship, and the answers to life's questions from the Word. At the time of this writing, we have about ten such groups around the city [Editor's note: More now!], each with four to 12 members. Of all these members, 14 are in the “Discipleship Course” (which could also be considered leadership training), and the rest are in either intermediate or beginners groups. At first we didn't have a large “church meeting” where all 80 people got together, but we did have regular events such as retreats, birthday parties, and dinners where everyone ended up getting to know one another. We try to keep the same philosophy as Giles—that of avoiding the big-group syndrome, which becomes too impersonal and exposed to possible media glare in the event of persecution.

As time went on, the Lord has led us to hold weekly Church of Love meetings and invite all the members of all the groups. All the groups get to know one another there and we unitedly exercise the weapon of praise, with singing taking up the first 45 minutes of each meeting.

To keep up with the courses and classes, Juan and I went out pretty much every night of the week. But we have also trained some of those who have reached discipleship status to help us take over some of the classes, as they are definitely growing more capable all the time. We are developing a one-year training program for the live-outs to help them participate in giving classes, which will permit the movement to grow. We have realized the need for us to learn to train others and for them to learn to accept new responsibility. Otherwise we live-ins become stressed out and the whole process starts to implode, similar to what Dad described in “The Monster” (ML #175).

In the beginning, one of our live-outs, Alexandre, gave us the use of an apartment so we didn't need to worry about paying rent, and a new car so we could move around this huge city and get to our classes, etc. So at that time Spanish Juan and Eden, and Joanie and I, with our families, moved into a four-bedroom apartment quite close to the homes of many of our friends. The tithes and support we began to receive from our friends (eventually about $3000 a month) covered our basic expenses. Some have helped us professionalize our classes and presentations by donating overhead and slide projectors. All this help from our friends freed Juan and me to pour a lot into our classes and people, which was a big blessing both for them and us, as we could then spend more time preparing ourselves and materials and better fulfill our roles as missionaries, Bible teachers, and shepherds.

A Bit of the History of the Work in São Paulo

With over twenty million inhabitants, São Paulo is the largest city in South America and the third largest in the world. When you first come here, the miles and miles of buildings are impressive, making one wonder if the city has limits.

From its founding in 1554, when the Indians worked together with the Portuguese to build a mission school and a small village, to the later contributions of European architects and engineers, Italian laborers, and Japanese agriculturists, São Paulo has embraced and given opportunities to the many nationalities who arrived here. The population of the Japanese colony alone makes São Paulo the largest urban center of Japanese descendants outside of Japan. In fact, two of the members of our core discipleship group are of Japanese descent.

Much like in other huge industrial centers, in São Paulo it has always been a bit difficult for the Family to get people's time and attention in a deeper way. People here always seem to be on the go, working ten to fourteen hours a day, stuck in traffic jams, etc., with little or no time for philosophy or religion. This has made São Paulo a tough nut to crack for missionaries like us!

On the other hand, São Paulo is a very needy city, where almost everyone is suffering from stress to a certain degree. The challenge has been to get the sheep we meet to step out of the rat race long enough to give God a chance to change their lives. Scheduled follow-up has not been easy in a city where you can sit in incredibly snarled traffic jams for hours. It has been quite discouraging at times to see that the people are in such need of the Lord's help, but are in such a rush to make money or just survive that they don't stop long enough for us to pour into them.

Years of Follow-up Prepared The Way: So Schtick!

Despite these obstacles, we have seen the Lord do tremendous miracles along the way here. Although São Paulo hasn't produced many full-time disciples, the Family has won many friends and provisioning contacts over the years. In spite of the many difficulties, those of us who have felt called to minister to the sheep in this city have truly had our hearts broken for this workaholic population.Since the early '90s, the brethren have won a small but good group of friends. These were strengthened through personal follow-up and a seminar/Bible study program during the two years prior to the Argentine persecution (1992-1993). During this two-year period, we adapted and translated several seminars and luncheon prayer meetings the brethren in Japan did. We figured the lifestyles of Tokyo and São Paulo were quite similar in that that they are both huge megalopolises where the credo is “time is money.” We provisioned the use of hotel conference rooms where our good national team of public speakers gave seminars every two weeks over a period of four months.

The DF/Media Home we had in the early '90s helped organize benefit dinners, area Bible studies for sheep, and additional activities that the other Homes didn't have the time or personnel to work on. This all served to unify the Family and the sheep in follow-up in this very potential city, and during this time many of our friends were strengthened, becoming quite close to us. But when you got right down to it, many of them were still just “friends”—a blessing to the work, a few even tithing, but never a strong enough force to support the work or become actively involved as true live-out members. It seemed something was lacking in our follow-up, or else it just wasn't yet God's time to develop it more.

