“In Multiplying Disciples, Winfield Bevins masterfully explores a number

of historical discipling movements. Bringing much insightful and

practical reflection, this book will stir and challenge you to want to be
part of a similar movement today.”
-Matthew Porter, Vicar of The Belfrey in York, England, and author
of A-Z of Discipleship.

“The 21st Century demands a new and revitalized apostolic movement

of disciple making leaders like never before in the history of the Church.
This book will become a blueprint to accomplish a such monumental task
for those seeking to establish the kingdom of God.”
-Rev Dr. Iosmar Alvarez, Senior Pastor of Fuente de Avivamiento and
Founder of Disciple 21 Network

“Winfield Bevins is on the forefront of this contemporary movement.

Bevins is a practitioner, not an armchair theologian. He does not claim
to have all of the answers, but he has been around long enough to know
most of the questions. We all can learn something from this man, and it
is a pleasure to commend his teaching to you.”
-Dr. Robert Coleman

“To say that the task of making disciples that make disciples is an
important feature of a missional movement is an understatement—it is
absolutely critical. Fail here and we will fail everywhere. Winfield has
gifted us with a book that not only reminds us of the importance of
discipleship, but one that gives us some seriously useful tools in helping us
become a disciple-making movement. We are grateful.”
-Alan Hirsch, award winning writer on missional leadership,
spirituality, and organization. Founder of the Movement Leaders
Collective, Forge Mission Training Network, and 100 Movements.
Multiplying Disciples: What Movements Can Teach Us About Discipleship
Copyright © 2019 Exponential, written by Winfield Bevins

Exponential is a growing movement of activists committed to the multiplication of

healthy new churches. Exponential Resources spotlights actionable principles, ideas and
solutions for the accelerated multiplication of healthy, reproducing faith communities.
For more information, visit [Link].

[Link] is a collaborative community of men and women committed to the

discipleship lifestyle—being disciples of Jesus and making disciples of Jesus.

All rights reserved. No part of this book, including icons and images, may be
reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from copyright holder,
except where noted in the text and in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
New International Version, copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible
Society. All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1-62424-048-5 (ebook)

Edited by Lindy Lowry

Foreword by Bobby Harrington
Cover design by Harrington Interactive Media
 Special Invitation

Please consider attending one of our Exponential 2020 events. Our goal
is to help shape your paradigm for multiplication, inspire and encourage
you to multiply, and equip you to turn ideas into action. In our 2020
conferences, we’ll be focusing on what it takes to work together to pursue
Kingdom collaboration.

2020 Theme: Together: Pursuing the Great Collaboration

Locations and dates: Our global conference, Exponential in Orlando,

Florida, is a full-service event with thousands of attendees, 150+ speakers,
40+ tracks, and 150+ workshops. Our Exponential regional events are
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Go to [Link]/2020 to learn more and to register.

5
 Inside

Foreword by Bobby Harrington

Introduction: Facing the Music
Chapter 1: Be Thou My Vision: St. Patrick and the Celtic Way of
Making Disciples

Chapter 2: Into All the World: Count Zinzendorf and Missional

Discipleship

Chapter 3: Banding Together: The Discipleship Methods of John

Wesley

Epilogue: Marks of a Disciple-Making Movement

Acknowledgements
Appendix: 10 Affirmations of a Disciple-Making Movement
About the Author
 Foreword

At [Link], our team has been working with national and

international leaders on the key elements of disciple-making movements
and disciple-making cultures. Even though there are over 330 million
people in the United States, we have not been able to identify clear
disciple-making movements in our country at this time. Yet, missionary
experts and organizations like [Link] point to almost 1,000
active disciple-making movements in other parts of the world.
As my friend Winfield Bevins points out—in the past, right here in
America, there were significant movements like those mentioned in this
book. He gives us hope that God will lead us to see them again in the
future. In fact, Multiplying Disciples encourages us to look back for tools
for the future. This book is also helpful in the quest to better understand
disciple-making cultures at an individual church level. We believe that
we will not see truly revolutionary disciple-making movements within
churches in North America again until we create disciple-making
cultures. Here are some of the character traits of disciple-making
movements.

1. Disciple making is motivated by a loving, deep concern for people lost

without salvation in Jesus.
2. Disciple making is the core mission and foundation of the church and
everything the church does.
3. Every decision made and every dollar spent passes through the filter:
How does this help us to make disciples?
4. Praying and fasting are significantly entrenched—it happens a couple
of times a week and it is intensified in special seasons—asking for God
to empower the mission of reaching as many as possible.

