The DMM Price Tag: What Does It Cost to Start a Disciple Making Movement?

The DMM Price Tag: What Does It Cost to Start a Disciple Making Movement?

May 10, 2023 | Longer Reads

by C.Anderson

Visiting the U.S.A. after living many years abroad can be a shock to the system. Walking into a grocery store to buy a few things, I am assaulted by the prices. “What? It can’t possibly cost that much for this. I usually buy these items for a fraction of the cost! Are these apples worth that to me? Do I want to pay this price for them?” 

Adjusting to my home culture’s prices is a challenge. It takes time, usually a few weeks. Purchasing groceries is necessary so I find ways to do what is needed. It’s good to check the price tag carefully before I make a purchase, though. 

It’s also good to understand the cost of starting a Disciple Making Movement (DMM). Starting a DMM is an exciting venture, but it isn’t cheap. It’s definitely not a “freebie.” The investment we must make in tears, prayer, loss and personal pruning is great. 

What Does a DMM Cost?
We could consider an amount in dollars, thinking through the cost of training and evangelism materials. In many ways, however, that is relatively insignificant. What is more important to consider is what it costs the movement leader or trainer on a personal level. How do we determine what is the price that will be paid in tears? In emotional stress due to betrayal and persecution? Or the cost that comes with constant spiritual warfare? 

I wish I could tell you that DMMs are free. Salvation is free. But there is a price we must pay to see that free salvation come to thousands of unreached peoples. DMMs have a large price tag on them. Is it worth it? 

Compel Them To Come In
In Luke 14, Jesus tells a story of a feast. It wasn’t well attended. Can you hear the passionate heart of God expressed for the lost to be saved? Jesus says, “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.” (vs. 23)-NIV. 

The Master longs for His house to be full. “Compel them!” He says. The emptiness of His table grieves God’s heart deeply. 

After this stirring parable, Jesus immediately talks about the cost of discipleship. He refers to a man who began to build a tower but wasn’t able to finish. He tells of a king going to war who first carefully weighs the cost. We too must understand the payment needed when starting a Disciple Making Movement. 

The Price Is Real
Every time the ministry started to move forward I got sick. Seriously sick. God would bring a divine appointment with a potential national apostle. We would start to connect with them, begin mentoring and “Boom!” Something would happen. My back went out and suddenly I had two herniated discs. Another time I had a life-threatening hepatitis relapse. 

Once, we were making serious inroads to a new community and my right-hand colleague was suddenly killed. While riding in an auto rickshaw she was hit by an army truck. She died shortly after being taken to the hospital. Grief hit me much like that army truck had hit her. How was I to continue? 

Then there was the time when we were trying to produce a gospel film in the local language. We were using indigenous actors and presenting the message of Jesus in a contextual way. The film demonstrated simple church and told a story of someone coming to faith. It would be a major tool to help us with abundant gospel sowing. 

We expected some resistance from anti-Christians in the area especially when we would start to distribute it. What we didn’t expect was the persecution we faced from the Christian community. We were attacked, slandered, threatened and called names by those we thought were on the same side as us! 

Primary Costs You Will Face
It would not be fair to anyone wanting to pursue a DMM to tell them it will be easy. Though it is simple, it is not easy. 

Starting a DMM requires a high level of commitment and tenacity. You must have a willingness to go through suffering to see the release of God’s Kingdom in that place. The rewards are also great! Rather than seeing just a handful of people believe, you can see thousands of multiplying disciples. 

What are the primary costs you must be ready to pay if you are pursuing a DMM? 

Be willing to be misunderstood.
As you apply DMM principles, you will go against the flow of many traditional church views and practices. At times people will question your methods. When you allow non-ordained people to baptize, for example, it might raise eyebrows. When you decide against a church building or empower local believers to do ministry, some will think you are not “doing it right.” 

When you put into practice the things done in the book of Acts, it goes against the status quo. You may feel like you are “swimming upstream” in your organization. Don’t be surprised by this. It is normal for people pursuing DMMs. It’s part of the price we pay for the release of thousands into the kingdom. Be ready to be misunderstood and not take it personally.  

Be willing to face spiritual warfare.
Sickness, unusual marital stress, and unexpected conflicts in team relationships are quite common. The enemy does not want a movement to take off. You can be sure of that. He looks for your weak points and will try to stop you. I’m not saying everything bad that happens in life is spiritual warfare. But the reality of the enemy we face is clearly described by Paul in Ephesians 6:12. 

It helps to know that whenever there is an attack, it is also an opportunity for God to do a miracle! God always wants to use spiritual warfare against us and turn it around for our good. The miracle may be a healing. It might be a reconciliation, or a breakthrough in our own character growth. Be ready to struggle, but also be ready to experience the power of God demonstrated in those times! 

Be willing to face persecution.
As you pursue a DMM, you will face opposition from within and without. The first persecution will likely come from the existing church (even if it is a small and ineffective church). Later, when the disciple-making groups start to multiply rapidly and thousands are coming to faith, it is difficult not to be noticed. That is when external persecution is likely. You may be targeted by authorities, called in for questioning, or deported. If you have done a good job of training local leaders in a simple way, they will continue the work without you. It will grow even more! 

Be willing to suffer loss
A DMM practitioner may experience loss of status in their church or organization. Even more serious, they may face losses like the death of a child or spouse. Many who have seen movements released have walked through deeply painful times of grief. As you walk through these on your DMM journey, be assured of God’s comfort. He will draw near. He will be there to walk with you through the questions and doubts that losses provoke. The tears you cry will water the movement’s growth. Those you disciple and  mentor will learn from you. They will watch you as you walk through the pain. They will see your love and commitment to God, and also to them. This is part of the deep foundational stones of a kingdom movement being laid. 

