sunrise from Silver Peak, Catalina Island 

 

Disciple-Making Movements

For years I have been increasingly fascinated and encouraged by the exponential growth of robust communities of disciples who multiply. Learning about what God is doing in millions of lives in thousands of different areas and contexts has taken me abroad to see first-hand, as well as to online and printed resources. Here is a tour.

'Miraculous Movements'

Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) are emerging worldwide that involve a God-size vision ('end-vision'), a clear pathway, and simple biblically consistent tools to fulfill the Great Commission in ways conventional mission will not.

"When there is a move of God, disciples are rapidly multiplying, and thousands … are coming into the kingdom in a short amount of time through ordinary disciples passionately obeying Christ and boldly spreading the gospel everywhere they go … that is what we call a new DMM."

Here are some recent statistics courtesy of the '24:14' network of movement catalysts. Bottom line: DMMs have produced more than 100 million new disciples of Jesus in the past few decades, with exponential growth rates that have not yet begun slowing down.Church history is being made before our eyes.

This page offers an excellent overview that includes a brief appetizer video:

#1: Abide in God's Heart

(from Steve Smith, "CPM Essentials on a Napkin")

"You are seeking God’s vision, not your own. Matthew 6:9-10 and 28:18-20 say that His kingdom will come fully to all people and people groups. A vision of this magnitude should result in multitudes of believers and thousands of churches (and/or small groups). Such a vision galvanizes believers to make radical lifestyle choices to bring God's kingdom to their community. ...

"Since this vision is so large, you must break it down into basic relational segments to know how to start. ... Your goal is simple: plant reproducing mustard seed groups (Matthew 13:31-33) with the ability to reach that segment and beyond. ...

"Until we know God's heart, we can't expect Him to show up in miraculous ways to fulfill something that is not on His heart, or less than what is on His heart. ...

"To fulfill the vision, you have to start at the foundation by abiding in Christ (John 15:5, Psalm 78:72, Matthew 11:12, 17:20) Those that bear fruit are those that abide. There is no way around it. Anything less gives temporary and stunted fruit. ... You do not get a CPM by abiding in Christ, but you don't get one if you don't.

"As we humble ourselves by simply abiding in Christ, we must cry out fervently to God in prayer to see His vision fulfilled (Matthew 6:9-10, Luke 10:2, 11:5-13, Acts 1:14). Every [Disciple-Making] Church-Planting Movement begins first as a prayer movement."

David Watson: mission is "loving God until nothing else matters" (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

The 'Brutal Facts'

Christians in growing in absolute numbers, but believers are not growing as a share of world population. Many are passive, nominal, or discouraged. Many areas and people groups remain unreached. Faith is losing ground, especially among the young. Traditional churches in many countries including the USA are shallowing, drifting, shrinking, and closing. Traditional strategies are expensive and workers few.

lausanne.org/sogc

For a sobering tour, see John S. Dickerson's The Great Evangelical Recession: Six Factors That Will Crash the American Church ... and How to Prepare.

A key motivating question comes from Matthew 24:14: What's it gonna take ('WIGTake') to evangelize a whole people group in a generation to make progress in fulfilling the Great Commission? Obstacles include spiritual strongholds, lack of credibility/trust, cultural barriers, Christian cultures, power imbalances, busyness, bottlenecks, resource costs, complacency, and fear.

Movement Principles

(adapted from Stan Parks)

  • Trust that only God starts movements (John 6:44-45, Matthew 23:8-10). Disciples follow biblical principles to pray, plant, and water the seeds that can lead to a multiplying movement akin to Acts (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Mark 4:26-29).
  • Focus on making every Christ-follower a reproducing disciple rather than a mere convert (2 Timothy 2:1-2). "Don’t convert to disciple; disciple to convert." Because the connotations are so different, 'disciple-making' is different from 'discipleship.'
  • Foster frequent, regular accountability for obeying the Lord's will for each person and sharing it with others lovingly (John 14:15, 1 Timothy 4:7-11, Ephesians 4:11-16). This favors an interactive small-group approach with a flag power dynamic.
  • Equip each disciple in interpreting and applying Scripture, a well-rounded prayer life, functioning as a part of Christ's body and responding well to persecution and suffering, as not mere objects (recipients) of mission but subjects (active agents) of Kingdom advance (Luke 6:46-48, Matthew 4:18-5:16).
  • Cast vision both for reaching one's relational network and for extending the Kingdom to the ends of the earth (with a "no place left" mentality), equipping for both settings (Acts 19:1-20, Luke 10:1-9, Matthew 24:12-14, 28:17-20, Acts 1:8).
  • Form reproducing, maturing, networking churches. The Spirit’s power thus multiplies disciples, churches, leaders, mentors, movements, and movement families (Acts 2:38-27).
  • An initiative's specific approach matters less than respect for Kingdom movements' underlying biblical principles (1 Corinthians 9:19-24; Derek Murphy: "People are the prize.")