9
 Multiplying Disciples

5. Almost everyone has been mobilized to the mission of making

disciples.
6. Church leaders are focused on continual coaching and sustaining the
disciple-making groups, classes, and bands.
7. There is joyful expectation that everyone a) obeys all of Jesus’
commands and b) joins the mission.
8. Everyone understands the mission and method to be used.
9. A disciple-making movement regularly results in new church plants.

I am grateful to Winfield Bevins for his good work on this book. It is the
kind of work that gives us hope grounded in the ministry of those who
have gone before us in the past for making and multiplying disciples for
future generations to come.
-Bobby Harrington, [Link].
Founder and lead servant at [Link] and [Link]

10
 Introduction

Facing the Music

The church has tried to get world
evangelization without disciple making.
—Bill Hull

I n Matthew 28, our Savior tells us to make disciples. The two words
Jesus spoke to His disciples carried huge weight. The disciples
understood that “make disciples” meant more than simply convincing
someone to believe in Jesus. These men who had walked with and listened
to Jesus for the last three years of their lives interpreted their leader’s
command to mean that they should make out of others what Jesus made
out of them.1
Discipleship veteran Robert Coleman explains, “The Great
Commission is not merely to go to the ends of the earth preaching the
gospel (Mark 16:15), nor to baptize a lot of converts into the name of
the triune God, nor to teach them the precepts of Christ, but to ‘make
disciples’—to build people like themselves who were so constrained by
the commission of Christ that they not only follow, but also led others to
follow his way.”2

1. Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Pastor. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2003.
58.
2. Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism. Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H.
Revell, 1972. 101.

11
 Multiplying Disciples

The Great Commission is rooted in the concept of the missio Dei— a

Latin theological term that simply means the “mission of God.”3 Missio
Dei recognizes that there is one mission: God’s mission.4 The missio Dei
term reveals that God is a missionary God. The very being of God is
the basis for the missionary enterprise. God is a sending God, with a
desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed and healed.5
Throughout Scripture and history, God’s mission can be seen. Consider
the well-known John [Link] “God so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life.” The church is not an end in itself; the church points beyond itself to
fulfill the mission of God by making disciples.
Jesus gave the church one commission; and we are doing very badly
at it. By its very nature, Christianity is a disciple-making multiplication
movement. However, for much of the West this has not been the case.
The time has come for us to face the music: the church is in decline
in large part because we have forgotten the call to make disciples.
Timothy C. Tennent, president of Asbury Theological Seminary, recently
welcomed incoming seminary students by saying, “Welcome to life on the
fastest-growing mission field in the world: North America.”6 Churches
in North America and Europe are not witnessing a growing number of
people who are radically unchurched or, as Professor Alvin Reid notes,
“those who have no clear personal understanding of the message of the
gospel, and who have had little or no contact with a Bible-teaching,
Christ-honoring church.”7 In the United States alone, there are around

3. Richard Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker, 1985. 194.
4. See Christopher Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.
Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2006.
5. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come. 2003. 18.
6. Timothy C. Tennent, “Homiletical Theology”, Opening Convocation
Address, Asbury Theological Seminary, September 2016, [Link]
com/2016/09/13/my-2016-opening-convocation-address-homiletical-theology/.
7. Alvin L. Reid, Radically Unchurched: Who They Are & How to Reach Them (Grand
Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2002), 21.

12
 Introduction

180 million who have no connection to a local church, making it one

of the fastest-growing mission fields in the Western Hemisphere.8 It is
estimated that 670,000 to 700,000 people leave the traditional church
every year.9
Backing up this trend, the Pew Research Center has noted that nearly
one third of young adults now say they have no religious affiliation. This
young-adult group is often called “nones” because they are disavowing
association with any organized form of religion, which makes them
North America’s second-largest religious group.10 We can see the impact
of these trends in the decline of Christianity in Europe In England,
church membership has declined from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.5 million
in 2010; from about thirty percent to slightly more than just eleven
percent. If current trends continue in England, church membership is
forecast to decline to 2.53 million (4.3 percent of the population) by
2025. The avowedly non-religious now make up 48.6 percent of the
British population.11 These are sobering statistics, indicating that massive
cultural shifts are on the horizon for today’s church in the United States.