Be willing to change and grow in challenging new ways as a person
An openness to change and grow is crucial for those wanting to start movements.  This too is a costly thing.   It is easier to stay the same than to change our beliefs and paradigms. Great men and women of God are constantly growing. They are always learning. They allow each challenge to train them in godliness. They make adjustments when things aren’t producing fruit. Allowing the Holy Spirit to convict them, they respond in repentance. 

Change is costly, but so very rewarding too. The process of learning we go through in starting movements has great value! It shapes us into His image. 

Is It Worth It?
When we see the release of a massive movement of Jesus followers, we will rejoice with Jesus and the angels. Seeing thousands swept into God’s kingdom and an unreached area transformed…nothing can compare! Lives, families, and communities radically changed by His love? It’s unquestionably worth the hefty price tag. 

Are You Ready to Commit?
Counting the cost can be a bit shocking, much like my first trip to the grocery store when returning to the States. I hope this article hasn’t talked you out of pursuing a DMM! My goal is to help you count the cost now, so when you hit the hard stuff, you won’t give up. You’ve already decided it is worth it. 

Take a moment right now to pray. Ask God to give you the courage to embrace the challenges ahead. Let Him know you are willing to pay any price to see His house full, to see the unreached come to taste of His goodness. Jesus paid the ultimate price already. Let’s follow Him in demonstrating that same kind of love.

About the Author:C. Anderson is passionate about seeing hundreds of Disciple-Making movements take off among the world’s unreached peoples. She has served as  a church planter, coach, and trainer. She has been a speaker about multiplying movements of disciples for the past twenty-five years. While most of her experience is in Asia, she was worked in other regions of the world as well. She writes a weekly blog at dmmsfrontiermissions.com

 This article was first published in Mission Frontiers: Sept/Oct 2018 Edition pages 41-43. It was used here with permission.

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Praying Through 12 Common Characteristics of Disciple-Making Movements

Praying Through 12 Common Characteristics of Disciple-Making Movements

Apr 12, 2023 | Longer Reads

by Robin Smith

Our family spent 10 busy but unfruitful years on the mission field. Then in 2011, we attended disciple making trainings sponsored by our agency. The trainings changed our paradigms, our missional efforts, and our lives. We began taking steps to implement an approach now commonly known as DMM (Disciple Making Movements). Dave Coles and Stan Parks use the following definition for DMMs:

“…a process [which] focuses on disciples engaging the lost to find persons of peace who will gather their family or circle of influence, to begin a Discovery Group. This is an inductive group Bible study process from Creation to Christ, learning directly from God through his scripture. The journey toward Christ usually takes several months. During this process, seekers are encouraged to obey what they learn and share the Bible stories with others. When possible, they start new Discovery Groups with their family or friends. At the end of this initial study process, new believers are baptized. They then begin a several-month Discovery Bible Study (DBS) church-planting phase during which they are formed into a church. This process disciples the Discovery Group into a commitment to Christ, leading to new churches and new leaders who then reproduce the process.”[i]

Over the next decade, through prayer and partnership with two local coworkers, the Lord rapidly multiplied Discovery Groups which then became house churches, all among lost people within Unreached People Groups (UPGs). We currently know of 1.5 million disciples baptized, forming hundreds of thousands of churches within UPG contexts.

One of the consistent themes of this work has been prayer, especially prayer that includes listening to the Lord. So we invite all our brothers and sisters to join us in prayer, especially related to 12 common characteristics[ii] of Disciple Making Movements.

Lord, lead us as we pray! 

1. Extraordinary Prayer

In every known movement around the world, prayer plays a vital role. Prayer must be the foundation for any plan for reaching a people group. Thus, the health of the messenger’s personal prayer life is crucial. The new church and its leaders will imitate the prayer life they see in the messenger. And, in a very practical sense, they will do what they see being done, not do what they don’t see being done. If we are not praying strategically, listening in prayer, obeying what we hear in prayer, and getting others to pray as well, then we are likely limiting the new church’s impact through prayer, too.

  • Pray for God to enable laborers in the harvest fields to walk in intimate conversational relationship with him, so they bear much fruit that remains, for his glory (John 15:4–8). 
  • Pray that God’s people will not grow weary in doing good: in this case, the good work of prayer (Matthew 7:7–11).
  • Pray that God’s people will have his heart for the lost for whom they pray. This is Jesus’ pattern (Matthew 9:36–38).
  • Pray for God’s people to pray boldly, as commanded in Luke 18:1–8.

2. Authority of Scripture

In every known movement around the world, the Bible is the unquestioned authority and guiding force for the disciples – concerning everyday life, doctrine, and policy. This is true even in non-literate cultures, where the Bible is received and shared through oral storytelling. It’s also the source they turn to when people in their communities question their authority to baptize others, lead communion, or facilitate a Discovery Group.

  • Pray that all who labor in the harvest will base their lives on Jesus and his Word, being obedient doers, not forgetful hearers or hearers only (James 1:19–25).
  • Pray for God’s Word to reach every people group in their own heart language. Pray that the Word would spread rapidly and be honored among all, because God’s Word is the source to thoroughly equip disciples for every good work (2 Thessalonians 3:1; 2 Timothy 3:16–17).
  • Pray for laborers and disciples living and working among least-reached peoples to have their ears and hearts open to the Lord’s Word, so that when he shows them things to change, stop doing or start doing, they will obey (Hebrews 4:12).

3. Abundant Gospel Sowing

In every known movement around the world, messengers and first disciples generously tell others about Jesus. They share boldly about Jesus and his goodness with their families, neighbors, coworkers, and friends. They also demonstrate his goodness by praying for healing of sicknesses, restoration of families, deliverance from demons, thriving crops, or whatever else is needed in the situation, inviting the Lord to tangibly show his loving heart to people in need.

  • Pray for God’s children living and working among the world’s least-reached peoples, to not grow weary in generously sowing gospel seed among the lost (Matthew 13:3–8; 2 Corinthians 9:6).
  • Pray for God’s Spirit to enable all who labor in the harvest to boldly witness – in season and out of season (Acts 4:18–20, 29–30; 2 Timothy 4:2).
  • Pray for priority to be given to proclaiming the good news (Luke 15:3–7).

