Pioneering Movements: Leadership That Multiplies Disciples and Churches

by Steve Addison

Some practitioners spend too much effort trying to get the strategy and methodology right rather than looking for the right person to invest in. If someone says to me, give me the method or give me the curriculum, I know they have not understood that this is accomplished through persons rather than through methods.

Change is hard, not just because we have to embrace a new thing. Change is hard because we have to let go of the old thing. To remake our ministry, we have to die before we can live again. This is the story of how God remade me from the inside out. These are the lessons I learned about the journey from armchair expert to movement pioneer.

That

We may think of the wilderness as a place to avoid, a place of testing. Yet the wilderness is also a place where we encounter God. It is a place of profound change. We are given the opportunity to surrender and trust God before there are any answers. Pass that test and clarity will come as a byproduct of surrender. Most movement pioneers have faced God in

the wilderness and allowed him to remake them. Breakthroughs in pioneering movements often occur as the byproduct of crisis encounters with God.

Begin by Doing S...

Real learning takes place in the field, but training gives confidence to step out and do something so on-the-job learning can begin.

I learned a few things about training. Most important was to cast a broad net. We need to train a large number of people to find the few who are ready and willing to implement.

Once we identify people who are sharing the gospel and making disciples, we need simple methods to equip and encourage them.

Acts is about the ongoing ministry of Jesus, the risen Lord. Acts tells the story of the growth, the spread and the multiplication of the dynamic Word of God. The Word is an unstoppable force. Wherever the Word goes, people far from God are saved, disciples are made and new churches are formed. There

In January 2014 I fulfilled a lifelong dream: I went trekking in the Himalayas. With me were coworkers from Australia, the United States, Bhutan and India.

(1) Jewish believers at Pentecost, then (2) in Samaria and finally ( 3) at the house of Cornelius, when the Spirit came upon the Gentiles.

Peter learned that a God-prepared insider is the key to reaching whole communities.9 As they traveled from town to town on mission, Jesus trained Peter’s head, heart and hands.

new believers (Acts 10:45-48; cf. Acts 11:12). Peter shared ministry with others, and he supported the work of others. He developed leaders who took responsibility for the church in Jerusalem

and moved on to unreached regions.

The Word is a living force unleashed by the living God (Acts 4:4, 29, 31). The success of the mission was not due to Peter or any of the apostles, but to the power of God through his dynamic Word (Acts 6:2-4, 7).

God remains responsible for his mission and, through the Word and the Spirit, empowers and directs his people to participate in it. The spread of the gospel is at the heart of God’s mission, resulting in the multiplication of disciples and churches. There are two structures for the fulfillment of God’s mission—local churches and apostolic bands. Churches are responsible for reaching their regions in depth. They are also responsible to partner with pioneers in taking the gospel to unreached fields beyond their geography or cultures. Apostolic bands are responsible, in partnership with the churches, to spread the gospel in fields that are unreached geographically or culturally. They spread the gospel, make disciples, and multiply and strengthen churches. Both structures are self-governing under the leading of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Word. Neither controls, directs nor dominates the other.

Partnership is the relationship God intends between the churches and the apostolic bands. John Howard Schutz observes, “Both the Church and the apostle are to be subordinate to and manifestations of the one gospel.”14

Despite

“Then

Nathan Shank, Lipok and Kumar are inspired by Paul’s example of “no place left” throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire (Romans 15:23). For Paul, that meant he planted churches in major centers that would continue to reach each region in depth. Like Paul, they work toward a day when their work of pioneering and multiplying churches throughout a vast region will continue so they can move on to new fields. Like Paul, these men want to be able to say one day, “There is no place left for us in north India, Nepal and Bhutan.” Nathan Shank, Lipok and Kumar are movement pioneers.

seed sowers, church planters, church multipliers, multiplication trainers and movement catalysts.

Seed sowers master simple tools such as knowing a gospel presentation, sharing their personal testimonies of God’s work in their lives and leading a Discovery Bible Study. They know what to say and with whom to share. Sowers are motivated by God’s love for lost people. They reach out to their families and friends, or they find ways to enter unreached fields looking for people of peace.

Church planters are seed sowers who have learned how to make disciples and plant churches (see fig. 6.2). Using simple Discovery Bible Study methods,

Know what you are trying to achieve: a clear definition of when a group becomes a church. When you start a training group, model the parts of church life from the very beginning. Make sure you have a specific lesson or lessons on church and its ordinances in your early discipleship. Use church health mapping (see below) to help a group evaluate if they have all the elements of church life.2

The next challenge for a church planter is to learn how to multiply churches, not just add them.

Helping groups become churches.

1. House of peace.

2. Church start.

3. Newly formed healthy church. The third group on the right is a newly formed

Church Multiplier

Church multipliers

First-generation churches

Second-generation churches

Third-generation churches and beyond

Church multipliers are critical to the emergence and growth of a movement. They represent the leadership transition from addition to multiplication. This is the most important and the most difficult transition of all. The lack of level 3 leaders is a major reason for the lack of church-planting movements in the Western world, where church planting is typically by addition, not multiplication.

Level 4: Multiplication Trainer

Multiplication trainers

Level 5: Movement Catalyst

Growing Level 1 to Level 5 Leaders

Investing Time and Energy in Multiplying Leaders

Before

Next, in small groups each practitioner answered these four questions: What is God doing? Where are you stuck (sharing the gospel, training disciples, forming churches)? What two action plans would move you toward generational growth? How can we pray for you?

Early in 2012 Gary opened up his basement and began training interested people in T4T (Training for Trainers), a method of making disciples and multiplying churches developed by Ying Kai.6 He divided the church into eight groups of twenty-five people who met every other week. By the middle of the year he had trained two hundred people in how to make disciples.7 Each lesson finished with fresh commitments to follow Jesus and to fish for people—with something to obey and someone to tell. Gary first trained a group of high school students. They led the way. He soon had twelve-year-old kids sharing their stories, sharing the gospel and starting Discovery Bible Studies. Gary taught four different methods of inductive Bible study. All the Bible studies were participative, used self-discovery and were obedience oriented. The participants started by asking, “How have we obeyed what we learned last time?” Then they asked, “How have we been fishing?” In January 2013 Gary launched a new series of eight Discovery Bible Studies, which provided an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Many of the trainees discovered they had friends and family who were willing to study an overview

potential houses of peace.

Discovery Bible Studies

Chuck trained Grace Community Church, which became a training hub that planned to start churches throughout the city. They didn’t care if the churches were in coffee shops, restaurants or homes—they wanted to reach the city.

Jeff’s vision has been shaped by the changing face of America. His 50-5-50 Vision is aimed to reach fifty majority-minority US cities in five years (2013–2017).14 What does reached look like? Jeff used to count numbers of conversions, baptisms, groups started and churches started. Not anymore. Now he tracks generational streams of church planting.

To reach fifty cities in five years, Jeff needs fifty fourth-generation (4G) trainers in each city.

Does this sound like Jeff’s dreaming? There are now thirteen cities with at least one 4G trainer. Seven cities have fourth-generation churches. Another fourteen cities have second- and third-generation discipleship groups. Jeff’s goal is “no place left,” fifty cities with fifty fourth-generation trainers in five years.