Seven Generations of Disciples

Seven Generations of Disciples

Aug 6, 2020 | Stories

In North India, some women have been trained in making disciples. They have been faithful to apply what they’ve learned, and are experiencing joy from bearing fruit. They have also cast a vision for disciple-making in six districts of their state.

One of the leaders of this group, a lovely and gentle woman, recently shared her testimony. Two years ago, she became a follower of Christ. She, her husband, and their children had been idol worshipers. Her family was “broken and terrible.” They had no joy. Her husband drank all the time and beat her. Her children were undisciplined and refused to go to school. 

Then one day, she says, it was as if a light suddenly came on. That was the day she attended a Bible Study in a nearby home. She loved it. After participating in the Bible study for three months, she wanted to start one in her own home. Soon, she and her whole family were baptized. 

Today, through ongoing obedience to the Word and the application of its truths to their lives, this woman and her whole family have been changed. Her husband no longer drinks or beats her. Their children are full of joy. They actively share with others all that God has done for them. This one woman has started nine different Discovery Groups from which have come seven generations of disciples making disciples! 

Jesus promised to build His church and has not forgotten His promise. His Kingdom of love and light is growing in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the world, through simple disciples like these ladies in North India.

The Fruit Vendors Loved Talking About Prophet Stories

The Fruit Vendors Loved Talking About Prophet Stories

Jul 30, 2020 | Stories

Karly was studying Luke 10 with a group of believers in a heavily Islamic nation. They concluded that, as disciples of Jesus, they should be following Jesus’ instructions in the passage. Without bringing everything they might need, they should go out two by two into new places. They should talk to random people to see what God was already doing or would do among them. If invited to stay, they should be ready to bring the blessings of the Kingdom upon those willing to receive them. 

Though it wasn’t a new idea for Karly, she had to confess that it still didn’t sound fun to her. She would rather read a book about church planting strategy. Or write a book about it. Or pray for others to do it. Or teach people to do it. Or… lots of other things. But Karly knew that would be disobedience, and she chose to obey. 

She and her roommate went out and soon got invited to sit down and talk with the owners of a fruit stand. The young ladies ate fresh coconut as the owners demonstrated how to make a local fruit salad. They talked for almost two hours. The fruit vendors loved talking about prophet stories and invited the young ladies to come back and study more from the Bible.

When Karly’s group gathered again, each pair shared a story similar to Karly’s. They didn’t really want to follow the instructions in Luke 10, but they did anyway, and God faithfully led them to various people open to hearing about the gospel. God reminded them of the blessing of obedience.

Inaccuracy, Exaggeration, and Deception

Inaccuracy, Exaggeration, and Deception

Jul 23, 2020 | Stories

Over 1,035 Church Planting Movements (rapidly multiplying groups that surpass four generations of church planting in multiple streams) have been documented. Together, they comprise over 74 million believers in more than 4.3 million churches. When people hear this, they often ask: “How are they counted? Are those numbers credible?”

To start with, why do movements count at all? First, movements emphasize growth, and they want to see if they are growing. Second, counting can highlight problems (identified by a lack of growth) that need to be addressed. Third, they want to know if they are making progress in reaching the lost. Fourth, some movements use this counting for reports to partners for prayer, projects, and funding. In general, three methods are used for surveying movement numbers. Let’s briefly look at them and their counterparts in surveying American churches.

Method 1:  Some movements or pre-movements are small enough that all groups, leaders, and even members can be known and documented by a handful of people on a spreadsheet. This is similar in practice to the “membership rolls” of smaller US denominations.

Method 2:  Some movements are too large to list everyone. Individual streams, however, can be small enough to do so. The streams add together their numbers to derive totals for the whole movement. This process is similar to the way large US denominations (with churches divided into districts) count their numbers.

Method 3:  Some movements, organized in the millions, are equivalent to any national denomination. Because of their size, they have the resources to take a regular census. A research team physically visits most leaders and completes a survey, gathering quantitative and qualitative data. This results in numbers that are accurate, precise, and frequently updated.

Are the counts reliable? To answer that, we need to consider the various reasons why someone might look at a number and respond, “That’s got to be wrong!”

Mistakes of definition: Misunderstandings can happen when a number or definition is not explained. As with all research involving numbers, it is critical to know the definitions.

Accuracy, precision, and rounding: A number can be truthful and accurate yet imprecise. 15 million and 15,203,368 are both accurate and truthful; one is simply rounded. Constant changes make a number that is both accurate and precise nearly impossible.

Exaggeration: Actually, movements often intentionally undercount — by not reporting less adequately researched streams, or by reducing the total number by a certain percentage.

Deception: To avoid this danger, reports from less visible movements are checked for confirmation by varied outsiders, multiple reports over the years, and reports from other nearby movements.

In conclusion, movements count their numbers in the same way that most American denominations do, and the numbers are equally credible. All glory to God for the way he is growing his Church around the world!

 

Alone, We are Just a Drop in the Vast Sea of Need …

Alone, We are Just a Drop in the Vast Sea of Need …

Oct 20, 2019 | Stories

We know the need: there are two billion unevangelized people in the world. Forty-seven thousand of them die every day, never once having heard the good news of the Gospel. We’ve heard how effective Disciple Making Movements (DMM) are, and we’re on board. But alone, we are just a drop in the vast sea of need. To address the situation, many goers are necessary – approximately 21,000 teams of two to three that can each reach 100,000 people! When you factor in the prayer and financial supporters for those who go, the need for many to catch the vision of Matthew 28 increases dramatically.