The hotel seminars were a first step in seeing who was who, and investing in those the Lord had led the Family to minister to over the years. They were a wide variety of people, including provisioning contacts, video buyers, long-time friends, etc. However, it still appeared that consolidating our gains was to be quite a slow and arduous process. The city was so big and materialistic that it seemed the task was over our heads.

When the Lord gave us the discipleship vision for our friends, I was at one of the lowest points in my life. The Lord had made it clear that it was time for me to hit the field after several years of working in offices or Service Homes, always close to CRO leadership, which made me feel very secure and where I was able to burn free in the areas where I seemed most useful: media, public relations, follow-up, and publications. I had participated in the Argentine “rescue” when the big persecution hit there in '93-without a doubt the scariest yet most exciting mission the Lord had called me to in all my years in the Family.

After that I got more involved in Consider the Poor ministries, based out of the Home where the teen show was located. During 1995, the Lord opened several doors with the mayor's social works team, with us giving seminars to educators and monitors of street children, comforting children with cancer and their parents, and doing shows for orphanages all over the city. We became quite well known in certain circles. All this brought about good will in the community that helped us keep in touch with several of the pro-active contacts we had made during the days when the Media Home was going full steam.

One facet of the work which had taken a back seat with all of the various changes in Brazil—with a large media storm, the media team moving from São Paulo to Brasilia, and the emphasis on CTP—was the follow-up of our friends.

There were lots of internal Family changes that also affected the continuity of the work, such as the Charter, etc. One program that did seem to keep our friends on the line in spite of all these changes was our bi-yearly weekend retreats. Starting in 1994, the Media Home started holding spiritual retreats for the friends of the Family every six months (in March and August). Later after the Media Home moved to Brasilia, those of us in Rio, Curitiba, and São Paulo who had long-time sheep on the line continued to organize these retreats. These weekend get-togethers turned out to be the point of contact where those of us who had been close—both Family and friends—could regroup, get in the Word together, and seek His will. With so much change going on inside the Family, these retreats provided a certain stability and communication link.

The retreats rekindled our friends' love for the Lord and the Family. Many of them were a bit concerned about how they were going to stay on the right track in the post-Charter world, where it seemed Family people were moving around a lot, and the old situations our friends were used to were a thing of the past.

The Vision from the Lord for 1996: Consolidate Our Gains

After I left the “safety” of working in units and close to leadership, I too felt a bit lost and was desperately seeking the Lord for guidance as to my next step and a place of service. Joanie (who is now my mate) became pregnant with our second child and my footloose lifestyle was about to come to an end. I had been single for seven years and I wasn't oh-so-happy about getting “tied down” to a family again, which is how it looked to me at the time.

But just when I'd gotten the news that Joanie was pregnant, “Go for the Gold” (ML # 2961) came out, and the Lord made it very clear to me that it was time to get it together with Joanie. Soon I was going to see that the Lord was getting ready to send a vision that would open up new doors. Rather than being the end, it was just the beginning of a new ministry.

The Lord certainly knew what He was doing, as not only did He supply a precious wife and family for me—something I had been deeply missing after several years as a single—but Joanie has been instrumental in the overall ministry with her talent for singing and for shepherding the women in the groups. Participating in such a high-profile ministry has definitely changed her life as she accompanies me to classes, has recorded a couple of CDs on the side and is now beginning her own study course for women, entitled “A Woman of Excellence: Being a Godly Woman.” Eden, Juan's wife, is also very active, being Juan's partner to classes, helping him initiate a youth ministry, and also helping with the singing and care of the children.

We should note here the important role the shepherd's wife plays in this work. It is not enough for the wife to agree to let the “shepherd” do his thing and feed the sheep. It takes a real commitment to the ministry on her part, as well, as women leaders are very needed, and they want to get to know “the real you.” Many times the women in the groups (which are usually the majority) will open up only to other women they trust when it comes to “issues women face.” This often has little to do with the ability to speak publicly or give a class, but it means simply being there when the live-out women need prayer and counsel. So, dear wives, be prepared to become shepherdesses as things grow and responsibilities mount.

