Our courses are developed by the Church Based Training (CBT) network.

CBT is a ministry started in the mid 90's in partnership with two sister organizations: CCBT (Center for Church-Based Training, based out of Dallas Texas) and BAO (from Vienna, Austria). Together we have written discipleship and leadership courses.

CBT is now one of the resources that Living Stones Leadership Ministries offers to churches in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

Imagine

• Your leadership team growing together towards Christlikeness
• Your church with an oversupply of emerging leaders
• Your ministry teams being trained in issues of character and spiritual formation
• Believers in your church growing in maturity at their own pace
• New Christians growing steadily in their faith

Is that a dream or a reality in your local church? Living Stones offers the outstanding curriculum developed over the last 15 years. These resources are all about "bringing some to leadership and all to maturity" in each local church.

Church-Based Training materials are divided into four tracks:

1. The Exploring Track: Getting Established in the Faith
This contains four six lesson courses that can be used with new believers or people wanting to be grounded in some of the basics of the Christian faith. These have been used effectively with Home Groups in various churches.
2. The Discovering Track: Growing to Maturity
These 12 lesson courses are to help Christians become more mature in their Christian faith.
3. The Guiding Track: Learning to Lead Others
This track contains several 12 lesson courses, a Six Lesson course called, "Life Development Planner," as well as a series of lessons from a resource called "Elders and Leaders Field Guide" (ELFG).
4. The Leadership Development Track: Training Leaders for Ministry
This track contains Living Stones seminars and modules and CBT Lessons packaged together with a focus on leadership development.

You are welcome to use these courses in their current form or to design your own modules of study. Please contact us if you would like examples of how churches have designed their own training processes by creating their own modules or if your church has developed it's own track that it would like to share with others.

Use of the CBT material is available through a subscription service.

The Leadership Development Track
An exciting development in Living Stones is the number of churches that are approaching us for suggestions on well-thought-out packages for training various groups of their leaders. Clearly a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work in Kiwi churches. However, it's equally clear that churches do want some clear suggestions from ministries that specialize in leadership development. Please accept the following suggestions as our attempt to partner with you in the vital task of training your leaders.

Living Stones offers four delivery systems to aid you in developing leaders:

1. In-Depth Modules. These involve 12 weeks of study and include biblical study, dynamic readings, mentoring and tuition. They are an outstanding option for your highest level of leadership.
2. Seminars. These are usually on a Saturday and are offered regionally to your current and future leaders.
3. CBT (Church-Based Training) resources. Here are three training packages for different groups of leaders in your church: Emerging Leaders Package, Elders and Elders in Training Package and a Customized Package.
4. Leadership Roundtable Conference. This annual conference feels like a genuine leadership retreat and gives you a prime opportunity to network with other churches.

Emerging Leaders Package (5 Meetings per Term)

Your first task is to identify this group of leaders. Pray about it, then list those in your church that you want to invest in for the future. After you have identified them and the best training package, invite them personally to consider being part of your leadership training programme.

• Seminars. We suggest that you invite your emerging leaders to attend one or two Living Stones seminars each year. This will contribute to their biblical, theological and practical growth.
• CBT Lessons. We recommend that you meet once every two weeks with your group of emerging leaders and allow about an hour and a half to complete a CBT lesson. A realistic goal would be to meet with your group for two or three School Terms (five times a term). Here is our suggestion:

YEAR 1

Term One: Life Development Planner
- Life's Purpose (Life Development Planner, Issue 1)
- Life's Divine Design (Life Development Planner, Issue 2)
- Life Development Timeline (Life Development Planner, Issue 3-allow two sessions on this)
- Life Assessment (Life Development Planner, Issue 4)
Term Two: Spiritual Formation
- Appreciating God's Grace (True Spirituality, Issue 1)
- Being Filled with the Holy Spirit (True Spirituality, Issue 6)
- Embracing the Spiritual Disciplines (True Spirituality, Issue 7)
- Understanding and Applying God's Word (True Spirituality, Issue 8)
- Devoting Yourself to Prayer (True Spirituality, Issue 9)
Term Three: Discovering God's Greatness
- Knowing God (Discovering God's Greatness, Issue 1)
- Standing in Awe of God (Discovering God's Greatness, Issue 2)
- Our God is Holy (Discovering God's Greatness, Issue 3)
- Our God is Loving (Discovering God's Greatness, Issue 4)
- Our God is Powerfully Present (Discovering God's Greatness, Issue 5)

