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Today The More Disciples Podcast team is exploring the partnership between sports and disciple making in an urban setting with guest Becky Bowden. They’ll discuss effective ways to move sports ministry from programming to disciple-making, always looking for relationships and pouring into those who are ready and willing to obey. Guest host Zach Duke joins the conversation today.
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In today’s episode, The More Disciples Podcast hosts explore collaboration, persistence, and open-handed obedience with guest Troy Cooper, who is seeing God do unimaginable work in southern California. After years of building and trusting, COVID has opened a new set of opportunities, challenges, and reasons to celebrate in one of the hardest soils in the Western world.
Meet Our Guest
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Guest host Eric joins The More Disciples Podcast team this week to discuss Zume, a training tool that equips ordinary people to use everyday methods to see extraordinary results. We will discuss how these resources have an impact among unreached people, in U.S. prisons, and across organizational barriers for effective collaboration as the Holy Spirit unites and multiplies disciples!
Mentioned in this episode: https://zume.vision/maps/
Meet Our GuestEric has worked with Team Expansion since 1989 in various roles and currently serves as their VP of Outreach. He collaborates with the Jonathan Project, the Zume Project, and the 2414 Network among other initiatives.
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Today’s guests, brothers Phillip and Chris Lynch, walk through developing leaders with The More Disciples Podcast. Together, they explore the way to give everyone the best chance to fully obey Jesus. The team discusses how to model investment like Jesus did, resulting in more disciples making more disciples!
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What does it look like to focus on obedience, relationships, and intentionality in discipleship settings? The More Disciples Podcast hosts explore that question with special guest Benjamin, who is serving as a multiplier in South Asia. Everywhere he goes, Benjamin brings new disciples with him on “Fishing Trips,” to follow, obey, and go. Despite great persecution, Benjamin is seeing great multiplication and transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit!
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This week, The More Disciples Podcast hosts are tackling disciple-making at home and abroad. This week’s guest shares what he has learned with movements in his own business, home city, and with unreached people in remote parts of the world, including unprecedented growth among unreached people during the pandemic!
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All churches are charged with making disciples, but what are some of the ways to make more disciples with a greater depth of obedience and faithfulness? In this episode, The More Disciples Podcast hosts welcome Damian Gerke to discuss ways to equip local churches with the tools and capacity to see disciple multiplication. The team will look at more options for the local church to help her fulfill the Great Commission.
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Guest host Neal Karsten joins The More Disciples Podcast team to explore how to help new disciples count the costs in discipleship. As disciples turn toward a life surrendered in obedience to Christ, the Bible is clear that hardships will come. The team will talk about the trials believers might face in different contexts and how to walk with and encourage one another through those hardships. Each disciple has different gifts and experiences that can be used for encouragement, empathy, and a call to persevere as we journey for the Kingdom together. Discipleship is hard, but it’s also beautiful and worthy!
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In this episode, The More Disciples Podcast team welcomes Bill Laky. After he and his wife experienced a crash course in multiplication principles on a trip to SE Asia, they began a disciple-making journey in their hometown in New Jersey. Bill and the hosts will talk about the importance of obedience, letting the Word do the work, and equipping followers of Christ to go through Scripture with others. They’ll also talk through the importance of bearing with one another so that the gifts of the Spirit can create true unity and love as the Gospel continues to spread.
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As we wrap up this segment on 7 Principles Lee Wood Learned in 7 Years, the More Disciples Podcast team will talk with Guy Caskey. Guy was pioneering multiplication movement principles years before others caught on, and he knows the struggles of pushing through alone and the blessings of having other organizations and churches to serve alongside. In this episode, we talk about the need to learn from and encourage one another with humility and grace so that together we can accomplish more for God’s Kingdom!
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The More Disciples Podcast hosts come together to reflect on the priority of relationships before organizations. They’ll reflect on how they personally learned that lesson, how they’ve seen the missions culture shift toward relationship, and mistakes they’ve made along the way. As we focus on relationships, we see more collaboration, more sharing of gifts and expertise, and a greater impact for the Kingdom.
