More than a Circus

Nearly 2,000 disciple making movements. Over 100 million disciples. How can we join in?

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G’day Holy Go’ers!

Last week we wrapped up our “Opening Eyes” series which looked at how to open peoples eyes to the goodness of God. Go back and check out the series for a host of ways you can share the gospel.

Today we begin a new Series called, “More than a Circus.” We’re looking at how God is moving through Disciple Making Movements and how we are invited to not just watch and be entertained, but invited in to participate in The Great Commission.

Equip

Circus Act

At one stage in my life I thought I wanted to be a travelling evangelist. I loved the idea of simply moving around the world, meeting people and sharing the gospel with them.

At one stage we were doing just this. Sarah and I were on the road in Southern Africa. It was an adventure! Every day gave us new opportunities to speak to people and share the gospel.

Most of our ministry was in Churches. We would go to a Church, run some meetings, preach the gospel, see God do a heap of miracles, and people would respond. Then we would leave…

After a while I grew dissatisfied with what we were doing. I was left with questions like, “Will these people continue with their faith?” and “Didn’t Jesus send us to make disciples, not just converts?”

Whilst I loved doing what we were doing overseas, it left me feeling like I was some sort of Christian circus act, a traveling entertainer rather than a disciple maker.

We eventually made it back to Australia and I bumped into Steve Addison. What he shared with me blew my mind…

Disciple Making Movements

Steve Addison is a catalyst for movements that multiply disciple and churches, everywhere. He is an author, speaker, podcaster, and mentor to movement pioneers.

Steve opened up my eyes to Disciple Making Movements (DMM), or Church Planting Movements. (CPM) The Lausanne conference has defined these as:

When an original disciple or church makes a new disciple or church, that is one generation. DMM/CPM are identified when there are at least four successful direct generations. Second, the movement is dynamic and growing. Third, the DMM is greater than approximately 1,000 believers or CPM are greater than approximately 100 churches.¹

I sat in awe as Steve shared numerous stories of these modern day movements rapidly multiplying disciples. I heard of numerous movements that had seen over 1 million disciples baptised and engaged in Church in just a 10 year period.

Today there are just under 2,000 known movements as defined above, with just as many well on the way to “movement” status. These are springing up all over the world, in Western Nations as a well as in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

What does this mean on the ground? The Lussane website shares the mind boggling statistics,

DMM researchers estimate that there are 100+ million professing disciples (not all baptized) due to DMM, making around 1 percent of the world part of a DMM. Additionally, researchers estimate that there are over 9 million churches emerging from or part of a CPM. Understanding that most of these churches are ‘house churches’ with an average of 14 disciples per church, there are more house churches in CPM than churches in traditional denominations.²

We're living in one of the greatest disciple-making movements in history… but most of us don't even know it's happening. DMM’s and CPM’s are quickly growing right under our noses.

How to Join In?

So what do we do with all this?

What are these movements doing differently? And how do we join in?

Here’s where it gets exciting: You were made for more than a circus.

We settle for watching. We turn up on Sunday, enjoy the service, listen to a great sermon, and head home again. Perhaps we even rate how much we “enjoyed” the service.

Pastors and Church leaders feel this pressure to perform and others even enjoy it. Sermons drift into entertainment, or information sharing but both fall short of mobilising the Church to love the hell out of the world.

Sadly, many of us have ended up treating Church like we would a circus…

Is this really the vision Jesus has of His Church?

Jesus never called us to be spectators.
He called us to make disciples.

So let me ask you:

• When was the last time you shared your faith with someone who doesn’t know Jesus?

• Who are you intentionally discipling right now?

• Who have you equipped to go and make disciples themselves?

These are confronting questions. For many of us, the answers aren’t what we’d like them to be.

That’s exactly why we’re doing this series.

Over the coming weeks we’ll unpack a simple tool called the 4 Fields Framework. It’s used across Disciple Making Movements all over the world because it’s simple, biblical and reproducible.

Connect. Share. Grow. Gather. Multiply.

My prayer is that you won’t just be inspired by what God is doing around the world, but that you’ll join Him in what He’s already doing right where you are.

Because you were made for more than a circus.

Activate

This weeks activation is to go and get inspired about Disciple Making Movements. Here’s a few resources for you to go and check out:

Books: Everywhere: How God Multiplies Disciples and Churches by Steve Addison and Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus by Jerry Trousdale.

Podcast: Everywhere Author Podcast (and check out Steve’s Movements podcast)

Youtube: Disciple Making Movements with David Watson

Let’s Go!

1. https://lausanne.org/report/disciple-making-movements

2. https://lausanne.org/report/disciple-making-movements