This follow-up movement was a dream come true for us. When Mama received that 1996 was to be a year of growth, we earnestly claimed that, even though at the time we didn't have a solid project or program going yet. The quote that particularly stood out to me at the time was: “The Lord says that this year, 1996, He will consolidate the gains of last year, He will strengthen you and He will help you prepare for what's ahead. … Now He will help you consolidate these gains and to strengthen and to secure and to make them firm, as you continue to put them into practice. He promises to give you more because you have shown faith in Him and given Him love and been willing to receive from Him. He is going to bring you to 'great and effectual doors,' which He will open for you” (“A Year of Growth—A New Year's Message!” ML #3026:32, 34-35).

Little did we know how literally the Lord was going to fulfill these promises in the year of 1996, especially considering the rather precarious situation we found ourselves in at the time we first read those promises! Ha!

The Live-out Discipleship Revolution in São Paulo

At the beginning of 1996, I was looking for a Home with my new family of four children and a pregnant wife. I was a bit tired of the São Paulo grind, and even considered going to a smaller beach town to take a break. It seemed like all those years of investing in São Paulo were just a drop in the bucket compared to all that could be done, and after our years of labor all the fruit that remained was a handful of friends.

Juan (Spanish) and his family were in a similar situation. He had been working in São Paulo for nearly ten years and also had a few solid friends he'd been ministering to. He too was a bit discouraged with the difficulties of working in São Paulo, and was considering going to Eastern Europe to pioneer. Neither his family nor ours had an opening for a place to stay in the city. Everything looked pretty bleak, except for the fact that the Lord started rekindling the fire in the hearts of our old friends.

Both Juan and I had continued to give our weekly Bible studies to our handful of friends, but some of them were anxious for more. They made it known to us that if we left São Paulo then, they would never forgive us! Ha!

Juan and I had been in the old Media Home, and had enjoyed working together. However, we were also well aware that we were both pretty strong-willed characters and so we were a bit cautious about actually living together again. Yet the Lord showed us that it was His will, and just when we both needed to move on after giving our 30-day notice, as mentioned earlier, one of Juan's close friends, Alexandre, let us use (on a temporary basis) a vacant apartment that belonged to his family.

At this point, the Lord showed Juan and I to throw the challenge back to our friends who were insisting that we stay. “If you want us to stay and do a good follow-up program,” we told them, “you will need to cover our expenses!” And they agreed, at least to try! Praise the Lord!

This meant them tithing or giving a regular monthly donation that we could count on so we would know pretty accurately what our missionary's budget would be. Although living by faith is our trademark, our friends had often arrived at the wrong conclusion in the past, because even when they hadn't helped us, we had somehow made it. Thus they erroneously thought that we must have an account in Switzerland or some such means of support. Many of them would then put tithing and our support on a lower rung of priorities.

We needed to straighten out this misunderstanding right from the beginning and clarify that if we were able to design a discipleship course and shepherd them responsibly as they were now proclaiming they wanted, then someone would need to foot the bill. This understanding (which we sometimes jokingly refer to as “holy blackmail”—”You pay and we'll stay!”) was vital to the launching of our ministry.

Regular Retreats Helped Feed And Unite Our Friends

The weekend spiritual retreats we held every six months for our friends in a local Catholic monastery proved to offer a springboard for growth, from which the whole discipleship revolution was launched. The 15 - 20 friends in our group were able to get their spiritual batteries charged during those special days of Heaven, where they not only got a good shot of the Word, but also a lot of personal time and fellowship time with one another.

Just getting them to drop out for one full weekend proved to have more of an impact on them than Bible studies and chitchat here and there in the big city where they didn't have much time to stop and read, or listen and pour out. Each time we held a retreat, they also were informed as to the recent developments in the Family. At the end we would always give them a challenge to participate in some kind of a united project. We also used these retreats as a time to “count our blessings” and list all the prayers the Lord had answered since the previous retreat. The monastery where we held them was only about 45 minutes out of town, but in a beautiful, isolated location, so you didn't feel you were close to the city. Also, the price was quite cheap ($25 per day per person), allowing us to charge the live-outs only $100 for the weekend. This fee covered costs and made it possible for some of us Family members to attend. Though most of the attending friends were close to Juan and me, we also invited the other Homes in the area to participate, which hopefully has been a blessing to those who have brought their sheep.

One friend of another Home actually made several of his important decisions while attending these retreats. At that time this precious man rented a beautiful house for this team of brethren and also sponsored their fruitful CTP project, which was originally his own idea (see “Small Beginnings, Greater Ends,” FAR 39, March '97).

Juan and I began to plan the local retreats together with our live-out group. They started to take care of the skits and to help us tremendously with personal time for the newcomers, for which retreats are excellent. For our subject matter, we have tried to choose subjects that can be interesting both to new people as well as old-timers. For example, one of our retreats was entitled “How to Find the Will of God,” and although it wasn't a new subject to our veterans, we tried to give it a new twist to make it interesting to them too.

