Learning from a movement leader

Earlier this year I went to a small gathering where a movement leader* from Africa spoke.* Here are some key insights I took away.

• I was struck that this man who has paved the way for multiplicative disciple-making in his country and region came to faith in a very traditional way: at an evangelistic tent meeting. It’s a reminder that God will do the work and He can use whatever means He desires for His glory and purposes.

• As he was sharing his story, however, I was wondering: Who discipled this guy? We all know that a single evangelistic sermon would not turn out a fully devoted follower of Jesus, much less one with a vision to multiply disciples. Even as I was pondering this, he shared that he had an intense desire for the word of God from his conversion. I’ve heard and seen this before, where a new believer has access to the word and almost literally eats it up. The Bible was his discipleship material, so it is no surprise that the Bible is his go-to discipleship handbook now.

• Another theme that I’ve read about in other movement leaders also held true for this man: He was a self-described ‘crazy evangelist’ at first. He told a story of sharing the Gospel with a cab driver who had paying customers in the car waiting for their ride. (!!)

• They have seen movements of disciples emerge out of both cultural/nominal Christian contexts and very devout Muslim contexts.

• He offered the following as key ingredients to what they were seeing God do:

  1. The Word of God is the central authority.

  2. They believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.

  3. Ordinary people are empowered to do the work of making disciples.

  4. Obedience to the Word is championed.

  5. They have strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations and churches.

  6. You need to leave your personal ego behind.

• The following two points really spoke to me:

  1. Courage to obey despite risks. He had a great explanation of how we all have an outcome that we want to see: We want to see the Kingdom come to where we are laboring, we want to see new disciples birthed. And we even maybe have taken some initial steps of obedience toward that vision that excites us. But between the outcomes that we want to see and what we’re currently seeing is the need to take God-given risks for his glory and kingdom. Are we willing to do so?

  2. The importance of intercessory prayer. “When we are not praying, we work. When we pray, God works.” (This is actually a misquote of Hudson Taylor who said: “When we work, we work. When we pray God works.”). I like this new version better, because it illustrates that we have a tendency to just “work harder” when we are not committing things to the Lord in prayer.

*End Notes:

Movement leader: He reported that they were seeing 75 new disciples each day in the movement that he was stewarding. Lord, make it so here.

For security purposes, I am leaving out specifics about this man and his work.