Creating a Disciple Making Culture & Environment
For the Individual:
Jesus has invited every believer to join in His work of seeking and saving the lost. The booklets available on this site are designed to assist in every phase to the disciple making and equipping effort. Usually our attempt to reach a lost person is done one on one. However when it comes to equipping believers, small groups of 3-5 people are often more effective. A one on one situation sets up a Bible answer man and student relationship. But in a small group environment, the leader, (the Paul) can point the group to the text of Scripture. “We are all here to learn what God has to say in His word.”
For the Church Ministry Leader:
For ministry leaders looking to establish a DM culture in your church, here are three different approaches.
Discipleship Groups
Most churches use small groups to build relationships within the church and create a venue where the “one another’s” in Scripture are lived out. I submit there are basically three types of groups: Connect Groups are formed to connect and care for one another. A second type of group, Growth Groups are all about growing in our relationship with the Lord through Bible Study.
Third, Discipleship Groups have a very defined purpose. The goal is for every person to become a Disciple Maker, to go out and disciple others. This requires clarity of expectations, a focus on disciple making skills and a high level of accountability. D-Groups are made up of 3-5 people, men with men, women with women, who meet weekly for the express purpose of becoming Disciple Makers, DM’s. The equipping DM Series booklets are specifically designed to be used in this setting.
I recommend Robby Gallatty’s book Growing Up. It is a great ‘how to’ book on establishing discipleship groups within your church.
Training Centers
Whatever your philosophy of ministry regarding the Sunday morning gathering, it can be viewed as “the crowd,” a source from which to find believers ready to become disciple makers. A Training Center is a separate venue where believers are invited to participate if they are serious about making disciples. For example, the Training Center may meet on Sunday evenings each week, led by the Pastor, and includes a high level of accountability similar to the Discipleship groups.
The Timothy Initiative is a world-wide missions organization that facilitates disciple making movements (DMM) in Asia and Africa, and promotes this model to foster a DMM within US churches. They have a published curriculum that they recommend for their training centers. Typically the goal for each student (Timothy), is to go outside the church into an established group within the community, and form a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) small group. (nursing home, prison ministry, low income housing complex etc etc.) The goal is then for this outreach group to become the “church” for that group of people, what TTI calls a “Micro-Church.” Finally as the micro-church matures, the “Timothy” leading the micro-church starts a training center, identifies and trains up “Titus’s” to go out and start other DBS’s. And so the multiplication continues. (no buildings, no paid staff, no programs – kind of like the book of Acts.)
TTI is investing much effort to draw wisdom from their DMM experiences oversees, and apply it to our cultural context in the US. I encourage you to go to their website for more info: TTIOnLine.org
Fresh Start
The typical attractional American church tends to produce religious consumers. “I go to this church because I like the music, or the teaching, or the cool youth group for my kids.” The harsh term is County Club Christians. An argument can be made that once a person has been indoctrinated into this religious consumer mindset, it is nearly impossible to detox and train them to become servant of the King, disciple makers.
This model proposes that we must start fresh. Find a person of peace (Lk 10:6) within a group of unbelievers, lead them to Christ, and begin a new church. Train them to become disciple makers and release them to go into another group and start another church.
For more on this approach I encourage you to read Starfish Movement by Dan Grider.