We have also helped organize several regional and national retreats for live-outs over the last several years, which have borne a lot of good fruit. Just being able to see the Family at its best with top teachers, inspirationalists, and leadership all together with the top live-outs and even those who have recently joined produces an explosive chemistry that is hard to describe. Johnny B. and the BVM team edited a video series of the National Live-out Retreat in June of 1999, entitled “The Great Harvest.” (Editor's note: Contact your CRO office if you would like to find how to get copies of this video for your area.) These larger retreats are helpful in passing on the overall vision the Lord is leading the Family in, and the live-outs in particular. They provide high quality one-on-one fellowship among live-out labor leaders and live-ins with the vision, clarifying their growing responsibilities and callings.

(Note from SACRO: Locally organized retreats for the live-outs are now being held regularly in at least three cities of Brazil. The 1999 annual National Retreat was organized by a team in Rio. God bless Tommy and Juan for teaching others how to do these retreats and thus making it possible for the work to grow more.) A lot of work is involved in these big fellowships—the one in 1999 involved two months of work for six Homes in Rio—but it is well worth it, as the fruits are quite amazing!

Can a Live-out Be a Disciple?

At that retreat in early 1996, the Lord showed us to challenge our friends—many of whom had confessed they were tired of just being classified and treated as “friends”—with something new: a one-year discipleship program! On the invitation to the retreat we sent a message:

WANTED: DISCIPLES! Did you know that being a disciple doesn't necessarily mean abandoning all your other interests? (See the example of Joseph of Arimathea.) Some of you have been wondering if there is a more active way of joining forces with us, to serve the Lord together in a more dedicated fashion, but you just haven't known how. We now have what you have always hoped for: THE NEW LIVE-OUT DISCIPLESHIP COURSE! Try it! You might like it!

Little did we know what a response we would get! Of the 25 live-out friends who attended the two-day retreat, 12 of them decided to sign up! (We charged a $60 sign-up fee for the first semester, to cover photocopying and other expenses.) And four of the other 13 retreat attendees wanted the correspondence course version! (The correspondence course was basically the Treasure Hunt course with an opening challenge to the Discipleship Course, but we tried to clarify that the actual “discipling” is best done in a group setting.) So we geared this retreat to leading them to the discipleship decision—and it really worked!

In times past, the retreats had also been decisive for them, but the lack of a solid follow-up program after the retreats had produced uneven results. Many of our friends had had real breakthroughs at the retreats, only to fall back into their old habits—often unwittingly—once the retreat was over.

Before the idea for the Discipleship Course became concrete, we researched the Word on the subject. We soon came to realize that while many of the Letters on discipleship were directed to young people and we took them to refer to us in the CM (then DO) Family, Dad never looked on our friends in an “us-them” kind of way at all. It was interesting to note how Dad methodically trained those who were won during the FF Revolution which he and Mama personally supervised. Although this wasn't considered “discipleship training” per se, as many of the men obviously weren't able to drop out, Dad drew them in through ideas like “The Church of Love” and Sunday School (“Open the Door for the Children”). The Letter “Raul's Knife” explained the basic needs for every new convert, and the Letter “Teamwork—The Gaffers” explained the need to have united leadership in order to win them to the Lord and not just to our personalities. (See ML #617, Vol.5; ML #588, Vol.4; ML #546, Vol.4.)

As we studied the Word on it more, including “The Word Witnessing Revolution” (FSMs 62-67), we came to the conclusion that live-out members who want to take another step in their relationship with and service for the Lord could consider themselves true “followers of the teaching,” and thus “disciples,” although in their case they are “live-out disciples.”

As we prayed about the possibilities and observed the hunger of our friends to have something more, we got the faith to ask our live-outs if they would be willing to take another step in their relationship with the Lord and their service for Him. We presented the idea of them becoming His disciples, “lay missionaries.”

Most of them had never really considered the possibility of getting discipleship training with their busy lives. Many had only been coming to weekly Bible studies until then, and considering the size of the city, we understood that. But as we got the faith to draw up the course, make a one-year curriculum, and set a standard based on the Treasure Hunt course (with quite a bit of discipleship material added), they responded in faith as well!

Quality of Our Investment = Quality of Our Fruit!

When we originally threw out the challenge to our group of eight (at that time, before the 1996 retreat on discipleship), we told them that if they wanted quality Bible studies with clear, progressive goals, then Juan and I would need to take time to invest in preparing them. We would need to be able to invest time, in order to be full of our subject and really deliver the goods. In order for us to do this, we asked them to support us. We basically showed them our small Home's financial needs and told them that their current gifts, though a blessing, weren't enough. They all agreed to help more. When we started “rolling away the stone” and showing them we were serious about going through with it, they reciprocated.

