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The initial data is in and things aren’t what many of us thought. Our people aren’t returning to church as fast as we would like. Those who have reopened are only having 20% to 50% of their worship attendance. The early spike in online engagement has settled down and is even declining. The virus is spiking and many church leaders are discouraged.
There is good news! Your church can thrive in spite of the uncertain season we are in. I want to give you a simple way forward where you can experience a disciple-making movement regardless of your churches size. In this webinar you will discover: 1) Two simple disciple-making rhythms 2) Five principles that lead to rapid reproduction 3) A simple non-program approach to disciple-making that anyone can lead 4) Five different types of disciples Anyone signing up or participating will receive my brand new resource, The Gospel Disciple Life: A Micro-Group Strategy for Making Disciples that Make Disciples. Register now and join us August 13th at 1PM ET for this free webinar on "Micro-Discipleship". See you there!
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I once heard Len Sweet describe the movement of God is like a tornado in that it touches down randomly opposed to a hurricane that swipes across a landscape destroying everything in its path. He paused and went on by saying if we would ever learn to connect the dots. I remember reflecting on this conversation and thinking I want to spend the rest of my life connecting the dots.
That's precisely what I've done with Gospel Disciple Life Micro-Groups, I've connected a lot of dots. I don't claim any originality with this approach. However, there are some of my unique nuances. Let me say before I give you the principles that drive this approach that my goal was to make it as reproducible as possible, and I believe I have. Gospel first approach. There was a season in my life when I went on a kind of fast. I spent a year reading through the gospels. In that year, I read nothing else. My goal was to rediscover the simplicity of Jesus and His ways. The Gospel Disciple Life is a gospel first approach. Those who participate will spend up to 18 weeks reading through the gospel. Simple enough to reproduce. Micro-groups can be led by anyone, at any time, and in any place. They are designed for three people, with one serving as a facilitator. The goal of the micro-group is rapid reproduction by making disciples that make disciples. A healthy micro-group can consist of pre-disciples, new disciples, growing disciples, leading disciples, and catalytic disciples (types of disciples). The goal is not to control them, but to allow them to multiply through natural relational networks rapidly. By limiting them to three, it forces you to reproduce new groups to grow. Scripture is our curriculum. Each micro-group begins by working through the gospel as a scripture-only approach. It is recommended that a new group start by reading through Mark. Mark is the shortest and, in some ways, the easiest to read of the four gospels. It will take approximately three weeks to get through Mark. It is important to note that it is not necessary to complete all four Gospels to multiply. Some groups will be ready or designed to reproduce after completing their first gospel together, while others will complete all four. Holy Spirit is our teacher. Key to the Gospel Disciple Life is learning to hear the Spirit. Each day you will read the Scripture while asking, "What is Jesus saying to me through His Scripture?" and "What am I going to do about it?" Following Jesus is our ultimate objective. A disciple is a follower of Jesus that is learning to live like Jesus, love like Jesus, and leave what Jesus left behind. Therefore, our goal is to learn to see God at work, hear His voice, understand His ways, and to follow Him, which is why we continually ask, "What is Jesus saying to me through His Scripture?" and "What are you going to do about it?" Invite your one approach. Inviting your one is absolutely key to making disciples that make disciples. A new micro-group is launched when someone asks their one to read through the gospels with them when you find that one, you invite them to invite one more. Once you invite your one, you have taken the first step in making disciples. That one can be an existing disciple or a pre disciple. It's that simple. You are now ready to get started. For more information sign up for our free coaching call! A few years back, I wrote a book called Breaking the Discipleship Code. My goal was helping churches transition from a weekend-mostly to a disciple-making culture. Then it happened; we experienced a radical shift in culture. We went from developing strategies to reach 'seekers' to trying to figure out how to get the attention and engage the 'nones', not an easy task.
