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David Watson is a well-known name in DMM training circles. He has boiled down DMM to 21 key principles:

  1. Group process over individual process
  2. Prayer
  3. Scripture, by way of an inductive Bible study process called “Discovery Bible Study”
  4. Households, or existing social units, rather than individuals
  5. Making disciples of Jesus not converts to a religion
  6. Obedience to commands of Jesus rather than doctrinal distinctives
  7. Access ministry – i.e., developing relationships with non-believers
  8. Ministry – meeting people’s needs leads to evangelism
  9. Timing – knowing when people are ready
  10. Intentionality and planning
  11. Person of peace – i.e., a receptive, influential person who is the gateway for a social unit coming to Christ
  12. Appropriate evangelism – i.e., communicating the good news in ways that make sense to people in their particular cultural context
  13. Starting churches, Watson’s definition of which is: “groups of baptized believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that gather to worship, fellowship and nurture one another, and, outside of gatherings, endeavor to obey all the commands of Christ in order to transform families and communities.”
  14. Reproduction at every level – disciples, leaders, and churches
  15. Indigenous leaders – i.e., cultural insiders are the best church planters
  16. The work of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Scripture
  17. Persecution
  18. Mentoring, which is the work of developing the whole person
  19. Self-support – in almost every case there are no paid ministers, no buildings to maintain
  20. Redeeming the culture
  21. Awareness of spiritual warfare

His church-planting movement process might be summed up in this way:

  1. Find access to friendship with disconnected people;
  2. Serve and love disconnected friends;
  3. Identify a  “person of peace” from among those friends;
  4. Work with that person of peace to invite his/her social unit (family or affinity group) into a 15-30 week inductive Bible study led by person of peace or someone else from social unit;
  5. Facilitate the group in deciding to follow Jesus and become a church;
  6. Facilitate the process of that new church sending out church planters to start the process again.

Watson has written several helpful blogs about the discipleship cycle — or, in his case, more specifically, the CPM cycle. Here are some blog entries to consider:

Understanding Transition Points:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/03/28/church-planting-essentials-%e2%80%93-understanding-transition-points/

Access:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/10/26/understanding-transition-points-%e2%80%93-access/

Finding the Person of Peace:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/03/14/understanding-transition-points-%e2%80%93-finding-the-person-of-peace/

From Person of Peace to Small Group:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/04/25/understanding-transition-points-%e2%80%93-from-person-of-peace-to-small-group/

From Small Group to Church:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/10/29/understanding-transition-points-%e2%80%93-from-small-group-to-church/

It’s Time to Say Goodbye:

http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/05/02/understanding-transitions-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-say-goodbye/

Doug Lucas

Author Doug Lucas

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