    • DMM Features

    (by Paul Huyghebaert, from renew.org)

  • Radical dependence on the Holy Spirit in fasting and prayer empowers the mission.
  • Scripture is the curriculum.
  • The mission is always clear.
  • Disciple making is the church’s cultural identity.
  • Leaders and staff make and coach disciple-makers.
  • Stories of disciple-making abound.
  • Discipling expectations are high.
  • Multiplication (not just growth) happens at every level.

    • A List of Contrasts with Most Traditional Church-Planting Approaches

    Further Resources

  • longer video orientations: "Ordinary People" and "Love One Another"
  • God's heart in four fields explained
  • app for DBS's at Waha
  • New Generations resources
  • Beyond.org recommended reads
  • Steve Addison's bibliography
  • Everywhere 2 Everywhere resources
  • helpful authors: David Watson, Chris Galanos, Roy Moran, Steve Addison
  • free ebook: Stan Parks & Dave Coles, 24:14–A Testimony to All Peoples

    • The 'Seven Sails'

    Since only God can start and sustain movements, disciple-making depends on the Holy Spirit. But as a sailboat has to have its sails up so that the wind will overcome its inertia and the water's drag, so God calls and equips disciple-makers to be ready to move when the Spirit blows. These are the so-called 'seven sails' of disciple-making movements:

    This image is a screenshot from an excellent online orientation to the disciple-making process and its key practices. I highly recommend its first three videos, and assign them to students in my classes who are learning its practices.

    Disciple-makers transfer each of these skills by modeling something to learn, assisting as the learner tries, watching the learner practice, and leaving/launching the learner to show others in turn (MAWL).

    A Helpful Tanzanian Training Series

    (60-minute YouTube playlist)

    0. Intro to the process, which involves the steps that follow (cf. NPL's similar "Four Fields" and Waha’s “seven sails” below).

    1. Prayer: for God's vision and work, opened hearts, identified needs and prepared people, and against strongholds. Movement's foundation is deepening lived relationship with God.

    2. Compassion: acts of love, aimed at meeting those identified needs, communicate God's good will for all people, warming cold hearts and surprising and informing them.

    3. Persons of peace (Luke 10:6): hospitable cultural insiders offer both social cover for the Kingdom's emissaries and access to new social circles.

    4. Discovery groups: inductive Bible studies in which the curious look back, up, and ahead to pursue God's transformation. This can lead to conversion of non-believers, or identity-finding and deeper fruitfulness for already-believers. Waha offers a very useful multilingual app for these.

    5. Microchurches: fellowships of maturing disciple-makers grow into 'the whole package' of church traits in Acts 2:36–47 and multiply.

    6. Leaders: build up churches and strategize new cycles of engagement of the unreached, by enabling rather than controlling. Paul's apostolic team ran alongside elders of local churches.

    Action Steps

    Pray; learn and discern; train and practice; coach.

  • Experience Life DMM training
  • Zume training
    • Contagious Disciple Making class
  • Catalytic Ministries courses
  • Beyond.org training
  • Lifeway Global training
  • T4T training resources

    • You can also contact me for a conversation about it ... if you're intrigued and have questions, or (especially) if investigating this material excites you more and more and you're ready for a next step. The Lord is moving!

    For Traditional Churches

    What do traditionally structured churches have to do with New Testament-style movements without buildings, seminary-educated clergy, extensive programming, or budgets?

    Experience Life Church in Lubbock, Texas suggests a five-point church involvement continuum for traditional churches who wish to support DMMs. Each step is harder and more sacrificial than the one before.

  • Bless: Pursue the vision and don't resist but bless movement work in your area. Pray.
  • Release: Also release some of your 'radicals' to be trained by a DMM trainer and sent as missionaries from your church to your city. (This can involve a 'two-track' strategy of multiplying groups operating quasi-independently of the traditional congregation.)
  • Hybrid: Also add a DMM track in your church that you publicly promote and invite people to join.
  • Transition: Also leverage everything in your church to support the DMM vision.
  • Relaunch: Also send out everyone to plant DMM churches, or else join other churches.

    • In the end, what's decisive is submitting to God's particular vision for a church ... not a one-size-fits-all approach, a comfortable status quo, or a jumping in without counting the cost.