8. George G. Hunter III, The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement (Nashville,

TN: Abingdon Press, 2011), 28.
9. Phil Zuckerman, Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions (New York:
Penguin Books, 2015) 60.
10. For an in-depth study on the spirituality of youth and young adults, see Christian
Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious Lives and Spiritual
Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) and Christian
Smith and Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of
Emerging Adults (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Their findings showed that
the majority of youth adhere to a vague understanding of religion, which the authors
call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (or “MTD”). For statistics on the overall state of
youth involvement in religion among North Americans, the Pew Research Center has
observed that about one third of older Millennials—adults currently in their late 20s
or early 30s—now say that they have no religion, which is up 9 percent among this
age range from 2007. Nearly one quarter of Generation X now say that they have no
particular religion, or they describe themselves as “atheists” or “agnostics”. See http://
[Link]/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/.
11. UK Census report on the state of religion in Great Brittan. [Link]
[Link]/[Link].

13
 Multiplying Disciples

Obviously, cultural influences, such as technology, television and

media, have had a significant effect on families. However, we can’t blame
it all on the culture. Christians are responsible for much of the problem as
well.
One of the primary reasons is that we have taken an individualistic
approach to faith, which has not emphasized the corporate nature
of Christianity. The result is that we have produced a generation of
consumeristic, and not radically committed, disciples of Jesus Christ.
Consumer Christianity sees the church as a place that’s all about
me, my wants and needs, and a place of goods and services; instead of
being a place where we are challenged to grow, serve, give and go back
into the world in mission. The result of embracing individualism and
cultural consumerism has negatively affected contemporary Christianity.
The truth is the church in much of the Western world is experiencing a
discipleship crisis; and we are seeing the fallout from this deficiency. At
the First International Consultation on Discipleship, John Stott called
attention to the “strange and disturbing paradox” of the contemporary
Christian situation. He warned, “We have experienced enormous
statistical growth without corresponding growth in discipleship. God is
not pleased with superficial discipleship.”12 Sadly, some churches focus
on evangelism at the expense of discipleship by seeking to win converts
instead of making disciples—despite the fact that the goal of evangelism
is disciple making.
It is important to differentiate between being a person who’s a
Christian in name only and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Missiologist
and author Alan Hirsch writes, “We can’t make disciples based on a
consumerist approach to the faith. We plainly cannot consume our way
into discipleship . . . . Consumption is detrimental to discipleship.”13

12. John R.W. Stott, “Make Disciples, Not Just Converts: Evangelism without
Discipleship Dispenses Cheap Grace.” Christianity Today, October 25, 1999 Vol. 43,
No. 12, Page 28.
13. Alan Hirsch, Forgotten Pathways Reactivating the Missional Church. Grand Rapids,
MI: Brazos Press, 2006., 45.

14
 Introduction

The result of consumerism on Christianity is what martyred evangelist

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” in his most famous work, The
Cost of Discipleship, a rigorous exposition and interpretation of the
Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 9:35-10:42. Bonhoeffer famously
contrasted cheap grace:
“Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification
of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything
can remain as it was before. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ Well, then, let the
Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the
world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire
to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. Cheap
grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching
of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church
discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without
discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without Jesus Christ,
living and incarnate.”14
According to the New Testament definition, many professing
Christians in North America are not disciples. One survey concludes that
only 25 percent of evangelicals meet the biblical standard for a disciple.15
Researcher George Barna also weighs in. In his book, Growing True
Disciples, he reported that the church in America is comprised of “many
converts, but shockingly few disciples.”16 And in a similar way, Dallas
Willard illustrated the lack of discipleship in United States, saying that
we “need to clear our heads about what discipleship is”:
“The leading assumption in the American church is that you can be
a Christian but not a disciple. That has placed a tremendous burden on a

14. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. trans. R.H. Fuller, rev. ed. New York:
Macmillan, 1960, 47.
15. Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Pastor, (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell), 55.
16. This conclusion is based upon two years of research Barna conducted regarding
the current state of discipleship, and how churches might enhance the effectiveness of
their discipleship ministries. See George Barna, Growing True Disciples: New Strategies
for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press,
2001).