We saw how much Mama invested, by even counseling the DF team in the Philippines to practice giving their Bible classes to the Home and pow-wow them before going out and giving them to their friends. (See “The Word Witnessing Revolution.”) We saw that in the past we hadn't really taken the preparation of Bible classes so seriously, so people attending the classes didn't take them or us so seriously either.

I remember during the time in '92 when we were giving the seminars in nice hotels, one of our friends confided in us: “Look, these seminars on stress and time management are great, but you guys are much better at teaching the Word of God! There are tons of professional seminar companies, several of whom do a better job than you on these particular subjects, but where you guys are unbeatable is in your Bible teaching! That's your forte!”

Since we've invested more in our Bible studies, we have seen the attendance grow and multiply, and our people have grown proportionally in the Lord as well. This is not to say that everyone is gifted to become a Bible teacher, but on the other hand, we have sat at the feet of the best Bible teacher in the world, dear Dad, for years! Often we simply don't realize the treasure that is in our earthen vessels, and others are quicker to see this than we are. (Note from SACRO: An alternate solution if you don't consider yourself a good Bible teacher is to take your sheep to a Home in your city that has a good Bible teacher. Or, you can invite a good Bible teacher to your Home one day a week to have classes there. That way, your sheep get fed, you learn, and hopefully you can eventually muster up the faith to teach classes yourself. This is happening in Rio and is proving to be a tremendous blessing.—It amounts to teamworking on a city level.)

It helps to remember that the ability to teach is one of the gifts of the Spirit listed in Romans 12:6-8, and is free for the asking! Also, one of our main jobs in the Endtime is to “instruct many.” Since we have given our classes more time and attention, preparing them ahead of time but still just using Family tools like Treasures , Word Basics, the Daily Breads and the MOP, we have literally been swamped with people wanting to learn the Bible and find answers to their problems.

We have tried to follow the good counsel in the “Word Witnessing Revolution” in order to wisely invest in our people, and it has really paid off. Well-planned Bible studies, retreats, well-presented literature, transparencies for the overhead projector, clearly established goals, etc.—all this has required a lot of our time and prayer, but the results have made it worth it all. We in the Family have so much wonderful material to offer, but often we just need to wrap it up a bit into an attractive package, to customize it for those we are directing ourselves to, just as Mama did with the team in the Philippines, and as she and Dad did in Tenerife.

Doing all this means spending time, which translates into a greater need for support. This is again where we had to level with our friends and ask them to invest in us so we could invest in them. We usually put quite a bit into the quality of the literature we give out. Our packaging has usually been a matter of taking the Family lit in its current form (Treasures, etc.), and then customizing its presentation. For example, at every retreat we have found it to be important to give attendees a folder with all the classes written out in outline form, for easy reference after the retreat is over. We have also advertised all the Christian Digest and Christian Leadership Training Program pubs (Power and Protection, etc.) at the retreats, trying to maintain a certain standard of nice presentations. At our retreats we would often have a “Signs of the Times” update section, both as a part of the program as well as a part of the booklet. We already have quality tools; sometimes it just helps to redo some of the older ones in a presentation that is more appealing. (Editor's note: The Lord has provided a whole set of publications through the Activated program to be mailed directly to the sheep, as you send in their names and subscriptions. The Activated magazines, the Get Activated booklets, and other new books will also furnish you with lots of feeding Word in a beautiful new format for use in your Home's follow-up, as well as the class book, handbook, and other materials to come.)

We also try to “contract” some top inspirationalists for our classes, though we have seen that the Lord has blessed even when the ones who were available weren't necessarily top musicians. We did find, though, that for the retreats it is important to plan the songs with your inspirationalist, and keep a good standard in that area as well.

The Key Is Commitment—Ours!

I remember one of the early discipleship sessions when I was confronted with the following from our friends: “OK, you guys, we've seen this movie before. You get excited about a new project, but then something comes up (persecution in Argentina, etc.) and you're nowhere to be found. You're helping put out a fire somewhere or working on some new project. If you want us to sign our names on the dotted line, we need to know one thing: Are you going to stick with us here or are you going to Russia or wherever, when you get tired of your situation?”

This was a hard saying, but in a way, it was to be expected. Most of our friends were quite familiar with being left behind when their missionary friends took off for new horizons. And now it became clear that we needed to hear from the Lord about these kinds of new challenges and be obedient to what He showed us!

