Faith

What Do You Have In Common With Winston Churchill?

tenacity in disciple making movements

Never, never, never, give in!” These were the words of Winston Churchill during one of England’s bleakest moments. It was 1941 and Hitler’s troops were advancing. The American forces had not yet entered the war and things looked bad for Europe. He went on to say, *“Never yield to force; tenacity in disciple making movementsnever yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” We need great tenacity in Disciple-Making Movements (DMMs). We must never, never, never give in until God’s Kingdom is established and growing among the unreached.

What Exactly Is The Meaning Of Tenacity?

Tenacity is defined as “the quality of being very determined.” I love those words- very determined. How tenacious are you about seeing your people group reached? Or the one God called you to work among? Victory is ours in Jesus. We already know that. But there is still an enemy who so often looks hard to defeat. Like in Churchill’s quote, sometimes we are tempted to “yield to the overwhelming might” that is displayed around us. We must not. We must be extremely determined to overcome the obstacles. Difficulties must be faced until we see the victory we are guaranteed. Tenacity in Disciple-Making Movements is a must! read more

Want to start a DMM? Heal the Sick!

Healing the sick is an important part of a disciple maker’s life.

What? Heal the sick? How can I do that? Only God can heal the sick! True. Not true. Wait! It can’t be both. Or can it?

There are several foundational things needed in disciple making movements. Obedience to God’s Word is one of them. In DMM training, we often focus on obedience to Christ’s command to share the gospel or be baptized. These are vitally important! If movements are built only on miracles, they tend to be shallow and often don’t see generational growth. At the same time, Jesus gave us an important model. He healed the sick and trained His disciples to do the same.

Jesus said, “Heal the sick.”

It is interesting that Jesus told His disciples not just to pray for the sick, but to heal the sick.

8 “Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”– Luke 10:8 & 9- NASB read more

The Struggle to Believe for Disciple Making Movements

Do you ever struggle for faith that disciple making movements are possible? Or possible in your place? Or possible through you? I certainly have. I’m not proud of it, but it is true.

Sometimes in what Michael Hyatt calls the “messy middle” we stop believing. The “messy middle” is a place between the vision’s beginning and it’s realization. It’s the place where we wonder if our dream is possible.

My Struggle For Faith

There was a long “messy middle” for me. It was 20 years from when I heard about DMMs (back then we spoke of multiplying daughter and grand-daughter churches) and the time I first saw 4th generation groups. On that journey, I often wanted to quit. I regularly doubted it could happen.

struggle for faith

I remember saying, “This isn’t a fair thing to ask people to do. For the vast majority of people, movements are just a dream. It’s like asking a junior league baseball team to attempt to win the World Series.”

Stuck In Unbelief

Let’s just call it what it was. I was stuck in the sin of unbelief. I didn’t believe God was able to do this through me or through the people I was training. Thank God, He took me through a process and convicted me of my unbelief. He renewed my faith. Faith not in myself, but in Him. read more

Are Your Goals Too Small? Lessons from a Nepalese Farmer

On New Year’s Eve, I wrote a post called “3 Important Things to Do as You Start the New Year.” I hope you took the time to think about the questions I listed there. Have you started thinking about your goals for the coming year? As you are goal setting for disciple making movements, I hope you will set God-sized goals.

It is sometimes hard to know how ambitious to be in goal setting. Some of us struggle with risk aversion. We want to set nice safe discipleship goals we can achieve.

Some years ago, I was visiting Nepal, a country I had worked in years before. It was early morning and I was sitting outside in the crisp air, overlooking a beautiful valley of terraced rice fields. I remembered back to the early days in our ministry when we had traveled each week by scooter, our baby strapped on in a front pack, driving up and down the windy mountain roads to the unreached valley area God had called us to. I love Nepali villages!

For the first and only time in my life so far, God spoke to me by filling my mind with a story. It was about a Nepali farmer. God used it to speak to me about disciple making movements. read more

God-Sized Goals

God sized goals

When sharing the vision for Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) most people are excited to hear what God is doing. As a Christian worker, who wouldn’t want to see a movement of genuine Jesus followers? We all do! It’s not hard to get people on board with the vision. It is more difficult motivating people to make necessary changes in what they believe and how they do ministry. Many also struggle with believing it is possible to see these kinds of movements in their area, or through them.

Faith Is Necessary

Faith is a necessity as we talk about starting Disciple Making Movements. I regularly return to Hebrews 11 to stir up my own faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is believing for things we can not see yet and verse 6 says without this kind of faith it is impossible to please God.

How does that play out in our daily lives? What does it look like to be people of faith as we attempt to start a DMM?

Our faith takes shape in our actions and goals. What we believe, actually believe, shows up in these two things. read more

How My DMM Journey Began

DMM Journey

Disciple Making Movements, or DMMs, are a mission and church multiplication paradigm that has gained credibility in recent years. For most who pursue them, they are more than a strategy though. They are a passion. A desperate sense of urgency to see lost people come to know Christ drives them to the costly pursuit of rapidly multiplying groups of disciples in their area.

Movement practitioners are willing to face persecution from within and without, and to spend much time on their knees. Mountain tops of breakthrough and valleys of discouragement are all part of the DMM journey.

This week, I thought I’d take a break from the series I’ve been writing about on leadership in a DMM, and share instead a video clip from a recent interview by a friend and mentor in movements- Uncle Victor. In the clip, he asks how I got started in this journey.

For those who prefer to read, below the video is a transcript. I pray my story encourages you.

Continue to persevere step by step as you and God are writing your own story. Keep walking your DMM journey toward the release of a movement. It may have as many twists and turns as my journey has also had, but the destination is well worth the sacrifice! read more