A Shift to Free Training at NewBreed

When I left a megachurch in 1999 to head to Wales UK to plant, I started at D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s church with hopes to plant out from there. I was fully-funded by supporters from my large sending church and all went well for the first year. That was until 9/11 caused the panic in America that would shrink charitable giving by 50% worldwide. Overnight, I became a walking statistic as my board phoned to say that my support had dropped in half. I didn’t have that much to start with, so I got a job in the local factory and worked for “manpower” doing whatever jobs they needed me to.

When I returned home to America nine months later for a wedding, everyone remarked how fit I looked. “Wow Peyton, you look great! What have you been doing to lose weight?”

I’ve always been honest, so I said, “I don’t eat much.” They’d laugh and say, “sure, but what is your secret? What diet are you on?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I didn’t have much food, but for a year straight my wife and I ate a steady diet of potatoes, pinto beans, eggs, and toast.

Needless to say, we didn’t have a bunch of spare cash laying around when it came time to plant a church. I can remember the Willow Creek Leadership Summit coming to town. Everyone was going. I couldn’t afford it.

I suppose that something changed in me for good at that time. I remembered saying that if I were ever in a position to train people that I’d do it for free. For a few decades I have.

That said, it’s hard to run a ministry on free. Last year, we charged for our courses to see what would happen. Turns out, not many people can afford to pay for training, and we gave away more last year than ever. In fact, every third course we built was free, and every month we delivered a top level tool at no cost. The result of “free” was explosive. We spread to the far corners of the globe faster than organizations that have been doing this for 100 years. We reached 49 countries to be exact.

That led us to where we are at the dawn of 2023. We desire to give our training away for free in the hopes that it will reach even more places. We are hoping to reach 50 more countries in 2023 and are inviting other organizations to raid our cupboards. We believe that we produce some of the most transformative training at the highest level, but if we hoard it or keep it to ourselves, it won’t do anyone any good.

Our hope is to share it for all who can use it to expand the Kingdom of God. It’s a step of faith.

Like I said, it’s not easy to run a ministry on “free.”

All of our courses will be made available to churches, individuals, networks and denominations all over the world in order to hasten His kingdom come.

Despite our courses being free, we will continue to charge for our cohorts this year but our hope is that we won’t have to by that time. Going forward, we’re asking everyone who uses our content to make a donation if they can. If they can’t, no harm, no foul. But here’s the cool thing, if anyone decides to donate $50 a month, they’ll not only get access to all of our paid cohorts, they’ll also be sponsoring someone from another country who is a poor missionary to join us as well. We just can’t turn people away who want access to our training.

Please pray for us, and consider sponsoring a church planter in the year to come.