15
 Multiplying Disciples

mass of Christians who are not disciples. We tell them to come to church,
participate in our programs, and give money. But we see a church that
knows nothing of commitment. We have settled for the marginal, and so
we carry this awful burden of trying to motivate people to do what they
don’t want to do. We can’t think about church the way we have been.
We need to clear our heads about what discipleship is. My definition: A
disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in
their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.”17

Becoming a Disciple-Making Multiplication Movement

The answer is we need to get back to the original disciple-making
mandate of Jesus Christ. At its core, Christianity is more than an
institution; it is a disciple-making multiplication movement that Jesus
Christ started. With little money and no modern technology or mass
marketing strategy, Christianity grew to become one of the world’s major
religions. The best estimates suggest over two billion followers of Christ
worldwide today. And it all started when an obscure Jewish teacher
named Jesus invited a few ordinary people to follow Him as disciples.
Being a Christian is ultimately a revolutionary call to return to
a serious and intentional disciple- making movement! Making and
multiplying disciples is the call of every Christian and ultimately the
call of every new church. The word disciple comes from the Greek word
mathetes meaning an “apprentice, learner, or a pupil.”18 It’s found 269
times in the New Testament. In ancient times, a disciple was a person
who left everything that they had to follow the teachings of a master. The
word “disciple” implies much more than a learner or a pupil; it is someone

17. Dallas Willard, “Rethinking Evangelism.” Cutting Edge Magazine, Winter 2001,
Vol. 5, Number 1.
18. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature,
compiled by Walter Bauer, trans. and adapted by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur
Gingrich, 2nd ed. rev. and augmented by F. Wilhur Gingrich and Frederick W.
Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979, s.v. “mathetes,” 486-87.; Gerhard
Kittel, ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 4 Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans Pub. 1967, 441.

16
 Introduction

who has totally committed their life to the training and teaching of a
master or a school of thought.19 According to the New Testament, a
disciple is a radical follower of Jesus Christ who is obedient, bears fruit,
glorifies God, has joy, loves others, denies themselves, and is committed
to fulfilling the Great Commission to go and make disciples of others (see
John 3:3–8; 15:7–17; Luke 9:23–25; and Matthew 28:19).
In short, disciples reproduce. Nature can teach us many things
about the way the kingdom of God operates, and one of those lessons
is that all healthy, living things will naturally reproduce and multiply.
Multiplication is the goal of every living thing, and we see this truth
confirmed throughout the pages of the Bible. God created every living
thing—humankind, animals and plants—to reproduce. He told Adam
and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). Reproduction is
inherent in much of the agricultural language Jesus uses when He teaches
and preaches. He used metaphors from nature and farming to teach His
disciples lessons about the kingdom of God, and expected His disciples to
reproduce what He had impressed upon them in the lives of others. Jesus
imparted His message and His mission to His disciples so they would
reproduce themselves, essentially, and make disciples of all nations. This
reproductive DNA is one reason the early Christian community of several
hundred people turned into a worldwide movement. Starting with twelve
disciples, Christianity now claims over 2.1 billion members.
Being a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is all about making and
multiplying disciples. This is the result of selecting, training, and
empowering leaders who will, in turn, reproduce themselves in others.
This begins locally with the church and then can take place on a
larger scale through the reproduction of church plants regionally and
internationally. Just think, through a faithful commitment to investing
in others, you can be a part of a twenty-first-century, disciple-making
movement that can change our postmodern world for Christ!

19. See Walter Elwell, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. 1988.
629.

17
 Multiplying Disciples

About This Book

I’m confident that we will not find the answers to the current disciple-
making crisis in the church by simply trying to come up with new
innovative ideas; nor will we find them by only looking to the past.
Rather, the answers we need will be found on the road where the past
and the present meet. Leonard Sweet reminds us, “Postmodern pilgrims
must strive to keep the past and the present in perpetual conversation so
every generation will find a fresh expression of the gospel that is anchored
solidly to the faith that was once delivered.”20
You may be wondering, “What can Christian history teach us today?”
The answer is a lot. There have been over two thousand years of church
history and disciple-making multiplication. Are we so arrogant to think
that we are smarter than those who have gone before us? The pages of
church history are full of amazing stories about great men and women
of faith who changed the course of history by working together for the
sake of the world. They are the great heroes of the Christian faith. who
have left a distinct mark on the church and the world forever. Their life,
ministry and contributions cannot and must not be forgotten. Their
stories should also inspire use to work together and attempt to do great
things for God. Their stories show and remind us how the Lord can do
extraordinary things through ordinary people working together.
In this book, I’m seeking to draw wisdom from the well of church
history by looking at several important disciple-making multiplication
movements: The Celtic Movement, The Moravian Movement, the
Methodist Movement, and finally, insights from global discipleship
movements. Each one of these movements offers vital contributions to
the church and when discovered, they can help us rediscover the power
of working together for the Great Commission to make and multiply
disciples of Jesus Christ for the 21st century.
At the end of each chapter, I’ve included reflection questions to help
guide you to think through these ideas and implement them in your

20. Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims, Nashville, TN: B&H. 2000.