Just about that time, I felt as if we were getting a handle on disciple-making, well we had a pandemic. Who among us could have imagined something coming our way that would stop our worship services and our small group meetings? While this time has been challenging, it has also served up a fresh batch of hope for the Church. It's amazing how the Church keeps finding a way. When Jesus declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church, He was spot-on. Our ecosystem as a church has radically changed over the past few months. People are showing up online and in parking lots who have previously stayed away at any cost. Our mission of making disciples has resurfaced as our go-to strategy for being the Church. New forms and expressions, both new and old, had led the way. One strategy now stands head and shoulders above the rest, they go by different names, but I call them micro-groups. They are simply groups of 3 to 5 disciples that are committed to rapid multiplication. This strategy is the most bulletproof and straightforward approach to being and making disciples that I have come across. Here's a little taste of what's to come in our next webinar in the form of four principles that every micro-group follows. Principles:
Join me in our upcoming webinar on May 19th, where I will lay out this simple strategy that you can integrate and make a part of your new normal. See you there! Our Dilemma
We’ve lost our way. We have become all about our weekend services and religious consumption. We have substituted being the church for doing church, and God is showing us a whole new way. He is inviting us into a journey of rediscovering the simplicity of Jesus and His Way. He is inviting us to be and make disciples not just any kind of disciples, but gospel disciples. I invite you to join me on this journey." This is the opening paragraph of my forthcoming book, “The Gospel Disciple Journey.” I’ve been writing it for the past few years. I was waiting on my heart to mature and for the right time to be heard. It seems like It’s now or never. COVID-19, in many ways, has served as a wake-up call for all. By all, I mean those us who lead and work with the church, faithful churchgoers, and even those who are what we call disconnected or far from God. As Michael Frost has reminded us in a recently released webinar, we have lost our queen, comparing the chess piece with our weekend services. He goes on to say if you want to master the game of chess, learn to master it without your queen, and then reintroduce your queen. We have lost our weekend services as we know them, and now is the time to learn to be the church. In the next couple of weeks, things are likely to start returning to normal. Returning to normal will be slow and will include setbacks. Some recent indicator suggests that there will be limits to our worship gatherings for up to a year. Yet we will return to a normal we are familiar with, or for some, perhaps we will venture into a new normal. A new normal could mean transitioning from a weekend-only to a disciple-making culture. A new normal where we gather to equip disciples to be the church where we live, work, and play. A new normal where parents are the primary disciple-makers for their children. A new normal where praying for and with our neighbors is a regular practice even when our neighbors are “far from God.” A new normal where we are using our resources to serve those who are in need, including the widows, orphans, and the poor. A new normal where churches work together for the restoration of their cities. A new normal where the church is more scattered than gathered, and when we do come together, our gatherings will be so special and certainly not taken for granted. I could go on-and-on, but you get the picture. How do we steward a new normal in our churches? It begins with our culture. Now is the time to get on our knees and gather a few leaders and begin to seek God for this new normal. With a renewed heart, there are Five Irreducible Questions of Disciple-Making we must ask. They are: • What is our disciple-making mission? • What are our disciple-shaping values? • What is our disciple-moving strategy? • What are our disciple-forming measures? • What is our disciple-guiding dream? Clarity around these five questions can change everything. Now is the time to grab your most trusted staff and leaders and go on a journey together into a Better Future. 1 http://www.forgeamerica.com/podcast/2020/3/23/special-episode-mike-frost-and-alan-hirsch-on-covid19?fbclid=IwAR37k1tdXl4k7vyOSPCqfYSXzN6dfms7aQByfFIC7bY_wXwBwnF8sIE0DD8 Like so many Jesus followers, I sat in my family room with my wife, Tami and watched our church service online this past Sunday. I missed attending church with my children and grandchildren. I missed Sunday brunch at my favorite spot with my family. However, what I gained was a lot of time to process what I was hearing and what’s happening in our world with Covid-19.
Here’s what I came up with…
My encouragement to you is not to focus on what you can’t do but focus on what you can do. Take a few moments this weekend and develop your own Covid-19 Response Plan. For me, this came out of a sermon I heard, a conversation I had, reflection time I took, and simple journal notes I made. If you already have a plan or develop one, I would love to hear from you. Let’s encourage one another. |
AuthorDavid Putman is the founder of Planting the Gospel and a Senior Lead Navigator with Auxano the category leader in vision clarity. When David isn't writing or consulting he enjoys staying fit and competing at Crossfit. Archives
August 2020
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