The Context of Our Calling
Church Based Training (CBT) is the maturation process by which the local church provides for the establishing, equipping, and encouragement of a believer’s faith, hope, and love. It is driven by the biblical mandate to make disciples and send them into the “harvest field” as workers who will “not be ashamed”. While the church has remained strong in developing the heart of the disciple it has grown dependent (on “schools”) and weak where ministry skills and biblical education are concerned.
CCBT is committed to the idea that maturation (not education) should be the KEY Pass/Fail evaluation of ministry readiness and preparedness and that the church (not the school) is uniquely gifted and organized to do such development. Our belief is that if the Church would return to it’s rightful place at the center of the growth process and use it’s natural focus on mature service and spiritual vitality and would unite that focus with serious academic discipline.
In the mid 1990’s three international CBT organizations gathered to see if they could agree (amidst their diversity) to a biblical definition of how the Holy Spirit brings a person to spiritual maturity and the training process that should accompany it (CBT). They believed that such a definition could help them bring greater clarity and refinement to the training they were providing to their churches around the world. Moreso, they hoped such a definition could align the work of the Spirit in the churches so that they could some day recognize and accept the leaders trained in the churches that used the definition. CCBT believes in and furthers the work of that original “Alliance for Church Based Training”.