Executive Ministries is an interdenominational ministry begun in the early 1960's, committed to helping to fulfil the Great Commission by reaching out to the executive, professional, and leadership community. 

Young professionals presenting Christ and developing spiritual leaders in the marketplace.

For more information contact pietdebeer1@vodamail.co.za

  Background of the B2B (Back to Basics) Strategy

By Piet de Beer.

After I became a Christian years ago, there was a period when I had stopped growing as a Christian. I simply did not know how to make progress. Nobody ever followed me up. The main reason for that, I think was that the church we were attending had no real follow up plan for young Christians. I remained in this state for + - 12 years.
 
In hindsight I realize that the #1 reason for not really developing was because I was not grounded in the "Basics" of my relationship with Jesus Christ.
 
In the early seventies I got involved in a "Transferable Concept" Bible study of Campus Crusade for Christ and also started attending a training course called "Lay Institute for Evangelism". Soon after that I took off in my relationship with Jesus Christ and gained a new awareness of these simple basics.
 
I have discovered that there are basics in all walks of life, e.g. child rearing, marriage, and business and of course sport. Let me explain. In rugby there are 5 basics. You have to be able to catch a ball, pass a ball, tackle, know the rules and be fit. If you ignore just one of them you are in trouble and will become an average team. (Who wants to be average?)
 
The team I represented many years ago as a rugby player was not able to win the "Currie Cup" in South Africa for 21 years. In 1972 they won it and not again until 1993. The main reason was that they ignored just two of the "basics". They did not tackle and did not know the rules.
 
In 1985 they started getting things together and went to the final against Western Province, but 10 minutes before the end of the game they stopped tackling and one of the opponents, Goggie van Heerden scored 2 tries. The next year they did not know the rules and conceded 5 penalties to Naas Botha. That once again cost them the competition. So you see ignoring just one of the "basics" could be devastating.
 
However in 1994 a new coach, Kitch Christie came along and he got all the basics together and Transvaal won the Currie Cup. Then Kitch took the nucleus of that team and formed the national team that won the world cup against the All Blacks in 1995.
 
In our relationship with the Lord there are just "5 basics" and sadly most Christians do not know them or are not able to apply them in their own lives.
 
1.    You have to be sure you are a Christian. (Based on a fact)

2.    You have to know how to confess your sin. (Based on a fact)

3.    You have to be sure you are filled with the Spirit. (Based on a fact)

4.    You have to walk in the Spirit. (Based on a fact)

5.    You have to witness in the Spirit. (Based on a fact)

As I started to develop these basics into a model of using them in discussion groups, I kept on emphasizing the fact that there were four very important issues to keep in mind if you wanted the basics to be effective in your walk with God, and wanted to continue growing.

 Firstly:  You have to know the "5 Basics" by heart, backwards and forward.
 
Secondly: It is very important to memorize the 6 Sripture passages connected to these 5 basic principles.
 
Thirdly: It is vitally important to apply the basics in your own personal life and make sure you experience it as a way of life. Not just # 1, #2, #3 and #4, but also # 5. This seems to be the most neglected one of the 5 basics, so:
 
Fourthly: You have to start sharing it with other people. For anything to be effective in your personal life it has to become transferable. And that is where most Christians falter because they don't know how to transfer their knowledge or their experience of their relationship with the Lord, to other people.
 
So together with my wife and some of my colleagues we developed a series with 10 questions about each of the 5 basics.
 
The course is developed to be discussed over 7 weeks, using one discussion session per #'s 1 - 4. However we use 2 sessions for #5 because it involves some practical training to share their faith with the "Four Spiritual Laws", or "Knowing God Personally". Most Christians don't share their faith, simply because they don't know how.
 
This "DISCUSSION FORUM" was developed to help people discover the importance of Basics. The whole idea is to make it simple and interesting. The discussion should last about 50 minutes.
 
As the facilitator asks the questions he/she will have the answers in front of him/her. But at the end of the discussion time the facilitator promises that he/she will e-mail the participants a copy of the questions as well as the answers so that they could study it and start preparing themselves to maybe facilitate a similar small group like the one they have just been going through.
 
Together with the questions and answers they are also e-mailed a copy of the abbreviated "Transferable Concepts" about the "Basics" that Dr Bill Bright had written many years ago.
 
We emphasize that the "Transferable Concepts" would be a great help to equip them to be more prepared to answer questions that may arise regarding the various basic principles.