Outlined Transcript
Hi everyone,
In this video, I want to follow up on the previous lecture I gave introducing the ideas behind disciple-making movements, church-planting movements, and the broader movement mentality. Here, I want to summarize some of the main teachings.
As I said in the previous video, what I am going to say does not necessarily draw directly from the original source material. I am familiar with David Garrison’s work, the Watsons and their books, and many of the other people who have contributed to the vast amount of literature surrounding disciple-making movements and their various tributaries. What I am doing here is distilling the issue into points and principles I have observed over the years.
Not everything said in the original books or source material is always captured accurately in the seminars and trainings that missionaries actually experience. I have been through some of those trainings. I have interacted with some of the original authors, especially in earlier years. I have been involved with these issues for about 20 years. But years later, when the original authors are no longer available to conduct their own trainings, what gets taught is not always the best reflection of what they originally intended.
That is typical. Anytime someone takes another person’s content and adapts it for his own purposes, it is bound to change. So what I am saying here is not drawn directly from one specific book or source. I am speaking from what I have observed broadly in various organizations, trainings, conversations, literature, podcasts, and missionary contexts.
What Is DMM?
DMM, or disciple-making movements, spread the gospel by making disciples who make disciples, who learn to obey God’s Word quickly and disciple others to do the same. The goal is to see many new churches planted in regions where Christianity is largely absent.
That is the general idea. But my main concern is this: DMM proponents have built an entire methodology on teachings that are not modeled, prescribed, or clearly found in the Bible.
To be fair, they do use the Bible. This is not all completely original thinking. But the problem is that when they use the Bible, it is often a misapplication of the text. At best, it reflects a misunderstanding of conversion, ecclesiology, discipleship, and even the gospel itself. At worst, it misconstrues and misleads people on those very doctrines.
Obedience-Based Discipleship
One of the core principles of DMM is obedience-based discipleship. What does that mean? Disciple-makers help unbelieving “disciples,” as they sometimes call them, obey Scripture daily as they move toward conversion.
So the order of events is important. Obedience-based discipleship teaches unbelievers to obey the Bible before they are converted. In effect, they are pre-discipling pre-disciples. They are teaching them how to live like Christians, and then somewhere along the way, those people become converts as they grow in obedience to Scripture.
This might sound like simply teaching people the law so they realize they cannot obey it, leading them to cling to grace. But that is not the approach I am talking about. This is different.
This approach assumes that unbelievers have the will, capacity, ability, and desire to obey Scripture. I am not accusing every DMM teacher of outright denying original sin, but functionally, it often appears that they treat people as if they are a blank slate. The assumption seems to be that you simply need to write the right script for them, teach them how to walk in a manner worthy of the Bible or the Word of God, and slowly they will become Christianized. Somewhere along the way, they become Christian.
But instead of preaching the gospel to them unto conversion, this approach often focuses on teaching them to obey. The emphasis is on obedience to the commands of Jesus, regardless of the necessary and essential nature of the regenerate heart. This process could take weeks. It could take months. It could take years before they become an actual believer.
Redefining Faith
This approach also has the potential to redefine faith. Some may not do this explicitly, but I do think some do. I have heard some people redefine faith altogether. I cannot give everybody the benefit of the doubt here, because I have personally heard missionaries who received this kind of movement-methodology training conflate faith and obedience, or faith and faithfulness.
I have heard them reject justification through faith alone. Not simply soft-pedal it. Not simply assume it. Not simply put it on the back burner. I have heard people reject it altogether as a construct of a paranoid Luther in Germany, as though it were the invention of some obsessive monk in the 16th century that has produced easy-believism in the Western world ever since.
They are very passionate about obedience, law-keeping, loyalty, and honoring God through faithfulness to Him. But in doing so, they often conflate faith and faithfulness. They might say that justification by faith is a useful construct for people who come from a more legal, Western background. But for people from a non-Western, non-forensic, non-legal-minded background, they think in terms of faithfulness, community attachment, and community association.
In that framework, a person becomes right with God by honoring Him through faithfulness and loyalty. Then he becomes part of the community. That is presented as the gospel system. That is presented as the process of conversion.
But that is not merely dangerous. It is false.
It can lead people to hell if they buy into it, because people in these pre-Christian cultures are already operating within law-based systems. Whether they are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or from another religious background, they are already working within a moral code. So when someone presents Jesus as offering honor, life, peace, or power based upon faithfulness to His Word and obedience to Him, that makes sense to the natural mind. Of course it does.
It is one works-based religion exchanged for another works-based religion. It is a lateral move. It makes sense to them because it is the mind of the flesh. This is how the natural mind thinks.
But the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned. We need to be born again. Our hearts, minds, and souls must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit so that we have the mind of Christ and can discern the things of Christ.
The Biblical Order Matters
This is why the Bible must prick the conscience. The law must expose sin. The Word of God must drive people to Christ. Sinners must be called to flee from their sin, repent, fall at the feet of mercy, and receive the irresistible grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
There is an order in evangelism and discipleship that must be biblical. If we get that order wrong, we risk converting people to a works-based Christianity that promises honor, reward, and status based on levels of faithfulness and obedience to Scripture.
The Jesus of the faithfulness gospel, the Jesus of the obedience gospel, and the Jesus of the allegiance gospel is another Christ. That is not the Jesus of the Bible.
It may use language extracted from the Bible, but that language is being manipulated. Arius did something similar. He took biblical statements, pieced them together with other biblical statements from other contexts, and created an entire system of thought that was not merely unbiblical, but heretical. That is where this leads.
I am not saying everyone who proposes these ideas is a heretic. I am not saying that. But I am saying the consequences of what they teach produce heresy. And if they do not repent of that teaching, if they dig in their heels in the face of biblical instruction, biblical challenge, and faithful criticism, then we must be firm.
As Paul says, if they do not recognize these things, they are not recognized. We must stand firmly on the truth.
Teaching with Patience and Gentleness
That does not mean we should be harsh or impatient. Paul tells Timothy to teach with all gentleness and patience, praying that God might grant repentance.
That is my hope through my writing, teaching, and conversations, including with indigenous believers who ask me these questions because they have been taught disciple-making movement methodology by other missionaries. My goal is to teach, teach, teach with gentleness and patience, perseveringly and enduringly, praying that God would grant repentance through the faithful proclamation, teaching, and exposition of the Word of God.
So pray with me. Thank you for standing with us for the true gospel, the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.