A Brief Guide to Disciple Making Movements, Part 1

What if I told you that Disciple Making Movements have spread across the world, leading to thousands of churches being planted, hundreds of thousands of people being saved, and the transformation of whole Muslim communities and mosques to faith in Christ? What if I told you that movement was launched by the simple application of the disciple making methods of Jesus with the result that, “God is creating a remarkable and unprecedented momentum of ministry in some of the least expected places in the Islamic world, a ministry that looks a lot like a continuation of the book of Acts”?¹ A Spirit-filled Christian could hardly contain his enthusiasm to learn to apply these biblical methods and join the harvest of souls.

There is a missions methodology that has caught the imagination of sending agencies, churches, and missions candidates throughout the world. The influence of this movement among sending organizations supporting this methodology seems nearly ubiquitous.² This missions methodology is called “Disciple Making Movements” (DMM from here forward). It is believed that DMM is a recapturing of the missiology of Jesus and the Apostles. According to DMM proponents, the traditional models of church planting and discipleship are methods built upon denominational doctrines and traditions which are foreign to how Jesus did discipleship. Perhaps the earliest practitioner and trainer of DMM, David Watson, wrote,

God taught me, through many failures, that I had to focus on making disciples of Christ, not followers of my church or denomination. He also taught me that I needed to teach these disciples to obey the commands of Jesus, not my church/ denominational doctrines or traditions. This is what led to the breakthrough that resulted in more than eighty thousand churches among a people considered unreachable.³

Watson does not seem to believe he is the pioneer of a new methodology, but rather a man whom the Lord led back to the practices of the New Testament.⁴ He has reported that his rediscovery of these methods led to millions of people being saved and thousands of churches being planted, in what is previously considered the hard soil of Muslim peoples.

It is no mystery as to why DMM is growing in popularity as the preferred approach of missions sending agencies. Missionaries want nothing more than to see people groups across the world come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Further, DMM purports to be the more biblical and more effective model for doing so. They believe the “traditional model” built by denominations and churches attempting to press others into their religious and cultural garb just isn’t effective. As DMM proponent Jerry Trousdale has said, “...the most hostile and dangerous Muslim communities often yield to Disciple Making Movements much more rapidly than communities that have experienced many traditional churches in their midst.”⁵ Who doesn’t want to see the rapid multiplication of new believers and churches among Muslim communities?

Defining DMM

What is DMM? What are the methods and processes being employed by this rapidly spreading approach to world missions? From where does this method derive its existence?

Jerry Trousdale defines DMM as follows,

In a nutshell, Disciple Making Movements spread the gospel by making disciples who learn to obey the Word of God and quickly make other disciples, who then repeat the process. This results in many new churches being planted, frequently in regions that were previously very hostile to Christianity. All the principles that we are seeing at work are clearly outlined—indeed, commanded—in the pages of Scripture.⁶

David and Paul Watson also provide a general definition,

As believers obey Christ, they are to train men and women to be Contagious Disciple-Makers who pray, engage lost communities, find Persons of Peace (the ones God has prepared to receive the Gospel in a community for the first time), help them discover Jesus through Discovery Groups (an inductive group Bible study process designed to take people from not knowing Christ to falling in love with Him), baptize new believers, help them become communities of faith called church, and mentor emerging leaders.⁷

It is claimed that DMM is not an artificial method created by missiologists in some think tank. Rather, DMM is simply the proper application of biblical principles to the task of missions with the hope of bringing about “Church Planting Movements”⁸ (CPM hereafter) across the world. Jerry Trousdale claimed, “...we have seen the Disciple Making Movement ministry model before, especially in the Gospels and the book of Acts ... actually, throughout the Bible.”⁹

David and Paul Watson similarly claim,

The DMM is about doing what was done in the first century—giving the gospel to a people and teaching them to obey it; seeing them become faithful disciples of Christ; leaving them to struggle in obeying the Word of God in their own context and history; and allowing them to develop their own unique practices for worship, leadership, and governance within the confines of biblical obedience.¹⁰

In fact, DMM claims it has reemerged from the pages of scripture and history despite the long and pervasive influence of unbiblical missionary methods pressed by Western denominations. DMM “...may seem counterintuitive to Western Christians, as the church is often influenced more by modern communication models than by biblical values, principles, and practices.”¹¹ DMM proponents often contend the West has been overly influenced by religious and denominational institutions pushing their brand of Christian dogma.