Although we have the “right of mobility” in the Charter, we also have our responsibilities to the sheep. We have our rights, but don't they also have theirs? At least this is what the Lord showed our little team, and thank the Lord, it has certainly paid off to simply say yes, both to our friends (now disciples!) and the Lord. There were many times during the first year when every one of us felt like taking off (we were all cooped up in a free but small apartment!), but the pleas of the sheep won out. We really can't take any credit for any of the successes we've had, as we feel we have only been pulled upstream by the needs and bleats of our sheep.

We had to be honest with ourselves: Although we have the burden to finish what we start, our lives for the Lord often lead us to new and different fields, especially with all the freedoms granted in the Charter. But we saw that this had caused some of our long-time friends to go through real trials. Many of them, being businessmen and professionals, are well aware of the fact that if you don't “count the cost” before starting any kind of an enterprise, then it's better not to start. They would only commit themselves if we would commit ourselves! Sounds a bit like blackmail, but the Lord used it to help us take a stand.

Our Curriculum: Make It Simple to Teach Others to Teach Others!

For the first year of discipleship, we have given them a curriculum of classes and homework assignments which is divided into two parts: reading and practical. The reading assignments have been nothing more than the Treasure Hunt program broken up into two four-month semesters. In this way, our “Discipleship I” group covers all of Treasures—complete with memory work and final exam—over a one-year period. (This one-year period is from March to November, basically the equivalent of the school year for the countries in the southern hemisphere.)

Discipleship I covered the first 13 Treasure Hunts from March to June, and then after the break in July, we finished the last 14 Treasure Hunts. We also wrote up an introductory class on discipleship and put it into an 180-page spiral, A4-size notebook, together with all the Treasure Hunts blown up, as there were some complaints about the small print of the originals.

The actual idea for the curriculum developed after a little serious research with our friends. We discovered they were just as frustrated as we were in our level of commitment and consistency with regards to having an actual follow-up program for them. Most of them had at one time or another started reading their Bible and Treasures, but had never gotten through the Treasure Hunt course as both we and they had proposed at different times. Others who had read most of Treasures over the years were wondering if they could get a bit more of the “meat,” to satisfy their growing spiritual hunger.

We Family members often are unaware of how little time our live-outs actually have for reading, even if they have DFO or GP MO Letters available to them. We often found out that not until they started to practice the Word did it come alive. This usually meant having some kind of an “accountability system,” either individually during personal time or at least to the group, when we would check and discuss the homework assignment as well as check on the memory work of the week. Some have taken advantage of the written Word alone, but most benefit more from attention and oversight.

In short, we felt we had very little structure to offer our friends in the way of a real-life change or place of greater usefulness. We saw that we needed to pray and seriously review our methods of helping our friends to grow and eventually gain the confidence to “teach others to teach others.”

So though we have used the Treasure Hunt course for the first year of the Discipleship Course, as it covers all the basics in very clear terms, we also spice up the course with appropriate MO Letters and other DFO lit. Even the Raise 'em Right articles in the local language have been a tremendous blessing to our group!

(Editor's note: Thank the Lord He is providing a ready-made curriculum for follow-up and discipleship training, with a class book, teacher's handbook, and student's manual, as Peter wrote in “The Family's Future and Expansion Program” (ML #3308:143, GN908). Please pray for the team working on this! In the meantime, we will be sending more FSMs of classes, tips, and testimonies that you can refer to as you develop the follow-up of your converts and friends.

As you probably noticed, there are now more DFO and GP pubs available than when Tommy and Juan first started their live-out discipleship ministry, such as the DFO versions of the new GNs edited for the WinePress , which was originally designed for hungry former members, but which can also be used for feeding friends and sheep. These are posted on the Members Only Site, so you can download and use them as the Lord leads. And the Activated mags themselves can of course provide lots of material for instructing and shepherding your friends by going over articles together, either individually or in a group class.)

So that explains the reading side of our course, at least at present. The practical assignments consist of the following:

(1) helping us get out the tools

(2) helping us host Bible studies in their homes for newcomers

(3) helping the poor, either by participating in one of our ongoing projects or by simply helping in some way in their own neighborhood

(4) helping organize Family events, like benefit dinners, retreats, courses, etc., or

(5) simply fellowshipping amongst themselves and visiting one another in their own homes, and thus learning how to “love one another.”

All these are quite practical! In order to organize all these activities and delegate the responsibilities, we formed what we call a “support group.” This group is made up not only of those who accepted the discipleship challenge, but also other friends who want to participate more.