18
 Introduction

own context. You can use this book as an individual discussion guide, for
teams, or as a small group resource.
I invite you to turn the page and begin a journey to rediscover the
lost art of disciple making. My prayer is that this book will challenge and
encourage you to rethink the way you do discipleship. Disciple making is
not a program or curriculum, but the personal calling of every Christian.
Let’s begin the journey!

19
 Chapter 1

Be Thou My Vision: St.

Patrick and the Celtic Way
of Making Disciples
“In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded
his world to theirs, his faith to their life.”
—Thomas Cahill

Chapter 1 Summary of Big Ideas

• Doing Ministry as a Team
• Holistic Faith
• Biblical Hospitality
• Evangelism in Community

W hen most of us think of Ireland, we think about green rolling

hills and country sides covered in grass. What is not as widely
known is that over one thousand years ago on this little island, was the
birth of one of the most influential movements in the history of the
Christian church. In fact, some scholars argue that the Celtic Christians
contributed to preservation of western civilization. Celtic Christianity
stands out as one of most vibrant and colorful Christian traditions that
the world has ever known. In this chapter we will see that the Great
Commission is not a solo operation, but a collaborative adventure of faith.
As we shall see, Celtic Christianity was a model that brought together

20
 Chapter 1

evangelism and discipleship in community. In the next few pages we will

learn lessons from the Celtic Missionary movement.

The Life of Saint Patrick

Before you can fully understand Celtic Christianity, it is important to
look at the life and ministry of Saint Patrick. His life is surrounded by
mystery, superstition, and myth. We have all heard of him, but few of us
know very much about him. There is a holiday that bears his name and
he is known as the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland and used the
shamrock to explain the Trinity. So, who was Saint Patrick? Patrick was
the founding leader of the Celtic Christian church and was personally
responsible for baptizing over 100,000 people, ordaining hundreds of
priests, planting hundreds of churches and monasteries, driving paganism
from the shores of Ireland, and starting a movement in Ireland that
helped preserve Christianity during the Middle Ages.21 As we shall see,
the life and ministry of Saint Patrick reveal the great influence that he
made upon Christianity and the world.
Patricius, better known as Patrick, is believed to be born in AD
389 in a Christian home in Britain during a time when England was
undefended by the Roman Empire. Irish raiders captured people in
Britain and brought them back to Ireland as slaves. At the age of sixteen,
Irish barbarians demolished Patrick’s village and captured him. They
brought him to the east coast of Ireland and sold him into slavery.
During this time, Patrick would spend many hours in prayer talking with
God.
Six years later, he received a message from the Lord saying, “Soon you
will return to your homeland . . . Come, and see your ship is waiting for
you.”22 He escaped from his master, fled 200 miles, and boarded a ship
of traders who set sail for France and eventually made his way back into

21. Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization. New York: Doubleday Press,
1995. See introduction.
22. Liam de Paor, Saint Patrick’s World: The Christian Culture of Ireland’s Apostolic Age,
Dublin: Four Courts. 1993. 99-100.

21
 Multiplying Disciples

Britain. It was at this time that he received his call to evangelize Ireland.
He explained his call in the following way:
“I had a vision in my dreams of a man who seemed to come from
Ireland. His name was Victoricius, and he carried countless letters, one of
which he handed over to me. I read aloud where it began: ‘The voice of
the Irish . . . We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come home and walk
among us.’ I was deeply moved in heart and I could read no further, so I
awoke.”23
This vision had a profound effect on Patrick and he immediately
made plans to return to Ireland, the land of his previous captivity.
Tradition has it that Patrick was appointed bishop and apostle to
the Irish in 432. Patrick traveled the Irish country preaching the gospel.
Paganism was the dominant religion when Patrick arrived. He faced most
of his opposition from the druids who were highly educated and also
practiced magic. They constantly tried to kill Patrick. He writes, “Daily I
expect murder, fraud, or captivity, but I fear none of these things because
of the promise of heaven.”24
Patrick’s own writings tell a great deal about the man, his ministry,
and his love for Ireland.25 He mentions several times that his education
was disrupted when he was taken captive at the age of sixteen. His
writings tell us that he was very self-conscious about his lack of education.
Although he did not receive the same education as other bishops, he
did receive his call directly from the Lord. Perhaps it was his lack of
education that made him so successful in pagan Ireland. His great success
demonstrates that he was able to relate to common people in a real and
relative way. He had a great love for people and the Lord, which was
manifested in every area of his life and ministry.
Part of Patrick’s ministry strategy was focused on Ireland’s tribal
kings. Patrick knew that if a king converted, his people would follow.
When kings converted, they would often give their sons to Patrick to

