How Do You Begin a Reproducing Disciple Making Movement? One Group at a Time.

By -

How Do You Begin a Reproducing Disciple Making Movement? One Group at a Time. 


There is an old Chinese saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".  I am often asked, “How can I grow a disciple making movement in my ministry/church?” My answer: start one micro group. Why do I go there? Behind the question is an attitude. How can I grow disciples fast? How can spread the infection of disciple making to get immediate results? 


My answer can be initially deflating. The question most likely is coming from someone who is seeing the wisdom of what can happen in a micro group for accelerating transformation and multiplication. How can we get a lot of these groups going simultaneously? One of the common mistakes to growing disciples is that we want to take shortcuts. Let’s announce a new program. You all sign up for this new small group container called micro groups. Adopt this curriculum. Within a year we will have hundreds of participants. 


My advice to pastors is to start one group. Get a feel for the dynamic. Live into the experience. Start by praying that God will lead you to those whom you can invite. Gather around a mutual covenant. Internalize the value of transparency. Experience the power of shared insight around Scripture. Pray for each other’s shortcomings. Ask the Lord to bring people to Christ in your network of relationships. Seek together that each may discern their God-ordained unique call to service.  


It is only as you have lived this reality from the inside out that you are ready to commend this approach to others. If all goes well, this first group will become four new groups after a year plus. Then in the next year plus, this initial group will have multiplied into 12 to 16 groups. You can only replicate what you have experienced. This is true for all who participate. This lived reality becomes the basis for the movement.


This is why we use the mantra “Start small, go slow, think BIG.” It takes a “long obedience in the same direction” to a see a disciple making movement emerge. Effective leaders stay the course over time.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What qualities come together in a micro group to create an ideal transformative environment?

By -
  What qualities come together in a micro group to create an ideal transformative environment? At GDI, we like to say that micro groups are “hot houses of the Holy Spirit”. What does that mean? In other words, just like a “greenhouse”, the environmental conditions are just right for accelerated growth into Christlikeness and multiplication of disciples. What are those environmental conditions? 1. Relational Transparency: A major reason the groups are kept to 3 or 4 (triads/quads) is to develop an atmosphere of self-revealing trust. Here is the principle: The extent to which we are willing to reveal to others the areas of our life that need God’s transforming touch is the extent to which we are inviting the Holy Spirit to make us new. The seed of God’s word can only take root in tilled soil. The tilled soil (our openness) creates cracks and crevices in our hearts. It is these cracks and crevices that reveal our areas of needed transformation. As we articulate the awareness of our b
Read more

How Do You Undermine A Disciple Making Movement?

By -
If you are a pastor reading this blog post, you would love to have reproducing, disciple makers in your congregation. Even better, you would love to see a culture where the expectation and practice is that a maturing Christian is one who makes disciples as a lifestyle and you are experiencing the momentum of disciple makers reproducing to the fourth generation. If this were the case the forward movement would be off the charts. I know, I have seen it and felt it. People now leading disciple making groups after being participants move to a new different level of ownership and passion. It takes time and sustained focus to get this place. But most churches never get here because of two fatal errors: You try to move too fast: By far the number one reason disciple making movements don’t even get off the ground is attempting to move too fast. I can’t count how many times I watched pastors catch the transformative power of a micro groups only to shoot themselves in the foot by tryi
Read more

Reflections on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero, Part 1

By -
Image
  Reflections on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero Part 1 Chapter 6: “Discover the Treasures Buried in Grief and Loss”  Peter Scazzero has for some time been pointing out a massive gap in what it means to become whole or mature in Christ. He says that we have been denying our emotions to our detriment.  In some circles this denial has been conscious and intentional. You might recall a train illustration with three cars: fact, faith, feeling.  It was taught that the important thing was to put your cognitive trust in the truths of Scripture and then let feeling be a by-product (the caboose). Yet, this formula often came with an asterisk. The reason feelings are last is that you can’t trust them. They will lead you astray. All kinds of heresies and distortions have been formulated because we let feelings rule. As the critique goes, subjective Christianity creates the seedbed for false teaching and prophets. They rely on impressions and ecstasies.  Now, of course, there i
Read more