4. Intentional Gathering

In every known movement around the world, lost people are discipled in groups even before the movement begins, usually before they fully respond to the gospel. Why? It is more effective to gather-then-win than to win-then-gather. The fastest way we’ve seen the gospel spread is along preexisting relational lines, among groups that had formed organically long before the messenger came along: families, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers.

  • Pray for disciples of Jesus to reach out to groups of people, no matter how small, instead of just individuals (Luke 10:5–7). Group decisions fit the common biblical pattern (Acts 10:24, 33, 44, 48; 16:14–15; 31–33) and provide strength (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
  • Thank God that where two or three gather in his name, Jesus is there with them (Matthew 18:19–20).
  • Pray that disciples of Jesus will boldly ask lost people if anyone in their household or community of friends would also like to hear good news (Acts 16:31–34).
  • Ask God to show his children (including us) who in their lives might like to be discipled as a group, no matter how small.

5. Every Member a Minister

Movements around the world emphasize and encourage the priesthood of all believers. Every follower of Jesus has gifts that he or she is expected to use, to strengthen others and extend the impact of God’s kingdom here on earth. Each person in a house church is affirmed in their identity as a disciple: a person who makes disciples who make more disciples of Jesus.

  • Pray that disciples of Jesus in unreached places will obey his command to make disciples (Matthew 28:18–20). This task is not just for a select few.
  • Pray that disciples of Jesus in unreached places would boldly exercise the gifts God has given them (1 Peter 4:10; Ephesians 4:11–12).
  • Pray for the hundreds of thousands of “Paul-Timothy” relationships currently existing in unreached places, among both men and women. Pray that Timothys would quickly become Pauls, and Pauls would quickly become Barnabases (1 Timothy 1:2; Acts 9:27; 11:25–26).

6. Bi-vocational Lay Leaders

Movements around the world rely on lay leaders who work normal jobs in addition to the work of ministry. This helps to prevent leadership shortages caused by relying on seminary-trained or highly educated leaders. Spiritual leaders are developed through on-the-job training rather than institutional learning. Movements are also able to be more independent from outside funds when their leaders continue to do the work they’ve always done or choose to find work that will bring them into contact with a greater number of lost people.

  • Pray for God to multiply Christ-following leaders in every time zone (1 Thessalonians 2:4–12).
  • Pray for God to give energy and strength to his children (Psalm 29:11).
  • Pray for God to give wisdom and diligence to his children as they do various kinds of work (Acts 18:3; Colossians 3:23).

7. House Churches

Most of the churches in disciple making movements are small, reproducible fellowships of 10–30 members. They meet in homes, stores, coffee shops, or under trees – the normal gathering places in their societies. Many small fellowships dispersed throughout a city or community have a greater impact than a large, centralized group. In this intimate setting, accountability happens naturally, and each person’s spiritual gifts can be discerned and exercised for the good of all.

  • Pray for disciple makers to stop inviting lost friends and neighbors to Christian activities, and to instead plant God’s kingdom within households of lost people, as Peter did in Acts 10:22–48.
  • Pray for God to multiply and strengthen house churches (simple churches) throughout UPGs, as we see in Romans 16:5; Colossians 4:15, and Philemon 2.
  • Pray Romans 16:17–20 for house churches all over the world.

8. Disciples Making Disciples

Biologically, shepherds can’t produce sheep. Sheep produce sheep. Disciple making movements apply this biological truth spiritually. In the over 1,800 movements that exist today, local followers of Jesus (simple sheep) actively disciple their lost friends and family, planting new churches. How? When lost people become followers of Jesus, they quickly obey his command to produce more sheep. Thus, more laborers are found in the harvest. 

  • Pray for God’s people all over the world to follow the Good Shepherd’s example and step out of their comfort zone to pursue lost sheep (Luke 15:3–7).
  • Ask God to forgive us, his Body, for relegating his disciple-making command and promise (Matthew 28:18–20) to trained and/or paid professionals. Pray for disciples of Jesus in both reached and unreached places, that we will all believe his promises and personally obey his command.
  • Pray 1 Peter 2:24–25 for the UPGs of the world.

9. Sense of Urgency (Rapid Reproduction)

In movements, maintaining focus on the task is essential. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Matthew 9:35–38). He then instructed his disciples to pray for more laborers to bring in the harvest. Jesus told his disciples, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work” (John 9:4, NLT). His disciples today still work with that same urgency to fulfill the work he has given us: to make disciples of all peoples.

  • Ask God to forgive us, his Body, for getting distracted from the harvest. We spend most of our time, energy and money where the harvest is already being harvested. Meanwhile, Matthew 9:37 remains true for 42.5% of the people groups of the world (joshuaproject.net).
  • Ask God to give his children (both those living in reached places and those living among the unreached) boldness and courage to sow seed broadly, not sparingly (Matthew 13:3–8; 2 Corinthians 9:6).
  • Ask God to raise up many disciples in unreached places who will follow the example set in Mark 5:19.
  • Ask God for Matthew 24:14 to finally be fulfilled in our lifetime.

10. Simple Church

In the New Testament, being a church didn’t involve special buildings, seminary-trained leaders, or institutions. The church was (and is intended to still be) a group of Jesus’ followers who base their lives on Jesus and his Word. This involves encouraging each other to live lives of worship to him, witnessing to the world, baptizing new followers, teaching and encouraging each other to obey all of Jesus’ commands, and sharing to meet needs. This simplicity gives younger family members the freedom to facilitate discussion of the Word of God, and gives brand new followers of Christ the freedom to equally share thoughts and discoveries as they study the Word together.

