The power of disciple making movements with New Generations

At All Access we are deeply committed to have partnered with New Generations, whose efforts through the Disciple Making Movements (DMM) model has produced significant impact in the spread of the Gospel and planting of churches across the globe.

In this post we want to explore New Generations’ approach to church planting and disciple-making via the DMM, unpacking what it entails, and why it is so effective.

The Core Initiative of New Generations: Disciple Making Movements

Disciple Making Movements is a strategic approach to church planting, evangelism, and faith community building that focuses on the multiplication of disciples of Jesus through natural, relational networks.

At its core, DMM aims to establish self-replicating groups of believers, embedded in their own cultures and locations, who become and grow as disciples of Jesus, and then in turn, reach, teach and mentor others within their communities.

DMM is driven by the power of natural, personal relationships and communal bonds to spread faith organically, ensuring that each new group is capable of initiating its cycle of growth. Through a process of teaching, obedience, and replication, DMM fosters deep, sustainable, local Christian communities that can expand exponentially, reaching and transforming diverse populations across different regions and cultures.

Extending Reach Globally

New Generations leads with DMM and focuses on establishing churches that naturally grow and replicate through local community and organic sharing of faith. Their work has resulted in 129,000 new churches and 2.6 million new followers of Jesus in 93 countries over 19 years.

This wide-reaching effect highlights the initiative’s ability to adapt and resonate across diverse cultural, geographic, and linguistic landscapes. It’s a clear indication that the principles of DMM—rooted in creating self-replicating groups of believers—are universally applicable and can thrive in various settings.

The success of this approach is not just measured by the numbers but also by the depth of community engagement and the personal transformations that occur within these newly formed congregations, even in places where practicing faith openly is difficult. Being rooted in the local community, quietly working from person to person, DMM’s methods allow for keeping a low profile while maintaining significant impact, enabling the growth of faith communities under adverse conditions.

Central to the strategy of extending DMM’s reach globally has been the emphasis on local leadership—which we’ll unpack more below—and community-driven growth. By focusing on indigenous leaders who possess an intrinsic understanding of their community’s unique needs and cultural context, New Generations ensures that the spread of faith is organic and relevant.

This way of embedding the movement within the local fabric allows for a respectful and inclusive approach to sharing faith, ensuring that it complements rather than overrides local customs and values. The result is a form of spiritual community that not only grows in size but also deepens in its connection to the cultural and social dynamics of each locale, reflecting a nuanced approach to global outreach.

The Role of Indigenous Leadership

The success of New Generations’ approach largely rests on over 23,000 indigenous leaders globally. Non-indigenous missionaries are seen as initial catalysts and coaches, discipling local leaders and starting self-sustaining movements, but then it is these local leaders and movements who go on to do the work of discipleship and church planting in their contexts themselves. These leaders, many of whom volunteer or receive minimal compensation, are crucial to the movement, leading and serving the communities within which they live.

The emphasis on indigenous leadership is important because it acknowledges that those who are deeply embedded within their own cultural and social contexts are best positioned to navigate the complexities of evangelism, church planting, and discipleship in their communities. This approach employs the unique insights, relationships, and credibility that local leaders hold, enabling the movement to grow organically and authentically within diverse settings.

By entrusting the leadership to individuals from within the community, DMM ensures that the initiatives are culturally sensitive, socially relevant, and highly adaptive to local needs and challenges. This empowerment of indigenous leaders also creates a sense of ownership and commitment among the community members, making the movement more resilient and impactful.

On top of that, the focus on indigenous leadership allows for a model of mentorship and training that is grounded in real-life experiences and practical wisdom. Local leaders, by virtue of their firsthand understanding of their community’s dynamics, are equipped to mentor new believers in a way that is both relatable and effective, bridging the gap between the teachings of Jesus and daily living.

This close mentorship ensures that the core principles of discipleship and community building are passed down in a manner that resonates with the lived experiences of the community members. As a result, the churches under the guidance of indigenous leaders are not only more cohesive and vibrant but also more capable of addressing the specific spiritual and societal needs of their members.

Fostering Growth Through Multiplication

The DMM approach emphasizes the idea of “generations of churches, planting churches”—the creation of new faith communities that, in turn, possess the drive and capacity to establish subsequent generations of churches themselves. The strength of this model lies in its focus on replication and sustainability, ensuring that the growth of the movement is not solely dependent on external support or leadership.

By nurturing a culture where each church is both a beneficiary and a contributor to the growth of the movement, DMM fosters a chain reaction of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. This method transcends traditional boundaries, allowing the movement to multiply across various cultural and geographic contexts. It is a testament to the movement’s vitality and its potential for natural, exponential growth that over the past two decades they’ve seen, in some places, ten to thirty-five generations of churches planting churches.

At the same time, multiplication is not only about churches multiplying and planting more churches. On an individual level, the DMM model trains and empowers followers of Jesus to share their faith with and disciple other individuals. Multiplication then happens naturally and intentionally at all levels. It also insists on the importance of embedding core values and teachings deeply within each community, ensuring that the essence of the faith is preserved and strengthened with each new generation.

Ensuring Resilience and Adaptability

Resilience and adaptability are also natural byproducts of DMM, primarily because, as we mentioned above, it builds on the principle of self-replication and the active involvement of community members. This method allows churches to adjust and respond to their specific circumstances and needs. By focusing on individual discipleship and the transformation of members, the DMM strategy helps form a community that is committed to its faith and supportive of each other in difficult times. This support system enhances the church’s ability to withstand challenges. Additionally, the model’s reliance on local leadership and practices tailored to fit the community’s cultural and social context means that churches grow naturally within their environment, making them better suited to address local challenges and remain relevant.

The approach of fostering successive generations of churches that initiate further churches ensures the movement’s ongoing growth and adaptability. This generational approach allows each new set of churches to benefit from the lessons learned by those before them while also confronting their unique challenges, thereby accumulating a wealth of knowledge and strategies for adaptation. This process of continuous learning and the multiplication of leaders across generations equip the churches to evolve and prosper under changing conditions, seizing new growth opportunities as they arise.

Our Collective Journey Toward Global Impact

Our collaboration with New Generations reflects a mutual dedication to making a real difference in providing access to the gospel for all. You can find out more about their work in general, as well as the ways in which we at All Access partner with them in particular here.

We encourage our community to support this important work. Your participation is more than just aid—it’s an investment in effectively making the gospel accessible to all.

Listen to the episode here.

This article was created using AI generated from the episode.

‍