Paul said “I am ready.” Decades of destiny lie behind that saying. What kind of training does God put into His soldiers to help them win the war? Sent out to face a world largely lost, filled with its own dark visions and dead ends, how do you ever prepare? What does it take to meet the hurts and the hopes of a generation of losers? What does it cost to equip and army of love to fight for peoples lives and eternal destiny?

There are two main words in the New Testament for being ready: Both are core for those who would change their world. The first one means “Prepared”. It is concerned with learning from the past and disciplining the present. Nobody sends a soldier to the battlefield until their reactions under fire are automatic and unflinching. The Agape Force sought to provide a training structure much more like the military than a seminary. They set up a structure where kids would be challenged physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually to levels they never thought they could reach. Their training grounds had obstacle courses and physical regimens designed in part by ex-Vietnam vets and elite Navy Seal officers.

People in the first DTIs, (Discipleship Training Institute), and later the Crystal Springs Institute, learned to discipline their bodies, to live simply and without waste, to conserve their time and handle hardship, to make do with little and to stay thankful and faithful under difficult circumstances. They were given tests that required more challenging answers than mere memory and multiple-choice skills. They sought to provide a place in which young people might learn to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength, and love their neighbors as themselves. In the footsteps of Jesus, Who as a teenager increased in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and with man, these young people set out to unplug themselves from purposeless and empty life-styles, and into one of destiny and discipline.

“DTI is the only school no-one wants to come to, and everyone wants their friends to attend when they finish” (Tape Introduction to the first Discipleship Training Institutes)

Winkie



DTI & Crystal Springs

Back in the very early days of AF there was no DTI. All our training was "on the job" and our "classroom" was Steve Shubin reading through Winkie Tracts with us in the mornings or sometimes a local pastor (Pastor Mohrmon from Fresno First Assembly) coming to teach us about the Holy Spirit. We would talk about our time out on the streets, discuss what we could do differently or better and even have "practice" witnessing where one would pretend to be the sinner and the other would be the Christian telling them about Jesus. The rest of us would watch and critique.

Most days we studied in the morning, did chores in the afternoon and went to the streets at night if we didn't have a service somewhere. Sprinkled liberally in there at various times were two other major things. Music Practice with Kathy. Everybody. Yes...Everybody was in the Un-Choir. The other thing was prayer. We prayed often and for extended periods. When we had a service we came over an hour early so we would have an hour to pray. We prayed in a way and with an intensity that I had never seen before and I was from a church that prayed loud and hard.

When they began rationing our toilet paper it was because we ran out and didn't have money for more. When we went to three minute showers it was because we were trying to figure out ways to get the 15 or 20 girls who lived in a rented house with Larry & Carol Powell ready in the morning before breakfast. Also, the shorter the showers of the people before you, the more likely you were to have hot water.

Even DTI was the solution to a problem. We found out that pastors were sending kids to "join" the ministry for 3-6 months just so they could get some training and then "calling" them back home.

It was then that we realized the training was a valuable thing in itself and DTI was born. The model of the short term discipleship school (12 weeks of classroom and then outreach) is one of the ways we actually did change the world.