Outlined Transcript
Hi everyone,
I want to talk to you about some of the issues surrounding disciple-making movements, Discovery Bible Studies, and church-planting movements.
Many years ago — easily over 10 years ago, maybe closer to 15 — I was originally trained in church-planting movements, which were largely founded and developed by David Garrison. Later on, I was trained in disciple-making movements and their product, Discovery Bible Studies, which were popularized by David and Paul Watson.
Since then, the whole movement mentality of DMM — disciple-making movements — has become very popular. It is very common for me to receive requests or emails from other colleagues, missionaries, and mission organizations asking if I have ever written on the good, the bad, and the ugly of DMM and DBS, or Discovery Bible Studies.
And I have not.
I am in the process of writing on these things, and I hope my comments will be helpful and honest. I think there are too many people who are afraid to say things that might be perceived as rebukes, challenges, or critiques because they fear being accused of quenching the Holy Spirit, getting in the way of God, or not having enough faith.
I think those are fallacious arguments.
The Fear of Critiquing “Movements”
Many people are very enthusiastic about these methods, and in many cases, they have been duped or even manipulated by enthusiastic personalities. They hear stories about how God supposedly worked in certain cities, and then they begin to believe that if we can just do what they did — if we can replicate the methods they used to tap into the movement of the Holy Spirit — then we can manufacture the same results in our own context.
Much of this is motivated by a misunderstanding of Matthew 24:14.
The whole motivation behind rapid-cycle church-planting movements is this idea that if we can set into place some sort of movement of God among an indigenous people, using the most basic and fundamental understanding of the church in the Bible, then that movement will duplicate and replicate many times over.
In Matthew 24:14, Jesus says:
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Some people take that verse as our marching orders. They believe it is our job to hasten or speed along the return of Christ by getting the gospel out to all the nations.
Of course, the motivation seems noble. It seems audacious. And in one sense, it is.
But there is no imperative in the text. It is only an indicative. It is actually an indicative of assurance and promise.
Matthew 24:14 as Promise, Not Pressure
Jesus is not saying, “When you bear witness to all the nations, then I will come back.” He does not say that. He does not say, “If you do this, then I will come back.” And He does not say, “You must do this so that I can come back.”
Jesus is not putting the proverbial ball in our court, as if He is saying, “I am going back to heaven, and I will be waiting until you get the job done. I will send you some help. I will send the Holy Spirit, but you have to figure this out — and the quicker you do, the better.”
Jesus is not saying that at all.
Matthew 24:14 is riding on the coattails of the context before it. In Matthew 24, starting around verses 12 and 13 and then moving into verse 14, Jesus talks about how in those days, the love of many will grow cold and lawlessness will be increased. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
So in the context of increased lovelessness, lawlessness, and the need to endure firm to the end by faith, Jesus says:
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Jesus is saying that it will get done.
The Great Commission is going to be finished in the context of immense darkness, lawlessness, and cold-heartedness. When you think all hope is lost, when you think there is no hope for the triumph of the gospel among the nations, it will get finished.
The testimony will go out. The people of God will endure firm to the end, bearing witness to all the nations. And then the end will come.
The end will come because Jesus Himself, through His church, will bring it about. It is not our job to build the church. Jesus is the head of the church, and He says that He is the one who builds His church. He is the one who establishes His kingdom.
It is not our job to build the kingdom.
The Problem with Movement Mentality
The whole premise behind many disciple-making movements and church-planting movements is a movement mentality. To me, this is both frustrating and disheartening.
I am frustrated because many big-hearted missionaries — good-hearted missionaries, exhausted missionaries — get into some of these methods thinking that they have finally figured out how the Holy Spirit really wants to move. They begin to think the Holy Spirit is simply waiting for missionaries to figure out and decode the encrypted puzzles in God’s providence.
If we can just do it right, with unity and purity of heart, with just the right amount of prayer and corporate praying, with unity of purpose among different groups, walking in lockstep with the Holy Spirit — if the city is united under the banners of loving Jesus and loving people — then if we all unite together and put into practice these Discovery Bible Studies, the Holy Spirit will be poured out and we will see movements and movements of people come to faith in Christ.
I love the sentiment. I truly appreciate the optimism. Praise the Lord for the desire to see people come to Christ.
But the reality is that the gospel typically and normally grows slowly, like a seed.
The Gospel Usually Grows Slowly
Once in a while in church history, you do see great accelerations of the Holy Spirit. We usually call those revivals.
But typically, for there to be a revival, there has to already be some kind of Christian plausibility structure in place that the Holy Spirit can revive. In other words, revivals happen in places where there has already been some kind of structure or edifice of the Christian worldview.
There is already a Christian framework that people are familiar with. They may even respect it or appreciate it. They may have rejected it, but they can still see its plausibility. That has to be there in order for it to be revived.
But in pre-gospel contexts — in places where people have not heard the name of Christ, or where they are not familiar with Christian teaching — maybe they have heard of a Bible, maybe they have heard of a church, but they have no idea what goes into the Christian worldview.
There is nothing there for the Holy Spirit to revive.
The Long Slog of Frontier Missions
In frontier missions, there is the long, hard work — the long slog — of sowing seed, pulling out weeds, picking up rocks, and keeping the birds from eating the seed. You know the analogies. There is the work of keeping the seed in fertile soil.
It is long, slow work, and it takes time for seeds to grow.
Then, once there is a harvest, there will be waves and seasons. There will be seasons of drought. There will be seasons of harvesting. There will be seasons of theft, where thieves come in and steal the fruit, the vegetables, and the harvest.
Part of the work of missions includes all the stages involved in actually harvesting and maintaining those crops. But you cannot expect, in frontier missions, the same kind of revivals you might see in Christianized Europe centuries ago or in parts of colonial America generations ago.
You have to do the long, hard, lifetime labor of planting seed, watering it, cultivating it, and protecting it.
In future lectures, I will talk through some of the teachings of disciple-making movements and how we can think biblically about responding to some of those enthusiastic teachings of movement-minded, rapid-cycle church planting.
Thanks.