How will we ever mobilize that many? Many more people need to embrace Jesus’ calling as their own. We can help them do this through vision casting.

Chris Galanos is the lead and founding pastor of E-Life church in Lubbock, TX. Chris and his leadership team transitioned their megachurch from that of a “traditional” church into one laser-focused on disciple making through DMM practices. In his book From Megachurch to Multiplication, Chris says, “we cast vision to get more believers involved in disciple making and church planting.” He goes on to say, “The more vision we cast to others, the more people we’ll be able to train. The more people we train, the more teams that form. The more teams that form, the more people we have the potential to reach.”

Vision casting in a Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) context is simply passing on the passion and principles of DMM to believers who God might be calling to join in the work. There are many ways to do this. One might share stories of what God is doing, present facts and statistics, have a discovery Bible study or model DMM practices for others to emulate. Here are a couple of examples of some Beyond movement catalysts casting vision with potential local partners.

We have a local Christian lady attending the house church we have with others. She finally realized that we see our “house church” as a “real” and “full” church! We had a great discussion about what does God really want in a church. We challenged her to consider having a Chinese speaking church in her home. She was too afraid. She thought she was too shy . . . only special people do that. I asked her, “Do you remember the last words of Jesus on the earth?” She said yes . . ., ‘Go into all the world baptizing and teaching’. I asked, “Who was he talking to?” She paused and said, ‘His believers, followers”. “Then, was he talking to you?” I asked. Long, long pause … then she said, “Yes.”  -Neill

While vision-casting with a local friend about Disciple Making Movements, I got stuck in the middle of differing expectations as to whether or not to pay local believers to partner in disciple-making. With help from my coaching circle, I selected a passage from a list of scriptures dealing with God’s perspective on money and ministry and set a time to do a discovery study with my friend and her husband. As we read the passage, my friend, who usually has a lot to say when we read the Bible together, was barely talking.  Was she upset?  Did she believe what the passage said?  I couldn’t tell.  When I saw her a few days later, she explained, “I couldn’t say much that night because I was so distracted by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was present and tangible, like a thick cloud.”  Clearly, God spoke deeper than I had realized.  -M.B.

 

“Does the Stone Idol Ever Answer Anyone?”

“Does the Stone Idol Ever Answer Anyone?”

Sep 1, 2019 | East Asia, Stories

Two years ago Luke and Rhinna* were new to East Asia and starting language study in their new home. They were praying to meet people right away that God had prepared to hear about His plan for redemption. One spring day, as he took his children outside to play, Luke met a couple with twin boys whom he greeted in their native language. They greeted him in English! After chatting a while, Luke invited the couple to dinner. 

When the night arrived, the couple brought along the wife’s brother, Hero, who was a senior in high school. Everyone enjoyed the pizza and the story of Creation that Luke shared as they ate. Hero shared photos of the shamanistic site they had visited that day. But when Luke asked, “Does the stone idol ever answer anyone?” Hero became quite defensive. Even so, Luke and Rhinna suspected that they did not  hold tightly to the belief in shamanism.

After they left, Luke and Rhinna prayed that Hero would not be present again until his heart was softened and ready to listen. They didn’t want Hero’s arguments to draw the family away from interest in Christ. 

The following week, the young family invited Luke and Rhinna to their home to try some native dishes, and Hero was there again! The couple showed their wedding video, giving Luke and Rhinna a beautiful cultural lesson in the process. Then Hero followed with an excellent presentation on local history, which Luke and Rhinna listened to attentively. Luke ended the night by sharing the Bible story of Adam and Eve’s fall. When asked about the story, all three responded with great insight from the story. “God is like a Father who wants to have a relationship with His children. Sin broke their relationship with God. This is like grown children turning away from their father. But God acted to reconcile them to Himself. We must believe!” 

From this dinner, a relationship with Hero grew. Hero asked Luke to come round and meet his friends so they could practice their English. As the young people shared their personal histories, Luke listened and was able to share how Jesus had changed his life. Everyone enjoyed their time, even though there had been a young man sitting at a nearby table cracking jokes the whole time. At the group’s second meeting, Hero asked about American holidays, and Luke shared the reasons behind our Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter celebrations. When Luke proposed they read a Book that told more stories of the Creator and his relationship with people, the rest of the group of young people was amenable.

Together they studied many stories from the Bible. Each time they came away with a greater understanding of God and what He wants for and from His creation. They began to apply this knowledge to their lives. At one point, the young man who had been cracking jokes during the first meeting asked to join the group. His name was Clear. Luke gave him a Bible, and Clear read 35 chapters of Genesis in a week to catch up before the next meeting.

Over several months Luke was able to pour into these young men and women. They talked about issues they were having with their parents, their changing attitudes towards Buddhism (the majority religion of the country), Christianity, and lots more. They even presented Luke with a beautiful mural they created of his family’s names and theirs written in their ancient script.

When Luke and Rhinna moved from the capital city to a new, remote location, the group was able to continue with Hero at the helm. Luke had taught them how to conduct Discovery Bible studies and empowered them to continue engaging with the Word. He kept in touch as the young people began attending college, having many spiritual conversations with them. Luke has even been able to join in a Bible study via an online video call. 

Recently, back in the capital city, Luke met with Hero and Clear.  Clear had read through many books of the Bible on his own. Hero had just read the book of Matthew and had some questions. Luke answered Hero’s questions by retelling the story of Jesus from baptism through crucifixion to resurrection. After Luke was finished, Clear said, “I have waited ten years to choose my religion, today I choose Jesus Christ.” Hero and Clear both made decisions to accept Jesus Christ on the same day! 

*psuedonyms