  • Pray for the Spirit to work in every gathering of followers of Jesus around the globe, that Jesus’ light might shine brightly throughout the earth (Luke 11:13).
  • Pray that the house churches in movements would follow the example of the first followers in Acts 2:42.
  • Pray for God’s protection over the churches that have started through movements, that they will continue to find unity in humility (Philippians 2:1–4).

11. Enduring through Suffering

Disciple making movements often emerge in places where following Christ is costly and may lead to suffering or even death. Followers of Christ understand that in the world we will have tribulation, but Jesus has overcome the world. Those who bear fruit are pruned, so they can become more fruitful for God’s glory. Often, even before they are baptized, they have been trained in Jesus’ great and hard promises about what it means to be a disciple. That way, when they do take that step of obedience, they have already counted the cost. They know what they’re getting into, which is part of what allows them to keep pushing ahead and making disciples when hard times inevitably come.

  • Pray that Jesus’ promise in Luke 22:28–30 would ring loudly in the hearts of all disciples suffering persecution today.
  • Pray for God’s children to endure and have courage to persevere through trials (Hebrews 12:1–3).
  • Pray James 1:2–18 for all who are currently suffering for the sake of the Name.

12. Signs and Wonders often Accompany Proclamation of God’s Word

All disciples of Jesus are commanded to proclaim the kingdom of God in the authority of Jesus (Matthew 28:18–20). In current movements, as followers of Jesus boldly proclaim the gospel, the Lord very often confirms the message with signs and wonders. This is one way God convicts lost people to believe in him (Deuteronomy 4:34–35). They also get to experience, for the first time, the Father’s great heart, as he relieves them of their suffering or delivers them from the oppression of demons. He’s not just a God who demands obedience. He truly is love.

  • Ask for followers of Jesus in unreached places to boldly pray for manifestation of God’s kingdom, including signs and wonders accompanying gospel proclamation (Mark 16:20).
  • Pray for God’s children to be bold enough to ask for the “impossible,” so that many will believe (Matthew 17:20; John 14:12).

We praise God that through prayer, every believer can play an important role in the advance of God’s kingdom among the unreached. Whether or not you are directly involved in Disciple Making Movements, by praying regularly through these 12 common characteristics of DMMs you can participate in this gospel proclamation strategy among the unreached. Working together, we can be part of seeing the great multitude worshiping the Lamb (Revelation 7:9)!

About the Author: Robin Smith and her family first moved to India one week before 9/11. After several years of seeing very little fruit birthed from among the lost, the Smiths changed to a Disciple Making Movement (DMM) ministry strategy. The resulting numbers of new followers of Christ from Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh backgrounds surprised experts, both within and outside of the mission world. The Smiths serve with Beyond (beyond.org).

This article was originally published in the January 2023 edition of Evangelical Missions Quarterly. Used here with permission.

Lean into Chaos—It’s Often Where God Is Greatly at Work

Lean into Chaos—It’s Often Where God Is Greatly at Work

Mar 30, 2023 | Longer Reads

 by C. Anderson

We opened our email and read the notice. The American Consulate in India was advising all American citizens to leave the country. Threat levels were high, as the conflict between India and Pakistan escalated. In 1998, these two nations had both become nuclear powers. In 2017 and 2018, threats and border skirmishes increased between the two nations. The email came. American citizens were being advised to leave the nation. Our government could no longer be responsible for our safety.

Reading the notice, my husband and I quietly discussed it. We had three small children to consider. What about them? Tucking our sweet five-year-old, blond-headed boy into bed, I smoothed his hair back as he drifted off to sleep. Was it fair to put his little life at risk? How serious was the danger?

Ministry in the area was growing. We felt bonded with our Indian friends and colleagues. They didn’t have the option of leaving. Was it right for us to do so?

We consulted with our mission. They gave us the freedom to make our own choice about what to do; we were to follow God’s leading and our conscience. Being an agency that had a good number of national staff, it was handled differently than for fully foreign organizations. Talking to missionary friends, several reported they’d been told by their organizations to leave as soon as possible.

Going to God in prayer, peace filled our hearts.  We were to stay. Within six months, the evacuation order was lifted and a cease-fire agreement between the two nations was signed. We breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that we had chosen to stay. Our doing so had bonded us in unique ways to those we had come to reach.

Fight or Flight
Fight or flight are two common physical and mental responses to stress. Fight. We face the threat head- on, ready to engage in battle. Flight. We run from the threat, escaping it and finding a place of safety.

Our  world  is  a   place   of   increasing   turmoil. A war between Russia and Ukraine causes concern about nuclear threats around the  world.  While  the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer as deadly   as it was, it is far from gone. Floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters bring loss of life and property, making headline news.

How should a disciple-maker and Jesus follower respond? Is it fight or flight? Perhaps neither. God is often amazingly at work in chaos and turmoil. God leans into chaos and so must we.

Five Ways to Lean into Crisis
Consider the following five choices in the midst of chaos and crisis. The decisions we make in troubled times can lead to significant kingdom advance. It can cause the multiplication of disciples and the launch of new movements.

1. Choose to Stay—Those Who Stay Present in Crisis Often See the Greatest Impact

Don’t read me wrong. I’m not saying you always have to stay when there is a serious threat to life and limb. It’s a decision every person and family must prayerfully make before the Lord. We see biblical examples of both staying (Acts 4:21-31) and leaving (2 Cor. 11:32-33). Our default, however, should not be to leave. Instead, we must train ourselves to lean in. We need to recognize the opportunities crisis provides for the light of the Gospel to shine brightly.

There is a cost involved in staying, in leaning in.   I cannot minimize that. Trauma and a significant drain on mental and physical health are realities in a crisis. However, the glory of God shines brightly in these times, and many are drawn to Jesus as we offer that gift: the gift of presence to those we serve. And so we lean in.

