Disciple Making Movements

Applying a Faithful Balance
"Can all the Christians of England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes in China are perishing for lack of knowledge?"
These words from James Hudson Taylor expressed his frustration at the smug satisfaction of worshippers in England, when so many people around the world had never heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the great contributions of the Protestant missionary movement has been the sense of urgency that it has brought to the task of world evangelization.
Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) have gained significant attention in recent years as a missional approach aimed at rapid and widespread gospel growth. These movements, rooted in the tradition of Protestant missiology pioneered by figures like Roland Allen and Donald McGavran, emphasize the multiplication of disciples who make disciples, leading to the rapid planting of indigenous churches. Allen and McGavran were frustrated by approaches to mission that saw limited results. As McGavran engaged with Allen’s thinking, the church growth movement was born. McGavran pioneered new ways to measure church growth, so that sociological analysis might inform mission praxis. DMMs have emerged as the most recent iteration of church growth principles. However, a focus on speed and scope makes DMMs vulnerable to patterns of thinking that are influenced by Western secularism. This article will review these issues.

• Understanding DMMs
• Speed and Scope in Western Secularism
  "Nowhere is the modern church more worldly than in its breathless idolizing of such modern notions as change, relevance, innovation, and being on the right side of history." Os Guiness
• Diagonalization
• Reflections
  "…in mission history, God is kind to give remarkable growth at moments of His own sovereign choosing. Often rapid growth comes after times of slow and laborious ministry…"

For more information go to Disciple Making Movements on the Lausanne Movement website.
The above link opens in a new tab.