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Today the More Disciples Podcast team welcomes Jim McKnight as they discuss the principle “Simple Things Grow, Simple Things Multiply.” When Jim realized his outreach for men and women in the military wasn’t resulting in long-term disciples, he drastically simplified his approach and now God is bringing great multiplication. Join us as we hear his story and discuss some simple practices that can spur great obedience.
Download the resource mentioned in the episode: Jim’s Six Training Lessons
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In this episode, the More Disciples Podcast hosts welcome Berk Wilson, who is actively obeying and training others to obey in Raleigh, North Carolina. What does it mean to be doers of the word and not just hearers, as we’re instructed in James 1:22? The team will discuss obedience and training in their own lives and reflect on principles and practices that instill a pattern of obedience and training from the beginning of discipleship.
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This week we’re talking with Victor John, a disciple-maker in India who has seen more than 20 million new disciples! His story illustrates Lee’s third principle: keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll get better at it. Through conflict, persecution, spiritual attack, and countless other obstacles, Victor persevered and God has brought about unbelievable transformation. Come hear Victor’s story and celebrate God’s amazing faithfulness.
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This episode we’ll be discussing Lee’s second principle of disciple multiplication: “Pour deeply into the few who will obey no matter what” with Trevor and Budi, who serve in Southeast Asia. We’ll reflect on what happens when we try to invest deeply in too many people at once. We’ll also talk about strategies to use in choosing your primary circle of influence, and discuss what it looks like to truly pour deeply into disciples.
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In this episode, The More Disciples Podcast hosts welcome multiplication pioneer Curtis Sergeant! As a disciple-maker, it’s easy to focus on the numbers, but in this episode, we’ll discuss a foundational, though counter-intuitive, idea: If you take care of the depth, God will take care of the breadth. Join us in asking the questions: Are you focusing on loving one another? Are you serving one another? Are you building community? Are you investing in disciples? And most importantly, are you a disciple who is worth multiplying?
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Are you ready to make more disciples of Jesus? Traditional disciple-making methods are too slow to keep up with population growth. Traditional disciple-making methods aren’t reaching your unchurched neighbors and they aren’t reaching people groups around the world who are without access to the Gospel. But there is a solution. In the More Disciples Podcast, we’re going to break it down step-by-step and show you exactly how you can start to make More Disciples, right away. In this episode, you’ll meet the hosts, learn about their disciple-making journeys, and gain an understanding of the basics of disciple-making movements.
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In this brief interview, Bill Wolf and Doug Cobb share their take on the special epoch in which we live. See if this doesn’t motivate you to make more disciples!
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An important component of disciple making is self-feeding. Self-feeding refers to items that must be evident in our lives if we are to become disciples worth reproducing. We should be producers not just consumers.
Every believer should be self-feeding. We need to make sure that we aren’t viewing our Sunday church service as the time to be fed spiritually – and not doing anything on our own the other days of the week. The purpose of the leaders in our church, according to Ephesians 4:11-12, is to equip us for ministry not to feed us.
We need to understand how to look for and identify a “man of peace” as they enter new communities. This term comes from Matthew 10 and Luke 10 when Jesus is giving instructions to His disciples. Essentially, a man or woman of peace is someone who is responsive and has a circle of influence and will open the door to that circle.
In this, the 28th edition of MoreDisciples Podcast, Doug interviews Roy Moran, then Doug & Eric try to digest everything they learn about hybrid churches — those congregations trying to combine traditional beachhead church approaches with disciple making movement approaches. Here’s a worksheet mentioned during the podcast on 7 Journeys.
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In this, our 17th Podcast at More Disciples, Allan and I interact with Troy Cooper regarding the “4 Fields” model for making disciples who make disciples. You can also download a 150-page book about the 4-Fields model by Nathan Shank.