2. Choose to advance—moving toward crisis rather than away from it.

The tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004 is forever etched in my mind. As it struck so suddenly, many dear friends and colleagues fled to the top of a mountain, barely escaping with their lives. Over 200,000 people died that day. Following the tragedy, our colleagues worked with government and army staff to bag bodies for days on end. It was not easy. Not easy at all. In that time though, unprecedented doors flung open for the Gospel to spread.

I remembered this on a call with a mentor a few months back. “Do you know any DMM-minded people going into Ukraine?” he asked. What about YWAM? Who is there and how can we train them to start DMMs there? He recognized the opportunity within the crisis. My mentor wanted to spur me, and anyone else he could find, into responding.

 A few hours later, we together made a call to someone I’m training in the United Kingdom. “Ian,” he asked, “What are you doing about Ukraine?”

Will we lean into these kinds of opportunities to minister the two hands of the Gospel? Not only to bring relief but to share the message of Christ? If we don’t, we may miss the chance to partner with God in what He is doing. And so we lean in.

3. Choose to believe God is working in the midst of tragedy.

 Most of us can quote Romans 8:28. We’ve preached sermons on it. When lives are at risk, bridges are burning, or hospitals overflow with sick and dying, we are put to the test. Do we believe that all things work together for good? Faith is a gift from God. It is also a choice we make. In the midst of crisis, we choose to believe that God is sovereignly in control. We place our hope in a God who is able to bring about incredible good out of horrible events. It’s what He does. One of the good things He so often does is to draw people to Himself in these times. Hearts are soft and open. And so we lean in.

4. Choose to let go of old norms and wineskins.

 Crisis times have a way of destroying the old and making way for the new. During the COVID-19 pandemic,  church  buildings  across  the  globe had to close. We  were  forced  to  meet  at  home or online if we were to meet at all. It was an unwanted change of the primary wineskin  we used to gather as a body. Today, we are mostly past that. What have we learned? How have we grown? Are any of those new wineskins to remain? So many have quickly reverted to the old, preferring to go backward instead of forward

Part of leaning in is letting go. It’s listening and discerning what God might be releasing in the midst of the difficulty. And so we lean in.

It may be hidden, but it is there. Receive it. Lean into God with open hands and open heart, ready   to  accept  God’s  somewhat  mysterious   gifts:  the kind He gives in the darkest of times. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a pearl of great price. Those priceless treasures are often given in times of difficulty and pain. Deep friendships, the revelation of new experientially understood truth from His Word, unusual miracles and supernatural encounters…these are a few of the hidden treasures that can be found. And with it, the joy of seeing many lost people swept into His kingdom. And so we lean in.

 The 17th century in England was a time of great social upheaval, civil war, and political crisis. In this environment, revivalists George Whitefield and Charles Wesley emerged. Revival swept the nation. Between 1738 and 1791, 1.35 million people put their faith in Christ.1 These men leaned into crisis and partnered with what God was doing.

 May we be courageous enough to do the same. Our willingness to lean in may result in hundreds, if not thousands, of new movements being catalyzed across the globe.

 About the Author:C. Anderson is passionate about seeing hundreds of Disciple-Making movements take off among the world’s unreached peoples. She has served as  a church planter, coach, and trainer. She has been a speaker about multiplying movements of disciples for the past twenty-five years. While most of her experience is in Asia, she was worked in other regions of the world as well. She writes a weekly blog at dmmsfrontiermissions.com

 This article was first published in Mission Frontiers:Cascading Gospel: Movements Starting Movements, Jan/Feb 2023, pages 46-48. It was used here with permission.

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Cascading Movements

Cascading Movements

Mar 7, 2023 | Longer Reads

by Stan Parks

God is on the move! He is starting Church Planting Movements (CPMs), the only ministry approach in which kingdom growth exceeds population growth, while also transforming societies from within—in holistic and financially sustainable ways. In CPMs, disciples multiply disciples, churches multiply churches, and leaders multiply leaders. We are  also learning that movements multiply movements! A survey of leaders representing over 1500 CPMs showed that 80–90% of movements have been started by other movements. These movements  are cascading from their initial peoples and places into other peoples and places, both near and far. And these movements are our best hope under God to fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime.

Matthew 28:19 records Jesus’ command to make disciples of all ethnē. And we know from Revelation 7:9 that there will be a vast multitude from every tribe and language and people and ethnē worshipping God before God’s  throne.  ALL.  EVERY. We don’t know when this will happen, but we do know this is God’s plan.

I use the Greek world ethnē because the common translation “nation” often causes people to think of political nation-states instead of ethno-linguistic nations. But seeing the church established in a political nation is not enough.

I was born in Indonesia, where my parents were missionaries and served during an amazing movement of God in 1966-68, when an estimated two million Javanese Muslims came into the church.1 Years later, my wife and I were praying about our call to missions. Where did God want us to go? We felt an urging from God to serve those in greatest need of the Gospel.

Due to the millions of Indonesian Christians, I saw no need for pioneer efforts there. Imagine my surprise to realize an estimated 121 million Indonesians were part of 200+ Unreached People Groups (UPGs)! In 1996, Indonesian leaders gathered to consider the Great Commission need within Indonesia. Significant collaborative advances were made in prayer, research and mobilization. Within just five years, the number of Indonesian UPGs being served by Gospel workers grew from only 21 to over 100! Amazing and sacrificial effortsm were made in the centuries prior and the years after 1996, but 28 years ago there were 121 million unreached Indonesians and today there are 192.5 million unreached Indonesians.

In 1996 and afterward, our motivation was right, our desire was great, tremendous prayer and mobilization happened, and many people made great sacrifices. But we made a fundamental mistake. We thought sending workers to all these groups would result in reaching them. But the vast majority of us used traditional methods to try to reach groups that had been either resistant or cut off from the Gospel for centuries. We saw some bright spots, but for the most part we failed to make enough impact to offer real hope of reaching these groups.

Around the world, there has been an upsurge in attention to the unreached in the last 30 years. But the results are not better.

