Welcome to our global on-line training school for 21st Century church and mission leaders. This is a training school without walls, without frontiers, without any fees and one that leaps over every barrier of political, religious, racist, sexist and denominational prejudice, in the name of Jesus.

We hope that these lessons will inspire and bless both you and thousands of similar like-minded people who live and dream in the passion of their first love for Jesus.

The fact that you starting this course today means that you want to want to know the Lord better yourself, and in your heart you want to see the people in your family and nation, and the unreached peoples of the world and the poor of the world turning to live a disciplined, holy life in the love and care of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  This Course will help you to do just that.

This is Lesson One, it is very simple and just an introduction. The lessons that follow are more complete and filled with good things to learn and to do. I have personally done them all, taught them in class, handed them on to thousands of people and now they are yours. I hope and pray that you will be as blessed, challenged and moved towards the Lord and His ways as I have been and continue to be as the years go on.

Dr. Les Norman

1. First of all we are going to pass on to you an outline of what we have learned over the years and with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Bible, our prayers and an open mind you will grasp the ideas.

The Course moves through various interlinking themes in an order which seems to most appealing and useful to the churches in the developing nations:

1. Evangelism

2. Mission

3. Discipleship basic level for new believers

4. Discipleship advanced level

5. Call of God

6. Believing God for Finances

7. Leadership Training

8. Building The Church

9. The Kingdom Comes

2. Secondly, if it is at all possible in your circumstances we really want you to pass on to others all that you learn, so that the word of God spreads. We will show you how to do that without spending a lot of money which we know is hard to find. To see how to do this please see:

How the School of Mission works best

How To Open Your Own School

and Lesson 66 A Discipling Church

By the way when we say a school we do not mean that you have to open a special building with professional staff. Our students meet in church halls, in homes, in shops and even under palm trees in the open air. All you need is a group of willing people, a Bible, these materials and the presence of God with you though prayer. We will help you to make a start and help you along every step of the way.

Then, what we really want is to see the people that learn from you going and telling the people they know, using the same notes and simple ways of passing on the word of God.

Question: How does this Course work best ?

Answer: This Course works at its very best when a leader follows the same effective approach that Jesus adopted to train His disciples, and later Paul took the same approach with Timothy,

"The things you have heard me say . .
entrust to reliable men . . who will also teach others."
Paul to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.2.

We would like you to grasp this from the very start. In recent history this Biblical approach was originally taught and practised in the early 20th century by world famous author Watchman Nee in China, later from the mid 1960's this principle was widely taught by Juan Carlos Ortiz in Argentina and more recently became widely accepted through the growth of the world's largest church, that of Pastor Yonggi Cho of Seoul, South Korea. At the end of the 20th century Pastor Cesar Castellanos of Bogota, Colombia had become equally well known worldwide for the G12 movement which taught this same principle to the Spanish speaking world and through which Castellanos's congregation grew from 8 to 120,000 people in ten years. He wrote:

"I began to see Jesus' ministry with clarity. The multitudes followed, but He didn't train the multitudes. He only trained 12, and everything he did with the multitudes was to teach the 12.  Then the Lord asked me another question: "If Jesus trained 12, should you win more than 12 or less than 12?" Jesus chose 12 to reach the multitudes. He stayed with these 12 permanently, until they were trained and He released them, gave them authority and empowered them to disciple the nations.

Pastor, leader, student - the best thing to do is to find 12 to meet with you to take these studies together. The Word of God and the Spirit of God will consolidate everybody's faith and commitment and reproduce Christ's character in you by discipleship and then release those who are willing to go to win 12 more each whilst staying in fellowship with the original group of 12 friends."

Look at the incredible mathematics of 2 Timothy 2.2

If you learn for yourself ~ 1 person hears the word of the Lord

If you share the lesson with 12 people
~ 13 people hear the word of the Lord
If the 12 were to tell 12 more people
~ 157 people hear the word of the Lord
If the 157 were to tell 12 more people
~ 1,884 people hear the word of the Lord.
If the 1,884 people were to tell 12 more people
~ 22,608 people hear the word of the Lord.

This has happened in China and is happening every day in parts of South America and Africa where 'Training by Multiplication' courses such as this are proving to be the only cost-effective way to teach the thousands of people who are deciding to follow Jesus. This is possible for you and your church or School of Mission.

No special buildings or materials required just meeting and talking.

"The things you have heard me say . .
entrust to reliable men. . who will also teach others."
Paul to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.2.

Together we can train many people to become mature believers and they themselves will go and do the work of the ministry - in evangelism, discipleship and in care for the poor, having found the faith, the works and the finances that are necessary to advance the gospel. In the first chapter of Genesis, when the Word of God came together with the Spirit of God, there was an explosion of new life and that is our prayer, that the Lord would do the same again, this time in your lives and in your community.

Relax
If leading a group, developing a School of Mission or working in a group is not possible for you, then you are still more than welcome to take this programme as an individual, or in the best way that your circumstances permit. We have no second-class students. Not one.

Is the course difficult?
These lessons have been well tested in the churches of Africa, India and the Hispanic world, adapted of course to the local culture. They say the teaching is biblical, true, relevant to the developing world and focused on their passion, to finish the Great Commission so that Jesus can return. Many of the ideas have been born, tried and tested in the developing world, which is not very different from the first century Bible times.

With God's help the lessons will not be too difficult even for people with little or no education. The teaching is simple and uncomplicated ands the words should be easy for you to translate if you need to.

The notes are clear and easy to read and your friends can also download them free of charge and copy them by hand or by machine. Each lesson can be downloaded and copied separately so it is easy and affordable to obtain these studies. People can make photocopies of the studies one sheet at a time if necessary so even copying the whole course will not be too expensive. In some parts of the world the people copy every lesson by handwriting.

Now, please go back to the List of Studies and have a good look at all the studies and see what you will learn and all that you can pass on to others.

This gentle introduction which is also lesson one ends by asking you to read every section of the Information Page to make sure that you know what to do. From lesson two onwards you will really start learning.