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Dean Trune is the Director of Intentional Impact Ministries. He spoke recently at a PrayerWeekend staged at Team Expansion’s base, Emerald Hills, in Louisville, Kentucky. In this, our 16th Episode of MoreDisciples Podcast, we feature his opening session, “Living on our Mission Field.”
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In this Podcast episode 12, we hear from Terry and Amy, two workers in Africa who have been watching God raise up a disciple making movement right in front of their very eyes.
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Here’s GCCC Lead Pastor, Brian Gilroy, congratulating you on finishing Week 4 of the 30-Day Challenge.
Here’s GCCC Lead Pastor, Brian Gilroy, congratulating you on finishing Week 3 of the 30-Day Challenge.
Here’s GCCC Lead Pastor, Brian Gilroy, congratulating you on finishing Week 2 of the 30-Day Challenge.
Here’s GCCC Lead Pastor, Brian Gilroy, congratulating you on finishing Week 1 of the 30-Day Challenge.
What would it take to insure that there was “no place left” in Tulsa where Christ’s Name had not been named? That’s Bryan King’s quest. Check out his conclusions in this, our August 2016 webinar, the second in series of four webinars.
On March 16th, 2016, we featured the third webinar in the series, “How to get Your Church Involved in Disciple Making.” This edition was entitled, “My Friend Just Asked, ‘What About God?’ – Now What?” and it featured David Watson, author of Contagious Disciple Making, and DMM trainer with CityTeam and Doug Lucas, discussing…
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“The Must-Have’s For Disciple Making” was on February 24, 2016. It featured Dr. Curtis Sergeant, trainer of those who want to multiply disciples and Doug Lucas, President of Team Expansion discussing…
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If your ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God, then making disciples should be near tops on your list for how to go about fulfilling this. Sharing your testimony will be integral in this endeavor. So will prayer, especially to discern when and where. Years ago I was praying about what to preach at one of our favorite supporting churches. Each time I prayed, the Spirit living in me said, “Share your testimony.” For several weeks I battled this “bad idea.” In sermons we generally look ahead, rather than look back. So, eventually, I wrote another sermon, which would be typical for a returning missionary. On the Sunday morning in question, I got up to speak, with sermon in hand. As I looked out over the congregation, I felt like Jonah running away from Nineveh. So, with a deep sigh, I put the sermon away, and with no notes (no net), completely through the Spirit, began to unpack my suitcase. Apparently, God knew what I didn’t; and as I shared sometimes painful life lesson, people to my left were in tears, people to my right, and people straight ahead. Definitely, the Holy Spirit was at work in hearts. Go figure — God knew hearts and needs better than I. When the invitation was offered many responded — Praise the Lord! Completely drained, I was relieved to be going off to the safety of the Sunday School missions presentation. Then, rudely, after what seemed like only a few minutes, a deacon interrupted, and said, “We need to go!” “Go where?” I asked. “Second service,” was the reply. I groaned.
Last year we heard the harrowing testimony of a woman who had nearly died while fleeing her war-torn African nation. Her story of adversity, her conviction that God has rescued her for a purpose and her boldness in sharing her new-found faith — are all truly humbling. Chris, who plays the drums on one of our worship teams has resisted giving his life completely to Christ for nearly 20 years. In that time he has heard hundreds of sermons. Yet, on March 15, of 2015; Chris was immersed into Christ by Faith, from Africa. You never know who the Lord will rescue through the power of the Holy Spirit as you share your testimony.
Currently, I’m really interested in understanding how to integrate DMM principles in an existing (traditional, program-driven) church. How would that work? Jon Ralls recommended this article for starters. We’ve attached it to begin the discussion.
So my initial questions are:
So let’s start with those. Anybody have any feedback?
We’ve been back in the US for nearly 2 years, and hit the ground running. We spent the first year raising up and training small group leaders. The second year we’ve spent launching small groups. Why do I mention this? Well, what brings the greatest joy: making and training disciples, or watching those same disciples make more disciples? Truly, it is a greater joy being a grandparent in the faith. How fulfilling it is to see those you raised up going way beyond what you envisioned possible! Jesus did amazing things, but said his disciples would do even “greater things than these” (John 14:12). How cool is that!
Curtis Sergeant’s non-stop finger snapping sure got old quickly. But, isn’t it surreal to imagine that each snap is a soul that is forever lost. We might console ourselves by thinking that we don’t know them — until, one of those snaps is someone we know: maybe a friend, a family member, a neighbor or a co-worker dies suddenly. Grief hurts! Can we imagine knowing and loving every single person represented by every finger snap? God can. God does. The people on my list: members of my golf league and my neighbors — may I be found faithful.
Again, in Taiwan, decisions to accept Christ were seldom made quickly. Baptism was seen as a point of no return to the old way life; and the beginning of persecution for many new believers. We would ask them to prepare their testimony and share it with the church on the day they gave their life to Christ. Makes sense, since they were going to be defending their faith from the get-go! And, it set a pattern, an expectation, for the believers to come. When we were called to Memorial, they asked me to bring “my missions mind-set.” My response was, “Are you sure about that?” The leadership was, and we have — including, training everyone to prepare and share their testimony. God can do amazing things when we faithfully share how God has rescued us!
When we were missionaries in sub-tropical Taiwan, most of the year it was really hot and humid. Prayer walking needed to be done in the early morning, or evening (which fits the city-never-sleeps culture nicely). I chose to prayer jog in the mornings. I would run past the temples and pray for them to be empty of people. I would run inside the stadium and pray that one day it will be filled with believers singing praise to the Lord. I would jog past the homes of new believers and pray for them to be strong in the Lord. I would jog past my neighbors and pray, “Lord, give me opportunities to share the Gospel with them; the boldness and the words (Chinese) to speak your truth with love.” Often, on those early morning runs, while most of the city still slept; I would listen for God’s voice. Most of the Kingdom things we did came from listening to the Lord. Like Joshua and the Israelites marching faithfully around Jericho — good things happen when you prayer walk.
Day 29: Unreached Peoples. Where I live, I pretty much assume that everyone has had the opportunity to hear about Christ. I am finding more and more that this is not necessarily the case, but there are definitely opportunities for most Americans to hear the gospel at least once. It is insane to me that there continue to be whole people groups who have never even had the opportunity to hear about a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them.
There was once a time that my husband and I were planning to head overseas to spread the gospel of Christ with an unreached people group. Then some unexpected things happened which have required us to stay here for at least a while. It is sometimes hard to feel like you have a place in reaching unreached people groups when you can’t go be with them teaching them about the gospel and showing them the love of Christ, but there is SO much that we can do. We can start with prayer. Every great Christian movement was first covered in prayer. I think sometimes we underestimate the power of prayer because we don’t have the faith that God will actually listen to us or come through for us, but prayer is SO powerful. A great way to start this is through using an app that was recommended to me called JP Unreached. It is the Joshua Project in app form. It gives you an “unreached people group of the day” and a little bit of information about that people group so that you can somewhat more specifically pray for an unreached group of people in the world. Another thing we can do is give. There are many missionaries that you can support that are sharing the gospel to unreached people groups. They need funding to be able to continue the work that they are doing. We can also encourage. I once had a friend spend a summer in Russia working with a local church there. When she came home she talked about how hard it was to feel disconnected from people at home. She said people wrote for the first few weeks, but then seemed to forget about her. IF it is safe for you to send mail, an email, or connect with them on social media, take some time to write a missionary an encouraging note to let them know you are praying for the work they are doing. Lastly, we can go. We all have a place to be spreading the gospel. For you, it might not mean an unreached people group, but it could mean an unreached person. You might go to another country and share the love of Christ in a location not your own. Or you might stay where you are; in many areas, especially around college campuses, there are members of unreached people groups right at your back door. You just have to open your eyes to where the gospel isn’t.