  •  2.25 billion (28%) of the world’s people do not have access to the Gospel.2
  •  3.37 billion (42.5%) of the world’s people are members of the world’s 7,415 Unreached People Groups3.
  •  Only 18.3% of non-Christians personally know a Christian,4 and if current trends continue, that will grow to only 20% by 2050! How can they hear unless someone tells them?

And the problem is more complicated than just these facts.

Problem #1: We need to count up before we can count down.
One danger among some Great Commission thinkers is the desire to count down. We want to determine the number  of  groups  who  need  to  be reached, then mark them off our list—based   on certain markers of activities as opposed to outcomes. But our goal is the Gospel for every person and multiplying churches that saturate and transform every community within that people/ language/tribe/ethnē.

We almost certainly have more segments than just 7415 UPGs to reach. Some strategists estimate needing a movement effort for each segment of 100,000 people. One engagement for every segment of 100,000 people among 3.37 billion Unreached People Groups would be a minimum of 33,700 segments. When you add to “peoples” their “places” (such as the 43,000 world’s districts), the increase in complexity is daunting. If each district averages three segments, that could be 120,000 places in need of movements.

Answer: Movements are cascading into multiple people and places around  them.  With the DNA of every disciple being a disciple maker and close cultural affinity to the peoples around them, they are far better suited to reach them.

Problem #2: Some “single” people groups are actually multiple groups (they are waffles, not pancakes).
Jesus did not tell us to disciple a few individuals, but  to  disciple   entire   ethnē.   The   Greek   word ethnos (singular of ethnē) is defined as “a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions, nation, people.”5 Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 round out the picture of the ethnē who will be reached, adding three more descriptive terms: tribes, peoples, and languages—various groups with common identities.

In our urgency to simplify the task, for mobilization and strategy, we have  lost  some  wisdom  from the early pioneers  of  the  unreached  concept.  The Lausanne 1982 people group taskforce stated: for evangelistic purposes it is “the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.”6

Here’s one specific example. In the 1990s, a research team led by Marvin Leech discovered that the Jawa (Javanese) people group, which had millions of believers and was counted as one large “reached” people group, was almost certainly at least eight distinct people groups by the Lausanne definition. Three of these groups had between 7–10% Evangelical Christians while five of them were less than 1% Christian. Obviously, barriers existed between the 10% Christian Jawa Negarigung and the 0.1% Christian Jawa Pesisir Lor. Counting them as one Jawa people group greatly neglected the five groups who were unreached.

Answer: We have seen movements start in all five of the Jawa UPGs in the last 10 years. They were started by movement catalysts from Indonesian and  Javanese  backgrounds.  Much  more  effort  is needed to reach 100+  million  Jawa  people,  but this is a very encouraging start. Also of great importance is that these Jawa movements and other movement practitioners are reaching out and have started multiplying disciples and churches, with movements in 30+ UPGs and some pre-movement fruit in another 40+ UPGs. This same dynamic is happening all over the world! You will read other exciting examples in the rest of this issue.

Problem #3: 2% may be too low.
A history of the term “unreached” shows that prior to 1980, 20% seemed to be the accepted line between reached and unreached. Then in the 1980s, various figures such as 5%, 10%, 20% began to circulate.

In 1995, a committee representing Operation World, Adopt-a-People, IMB, SIL, and AD2000 made a decision to choose “somewhat arbitrary” criteria of less than 2% Evangelical Christian and 5% Professing Christians.7

Dave Datema states he was “unable to find any  other research or study to back up the choice of  2% Evangelical as a criterion” nor could he find “research to justify” the use of 5%.”8

Interestingly, Patrick Johnstone writes in 2011 that many sociologists take 20% as the point at which a population segment begins to impact the worldview of the wider society.9

In 2011, a study out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that the “tipping point” for the rapid spread of ideas was 10%. “Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”10 Perhaps we should re-open the conversation about percentages and consider the current evidence in making this decision.

Answer: Movements are not just good at starting; they are very strong at sustaining efforts. Some movements are seeing 15, 20, even 30 generations. Once a movement reaches four generations in multiple streams, it is very likely to continue multiplying and effectively reach segments and sub- segments of their people group(s).

Problem #4: Overemphasis on ethno-linguistic groups
I have been an eager proponent of focusing on UPGs. But we have to admit that many of us have focused almost exclusively on ethno-linguistic groups, without significantly noting tribal, language, cultural, kinship and many other groupings.

Consider the reality that people groups are not segregated into one pure homogenous homeland. They are increasingly intermingled with other groups. This is why the 24:14 Coalition has the vision of movements in every unreached people and place.

The starkest example is cities. There are “593 majority non-Christian megacities”.11 Justin Long states that the incredible complexity of the cities “means that including ‘cities’ as segments to be listed, focused on, described, researched, documented, tracked, measured, and strategically engaged is probably just as important as ‘unreached people groups.’”12

Answer: Movements are increasingly focused on reaching cities and geographical segments, in addition to ethno-linguistic segments. Several of the articles in this edition offer examples of this.

Problem #5: The failures of the Church13

  •  The Church has roughly 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission.
  •  Evangelical Christians could provide all the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 7,400 unreached people groups, with only 0.03% of their income.
  •  Annually, we spend $52 billion on missions of any kind. Meanwhile $59 billion is lost to theft by church members.

Answer: God is doing a new thing! These movements are brand-new breakthroughs by God, with 2,000-year-old patterns. The global Church has the opportunity to join this fresh move of God. God is starting streams in the desert, as the most fruitful movements are growing in many of the (formerly) hardest, least reached peoples and places of the world. The rest of this issue shows the main way God seems to be working to reach the unreached.

In the article in this issue: “How Long to Reach  the Goal?,” Justin Long documents that since 1995, movements have grown at “an average annual growth rate of 23%, or the number of believers doubling on average every 3.5 years.” That is far different from the 1.18% average growth rate of global Christianity in the last 20 years, or even the 1.8% growth of Evangelical and 1.89% of Pentecostal Christians.

