As we move from initial church planting to discipleship training we once again become students. The Word becomes fresh and new as we reflect on the simplicity of the Gospel. God created. Man rebelled. God loved. Man resisted. God came. When man recognizes his need for a savior he returns to fellowship.
Put into an easy to follow seven week discipleship program, the new members of our church plants are blossoming into leaders that raise up other leaders. We are watching as small home groups are taking the Word to their world, honoring Christ’s mandate to make disciples of all nations.
If you are looking for a simple yet powerful basic discipleship program, you can check out what we’ve developed by clicking below. You are welcome to duplicate and distribute this material however the Lord leads you.
The following material was taken from teamexpansion.org with permission.
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE-MAKING MOVEMENT?
A DMM (disciple-making movement) is a new and exciting strategy for reaching people with the Gospel.
TRADITIONAL MISSIONS
Traditionally, a missionary would be responsible for going out into their community to evangelize daily, disciple as many people as they could, start churches, and pray something would stick.
It put a lot of pressure on the missionary, who was solely responsible for the spiritual well-being of all their disciples. It also severely limited the reach of the Gospel because it could only travel as fast as the missionary could!
THE DMM APPROACH
DMMs, however, can move much more quickly because it removes the missionary as the sole disciple-maker.
With a DMM, a missionary finds a Person of Peace in their community. They start a group with the Person of Peace and their friends and family. These groups are self-led (meaning the missionary does not need to be involved regularly) through Discovery Bible Studies, where the group members are constantly encouraged to share what they’re learning with their own friends and family.
Eventually, each group member will go out and start their own group, then each of those members will start their own groups, and the cycle continues, multiplying the number of disciples exponentially.
With this strategy, thousands of people could be reached in months, something that would have seemed impossible to one missionary under the old system!
(It’s important to note that not each DMM starts or progresses the same way. These movements tend to be messy and can look different depending on the culture and country of implementation. This is, however, the textbook structure for DMMs.)
Needless to say, God is doing big things through DMMs!