When institutions that promote a particular brand of Christianity forget their differences and get back to planting the gospel instead of their doctrines, we may have a chance to complete the Great Commission. When we turn to making disciples of Christ instead of converts for our particular brand, we may have a chance to complete the Great Commission. Until then, Christians will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of our forefathers. Paul and I prefer to learn from our mistakes, not repeat them. When institutions that promote branded Christianity begin to plant the gospel, make obedient disciples of Christ, and forget their own pet doctrines and practices, we will see the Great Commission fulfilled in a generation. They will also see their own brand of Christianity grow as never before, because they will become relevant to the people as they serve them in obedience to the word of God.¹²

Some DMM proponents even make the audacious claim that over the last 1600 years the church has become an ineffective institution that has promoted its dogmatic brands, rather than preaching the gospel. The Protestant Reformation brought no relief to this institutionalized and dogmatic approach to disciple making and church planting. The results of these approaches have been meager, at best. As the Watsons have claimed, “If we keep doing what we have always done, we will keep getting the same results. Approaches promoted by branded Christian institutions for accomplishing the Great Commission have not succeeded in sixteen hundred years or in the years since the Protestant Reformation began in 1517.”¹³

Are the proponents of DMM correct? Is their model as biblical as they claim? Have they restored the proper biblical understanding of missions methodology that has been lost for nearly 1600 years?¹⁴ We will examine these claims of DMM as we shine the light of biblical revelation on each aspect of DMM methodology. We will see that DMM is not the biblical methodology it claims to be. Quite the opposite is true. Major components of DMM are built upon a faulty understanding of the gospel, conversion, discipleship, and the church. As we approach the analysis of DMM in an effort to sustain our thesis, we will assess the major DMM components we find unbiblical, and the doctrinal understanding upon which they are argued, in the following order: Obedience-Based Discipleship, Person of Peace, and Discovery Bible Studies.¹⁵

Obedience-Based Discipleship

What is Obedience-Based Discipleship (OBD hereafter)? OBD is at the heart of DMM. The goal of missions work is to fulfill the Great Commission and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20). OBD is definitional to what DMM proponents believe is the nature of discipleship. Jesus made clear that essential to making disciples is to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.” In DMM, the disciple-maker is given the role of helping the unbelieving disciple obey the commands of scripture daily as he moves toward conversion to faith in Christ. After he has come to faith in Christ, he is baptized and incorporated into the church body.¹⁶ Trousdale lays this out clearly, “Disciple makers are prepared to invest weeks, months, and maybe years, developing genuine friendships, facilitating someone’s discovery of and obedience to God’s story from creation to Christ, and eventually giving Jesus his life allegiance.”¹⁷

The centrality of OBD to DMM is clear. Without OBD, DMM has lost its unifying principle for its method of missions. As the Watsons wrote, “True DMM methodology is about being disciplined in educating, training, and mentoring people to obey all the commands of Jesus, regardless of consequences.”18 We would contend that OBD is the theological basis for DMM’s approach to Persons of Peace and Discovery Bible Studies. It might be argued that OBD is merely a method of discipleship. But this method of discipleship, as with any approach to discipleship, has a clear understanding of the nature of conversion, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the substance of faith.

DMM proponents regularly argue that the “traditional model,” the model of the contemporary western church, is to preach for conversion and then to disciple people that are already converted. They argue that this “traditional approach” is directly opposed to how Jesus approached discipleship. Jerry Trousdale said the following,

The church today is preaching to produce conversion; then teaching to increase knowledge; then giving periodic attention, usually in sermons, to encourage converts to obey what they have learned. Jesus’ strategy was very different...what Jesus did with the Twelve was exactly the opposite: He discipled them to conversion. He selected the Twelve and spent more than three years with them. They went where He went, asking questions, watching what He did, doing it with Him, and then doing it by themselves, being coached and mentored to be obedient disciples. Then one day, He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). All those years, Jesus was revealing Himself to the Twelve. He brought them from the point of not knowing Him to the point where they discovered who He really was and were ready to follow Him anywhere, even to die for Him. This is the model of disciple making that Jesus gave us.¹⁹

