David Watson is a well-known name in DMM training circles. He has boiled down DMM to 21 key principles:
- Group process over individual process
- Prayer
- Scripture, by way of an inductive Bible study process called “Discovery Bible Study”
- Households, or existing social units, rather than individuals
- Making disciples of Jesus not converts to a religion
- Obedience to commands of Jesus rather than doctrinal distinctives
- Access ministry – i.e., developing relationships with non-believers
- Ministry – meeting people’s needs leads to evangelism
- Timing – knowing when people are ready
- Intentionality and planning
- Person of peace – i.e., a receptive, influential person who is the gateway for a social unit coming to Christ
- Appropriate evangelism – i.e., communicating the good news in ways that make sense to people in their particular cultural context
- 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.”
- Reproduction at every level – disciples, leaders, and churches
- Indigenous leaders – i.e., cultural insiders are the best church planters
- The work of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Scripture
- Persecution
- Mentoring, which is the work of developing the whole person
- Self-support – in almost every case there are no paid ministers, no buildings to maintain
- Redeeming the culture
- Awareness of spiritual warfare
His church-planting movement process might be summed up in this way:
- Find access to friendship with disconnected people;
- Serve and love disconnected friends;
- Identify a “person of peace” from among those friends;
- 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;
- Facilitate the group in deciding to follow Jesus and become a church;
- 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:
Access:
http://www.davidlwatson.org/2008/10/26/understanding-transition-points-%e2%80%93-access/
Finding the Person of Peace:
From Person of Peace to Small Group:
From Small Group to Church:
It’s Time to Say Goodbye:
