The DMM strategy and model emerged from the Church Planting Movement (CPM). The modern phenomenon of rapidly multiplying DMMs in Christian missions was brought to the attention of missiologists and practitioners in the 1990s through the work of David Garrison and others who observed “streams of multiplying churches within ethnolinguistic people groups” (Slack 2011). The Phenomenon and Methodology of Disciple-Making Movements First, is the DMM approach of deducing effective methodologies from successful movements consistent with the missio Dei? Second, is the form of church that results from DMM principles and practices an appropriate expression of the missio Dei? Third, is the practice of welcoming nonbelievers into a discipleship journey consistent with the missio Dei? Because it considers how DMMs function within a missio Dei rather than theological framework, it is more metatheological than theological.Īfter briefly overviewing of DMMs and DMM principles, this article proposes that the missio Dei can function as a hermeneutic to address theological questions and concerns about DMMs and explores three questions about DMMs using the missio Dei lens. It argues that DMMs are appropriately grounded in a dialogical process between the biblical text and context – an ongoing missional praxis – that reflects the priorities and purposes of God’s mission revealed in the Bible.
This article seeks to sketch a way forward, or at least stimulate current dialogue, by following D Bosch (19) and CJH Wright (2006) in their focus on the missio Dei, the mission of God, and suggesting that the missio Dei serves as an appropriate and adequate theological framework and hermeneutic to justify the methodological emphases of DMM principles and practices. My theological development has led me to embrace Disciple-Making Movements (DMMs) as one effective way God is using to bring about his kingdom in this world.Įmbracing a phenomenon as a movement of God requires theological justification. My failure to accomplish what I had hoped resulted in a period of reflection and research as I interacted with missiologists and learned from mission practitioners who have experienced a moving of God’s Spirit in their ministry. During my years as an evangelist and church planter among an unreached people group (1985-99), I struggled because of misconceptions I had about my role as church planter, my vision of church, the meaning of disciple making, and the activities I needed to be involved in to plant a church.
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