Strategy

Discipleship Evangelism Strategy

4 Considerations About the Effectiveness of Preaching in Disciple-Making Movement Efforts

By on Sunday, April 30, 2023
preaching in DMMs

Are those who promote a DMM strategy for disciple-making and church planting opposed to preaching? Is it ever appropriate to preach to those you disciple? When is it not helpful to preach? These questions have come up in conversations with those I’ve trained recently. They are important questions to ask.

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 15:20 that he had endeavored to preach the gospel where Christ was not known. There are many biblical references to preaching. In DMMs, there is a place for it. It is important, however, that we understand what that word means in Greek. We should not automatically think it refers to what happens on Sunday mornings from a platform.

In this article, we will look at what that word means in its context. We will discuss the times when preaching (or proclamation) is helpful or necessary. It’s also important to look at when it could cause barriers to reproducibility or adult learning. We will also consider the power of story-telling and see in Scripture that this was Jesus’ primary method of communicating truth. read more

Continue Reading
6
Church Planting Leadership Missions Strategy

Multiply and Increase…Everything!

By on Sunday, December 18, 2022
multiply everything

In recent weeks I’ve had numerous conversations with people. The topic of tracking has surfaced more than once. Is it biblical?

Tracking numbers and setting goals can feel like it isn’t relational. While the feeling is real, it doesn’t need to be true. We can be both relational and also track fruitfulness. Led by the Holy Spirit and deeply dependent on Him, we can set goals and evaluate progress while still valuing each individual involved.

Admittedly, some people swing one way or the other. Many leaders don’t hold this tension well. We tend to err on one side or the other. Sometimes we say we don’t care about results at all- “God knows my heart and how much I want to see people saved! That is enough.” It sounds spiritual, but is it?

Or sometimes, we beat ourselves up when we don’t see our goals reached. It’s discouraging when we aren’t yet seeing the growth we hope for.

On the other spectrum, some leaders have a complete business mindset. It’s all about numbers for them. This is definitely not a reflection of Kingdom leadership. read more

Continue Reading
6
Church Planting Inspiration Strategy

Should Movement Goals Be Time-Bound? The Hidden Urgency That Drives Them

By on Sunday, October 16, 2022
movement goals

Does it make sense to have time-bound goals for the release of Disciple Making Movements? Having a time-bound goal for a supernatural vision can be disheartening. Movements are a God thing…far beyond our control.

Are time-bound goals even Biblical? These are questions worth asking as we consider vision, mission, and goals when it comes to DMMs.

Some argue – there is a difference between business goals, what they call BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and setting goals in the realm of the Kingdom. True. They are different. But could it be that this works in the business world, because it is actually a Kingdom principle? One related to the power of faith, and how that impacts action?

Whether you are setting a goal to lead one person to Christ this year, or to start a 4th generational movement in three years…we must ask the question. Can we set these kinds of “goals”?

Setting Goals For Supernatural Things

Over the years, I’ve set time-bound goals related to dreams God placed in my heart. It has always been after hearing from Him. read more

Continue Reading
5
Generational growth Mindset Shifts Strategy

What 5 Mindshifts Do We Need to Release a DMM?

By on Sunday, August 21, 2022
mindset shifts for dmm

You suddenly notice ceiling lamps swinging wildly for a few seconds, or something more severe. What you are experiencing is an earthquake. An earthquake happens when tectonic plates under the earth’s surface shift. In DMMs we need mindsets to shift below the surface of our lives. These shifts loosen and unlock the release of multiplication.

If we are to launch a Disciple-Making Movement, we need to make at least five key shifts in our thinking.

1st Mindshift: Structural

The first mind shift is a Structural Shift – it’s a move from a traditional church or connect group, to a simple church. A church is not a building. It is a gathering of people – a spiritual family who love God, love people and who love to make disciples.

Did not Jesus say that when two or three gather in His name, He is present with them (Matthew 18:20)? So, the gathering can be in a home, in a park, in a café (we had gathered twice in a café before), or under a tree. I am making the point that we don’t have to have a building to “do church.” read more

Continue Reading
1
Mindset Shifts Strategy Training

Could a New Strategy For Training Yield Better Results?

By on Sunday, August 14, 2022
training for dmm

There is a quite well-established path for how we as the Church train people to multiply disciples and start churches. Our traditional pathway of gaining ministerial credentials is long. It can take years in seminary or some institution. Could there be a better or more fruitful way?

YWAM FM’s Training Story

Youth With a Mission, is the organization with which I serve. YWAM broke new ground in the 1960’s when Loren Cunningham believed God could use waves of young people in evangelism and missions. With only a few months of intense training, zealous youth went to nations like India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to pioneer new ministries. They were surprisingly successful! There were failures as well, but God worked.

In the 1980’s, the same mission began planting churches among the unreached. The School of Frontier Missions (SOFM) was born. The training’s three-month classroom phase prepared new workers for cross-cultural ministry. Church planting teams launched out of these schools and went to pioneer places. But again, the process of getting a new worker to the field was long. It took over a year. read more

Continue Reading
3
Church Planting Leadership Mindset Shifts Strategy

Are Ministerial Titles Helpful or Can They Harm Movements?

