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Showing posts with the label multiply

How Do You Undermine A Disciple Making Movement?

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

What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey?

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  What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey?  As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” What does it take to complete a successful journey? As pictured above, the success journey is to grow a movement of “disciples who make disciples?” A movement implies that a culture has formed in your church or ministry where there is momentum and energy because the value of making reproducing disciples has become a way of life. I am not talking theory, I have witnessed it firsthand.  There are three critical elements for a successful journey: 1. Vehicle (Relational Environment): To travel you need a vehicle, which is the relational environment. We keep the groups small (3s &4s) because the most important element in the relational environment is transparency and openness built upon radical trust. Transformation through the power of God’s word occurs when we lay our lives out before God and each other and apply truth to our growing edge. Without ap

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

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 past

Global Discipleship Core Values

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Core Values Guide Our Decisions Disciplemaking is the church’s mission,  not just one bullet point of the many things a church does. MicroGroups:  Disciples grow best and are empowered to disciple others in gender-specific groups of triads (3) or quads (4). Intentional:  Discipleship requires purposeful, covenantal, relational investment. Transparent Relationships:  God’s Word shapes our hearts in an honest, open, and mutually accountable environment. Biblically-Based Curriculum:   Discipleship Essentials  covers the foundations for a life in Christ and is the empowerment tool we use to disciple others. Indigenous:  Discipleship movements should become self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. Multiplying:  Disciples are made to reproduce.