This page contains tools for Teaching / Training / Discipleship that have been submitted by users or found by the Administrator. To be included here the material must be freely distributable to any who intend to actively aid in the spreading of the Gospel! However… The site administrators do not guarantee that all submitted material will be free of copy write or trademark restrictions (we are not perfect, but if we do discover a violation the material will be removed).

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SED Personal Evangelism Speakers Bureau:

These individuals from all over the SED are available to encourage and equip people in your congregation to share their faith.  The Lord has given them various gifts, so my advice would be to chose someone that has gifts in the area of ministry you would like to pursue, and who lives close by.

Speakers Bureau PDF

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Books:

Surprising Insights From The Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them

Thom S. Rainer presents individual examples and statistical compilations from a sample of 300 individuals who were formally unchurched and who have become active Christians. He asks what was really important and what really didn’t matter to them about their introduction to the faith and the congregation that they are a part of.

From a review on Amazon.com by Walter Windish:

I almost passed this book up when I saw the amount of church growth books written by Thom Rainer. My bravery was rewarded with a book that stimulated thought on how ministries within a local church should not only fit together, but work towards the same goal. The goal is making disciples. At the end of each chapter are well thought out discussion questions. I will try to outline the book using as many of the authors’ own words as I can.

The authors state that “To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. It must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it.” (p.26)

A simple church is defined as “a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.” (p.60) Later the authors add the following to their definition: “The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus). (p. 68)

The book begins by contrasting two imaginary churches: “First Church” is a complex church – one that has many great programs, but without an overarching focus. It feels disjointed and headed in multiple directions. “Cross Church” is a simple church. There is one overarching theme that ties all its ministries together. It’s a short and simple statement – “loving God, loving people, and serving the world.” (pp. 33-40)

A majority of the material I found valuable was contained in the first 134 pages. The rest of the book has something to offer, but you wade through more and more church growth language. (The chapter on movement was my least favorite.) I thought the real value in the book was the questions it asked which made me think more deeply about our church and its ministries.

Are people in your church truly being transformed? Are they growing as disciples of Christ? Or is everyone just busy? (Page 7) These are cutting questions. As leaders of a church, there is nothing more important (outside of salvation). Willow Creek recently took a hard look at themselves and realized they were not helping people to grow deep, just busy. The authors of Simple Church put forth a very viable solution: simplify. “Spiritual growth (sanctification) is the process of a believer being transformed into the image of Christ. Simple churches have chosen to align themselves with the way God works…with the discipleship process revealed in Scripture.” (p.16) Many churches are “[s]o cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church (p 19).” “Imagine a church where you, as a leader, can articulate clearly how someone moves from being a new Christian to becoming a mature follower of Christ (p 27)”

If your church’s mission is to make disciples, then all the activities and ministries should contribute to that goal. Not only that, but the average attendee should be able to tell how a specific ministry is adding to the process, because the process is simple and easy to understand. If a church has many mission and vision statements spread among its ministries, there is a very good chance that there may be a multiplicity of ministry philosophies, possibly even working against each other or competing with each other.

A simple model used in this book has three stages for spiritual growth: love God (worship service), love others (small groups), and then serve the world (ministry teams). (p.47) A person enters the process at the first stage (worship service) and moves through the other stages as they mature. Not only is the process simple, one can roughly track spiritual growth by the number of people involved at each stage. (The one flaw in this reasoning is that although this holds true for older generations, very often younger generations get involved first by doing, rather than by knowing. They enter in the process at the opposite end (serving), possibly before committing to Christ. Even so, these folks would be connected with a small group and serve in an environment where they would be discipled.)

The rest of the book describes four elements that are necessary in a simple church: clarity, movement, alignment, and focus.

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From the Amazon.com site:

“Emotionally Healthy Spirituality builds upon Pastor Scazzero’s previous book – The Emotionally Healthy Church. Although there is some repetition in the beginning part of this book, Mr. Scazzero further develops the 6 principles outlined from his first book using more personal examples and revealing a fresh passion to effectively help the reader move from theory to a changed life. I agree with the author – what good is it to provide more information, or even preaching material (that is all some Pastors will see) if the result is not a changed/transformed life? Only time, and responses from those who read this work will tell if the author’s intention was fulfilled.”