23. Ibid, 100.

24. Ibid, 97.
25. See Confessions of St. Patrick.

22
 Chapter 1

educate and train in the ways of the Lord. Thus, he persuaded many of
them to enter into the ministry.
Because of his ministry, Christianity spread through Ireland and
into other parts of the British Isles. Patrick’s mission was responsible
for planting hundreds of churches and monasteries throughout Ireland.
The churches and monasteries he established became some of the most
influential missionary centers in all of Europe. Missionaries went out
from Ireland to spread the gospel throughout the world. It was the Irish
monasteries that helped preserve the Christian faith during the dark ages.
The missionary legacy of Saint Patrick continued long after his
death through the Celtic Christian monastic movement. In the sixth
and seventh centuries, Celtic Christianity spread throughout the British
Isles like wild fire under the gifted leadership of men such as Columba
who established monastic communities in Iona and Aidan in Lindsfarne.
These monasteries were not places for monastic recluses; rather they
became spiritual centers and discipleship training hubs that sent out
missionaries throughout Western Europe.26
What made the Celtic way of discipleship especially successful was
their commitment to making disciples, not just converts, by infusing
evangelism and discipleship. This is an important lesson. Many churches
today focus on evangelism at the expense of discipleship by seeking
to win converts instead of making disciples. The goal of evangelism is
disciple making. The Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28 is to
make disciples who will follow Christ rather than simply win converts.
When Jesus said, “make disciples,” the disciples understood it to mean
more than simply getting someone to believe in Jesus and they interpreted
it to mean that they should make out of others what Jesus made out of
them. There are several lessons that we can learn from the Celtic way of

26. Neil, History of Missions, 49.

23
 Multiplying Disciples

answering the Great Commission, which we will look at in the following

pages.27

Doing Ministry as a Team

The Celtic Christians did evangelism and discipleship as a team instead
of individually. This means they didn’t go out and try to win the world by
themselves; rather they went out as a team because they understood the
power of numbers. Each member of the Celtic missionary team played
an important role in the whole of reaching the community. Author John
Finney observes that the Celts believed in “the importance of the team.”
“A group of people can pray and think together,” he wrote. “They
inspire and encourage each other. The single entrepreneur is too easily
prey to self-doubt and loss of vision.”28
The Celtic team approach to ministry and discipleship is an
important alternative to the modern “lone ranger” mentality approach
that is typical in so many Western churches and desperately needs to be
recovered. Asbury Professor Emeritus George Hunter writes:
“In contrast to contemporary Christianity’s well-known evangelism
approaches of “Lone Ranger,” one-to-one evangelism, or confrontational
evangelism, or the public preaching crusade, (and in stark contrast to
contemporary Christianity’s more dominant approach of not reaching
out at all!), Celtic Christians usually evangelized as a team by relating
to the people of a settlement; identifying with the people; engaging in
friendship, conversation, ministry and witness with the goal of raising up
a church in measurable time.”29
The Celtic Christians understood that mission takes place within the
context of the Christian community. They entered into the community

27. In this section, I have drawn from George Hunter’s Celtic Way of Evangelism,
which as we shall see was a model that brought together evangelism and discipleship in
community.
28. Ibid, 53.
29. George Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. 47. This section draws heavily
from Hunter’s classic work.

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that they were trying to reach with the gospel—living, working, and
eating among the people they were trying to reach. I think you’ll
agree with me that typically, this is contrary to the way most modern
Christians try to reach people. They went to where the people were; we
usually expect people to come to us. They knew that God created man to
live in community with others. In the context of Christian community,
spiritual seekers were able to explore the faith in real-life settings. They
were able to see the gospel message lived out before them. In this sense,
Christian community is a living sacrament that demonstrates the eternal
truths of the Word of God.

A Holistic Faith
The Celtic Christians developed a holistic approach to discipleship
that prepared people to live out their faith through a sense of depth,
compassion, and power in mission. They were immersed in a holistic
spirituality that had depth and meaning and enabled them to withstand
difficult and hardship in their everyday lives. In other words, their faith
wasn’t just theoretical, but practical and relevant to everyday life. Celtic
Christians were not just hanging out in classrooms but living their faith
in real world.
A major problem with much of North American discipleship is that it
is one-dimensional. Many Christians see themselves as either evangelical,
sacramental, charismatic, etc. However, like a diamond, the Christian
faith has multiple dimensions. The Celtic Christians understood the
complex nature of the faith and sought to bring together a faith encounter
that encouraged spiritual growth on many levels. George Hunter says that
they had a four-fold structure of experiences that deepened their faith.