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
ministerial titles

“Pastor Cindy”…ahh! That had a nice ring to it! Being called pastor somehow set me apart. I was special. When my husband and I first started pastoring, we were quite young…fresh out of Bible college. We served as youth ministers in a church that instructed us to call ourselves “Pastor Todd” and “Pastor Cindy.” Only later I came to understand the danger of titles, and what it did to increase the separation between myself and those I served.

Titles put you on a pedestal. It’s one you will sooner or later fall off of. It may be in a very visible way that hurts many. Or it could be in a hidden way, which hurts you. We all fail to live up to that standard of perfection and holiness. We’re human. The titles of Pastor, Bishop, Apostle, Reverend, sometimes cause more harm than good. This is certainly true when it comes to Disciple Making Movements and releasing the priesthood of all believers.

Where Do Ministerial Titles Come From?

This article won’t be able to go into depth or be complete on this topic. I simply want to give a brief summary to help us understand a bit of the historical context. read more

Continue Reading
4
Church Planting Leadership Strategy

Leadership in a Disciple-Making Movement: Part 1: What is Servant Leadership?

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
servant leadership

The world celebrates strong leaders. Watching the news the other night, I heard a poll referenced. It was about two leaders. The poll asked, “Who is the stronger leader?” The show went on to discuss these two leaders; casting the one considered weaker in a negative light. Is strong, decisive leadership what is always needed? Is that how Jesus taught that we should lead?

When Church Planting Movements (CPMs) were first talked about, I read about the characteristics of a movement. One was that they were led by strong, charismatic leaders with apostolic giftings. This is not completely incorrect. Time and wisdom, however, have changed how we think about that.

Strong leaders are not always good leaders, and good leadership is not always the most charismatic.

C Anderson
Leadership in a Disciple-Making Movement: Part 1: What is Servant Leadership? Click To Tweet

The well-known book on leadership, Good to Great, mentions this fact. The author, Jim Collins, describes what he calls Level 5 leaders. They are those who have a “compelling modesty” and are more committed to the organization’s success than to their own.

In the book’s extensive research, they found that charismatic leaders were good. But they didn’t rise to the same level (what Collins calls great leaders) because their egos got in the way. The same is definitely true in movements. read more

Continue Reading
5
Mindset Shifts Strategy

Want an Effective Strategy for Multiplication? Embrace Simple Training For All

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
simple training

Our passion is to empower lost people to become obedient disciples of Jesus. We want to help them start transformational Disciple Making Movements (DMMs). Disciple-makers who we work with to see movements do not need to be part of our own organization or denomination. In fact, for fruit to multiply rapidly, we need an open-handed approach. We must train every believer to be an active disciple-maker.

We’ve struggled with this in YWAM (my particular organization). Some of us were tempted to think that for local believers to plant churches, they needed to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS). We thought they should first join Youth With a Mission, and then be equipped through a School of Frontier Missions (SOFM). After that, they’d be ready to plant churches among the unreached or join our teams.

That was a long and expensive process for people to go through! Not everyone could do this. That process radically limited the growth of active “harvesters” working with us among the unreached. read more

Continue Reading
4
Discipleship Strategy

Are We Making Jesus Followers (I like Jesus) or Disciples (I obey Jesus)?

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
allegiance

How do we move a seeker from “I like Jesus, He is a great man (prophet/teacher)” to surrender and a shift of allegiance? Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet. Hindus have little trouble calling Him one of the gods. Buddhists believe He was a good man, and atheists think He was a great philosopher.

Jesus didn’t call us to make church members. Nor did He call us to start discovery groups or plant churches. He called us to make disciples. We need to remember this.

What is a Disciple?

A disciple is someone who is completely surrendered to Jesus. They have shifted their entire system of allegiances to make Him Lord of their lives. They commit to obeying His commands and following His ways, though they stumble and fall.

We need to see a shift in allegiance if we are to make disciples who multiply. Those with unclear allegiances may share stories (which is good), but they will not make more disciples.

Loving Prabhu Yeshu – Is It Enough?

In a Hindu context, this issue takes particular forms. It is different in a Muslim, Buddhist, or post-Christian context. The principles are the same. read more

Continue Reading
1
Evangelism Strategy

Two Hungry Men: Keeping the Least Reached a Primary Focus

By on Tuesday, June 21, 2022
unreached

“All men are equally lost, but not all men are equally needy.” Do you agree? Dr. Ralph Winter, a missionary pioneer, and one of the founders of the modern frontier missions movement made this claim. The assertion that unreached peoples must receive greater focus sparked debate. It also brought a new emphasis for many agencies. YWAM was touched by Winter’s trumpet call to the unreached. YWAM Frontier Missions is part of the result.

Are DMMs Reaching the Least Reached?

Yet still today, many decades later, much of our focus in evangelism remains on those who already have an opportunity to hear. Should they choose to. As Disciple Making Movements continue to grow around the world, we must continue to champion the cause of the unreached. DMMs that start, must be missional in nature. They need to have a clear focus not only on the lost, but on the least reached lost around them.

Two Hungry Men

Let us go back to Winter’s statement. Are all people the same as far as their spiritual needs? To understand this, let’s return to the metaphor. read more

Continue Reading
0