Nine years ago, we had 100 teams and about 9000 believers in the churches those teams had started. We had many workers but were not seeing disciple-making movements.
We had taught and prayed for years and years about multiplication, disciple-making, and church planting movements. We had never really experienced one. Only a few teams had second-generation growth and none of them had gone beyond the 3rd generation.
Disciple-Making Movement: Dream or Disappointment?
Believe me, when I say I’ve experienced deep disillusionment in this whole process of pursuing a rapidly growing disciple-making movement among the unreached! There were many times where I thought it was impossible and that DMMs were something others would see but not us.
People often delay baptism thinking the new believer is not ready to take this step. They need to grow more in their faith first, they say. Maybe we are waiting for new believers to stop certain bad habits like smoking or drinking. Sometimes we wait to baptize because we want a large group to be baptized together. Others delay for a long time because they are hoping a spouse will also believe and they can be baptized together. Some delay because the person isn’t yet a legal adult. Perhaps we don’t want to have to fill the baptism tank too often, or take time out of our church service to include this ceremony more than once or twice a year.
