Today’s analysis will be the final article in this week’s series on Church-Planting and Disciple-Making Movements. The methods we’ve explored thus far espoused by movement leaders have significantly influenced major missions organizations such as the IMB, Cru, International Students Inc, and a host of others.

 In our first article, we explored the history and core characteristics of these multiplying movements (MMs for shore). In the second and third article, we analyzed the first key strategies that movement leaders emphasize: disciples who make disciples. In today’s article, we will consider how theology impacts strategy.

In addition to the strategies we have already mentioned in previous articles, are three more strategies that are non-negotiable to CPMs / DMMs:

Discovery Bible Studies

Once the Person of Peace has been identified, the disciple-maker trains him or her to lead a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) with unbelieving family members or friends. A DBS is “a group of lost people, gathered by a person of peace [a seeker with a strategic social network] to discover and obey God’s Word, and to begin living out the core elements of a Christian community in a context where it has a high probability of becoming a church. Throughout this process, individuals are being discipled by the Bible towards conversion and toward being disciple makers.”^[1]

The Blind Leading the Blind

As stated in this definition, unconverted people are being gathered by the Person of Peace to form the core elements of a Christian community and to apply God’s Word before anyone in the group has come to saving faith. The goal in a DBS is to see the whole group gradually convert and then transition into a multiplying church. A DBS can be led either by the disciple-maker or by the person of peace. The leader of the study does not teach, but facilitates Bible discovery through a series of inductive, chronological Bible lessons that begin with creation and culminate with Christ.

MM advocates insist that the leader of the study does not teach or explain the Biblical text. They argue that if the disciple-maker teaches God’s Word, then unbelievers will look to the leader rather than to the Scriptures as their authority. When this happens, the groups don’t replicate rapidly. Kelbe helpfully contrasts the key difference between traditional missionary evangelist and the DBS teacher: “In the proclamational model, the evangelist is the herald of the king with an important message of peace. In the discovery Bible study model, the evangelist is merely a facilitator who steps aside and allows the Scripture to speak for itself.”^[2]

Evangelistic Unbelievers?

Unbelievers are not only able to lead these studies but are also encouraged to start their own DBSs before they’ve come to faith. As the Watsons states, 

“Did you know that lost people can evangelize? Well, they can if you keep it simple enough. Evangelism, at its core, is sharing the Gospel with someone else. When working with lost people, they don’t know the whole Gospel. That is totally okay. We just want them to share the story they just heard with someone who wasn’t in the group. We get them to think this way with a simple question, “Who do you know that needs to hear this story this week?” If that person is interested, rather than bringing her into the existing group, we have the first lost person start a group with her, her friends, and her family. So the first lost person experiences the study in his original group and then replicates the same study in the group he started with his friend.”^[3]

In a lecture recorded by Radius International, David Watson further elaborates, “Let the lost facilitate discovery Bible studies… if you look at what these facilitators are doing, they are becoming the leaders that are becoming the pastors of these groups… That group falls in love with God… they develop a pattern of mutual accountability to obedience, and they begin to do the functions of church; they begin to have the nature of church because they’re obeying the Word, not because we taught them a doctrine.”^[4]

What about False Teaching?

But what about false teaching? It would appear obvious that a Bible study being led by an unbeliever would fall prey to all kinds of heresies. Not so, claim MM advocates. “Find the heresies that have surfaced in Christianity. Was the source ever a lost person; the source was a seminary trained leader who was charismatic and decided he was more important than the Bible. Heresy is not established by lost people. Heresy is established by egotistical, highly educated, highly charismatic Christian leaders.”^[5]  MM argue that the perspicuity of Scriptures, the priesthood of the believer, and group correction enable unbelievers to properly understand God’s Word while preventing them from falling into heresy.   

An Evaluation

Inductive Bible studies can be an effective evangelistic strategy if the key truths in the passage are clearly explained.^[6] Systematically exploring the redemptive story of God’s Word enables unbelievers to wrestle with essential gospel truths about God, man, sin, Christ, and faith. Thought-provoking questions can help unbelievers see Bible truths directly from the Scriptures. The perspicuity of Scripture, however, does not mean that unbelievers studying the Bible without the guidance of a believer will come to a correct understanding of the gospel (see Acts 8:26-40). The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that the gospel message must be carefully taught and proclaimed, not merely discovered. MM advocates argue that teachers aren’t needed because the Spirit of God is the primary teacher. In doing so, they ironically ignore what the Spirit teaches about the necessity and gift of teachers.^[7]

Trousdale lists some of the key questions that guide the DBS discussions. “What do we learn about God? What do we learn about people? How will your life change if you put this passage into practice?”^[8] While the use of open-ended questions is an effective pedagogical method, it is not clear how these specific questions help unbelievers see their need to repent and believe in Christ. 

Establishing Churches

Ultimately, the DBS becomes the seedbed for a church plant. “At some point in this process the group comes to Christ, often all at one time or over a short period of time. They are baptized as they discover and obey the biblical teachings on belief in Christ and baptism and begin the process of moving from being a Bible study group to being a church.”^[9] What constitutes a church, however, is quite ambiguous.

What is a Church?

