CONTAGIOUS DISCIPLE-MAKING D AV ID L . WAT S ON A ND PA UL D . WAT S ON
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© 2014 by David L. Watson and Paul D. Watson All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Page design and layout: Crosslin Creative Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com Scripture quotations marked ESV are from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. ISBN: 9780529112200
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C H A P T E R
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DISCIPLE-MAKERS EMBRACE LESSONS TAUGHT BY FAILURE
(David) participated in the meeting where the term Church Church— — Planting Movement was coined. We—a group of mission practitioners and strategists—wanted to describe what we had observed in several countries as we took seriously our understanding of the Great Commission’s charge to go and make disciples of all peoples, baptize them into local churches, and teach them to obey all the commands of Christ. None of us, in our wildest dreams, ever thought we would witness what happened. Initially, our goals were to establish “beachhead” churches in resistant or inaccessible locations and people groups. We planned on establishing a single church where there was none. We had no plans for starting hundreds or thousands of churches. We didn’t even dream it was possible to see that many churches started in the places where we worked. These places we were targeting had already demonstrated their resistance to the Gospel, to church planting, and to any other outside influence. We just did everything we could think of in hopes that something would work and at least one church would start. We defined success as one church started in a people group where there was none. As one of the first in my denomination to take on this challenge, I had no clue how to make it happen. My wife and I were
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C O N TAG I O U S D I S C I P L E - M A K I N G
considered successful church planters because we took risks and tried new things. And, perhaps most important, because we were not afraid of failure. When we failed, we just tried something else. Our organization trained us in good research skills. We discussed access and evangelism techniques. We developed prayer networks, security protocols, and communication and administration systems. As a result of research, I knew reaching the new people group could not depend on me, because I did not have access. This people group would not respond to outsiders because their history was full of wars resisting outside influence. What was I to do? God taught me, through many failures, that I had to focus on making disciples of Christ, not followers of my church or denomination. He also taught me that I needed to teach these disciples to obey the commands of Jesus, not my church/denominational doctrines or traditions. This is what led to the breakthrough that resulted in more than eighty thousand churches among a people considered unreachable. Initially, the term Church-Planting Movement meant “spontaneous churches starting without the missionary’s direct involvement.� Over time, my teammates and I decided to quantify and qualify the term to be a bit more specific for the church planters we trained, coached, and mentored. We defined a Church-Planting Movement as an indigenously led Gospelplanting and obedience-based discipleship process that resulted in a minimum of one hundred new locally initiated and led churches, four generations deep, within three years. Paul and I will go into greater detail about all the elements of this definition later. At the time of this writing, there are sixty-eight movements among people groups around the world.
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D I S C I P L E - M A K E R S E M B R AC E L E S S O N S TAU G H T B Y FA I LU R E
As more and more leaders became practitioners of the methodologies that lead to a CPM, they had a couple of observations. First, they realized people have different definitions of church. In some cases, people became angry because what we reported as a church did not match their definition of one. The word church did not communicate what we thought it would. People challenged our practitioners, saying, “Jesus said He would build the church. Why do you have people focused on doing something Jesus said He would do? ” These were good observations, and we needed to address them. After a lot of conversations, we decided to use the term Disciple-Making Movement, or DMM, to describe our role in God’s redemptive work. There is no doubt that we have a role. Matthew 28:16–20, the Great Commission, tells us to make disciples. The implication is that these disciples would also make disciples, and so on. As believers obey Christ, they are to train men and women to be Contagious Disciple-Makers who pray, engage lost communities, find Persons of Peace (the ones God has prepared to receive the Gospel in a community for the first time), help them discover Jesus through Discovery Groups (an inductive group Bible study process designed to take people from not knowing Christ to falling in love with Him), baptize new believers, help them become communities of faith called church, and mentor emerging leaders. All of these very intentional activities catalyze Disciple-Making Movements. Jesus works through His people as they obey His Word, a Disciple-Making Movement becomes a Church-Planting Movement, and Jesus gets the glory for everything. Many people use the term Church-Planting Movement or Disciple-Making Movement to describe or justify what they do. But on closer examination, Paul and I find that many groups 5
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who use one of these terms simply apply it to what they have always done. In our experience, a CPM is the result of obediencebased discipleship that sees disciples reproducing disciples, leaders reproducing leaders, and churches reproducing churches—in other words, a Disciple-Making Movement. If these things are not happening, it is not a CPM. True DMM methodology is about being disciplined in educating, training, and mentoring people to obey all the commands of Jesus, regardless of consequences. The results are not quick. They only appear to be so because of exponential growth. When we truly engage in the process that leads to an observable DMM, we typically spend two to four years discipling and developing leaders. But because of the replication process due to leaders being taught to obey God’s Word by making disciples and teaching them to obey, in this same two to four years as many as five more leaders emerge. These leaders also develop more leaders. Each leader invests two to four years in other leaders, who invest two to four years in other leaders, and so on. The apparent result is explosive growth that does not seem to take much time and energy. But appearances are misleading. DMMs are extremely time and energy intensive. Leaders invest a major portion of their time equipping other leaders. Churches invest in starting more groups that become churches as they obey Christ’s teachings and fulfill the nature and functions of church, which means they teach others to do the same. There were no visible or measurable results the first four years of my ministry among a very resistant unreached people group. My mission organization was ready to discipline me for failure to do my job. But during those years I equipped five leaders. These five equipped twenty-five more, who in turn equipped hundreds of other leaders.
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A few churches became more churches as leaders were equipped and trained to obey all the commands of Christ. More churches became hundreds of churches as the leadership equipping process continued. Every leader has years invested in him or her by other leaders. Nothing is quick. It only appears to be because more and more leaders are being produced in obedience to Christ’s command to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). So, in a DMM, rapid multiplication really isn’t rapid. We go slowly, but appear to go fast. We invest extensively in one person to reach and train many. We want to add at least two new leaders to our mentoring process each year, and equip the new leaders to do the same every year. As leaders multiply, churches grow and multiply. If you really want to start a Disciple-Making Movement anywhere in the world and witness God’s work as He starts a Church-Planting Movement, invest in teaching, training, and mentoring leaders to obey all the commands of Christ. If you want to evaluate a so-called DMM, examine the discipleship and leadership-equipping process. Real and lasting DMMs invest heavily in leadership and training. A DMM is causative; a CPM is the result.
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M I N I ST R Y A N D M I S S I O N R E S O U R C E S As you explore leading others on a journey of discovery and building spiritual leaders, check out these other great books that offer guidance from global experts on: r r r r
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