Generational growth Archives - Pursuing Disciple Making Movements in the Frontiers

Can a layperson or woman baptize? Are baby dedications important or should we baptize the babies of Christian parents? Do pastors need to wear a tie when they preach? These and many other questions we face have a lot to do with church traditions. When we go to the Word of God, on many of these things, we find little (if any) specific guidance.

How do you sort out what to do in your Disciple Making Movement effort? Is it helpful to follow your own denominational tradition? Or do you need to embrace a different way of doing things if you want to see a DMM? read more

Will You Leave a Lasting Legacy?

By C. Anderson on Sunday, October 11, 2020

Passing the baton to others is easier to talk about than to do. Fears prevent us from trusting our disciples and handing over true authority to them. Without the passing on of both authority and tasks, we will not be able to multiply disciples.

This week I had the privilege of training together with an African movement leader who has seen many generations of disciples. We learned much from this man of God. Below is an excerpt from one of his sessions.

“and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
2 Tim 2:2

“To Timothy, you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ. So firstly is to be strong, OK? And the second thing he said, the things which you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust this to faithful men. Give this to the faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Now Timothy is getting instruction from Paul, which is like Paul spending much time with Timothy. He is discipling Timothy in whatever he has seen Paul doing. read more

Church Planting Generational growth Strategy

What to Measure in an Emerging Movement

By C. Anderson on Sunday, September 20, 2020

I felt overwhelmed. How in the world would I gather all this information? I had to answer twenty-five different questions about our disciple making work. While I understood it might be valuable to have that data, it was too much. I put off the request and didn’t complete my report. How do you know what is most important to ask for data on, as you measure the growth of the movement?

It’s an important question to ask. Keep things simple. Only measure what is most important to evaluate. Track what is most valuable in relation to DMM indicators you must see happening if you want to multiply. If you make the process of tracking too complex, it will fail. Your reporting process will not be sustainable. read more

Generational growth Strategy

What Do We Mean by 2nd Generation Growth in a DMM?

By C. Anderson on Sunday, September 6, 2020

If you’ve been around DMMs much, you’ve likely heard the term “generational growth.” There is nothing related to DMM terminology that I’ve seen more people get confused about that this! In the picture above you see three generations. Mom and Dad, daughters, and a granddaughter. What does it mean when we refer to second or third or fourth generations in a Disciple Making Movement?

We have a definition of Disciple Making Movements on our website. It says, “Within a short space of time (three to five years) we see at least four generations of groups.” read more

Generational growth Strategy

Money- It Both Helps and Hurts

By C. Anderson on Sunday, July 26, 2020

One of the greatest indicators that a true move of God is taking place is when new believers are generous in their giving. This was true in the New Testament (see the Book of Acts). It is true today. In contrast, one of the greatest warning signs that a movement is headed toward a major slow-down or death is when the money a movement uses is coming from outside the movement.

It’s a serious dual reality: Money helps. Money hurts.

Boots in Bangladesh – Little Things Matter

boots-52414_1280 — Even rain boots given can stop a movements growth!

A friend and co-worker from Bangladesh told me a true story. It shows how fragile a new movement is in relationship to external finances and help. read more

Church Planting Generational growth

How Did the Apostles Turn the World Upside Down?

By NT Movements on Sunday, May 3, 2020

A few months ago, we looked at the characteristics of Jesus’ Movement. The most important foundation of all we do in DMMs should be what Jesus taught and did, not Peter or Paul. After reflecting on Jesus’ ways of working, we can learn much from His disciples as well,

Let’s discover some basic characteristics of the Jerusalem movement, led by Peter and the earliest apostles. This movement began after Jesus rose again.

What did the Jerusalem Movement look like?

We’ll look at seven characteristics that affected the apostle’s fruitfulness.These reflect the idea that Peter and the apostles were disciples of Jesus, and followed what He taught and did. We should remember that teaching and practice were integrated. They should not be separated. read more

Church Planting Discipleship Generational growth Leadership Strategy

What Can We Learn from Jesus’ Movement?

By NT Movements on Sunday, March 1, 2020

This week I’m privileged to introduce you to a fellow trainer and coach. In this short video, he addresses the question of how DMMs grow, strictly from a New Testament perspective. In Disciple Making Movements, everything we do and train others to do needs to be built on the foundation of what we see in the life of Jesus.

I hope you will watch this video and gain insights into what we can learn about movements from Jesus himself. He writes further about it in the text that follows.

It was 2011. Having done church planting work since 1997, and planted one church in an unreached area, I received training about a new approach. It was called Church Planting Movements, or Disciple Making Movements (DMM). read more

Church Planting Generational growth Leadership

Are You a Trainer of Trainers?

By C. Anderson on Sunday, March 24, 2019

A DMM practitioner is always thinking about multiplication. Can those you trained, immediately train others in the same way?

If not, your training style may need to be adjusted. Everything you do in disciple-making must pass the test of reproducibility. When we make things too complicated, we don’t get “rabbit” churches that multiply quickly.

Did you know that according to the House Rabbit Society, one pair of rabbits can end up with 4 million offspring in only 4 years time? That is rapid growth! read more

Discipleship Generational growth Prayer

“Inspire All” An Interview with An Indian Movement Leader

By C. Anderson on Sunday, February 10, 2019

Recently, I had the privilege of sitting down for a conversation with the leader of a growing movement in India. Knowing my readers would not have that same opportunity, I decided to record our conversation and share it with my readers.

C. Anderson: How did you begin your disciple-making work?

Movement Leader: We began by doing prayer walks, visiting the many unreached villages nearby. For three months all we did was pray. We then began to distribute tracts and share the good news with those who expressed interest. read more

Church Planting Discipleship Generational growth

Want Groups to Multiply? Stay Simple & Consistent

By C. Anderson on Sunday, December 2, 2018

Imagine someone running in a baton race carrying a large, heavy piece of wood. It would be hard to pass on to the next runner, right? One person may be large and strong and able to run with it. But the next runner may not. Discipleship groups are very similar to this.

The baton used in a race is lightweight. It is designed to be easily transferred from the hands of one runner to another.

It is the same in a Disciple Making Movement. Discipleship methods must be simple and light. In DMMs, we are intentional about making everything we do easy for others to also do.

Reproducible Discipleship

Keeping your discipleship structure and meeting format consistent lends toward multiplication. While it is fun and interesting to do things with a lot of variety, it often doesn’t reproduce well.

Random discipleship doesn’t reproduce. Follow a simple plan. This is much more effective in rapidly equipping new disciple-makers.

A Coaching Conversation

“What did you talk about in your Discovery Bible Study (DBS) today?” I asked.

“We chose one of my favorite passages,” he said.

“That is a good one! I like it too,” was my reply after hearing the Bible reference.

“I’m curious. How do you decide which scripture to study each week?” was my next question.

“We pray and find something that we think will be good,” he said.

“Hmm,” I pondered, considering his situation.

This DMM effort had been struggling to see multiplication. They were doing regular Discovery Bible Studies. But the group members seemed hesitant to start their own groups. They lacked confidence and self-initiative.

“Have you ever considered using an established set of stories? Or a list of verses everyone leading DBS groups follows? Instead of choosing verses randomly?” I asked.

This was a new idea to him.

We talked about how to go about deciding on a short and read more