Garrison defines church as a new covenant community that regularly gathers in the name of Christ, observes baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and establishes its own unique form of organization.^[10] These churches often pattern their organization after secular or even religious organizations that are familiar to them. For example, Garrison speaks of churches in the Muslim world being led by Christian “Imams,” while Cambodia’s churches are led by committees patterned after the country’s communist government.^[11] Trousdale offers a more detailed definition of a church. He states that a church is “a community of Christ-followers that worships God, discovers and obeys God’s Word, experiences the biblical ‘one anothers,’ and whose members form new groups of obedient disciples that grow into new churches.”^[12]

An Evaluation

Sadly, many advocates fail to understand the Bible’s teachings on the nature and essence of the church. Most emphasize what a church does. They fail, however, to understand or explain what a church is. Through the use of ambiguous language, essential elements of the church are either watered down or neglected altogether. For example, Trousdale uses the term “Christ followers” to describe those who make up the church community. MM practitioners define a Christ follower as someone who is learning how to obey Jesus’ teachings. However, as Caleb Morrell notes, “A Christ follower has not necessarily been converted. They are still growing in their understanding of God’s Word and may not even be fully acquainted with the gospel yet.”^[13] 

The New Testament defines the church as a body of regenerate believers, not a community of sincere “Christ-followers.” The absence of the gospel, the two ordinances, and Biblical leadership offices is deeply troubling and deviates sharply from historic evangelical theology. In contrast to the shallow and ambiguous definition of church offered by movement practitioners, the Baptist Faith and Message defines a New Testament church as follows:

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.^[14]

If movement leaders don’t know what a church is, it is highly doubtful that the “churches” that they are planting are churches at all. 

Developing Leaders

The final step in MM is leadership development. MM advocates encourage disciple-makers to identify and train local leaders as soon as possible in order to avoid foreign dependency. According to Garrison, “The most effective teams in Church Planting Movements have relatively few foreigners but have large networks of local partners. Foreign missionaries understand that their role is to pass on the vision, passion, and skills to local brothers and sisters with whom they serve. So in Church Planting Movements, practitioners quickly develop local leaders and entrust to them the future of the movement.”^[15] The Watsons note, “New churches have a very high dependence upon the disciple-maker. If the disciple-maker stays too long, then he or she will cripple the growth of the church. Instead of learning to depend on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God for guidance, the church will depend on the [foreign] disciple-maker.”^[16] Indigenous leaders are developed informally through disciple-making mentoring relationships where they learn to obey Christ’s teachings and help others do the same. 

Evaluation

MM leaders have identified a common pitfall that has hindered the indigenous growth of the gospel. Many missionaries have indeed failed to develop and deploy God’s people for God’s work in a timely manner. By staying in one place too long, missionaries can hamper the growth, initiative, and development of lay leaders in the church. Missionaries, however, can also err by leaving too soon. Time must be spent in helping indigenous converts mature in the faith. The Scriptures are clear about the danger of appointing novice leaders too quickly (I Timothy 3:6; 5:22-24). If the goal is to plant healthy churches, the disciple-maker will take whatever time is necessary to lay a good foundation so that the church can endure, bear fruit that remains, and reproduce in God’s timing. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, our methodology flows out of our theology. Our beliefs about the gospel, conversion, regeneration, faith, and the church have profound implications on how we go about the work of ministry. While no doubt there have been some who have truly come to saving faith through the ministry of movement practitioners, I fear that much of what is being done in the name of evangelism and discipleship in these movements will not withstand the test of time. May the Lord grant His church wisdom and patience to continue proclaiming Christ in obedience to God and in dependence upon the Spirit. 

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^[1] Trousdale and Sunshine, The Kingdom Unleashed, 323.  

^[2] Kelbe, “Disciple-Making Movements.”

^[3] Watson and Watson, Contagious Disciple Making, 146.

^[4] Radius International, David Watson Lost Leading Bible Studies, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_RK6zX8KCk.

^[5] Radius International.

^[6] For an evangelistic resource that utilizes both inductive Bible study questions with Biblical explanations while covering the Bible’s redemptive story, see Micah Colbert, Discovering Hope: Exploring the Good News of Jesus Christ (Independently Published, 2020).

^[7] See Matthew 28:19; Romans 10:14-15; 12:6-7; I Corinthians 12:27-29; Ephesians 4:11-16; 2 Timothy 2:11. 

^[8] Trousdale and Sunshine, The Kingdom Unleashed, 325.

^[9] Watson and Watson, 169.

^[10] Garrison, Church Planting Movements, 259-260.

^[11] Garrison, 259-260.  

^[12] Trousdale and Sunshine, The Kingdom Unleashed, 380. 

^[13] Caleb Morell, “Book Review: The Kingdom Unleashed, by Jerry Trousdale and Glen Sunshine,” 9marks (blog), November 21, 2019, https://www.9marks.org/review/book-review-the-kingdom-unleashed-by-jerry-trousdale-and-glenn-sunshine.

^[14] “The Church” under “Baptist Faith and Message 2000,” 2000, https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000.

^[15] Garrison, Church Planting Movements, 186-187.

^[16] Watson and Watson, Contagious Disciple Making, 173-174.