March 16, 2017 Webinar Notes
“My Friend Just Asked, “What About God? – Now What?” featuring David Watson, DMM Trainer with CityTeam and author of “Contagious Disciple Making”
Click here for printable pdf – March 16 Webinar Notes – David Watson
April 27th Webinar Notes – “The Magic of Multiplication: How my church can make it happen” featuring Dr. George Patterson
Click here for printable pdf: Webinar Notes – Dr. George Patterson
Dr. George Patterson – “Insightful, pastoral and lively”, 83 years old, Sebring, FL
Ironically, a lot of unbelievers come to the Lord if they get into a 3/3 group. With a group of unbelievers you only have to make very small adjustments to the format. They discover that the Bible is relevant and begin to learn about the character and nature of God, etc. Of course, the accountability time looks a little bit different than with believers, but it is still similar. In some ways it functions the way the Law does in relation to the Gospel. The Law shows people their need for grace. If people are unable to follow through on their commitments, it can function in the same way at times. Even if that doesn’t happen, people are often drawn to the Bible and to the Lord through the process. It provides a good opportunity to discover spiritual truth in community with others whom they know. They also begin to learn about multiplication, hermeneutics, community, etc.
Curtis Sergeant
I love stories! Stories of others inspire me and changed life stories of how God got a hold of someone really inspire me. Something we don’t do enough is share our stories. We have been practicing in our discipleship group being able to tell our stories in under 3 minutes. It has been a fun game. Well, tonight I listened to the video and read what to do quickly as I was running 100 mph today. At 8:30 I was supposed to go to discipleship group but my 7 year old daughter would not let me leave as the babysitter came. So I ended up staying home helping my 4 & 7 year old girls go to bed until my wife got back at 9:30 with my teenage boys from their track meet. I left in a rush and showed up at discipleship group. As I sat down they guys said “Your turn. We just got done telling our stories and critiquing them and it is your turn.” I chuckled, but they were serious. So I gave my testimony leaving out some details they had heard before and changing my story line back and forth. I didn’t come prepared(shame on me!) When I got done a few of the guys were honest and graceful with me on how I could make it better. They stated that maybe you should work on 3 testimonies with 3 story lines and you should write them all out. This was great advice as I sometimes don’t finish things well or think through things well enough. I am going to work on that and get them done this week….stay tuned. The stories I connect with most are well thought out and have purpose. One of the guys suggested that next time we split into pairs and share our story but whoever you are sharing your story with gets to tell you about the person you would be sharing with. You could choose someone who has been hurt by the church, someone going through a death, a teenager, etc. I thought this was a great idea! It is good to practice and be ready for different situations.
Why do we not take evangelism seriously? We think planning makes us feel rehearsed and not real but I feel like God gives us tools to use. I listened to a local pastor recently share about evangelism. He asked the group “In farming who grows the crops?” Everyone responded well duh “God does.” He then said “So, do you just throw the seed out and have it grow?” They stated “No, of course not.” He then went on to explain that you use the tools God has given you such as tractors and GPS and other technology to do it well. He then challenged us that God has given us tools for evangelism and we don’t prepare at all. He then stated that he asked most people in his church if a non-Christian came to your door and asked why you lived the way you do what would you say? A majority of his church could not give a response. He then challenged everyone and said we should all be able to do share our testimony, that is like someone setting the ball on the tee ready for you to hit it out of the park.
As I have worked on my testimony in the last couple of years I have had many opportunities to share it. I have got to share it with truck drivers at work, with sales people, with customers, with my son’s 6th grade basketball team I coached, and many other times. If I would have not prepared I would have not been ready.
Another more seasoned gentleman in our group awhile made the emphasis that Jesus needs to be the hero and the main one in our story. It is about what Jesus did in our life and not about what we did!
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