Choosing Your Disciples Is Important!

As Mama mentioned in the “Word Witnessing Revolution” (FSM 63), “Choosing Disciples” is a very important part of the process. If the vision is to multiply, you need to ask the Lord who are those who will be the most faithful and useful in this process, and then you need to concentrate on them. Six to twelve is a good number for a group.

We wouldn't be exaggerating when we say that 50% of the success of the Discipleship Course depends on your choice of candidates for discipleship. If you choose people who won't stick to the one-year program (the contract), then the fall-out will be very discouraging for those who do take the course seriously. And the work involved in getting things started again after an uncertain start is a much bigger job than simply starting out on the right foot with the right team. As Dad repeated so many times: “It's quality, not quantity!”

And then, even if you feel good about your group's level of commitment, there will be a few who won't make it. It's good to let the group know this right from the beginning, so the others don't get discouraged when they see this happen. Live-outs usually don't have so much control over their lives and schedules, so they are sometimes unable to keep their commitments, even though they start out strong. So it's important to pray and ask the Lord specifically about each person who you invite to your Discipleship Course, so you can build a winning team right from the start. As the old saying goes, “Well begun is half done.”

Another consideration is that if we spend too much of our time following up on people who are quite weak and needy, to the neglect of those who are stronger spiritually, things tend to bog down. Our top friends and kings then don't see much future for getting the attention and training they themselves need. Although almost anyone can benefit from Bible classes, if we merely “help the needy” and don't invest in the potential leaders, we end up having to bear the brunt of the load ourselves in all of our other ministries (CTP, tool distribution, Bible classes, etc.). After we had a good crop of healthy disciples who had passed their first year of training, we had the manpower to delegate these ministries to, freeing us to stick to our main job of teaching and training!

Some of our veterans were having severe financial or marital difficulties at the time we started the course, and we actually discouraged them from taking it, as it would have been one more activity requiring quite a chunk of their time during the week. We didn't want to have them be subject to any more stress than they already were. We made sure that those who couldn't (or shouldn't) get behind such a commitment continued in their regular Bible studies and got their personal time pouring out their hearts to us. We tried to help them not feel like they were “missing God's will” by not being in the course that first year, and shared that maybe it would be more God's time to take the course the following year, after the dust had settled in their personal lives. Then they could better concentrate and grow spiritually without the constant pressure of debts, separation, unemployment, starting a new business, or whatever they were going through. We now offer a ten-week course for people who are going through personal trials, upheavals in their lives, or who are “sick” spiritually. This course is called “More than Conquerors,” or “Inner Healing.”

The idea is that those who go for discipleship by joining the Discipleship Course are actually those who you can see multiplying in the future, bearing good fruit and schticking! That's why it is important to paint the picture black, just as you would to a potential CM disciple, though obviously he or she wouldn't have to fulfill all the requirements a CM disciple would need to fulfill. Just the fact that they would basically continue their lifestyle of working and living in their own houses makes it impossible to make them live up to our CM standards, but there is a lot they can do with proper Word, training, fellowship, and input. In choosing candidates for the discipleship program, we use spiritual standards such as saved, full of the Holy Spirit, willing, dedicated, available, faithful, open to training, etc.

Of our original group of 12 “freshmen” that started the course in 1996, a total of eight graduated! Those eight then formed the backbone of the “sophomore” year of discipleship, which we called “Discipleship II.” Our next discipleship group started with eight, but went down to four who stuck it out. This dropout rate is actually quite good! Often people will say yes without really counting the cost. Also, things can come up in their lives which will cause them to put discipleship on pause for a few months or even a year. We try to make it clear that this isn't the end of the world, as emergencies do happen and in this case our live-outs shouldn't be viewed as being backsliders necessarily.

We have found it to be quite healthy to warn them about this ahead of time for two reasons: (1) It helps the live-out see that he won't be in disgrace before the Lord and the others if he needs to change his plans and (2) it helps them to be prepared if one of their good friends drops out and joins a lower-commitment group. It isn't something to get burdened about and start to doubt the teacher, the course, the others, etc., but it is actually quite normal. Although many of our friends started out judging success by numbers, they have now all learned that “personal is better”! You just can't judge success by numbers, and this must be made very clear in the process of choosing disciples.

Strict Course Requirements: Word Time, Memorization, and Punctuality

The basic requirements for those interested in taking the Discipleship Course are the same as those in the Charter for the live-out circle of friends (saved, witnessing, attending meetings, tithing or helping substantially monetarily and otherwise). Following is the commitment we asked of them:

(1) Attend all weekly discipleship meetings (8-10 PM every Wednesday), except in case of emergency. We said, “Please call if you can't come, so we can make sure to get you caught up with the decisions made, class given, etc. Attendance of at least 70% is required in order to pass the course, which finishes in December, at the end of the normal school year [in Brazil].”

