Ying Kai and his wife Grace.
Ying Kai pioneered a means of church multiplication which has led to hundreds of thousands of baptisms and dramatic church growth in Asia, and increasingly around the world. He will lead a workshop at Missions Fest, followed by two leadership meetings and a training conference at three Metro Vancouver churches.
Don Gardner, a pastor at Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church, worked with Ying Kai in Asia and offers this introduction to his work.
My dream for Vancouver starts with many people from all backgrounds becoming Christ-followers every day. New believers immediately share their new-found faith with their family, friends and coworkers. People who have no biblical background read the scriptures, expecting that God has words for them. The Holy Spirit teaches and anoints ordinary people for ministry. Traditional churches and their leaders push beyond their comfort zones to become part of a new vision for what church can become.
Don Gardner worked with Ying Kai for 13 years.
I lived that dream in Asia! For 13 years I was privileged to work alongside Ying Kai as Training for Trainers (T4T) morphed into a discipleship practice. More churches were started than I could have imagined possible with more conventional approaches.
God used Ying Kai’s humility, commitment to prayer and discipleship multiplication to birth literally thousands of micro churches. However this growth did not depend on Ying’s charisma or authority.
Around this time, there was a growth in cult activity, and 46 house church leaders from several million-plus networks were kidnapped in an attempt to derail them spiritually. The leaders remained steadfast, however, and I was later asked to meet with some of them in a clandestine location for “cult defence training.”
I quickly discovered that a number of these leaders identified with what they called T4T. Surprisingly, they had no clue who the originator of the movement was. They were simply depending on the word of God for their teaching and the Holy Spirit’s guidance for learning. Each group had already spawned multiple generations of churches. It was obvious that this movement was not based on one charismatic leader controlling everything.
Christians meeting in a home.
Ying has always trained leaders to multiply themselves, resulting in churches planting other churches so rapidly and effectively that fourth generation leaders never even knew Ying Kai’s name.
It sounds impossible – it sounds like an exaggeration. But I saw it happen, and it is still happening around the world today. In T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution (page 321), Steve Smith writes that he can be confident there are 30 to 35 such movements around the world – and that the number is probably much higher.
A 2014 issue of Mission Frontiers documents growing examples on this continent. We can learn from what is happening elsewhere. Training for Trainers is now being taught and practiced around the world. Application in each culture and city varies, but the basics of Disciple Multiplication remain. Movements are well under way in Europe and in many American cities.
Why not in Vancouver? It has been said that the height of stupidity is to repeatedly do the same thing with the expectation that a change will eventually come about! Our city is one of the most significant cross-cultural cities in North America. What happens here has global implications.
For our churches to do “business as usual” within an increasingly secular society – without considering multiple approaches for sharing Christ and making disciples – is to accept sin as normative.
I know my words are strong, but I offer them in love. T4T is not the only model for maturing Christians and growing churches – but it is certainly a way to challenge the lost around us to consider whether or not the truths of God may be real for them. This will attract a response . . . positive and negative.
My dream is that the church in Vancouver will push beyond comfort zones and be the church that Christ gave his life on a cross to establish.
Vancouver will get a firsthand look at T4T soon. Ying Kai and his wife Grace will be at Missions Fest for a Saturday (3:30 pm) workshop January 30.
Vigorous discussion and interaction with Ying Kai will characterize two identical ‘Disciple Multiplying Movement’ leaders meetings, February 2 (Faith Baptist Church in East Vancouver) and February 3 (Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Surrey). Ying and Grace Kai will be joined by Murray Moerman (founder of Church Planting Canada and now director of the Global Church Planting Network).
On February 5 – 6, Ying will teach those who are ready to start a Disciple Multiplying Group using the T4T process, at New Life Community Church in Burnaby.
Information and registration for all events, which are organized by Outreach Canada, can be found here.
Fantastic article on Ying Kai. I look forward to the impact his teaching will have in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. It is not too late to register!