YEAR 2

Term One: What a Leader Is
- The Essence of Leadership (Church Leadership, Issue 1)
- The Spirituality of a Leader (Church Leadership, Issue 2)
- The Character of a Leader-Maturity (Church Leadership, Issue 3)
- The Character of a Leader-Credibility (Church Leadership, Issue 4)
- The Teamwork of a Leader (Church Leadership, Issue 6)
Term Two: What a Leader Does
- Shepherding-Caring (Church Leadership, Issue 7)
- Shepherding-Protecting (Church Leadership, Issue 8)
- Leading--Managing the Vision (Church Leadership, Issue 10)
- Equipping--Some to Leadership (Church Leadership, Issue 11)
- Equipping--All to Maturity (Church Leadership, Issue 12)
Term 3: The Mission
- Search and Rescue: Christ's Mission to a Desperate World (Church Mission, Issue 2)
- Prayer: The Power for the Mission (Church Mission, Issue 7)
- Evangelism and Mission: Overcoming Barriers to the Gospel (Church Mission, Issue 8
- Remember the Poor: Social Responsibility and Mission (Church Mission, Issue 9)
- Cross Cultural Missions: Reaching the Ends of the Earth (Church Mission, Issue 11)

Elders and Trainee Elders Package (Once a Month)

• Seminars. We suggest that you plan to attend the "Effective Eldership" Seminar and one other Living Stones one-day seminar each year.
• CBT Lessons The Elders and Trainee Elders Package assumes that you will meet once a month for Word and Prayer (with separate elder ‘business' meetings once a month as well). We believe this package fits in well with the busy lives of elders and trainee elders. There is a small amount of reading and preparation. You need to allow about an hour to discuss the material.

YEAR ONE:
• Learning Together in Community (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 1)
• Soul Care (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 3)
• Prayer (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 7)
• Shepherds (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 8)
• Character (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 4)
• Equippers (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 10)

YEAR TWO:
• Form and Function (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 19)
• Accountability (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 21)
• Selection (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 5)
• Conflict (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 12)
• Sin in the Fellowship (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 17)
• Mission Champions (Elders and Leaders Field Guide, Issue 14)

Customized Packages

The great advantage of customizing the CBT materials is the fact that you know your own church and the needs of your leaders.

One option is to cut and paste from the various packages outlined above. Another is to look at the even more comprehensive list of CBT leadership and discipleship courses that are on our Living Stones web site. Churches that have paid the annual subscription have access to all of our written materials.

See examples of the way that BotanyLife Community Church and Mt Albert Baptist Church have customized our resources to fit their leadership training needs. If you customize our resources in a different way please contact us and we will share your ideas with other churches.

In addition, Living Stones provides a Consultancy option. We would love to come and sit down with you to discuss which of the above packages meets your needs best.

The Discovering Track: Growing to Maturity

The purpose of the Discovering Track is to establish people more fully in their Christian faith and prepare them to serve Christ well in the Church and in the World.

The following study series are in the "Discovering Track"
- Discovering the Christian Life.:
- Discovering God’s Greatness.
- Your Role in God’s Family.
- Sharing Your Faith.
- True Spirituality. 
- Parenting with Purpose.
- Enriching Your Marriage.
- Experiencing Community.
- Discovering God’s Story.
- Defending Your Faith.

Each course contains 12 lessons.

The Guiding Track: Learning to Lead Others

The Guiding Track is designed to train and unify your emerging and existing leaders. This series helps to equip these leaders in the lifelong pursuit of biblical wisdom by exposing them to the foundational issues of the Church. This series is a comprehensive study made up of four courses with twelve issues each. Every issue uses the "Six-Step Wisdom Process" that encourages you to think biblically and wisely about issues of church leadership.  A series of lessons from a resource called "Elders and Leaders Field Guide" is also included in this track.

• The Church
• Church Mission
• Church Leadership
• Theology for Leaders
• Life Development Planner
• Home Groups
• The Equippers
• Elders and Leaders Field Guides (Various topics for church leaders)