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Rediscovering Disciples, Leaders & Churches that Multiply

Jon Luesink /Tuesday, February 21, 2023

 

The Disciple Making Crisis

Evangelicalism in Canada is in steep decline, shrinking below 3% of the population. When we reach 2% we'll begin to qualify for what mission agencies describe as an “unreached people group”. Even more sobering is to realize that the last time North Americans were adding new believers faster than we were sending them to heaven was 1927.

Not only have our prevailing models of ministry been failing for nearly a century, they have also proved to be especially fragile during the COVID crisis. New and proposed laws are gradually weaving, whispering threats of overt persecution.

What would we need to change to not just survive, but thrive?

How can we turn the corner from decline to multiplicative expansion?

Rediscovering Disciples, Leaders & Churches that Multiply

Disciple Making Movements (DMM) and Church Planting Movements (CPM) have been answering these questions for the last thirty years. Earnest missionaries like David Watson and Curtis Sergeant were inspired by George Patterson, Roland Allen, the Moravians, and Patrick of Ireland who all looked past the 4th century Constantinian models of doing church to the patterns and principles found in the book of Acts. From all around the globe, these principles are beginning to bear fruit on the last and most difficult frontier: affluent, Christianised North America.

The focus is to make every follower of Christ a reproducing disciple rather than a mere convert.

Simple, transferable patterns create frequent and regular accountability for disciples to hear accurately from the Lord, obey Him, and pass it on to others. This requires a participative, small group approach. Each disciple is equipped in comprehensive ways in order that they might function not merely as consumers, but as active agents of Kingdom advance. Each disciple is given a vision for reaching their relational network and for extending the Kingdom to the ends of the earth until there is “no place left”. Reproducing churches are intentionally formed as part of the disciple multiplying process. The intent in CPM/DMM approaches is that disciples, churches, leaders and movements can multiply endlessly by the power of the Spirit.

What paradigm shifts might need to happen?

What might need to be different to “relax into what God can do through ordinary people?

Barriers to Building Immunity, keeping us from going Viral1

The legacy of our history and culture may have unintentionally woven in obstacles to gospel fruitfulness and even fragilities that make us vulnerable to persecution.

Have you already been trying to embrace these realignments?

7 Realignments from Church-As-We-Know-It to Disciple Making Movements

1. Organizational Focus: What does it look like when Christians gather together?

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Location: the collective of all that happens in the building where people are spectators at events or participants in a       program; they're “at church”.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

People: all those who claim faith in Jesus, wherever they happen to be and go as Christ’s ambassadors - who operate collectively & individually on mission for God.

2. Orientation to the Lost: When thinking about engaging with non-believers, is our mindset to invite them to come to us, or for us to go to them?

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Come: church is a destination (like the cinema, a grocery store, and other institutions) offering spiritual services for those we invite to cross our threshold, or hungry enough to do so alone.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

Go: this orientation puts believers out among the harvest of lost people, as “missionaries” to their culture and network of relationships.

3. Believer’s Self-Perception: The way a church functions plays a part in shaping a believer’s identity; behaviour will likely align to support that identity.

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Adherent: Though Protestantism upholds “the priesthood of all believers”, vestiges of the clergy/laity divide remain. Systems, programs and the “audience” experience reinforces a “church-going-Christian” adherent mentality that makes it difficult to see themselves as one who is responsible for equipping someone else to be a disciple maker.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

Disciple-Maker: the primary identity of those professing Christ is that of a viable, Spirit-led, disciple-making disciple who serves as a mediator-priest-ambassador directly to a lost world. Though patterns and methods help, it’s not a program or controlled recipe, it’s learning to follow God into each unique conversation, to become “fishers of people.”

4. Ministry Goal: Accomplishing these very different ‘end’ goals requires very different activities, competencies, processes, and measurements.

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Salvations: conversions and baptisms are the most celebrated metrics of ministry; a personal profession of faith to ensure eternal security.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

Disciple-Makers: salvation is a crucial milestone in the development of a person who is on the way to becoming a faithful, mature, capable, disciple-making follower of Christ.

5. Maturity Gauge: What is the measured outcome that defines maturity?

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Knowledge: often the default action is to measure knowledge gained (or at least, the accuracy of knowledge shared). The subtle danger is perpetuating a belief that knowledge of Scripture and doctrine is the measure of maturity.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

Christlikeness: Ever increasing Biblical knowledge is encouraged so that we can learn to recognize, hear, and understand the voice of our Shepherd, by actively listening, trusting, and applying what he tells us. Those who are the most mature look most like Jesus.

6. Invitation: What you win them with is what you win them to.

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Low Bar Appeal: This approach positions the church as a provider of services in a large-group, anonymous gathering, to the prospective new attender (customer). The point of entry is as broad as possible with little —and ideally no— required commitment. Later attempts to raise the bar on commitment create a subtle but awkward tension between appealing to them as customers and challenging them to submit to God’s calling for their lives.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

High Bar Call: Jesus’ high bar of entry allowed him to filter out those who were not truly committed to his mission to be disciples and disciple-makers. It gave him confidence that those who hung around would finish the task and be equipped and trained to lead the church. He was very committed to serve these with great patience. Those who come to Jesus like this, know the mission is to go to call others.