(2) Dedicate at least three hours a week to reading assignments, as established in the Treasure Hunt series. We also encouraged them to read Mountain Streams and other GP and DFO lit as complementary reading. We also went through the 90-Letter reading course for new disciples in the Charter and found that 70 Letters were either GP or DFO, and have made them available to the group.

(3) Attend monthly organizational meetings (Action Committee), as well as specially scheduled ones, to take care of projects and events. Following is an explanation of how these meetings and our committees came about.

The Action Committee

The discipleship program is not for everyone, but many of our friends who didn't feel prepared for the course still wanted to participate more in some way. So the idea of the “Action Committee” was born! In our little Home with only five adults, we needed all the help we could get in organizing events and winning new people, and our veteran friends were the best for this. We just needed to get them together and give them the vision to win the city for Jesus! So with the twelve in Discipleship I leading the way, we added another six friends to their group to form the Action Committee, which met monthly.

This was not only a big breakthrough in the growth of our friends, but also for our new little Home of five adults and eight children. Things were pretty tight for us, just taking care of kids and earning our daily bread, but the Lord promised us that if we would put the needs of the sheep above our own, He would mightily bless us in His time.

At these monthly Action Committee meetings, the live-outs and close friends began to decide what projects they would like to participate in—events, structuring new groups, getting leadership training, and/or CTP ministries. After a few months of working as one united committee, the work grew to the point that we needed to restructure, and so we broke it up into three committees to better carry the load and prevent people from getting overburdened with too much on their plate.

Of course, we were there to try to keep things on track, but the actual execution of the decisions, events, and projects was handled pretty democratically, and much of the work carried out by the group members. Since most of them are professionals or businessmen, they have a lot of initiative in helping a good cause. Thank the Lord, our bellwethers have been faithful to bring the new people along into helping the work in some form at a much quicker pace than we were used to up until then. These live-out disciples also have a lot of friends and contacts to help “make it happen.”

Keep the Vision Simple and The Objectives Clear

If we were to have a serious program that would encourage our live-outs to commit themselves, we needed to know where we ourselves were going. With the one-year plan, &&&everyone knew there was a beginning, a middle, and an end. This gave them the guarantee that they would get a quality course, something they themselves could give to others eventually, if we and they felt they were prepared, and also as the need arose according to our growth rate.

After the first year, which was simply the Treasure Hunt course, we then started a second-year course with our first-year graduates who decided to continue with discipleship into their “sophomore” year. The second year was broken down into four two-month blocks:

(1) Relations with People (Leadership)

(2) Your Spiritual Life and Walk with the Lord

(3) The Family: Our Message and What Makes Us Different

(4) Leadership: Learning to Be a Servant.

The ultimate goal was to produce some fruit that would remain, a few real labor leaders who would help us to train others to train others. We basically used the same idea that we had in the beginning of the Family, when Dad taught us to use the three-month babes training course, then some of this graduating class would turn around and teach the next group. However, since it is a live-out situation, we extended the original course to eight months. The main idea has been to give them the idea that there was a future for them with us.

The Importance of Fellowship and Personal Time

The commitment to fellowship and attend classes regularly is really the backbone of the whole discipleship program. Since we began to expect more from them in terms of time, dedication, etc., our new live-out disciples in turn needed to receive more from us. So we decided to try to follow a DTR-style program of giving them at least one quality hour of personal time a month. Although this may seem like very little, you need to keep in mind that we were meeting with all of them in small groups at least weekly and in most cases bi-weekly, so we did have quite a few opportunities to monitor their growth. There were also many social situations where we were able to have contact with the disciples and try to help them “on the run.” However, we found that the best way to really establish solid communication was to guarantee them a special time when we could meet, answer questions, have prayer, suggest things to read, etc.

Discipleship, even for live-outs, is much more than a course and diploma. It is a process requiring basically the same attention that winning and training a full-time disciple does—lots of love, talk time, etc.—which takes quite an investment of time. We saw that the heart of discipleship is expressed and experienced through our personal relationships with them, through the commitment of shepherd with sheep. In order to develop solid relationships with our disciples (and for them to form these amongst themselves as well), we have tried to emphasize the importance of fellowship with each new group. To really understand that “with such sacrifices God is well pleased” is half the battle won.

(To be continued!)