This 23% growth is primarily internal, as the movements reach their own populations.  And yet while seeking to reach their own desperately unreached people groups, these movement disciples are frequently compelled by the Spirit to reach beyond their borders to other nearby peoples and places.

We currently know of:

  •  1,967 CPMs
  •  1600+ pre-movements, with 2nd and 3rd generation fruit
  •  2000+ other movement engagements

Notably, 200+ initial CPMs have started approximately 3,300 CPMs and pre-CPMs! We can begin to see how 33,700 or even 120,000 movement engagements could be possible.

God our Creator loves variety. So while we can recognize similar principles, each story of a movement starting another movement is unique. Learn from the following examples of God’s cascading Gospel, as movements start movements.

1977 Indonesian Revival: Why Two Million Came to Christ
Status of Global Christianity
Urbanization and Measuring the Remaining Task
Unreached Peoples
Defining Unreached
Status of Global Christianity

As you read, ask God how you can be involved. Then read the concluding article, “What Must be Done?” for some specific ideas to spur your thinking.

About the Author: Stan is a Church Planting Movements trainer and a coach for leaders of Church Planting Movements around the world. He has been serving Unreached People Groups since 1994 while based in Indonesia, Singapore and Dubai. He is Co-Facilitator of the 24:14 Coalition which is focused on Kingdom Movement engagements in every Unreached People and place by 2025.

This article was first published in Mission Frontiers: Cascading Gospel: Movements Starting Movements, Jan/Feb 2023, pages 8-11. It was used here with permission.

Interested in ways to get involved?  Talk to Us
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How Long to Reach the Goal?

How Long to Reach the Goal?

Jan 25, 2023 | Longer Reads

by Justin Long

Since 2015, I have been laboring to document the spread of rapidly multiplying movements around the world. As of 2022, over 1% of the world’s population are disciples of Jesus in such movements: at least 114 million people in 8.5 million churches, found in 1,967 movements.

Additionally, 3,500 teams are working to start  more movements, steadily aiming toward the promise found in Matthew 24:14 — …this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, as a witness to all nations…

The goal of the 24:14 Coalition has been “to engage every unreached people and place with an effective kingdom movement strategy by December 31, 2025.” How close are we? Are we likely to meet or even exceed the goal?

As part of my research, I have collected data on which languages in which provinces have teams aiming to catalyze a movement. I have tracked how fast new teams are being sent. Based on the compilation of that data, it appears that having teams engaging every language in every province by 2025 isn’t likely. However, while I am mildly pessimistic about reaching that goal by 2025, I am very optimistic about seeing it reached within my lifetime. I strongly believe that somewhere between movements in many places.

Here’s why.

Thirty-five years ago, movements were largely catalyzed by the combined work of an outside catalyst (a “missionary”) and an inside near-culture believer. We see this origin story behind nearly all the movement families. However, for most movements being founded today, this is no longer the case. New movements are mainly being started by existing movements.

This makes sense when we consider that movements in 2022 are comprised of thousands – even million s– of disciples who have been spiritually raised in an environment that takes for granted that each believer: 1) follows Jesus, 2) teaches others to follow Jesus, and 3) reaches out to non-believers, inviting them to follow Jesus.

These disciples can go to unreached places where no Westerner can go. These places are, for them, just next door, down the road, or over the hill. And they can do this faster because they don’t usually have to learn a new language or culture. Not only can they go more easily, but they are also going intentionally. Their own movements began out of a vision to reach the un-reached, so it’s perfectly natural for them to intentionally send teams of believers to nearby unreached peoples, and use their already-lived methodology to start new movements among those groups.

Over 90% of the new movements started in the past five to 10 years have been started by teams sent out from these movements — without any Western cross-cultural workers involved. This has resulted in a phenomenal multiplication of sending. While, as I said, I do not believe we will see teams in every language and place by 2025, I do believe that goal will be reached shortly thereafter. I believe this because we can see the fruit of this multiplication already.

We have collected data on the total growth of individual movements in five-year increments from 1995 to 2025. This data set is not completely comprehensive. It is the “floor” not the “ceiling,” but it is large enough to give us a sense of the overall direction and speed of growth.

In 1995, we knew of close to 10,000 disciples in movements. Today, we know of well over 114 million. This means there have been four “10X growth points” when the number of disciples in movements had grown by 10 times:

From 1995 to 2000, grew from 10,000 to over 100,000 disciples

From 2000 to 2005, from 100,000 to over 1 million

From 2005 to 2015, from 1 million to over 10 million

From 2015 to today, from 10 million to more than 114 million

This is an average annual growth rate of 23%, with the number of believers doubling on average every 3.5 years!

It is dangerous to predict the future. I have often quoted the old Wall Street disclaimer: “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” I know many things could potentially derail growth. However, consider the context of the past 30 years: wars, rumors of wars, pandemic disease, severe persecution, hostility from many traditional churches — in fact, pretty much everything we read in Matthew 24. I do not cite that famous passage to suggest I believe we are living in the end times. As anyone who knows me can attest, I resist eschatological predictions.

I am only saying that phenomenal growth in movements has occurred in the midst of, in spite of, and sometimes amplified by all these Black Swans.

If we estimate that what movements have done over the past 35 years, they are likely to continue doing for the next 25 — on to 2050 — what would the result be? A simple extrapolation of the growth trends would lead to two more points of 10X growth: one in 2035 and the other in 2045.

By 2040, a 23% annual growth rate would equal 4.2 billion disciples in movements.

By 2045, a 23% annual growth rate would equal 12 billion disciples.

The first would lead to a population of believers that is more than double Christianity’s 2022 total, and the second would exceed the world’s total estimated population for 2050.