Note how DMM proponents understand the model of disciple making. Jesus discipled his apostles “to conversion.” Trousdale understands the story of the gospels as one in which Jesus’ apostles followed him for a large portion of his ministry, learned from him, obeyed him, and ministered under his coaching, all prior to being converted to faith in him. Jesus was revealing himself to the (unconverted and unbelieving) twelve “all those years” as they obeyed him day by day. This understanding of the nature of Jesus’ discipleship of the twelve is the basis for OBD’s understanding of disciple making. Is this an accurate representation of the story of the gospel accounts?

The gospel of John recorded events for us during the week of the baptism of Jesus. He told us of the ministry of John the Baptist, as the forerunner to the Christ. He also told us of the claims being made about Jesus by him, and by some of the twelve. These claims are pivotal to us understanding how the twelve saw Jesus from the moment they began to follow him. Some of the twelve were disciples of John the Baptist. They were Jews who were well-acquainted with the Old Testament and who had been well-prepared for the coming Messiah. When Jesus arrived, we read the following,

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29)

John the Baptist’s confession of who Christ is, accompanied by a theophany confirming his identity, would have been known to John’s own disciples. Further, John the Baptist’s faith in Christ met John’s definition of saving faith,

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30)

In other words, we can safely assume John the Baptist had saving faith in Jesus Christ. Further, we also know John the Baptist’s disciples were aware of what he believed, and they followed him in this faith in Jesus, even believing Jesus is the promised Messiah (John 1:35–42). These two disciples of John the Baptist were Andrew and Simon Peter. Andrew and Peter added Philip and Nathanael the next day, who also professed faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah and Son of God (John 1:43–51).

We have direct evidence that, from the first week of his ministry, Jesus was being trusted by no less than four of the twelve. They professed him as the Christ, the Lord, the Son of God on numerous occasions precisely because they were born-again believers in Jesus by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only one who gives the new birth that enables a man to believe (John 3:1–8, 1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 John 5:1). Certainly, they struggled to trust and obey Jesus on every occasion. What believer doesn’t? However, it cannot be sustained that after years of obedience, as unconverted unbelievers, they finally converted to faith in Jesus.

If OBD is the method of discipleship learned from Jesus, was it the method followed by the apostles? Did the apostles live alongside unbelievers for days, weeks, months, or years helping them learn to obey Jesus until they reached a point of fully-devoted faith in Jesus as the Christ? It can be easily established that this was not the pattern of the twelve. Rather, in Jerusalem (Act 2–7), Judea and Samaria (Acts 8), and among the Gentiles (Acts 10–28), the twelve preached that Jesus is the resurrected Christ. They called their audiences to repent, believe, and be baptized. The Apostle Paul followed this same pattern. The twelve and Paul then focused on teaching those new converts. And these new converts were consistently referred to as saints, brothers and sisters in Christ, and members of the household of God. The church met regularly and “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). The twelve even appointed the seven to serve Hellenistic Jewish widows so that they could be devoted to “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:1–6). The Apostle Paul explained his own pattern of discipleship as not shrinking from declaring to the church “anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house” (Acts 20:20), and as not shrinking “from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Paul even admonishes the elders in Ephesus that they are to “care for the church of God” (Acts 20:28), which is the same Greek term for “feeding the sheep” Jesus used in John 21:16. He also commanded them to protect the church from false doctrine (Acts 20:29), as he did with tears (Acts 20:31). This is perfectly in accord with Paul’s requirement that an elder be able to teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9).

We simply never see a command, nor a pattern, from our Lord, nor his apostles, where unbelievers are discipled through regular obedience until they finally have sufficient trust in Christ to be baptized. Rather, the consistent method is the proclamation of the doctrine of the gospel. The proper response is faith and repentance, followed by baptism and teaching toward maturity in Christ. Yet, the proponents of DMM contend their method is learned from the Lord himself.

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This is the first part of a three part series. You can continue reading A Brief Guide to Disciple Making Movements in Part 2 and Part 3, or by downloading the PDF copy at the top of the article.