7. Participation: Our actions will usually align with our beliefs.

CHURCH-AS-WE-KNOW-IT

Passive Attendance: The main way people participate in church is by attending gatherings, with the majority watching. Few do the work of studying, thinking, praying, searching and revealing Biblical insight. There is little opportunity for the audience to engage in the process. The subtle danger of setting up a passive experience is that it creates an expectation that attenders do not or cannot hear from God reliably.

DISCIPLE MAKING MOVEMENT

Active Obedience: Trust-centred obedience is the most basic application of following Jesus in faith and is a key factor in producing discipleship multiplication. Every other faith practice is built upon trust-centred obedience. Disciple-making means living like Jesus, responding to the promptings and leadings of the Holy Spirit as He did. Disciples must actively learn to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and trust the Spirit’s promptings in prompt obedience.

1 Summarized from “In the Way: Church as We Know It Can be a Discipleship Movement (Again)” Damian Gerke


Jon Luesink has been married to Jill for over 30 years and they have 4 children. After pastoring in Chilliwack for 12 years, the Lord called them to lead a church planting team in Czechia as missionaries for 8 years and then to serve with Avant Ministries Canada, raising up the next generation of missionaries. Now, as a DMM Catalyzer at Outreach Canada, Jon is focused on helping to reverse the disciple making crisis in Canada and beyond, through the catalyzation of disciple making movements.



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Making Disciples of All Nations in Canada

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It is clear to me that God has created a huge opportunity for Christians to share the gospel with the world in Canada; the nations of the world are in our neighbourhoods.

Have you ever considered that those of Muslim faith who live among us might have been sent by God to Canada in order to find Him?

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Imagine getting this email:

“My name is Rachael. I am a born-again Christian of 2 years. I actually used to be a Shia Muslim. I attended the mosque on your street for many years of my life. The Lord pulled me out of the darkness of my former life as a Muslim and brought me into His loving light...

I recently heard that your church prays specifically for salvation over people at the mosque. Is this true? If so, I’m not sure how long your church has been doing this, but I wanted to email you as an encouragement to you and your congregation to let you know that the Lord has heard your prayers and is AT work in this Muslim community.

I thank you and your congregation for committing to pray for your neighbours. It is funny to me how not once in my years of attendance at this mosque had they ever thought of praying for your church! I guess the proof is in the pudding. If you’re not filled with perfect love--how can you pour out perfect love? My heart yearns for them to know how much God actually loves them, that God would shatter the scales over their eyes, and lead them to take their seats as Children of God in the house of our Father.”

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Habits Relearned

What habit do you want to change?

I recently read a blog post that suggested that rather than the thirty days we may think it takes to break a bad habit and establish a new good one, it takes a year… or longer. When we’re tired or stressed or just not paying attention, it is easy to slip back into familiar patterns and have to haul ourselves back to the new pattern we’re trying to establish.

Have you ever thought about the habits you have developed around your faith walk? The patterns and grooves that feel normal, but actually aren’t really aligned with the pattern that scripture lays out to describe the rapid expansion of the early church?


The Letter

The story of just one letter and how God used it to bring many to Himself! 


Rediscovering Disciples, Leaders & Churches that Multiply

Evangelicalism in Canada is in steep decline, shrinking below 3% of the population. When we reach 2% we'll begin to qualify for what mission agencies describe as an “unreached people group”. Even more sobering is to realize that the last time North Americans were adding new believers faster than we were sending them to heaven was 1927.

Not only have our prevailing models of ministry been failing for nearly a century, they have also proved to be especially fragile during the COVID crisis. New and proposed laws are gradually weaving, whispering threats of overt persecution.

What would we need to change to not just survive, but thrive?

How can we turn the corner from decline to multiplicative expansion?


Living and Active

On an isolated hillside surrounded by miles of forest and mountains, Murat found a large rock to sit down and take a break. He’d been trekking though the uneven terrain all day keeping a protective eye on his sheep and goats. Although there were no established roads, he and other members of his community had worn many paths throughout the area over the years. 

Murat reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his phone and raised it up in the air as high as he could looking for a service signal. Most of the other shepherds that Murat worked with were relatives: brothers, cousins, uncles, and other connections. Despite being separated for most of the days, they were a very close family. They regularly checked in with one another when they could get reception on their cell phones. In the late evenings, when all the livestock was safely returned to the stalls, they would all gather again on the homestead.

Over the past few months, though, something had changed. Murat had been doing some soul-searching and came across a website that offered access to the Bible. He signed up and began getting text messages every few days of a Bible verse from the New Testament, followed by four simple questions: What does this tell me about God? What does this tell me about mankind? How can I obey this scripture? Who can I share this scripture with?

Most of the scriptures had to do with Jesus, of whom Murat had heard of before ... but never in this way!