Some might throw up their hands at such numbers. Why bring it up, when the numbers are obviously impossible, since one cannot have more disciples than there are people in the world? I address this not because the numbers are possible but because of the on-the-ground reality the numbers point to — that movements are filling up the places where they presently are. As they do, they are sending new teams go to “the next door” places — many of which are over harder boundaries. Each place that movements are entering, they are filling up. As a result, they are learning, rapidly, to cross successively harder cultural, linguistic, and political lines on the map.

While we recognize from Scripture that not everyone will follow Jesus (the gate is narrow…) our goal must be to share the Gospel with every person and family and group and pray that none would perish but all come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Some people groups are a reported 95% evangelical. We aim for 100%, knowing that this is not likely. BUT what lesser goal should we aim for? Ultimately, only God knows the dynamics of these situations, so we trust him to sort it out.

Will this happen everywhere? William Gibson once famously said, “The future is here — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” The same could be said of movements. There are a lot of believers in movements in certain parts of the world, and fewer in others. In some countries, multiplying the current number of disciples in movements by 10 would bring the country to over 100% Christian. In others, multiplying by 10 would still leave the movement as a small percentage of the country.

 By comparing the populations of each country to the number of disciples in the country, we can estimate the number of 10X increments required to get past — or at least very near — the line of 100% Christian.

To see what I mean, consider a fictitious country of “Versa.” It has a population of 100,000. If one were to start with one believer, five 10X multiplications would be required to reach nearly 100%: 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000.

Due to security, I cannot name specific countries. But we can break down the world’s countries as follows:
39 have movements that need only one 10X for the country to be reach 100% Christian (based on the movement’s size alone, not any other Christians in the country); 90 need two 10X multiples; 50 need three 10X multiples; 27 need four 10X multiples; 17 need five 10X multiples, and four are less than one 10X away from completion. On average, each 10X multiplication currently requires a decade.

If we continue in the same vein, thirty years — three 10X multiplications — would be enough to bring 179 countries to the range of 100% Christ-followers through the efforts of multiplying movements alone — not including any other “Christians” of any other kinds.

In 30 years — one generation — a dramatic change in the world could bubble to the surface.

 Is this possible? Lest we think 30 years is a long time and wonder whether movements have that kind of staying power, consider that the oldest movement in the world has been around for 35 years and is now estimated to be tens of millions of disciples in size.

Will this work actually impact the unreached or — as with most Christian work — will it mainly affect countries that are at least marginally Christianized? Many of the 47 unreached countries (look at any list of countries that are less than 8% Christian by most global measures) are among these 179 that would require only  three  10X  multiplications. As noted earlier, movements can more easily send to “nearby, down the road” unreached groups — and are intentionally doing so.

How many unreached groups could be reached by these movements? How might we measure this question?

I analyzed what we presently know about the deployment of movement teams. While we know quite a bit more than when the 24:14 Coalition began in 2017, the “language-and-place” information about movement deployments is still thin, so this is a minimalist analysis. Despite that caveat, here’s how the data stacks up. My database lists 4,098 provinces. Of these, 517 are known to be engaged by a movement-catalyst team (not necessarily at movement stage yet).

 An additional 785 provinces directly border an engaged province — for example, Oklahoma shares a border with Texas. So, if we propose that a province is in reach if they are “next door” to a province that is currently engaged, then over a third of the world’s provinces are either engaged or conceivably within reach of a movement team right now. (And many of those provinces are actually on the border of more than one engaged province — meaning resources could be brought to bear from multiple avenues.)

To focus on the remaining task, we know of a total of 935 provinces in the countries that are less than 8% Christian (a rough measure of the least reached areas of the world). Uttar Pradesh is one well known example, with published case studies and books and the like. Of those 935, 215 are known to be engaged, and a further 315 are in range (in this model, for example, all the provinces bordering UP). This means 45% of the provinces of the least-reached places of the world are right now known either to be already engaged or engageable by near-culture movement teams (and again, this is what we know — more is certainly happening).

I have heard plenty of stories from movements in the field of sending people to the next province, to the next people group, or even over the border to the next country. Many of them have asked me specifically for “gap lists” so they know where to intentionally send teams. These movements are eager to engage the lost.

In most of these countries, most of these believers are deep underground. If the movement numbers are in the right order of magnitude — and I have no reason to doubt they are — then the published estimates of percent Christian for many places are off by an order of magnitude.

Lately, movement leaders have shared anecdotal stories of government leaders in countries discovering large numbers of Christians in their communities. Some of these stories have been in the context of election campaigns, as election workers went house to house to mobilize the vote.

 There are also multiple reports of both government and religious leaders warning about the significant growth of Christians and often calls for violent opposition to this trend. Global researchers — not just myself, but others — have asked, “When will you become visible?” and have been told, “When there are so many of us that nothing can be done about it anymore.”

I am reminded of a line from The Lord of the Rings, “A thing is about to happen that has not happened since the elder days. The Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong.” I suspect something very similar will play out in the next generation, in many places around Africa and Asia. When people realize the number of Christ-followers that are around, quite a few significant dynamics could play out. It would probably be futile to try to predict what those will be. There will be amazing stories of turnings to Christ and there will also be painful stories of violence, repression, and martyrdom.

We love Habakkuk’s promise that one day, The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). It does seem we are in a time when the waters are rising. I know history has seen times of advance and times of retreat. I pray we will labor to help believers around the world — and especially movements around the world — to fuel their current expansion and remove any barrier that might hinder this glorious spread.

This article was first published in Mission Frontiers Cascading Gospel: Movements Starting Movements, Jan/Feb 2023 issue, pages 34-37.
It was used here with permission.

About the author: Justin has spent the last 30+ years developing and contributing to various missions efforts including: the World Christian Encyclopedia, the strategicnetwork.org, the Ethné network, and the Movements Database. His research findings and missions articles have been published in several places, and currently publishes a weekly newsletter at justinlong.org.