1. You experienced voluntary periods of solitary isolation in a remote

natural setting, i.e. a grove of trees near a stream where you can be
alone with God.
2. You spent time with your “soul friend,” a peer with whom you were
vulnerable and accountable; to whom you made confession; from

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whom you received absolution and penance; who both supported and
challenged you.
3. You spent time with a small group.
4. You participated in the common life, meals, work, learning, biblical
recitation, prayers and worship of the whole Christian community. 30

Through having a small group, community life, and soul friend, believers
observed and gained experience in ministry and witness to pre-Christian
people. Through this fivefold structure, the community’s purposes
for individuals were to root their consciousness in the gospel and the
Scriptures; to help them experience the presence of the Triune God and
an empowered life; and to give them experience in ministry with other
seekers.

Biblical Hospitality
The Celtic Christians understood and practiced biblical hospitality.
The role of hospitality was central in their ministry to seekers, visitors,
refugees, and other guests who came into their sphere of influence.
Hospitality was an important part of the monastic community life and
ministry. They would invite seekers, pilgrims, refugees and others to
be guests of the monastic community. They followed the Benedictine
Rule that said, “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as
Christ, for He Himself will say: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’”
Upon arrival, a guest would be given a soul friend, a small group,
and a place for solitude. A guest would also learn some Scripture and
worship with the community. One or more members of the community
would share the ministry of conversation and pray with and for the guest
daily. After some days, weeks or months, the guest would find themselves
believing what the Christians in the community believe. They would then
invite the seeker to commit their life to Christ and His will for their life,
leading the new disciple in continued outreach ministry to other seekers.

30. Hunter, 48.

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Many contemporary Christians and churches have lost touch with

biblical hospitality. It is imperative that we relearn the gift of hospitality,
especially in light of its important place in the Scriptures. The word
“hospitality” literally means “love of strangers” and is found several times
in the New Testament (Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Pet. 4:9).
We are all called to offer the love of Christ to our guests and welcome
them in such a way that they would be transformed from strangers into
friends.

Evangelism in Community
The final tenet in Celtic Christianity involves the seeker’s experience of
the Christian community in the process of conversion. To understand
their unique approach to evangelism, it’s important to contrast the
Roman way of doing mission and evangelism and the Celtic way. The
Roman model for reaching people says: 1) present the Christian message;
2) invite them to decide to believe in Christ and become Christians;
and 3) if they decide positively, welcome them into the church and its
fellowship. The Roman model seems very logical to us because most
American evangelicals are scripted by it. George Hunter writes, “We
explain the gospel, they accept Christ, we welcome them into the church!
Presentation, decision, assimilation. What could be more logical that
that?”31
In contrast, the Celtic model for reaching people says: 1) you first
establish community with people, or bring them into the fellowship
of your community of faith; 2) within fellowship, you engage in
conversation, ministry, prayer, and worship; and 3) in time, as they
discover that they now believe, you invite them to baptism and
discipleship.

31. Ibid, 53.

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Compare and contrast Roman vs. Celtic evangelism:

Roman Model Celtic Model

(American Evangelical model) (Cell community model)
Presentation Fellowship
Decision Ministry and conversation
Fellowship Belief; invitation to discipleship and
baptism

The Celtic model reflects the adage that, for most people: “Christianity is
more caught then taught!”32 Hunter notes that many new believers report
that the experience of the fellowship enabled them to believe and to
commit their lives to Christ and His church. For many people, the faith
is three-fourths caught and one-fourth taught. In his book, Finding Faith
Today: How Does It Happen?, John Finney reports that most people
experience faith through relationships that they encounter the Gospel
through a community of faith. Becoming a Christian, he says, involves
a process that takes time. We can summarize this by saying that for
most people “belonging comes before believing.”33 Finney contends that
the Celtic way is more effective with postmodern Western populations
than the American evangelical Roman model. His data shows that
more people come to faith gradually (the Celtic cell community way)
rather than suddenly (the American evangelical Roman way). The
ongoing common life of the congregation helps people discover faith for
themselves, connected to others, at their own pace. It appears to be much
more influential than special event-preaching evangelism.34
Finney outlines the typical journey of faith that most people will
experience today: A person is introduced to the faith community through

32. Ibid, 54.

33. Ibid, 54.
34. Ibid, 55.

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a member of their family, through friendship with a Christian, or

through marketplace contact with a minister;

1. They begin to ask questions;

2. They are invited to explore further and come to a knowledge and
practice of the faith through a small community group;
3. They discover over time that they have come to embrace the faith
through these relationships, and come to Christ through baptism;

Following the Celtic model, they continue to grow in discipleship, in turn

bringing others into fellowship where the cycle of new growth continues.
Hunter predicts that the church will observe a continual widespread shift
away from the Roman (American evangelical) way of evangelism to a
more community-centered Celtic cell model.

Lessons for Today

There is a lot that we can learn from the Celtic Christian movements.
First, we can learn a lot from the man, Saint Patrick. He is an example
of how an individual can overcome tremendous obstacles with the Lord’s
help. Patrick went back to the very land where he had been a slave to
evangelize. It is like the story of Joseph who ended up saving his brothers
who had sold him into slavery. What a powerful example of how God can
use our past to minister to others. Many times, the Lord will give you a
burden to help bring salvation and healing to people from your past.
Even though Patrick didn’t have a good education, he didn’t let that
stop him from letting God use him. He was able to do great things for
God despite his lack of worldly education. His calling came from God,
and that’s all that really mattered. When the Lord is in your life, He will
make a way for you. God mightily used Patrick to deliver the people
of Ireland from paganism, slavery and sin. He helped bring revival to
a nation and to a continent. He stands as one of the great men of the
Christian faith.
The Celtic Christian movement offers several extraordinary insights
into collaborative multiplication for the 21st century church. First,

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and perhaps most importantly, these insights remind us of the power

of missional community. Disciples are made in Christian community
on mission not in isolation. Perhaps the reason why many churches
struggle with making disciples is that they do not know how to live
in community. The church of the future must rediscover the power
of biblical community if we are going to make disciples for Christ in
the 21st century. We should seek to develop pathways for people to
build authentic Christ-centered community in our churches because
discipleship takes place within the context of the Christian community
that is living together on mission.
The Celtic Christians also teach us that we should develop a
discipleship process that is unique to our own church setting, city and
community. The God we worship doesn’t make robots; he’s not a cookie-
cutter God. Remember, you need to find out what works in your own
culture and context. This can happen in a thousand different ways.
Depending on your setting, you can develop your own strategies for
different ages within your church context or small groups. You can find
fresh and innovative ways to live as a missionary in your community or
neighborhood.

Chapter 1 Questions
1. What was the one thing that stuck out most to you from the Celtic
way of disciple making?
2. In what ways is discipleship a holistic faith?
3. How did the church in the West forget about hospitality? Why is it so
essential to recover biblical hospitality?
4. How did the Celtic saints evangelize in community and why does it
matter for the church of the 21st Century? What would it look like for
you to embrace a community approach to evangelism and discipleship
in your context?

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 Chapter 2

Into All the World:

Count Zinzendorf and
Missional Discipleship
“I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone.”
—Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf

Chapter 2 Summary of Big Ideas

• Practicing Reconciliation
• Eating Together
• Prayer Watch
• Missional Discipleship

O ne of the greatest disciple-making movements of all time began with

the rich young ruler who said “yes.” In this chapter, the Moravian
Christian movement can teach us that the Great Commission flows from
the Great Commandment to love one another.
Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf was born into a wealthy, noble family
and belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Austria. Six
weeks after young Ludwig’s birth, his father died of tuberculosis and his
mother married again when he was four years old. At this time, he was
sent to live with his pietistic Lutheran grandmother who did much to
shape his character and faith.
He fell in love with Jesus at the age of six and continued to mature
in Christ throughout his school years. He grew up with regular times

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of prayer, Bible reading and hymn singing. His dearest treasure next to
the Bible was Luther’s Smaller Catechism. Zinzendorf was a star student
and by the age of 15 he could read the classics and the New Testament in
Greek, and was fluent in Latin and French.
Zinzendorf eventually pursued his university studies at Wittenberg,
which was a strong hold of Lutheran theology. Once he finished his
studies at Wittenberg, he embarked on a grand tour of various centers
of learning throughout Europe. Then in 1720 he went to Paris where he
stayed for six months. He toured Versailles, and even formed a friendship
with Roman Catholic Cardinal Noailles Roman.
Despite all the beauty of Europe, nothing could compare to an
encounter that Zinzendorf had in the art museum at Dusseldorf where
he encountered the Christ in an amazing way—while viewing Domenico
Feti’s painting, Ecce Homo. It is a portrait of the suffering thorn-crowned
Jesus). He was reading the inscription below it, “I have done this for you;
what have you done for me?” when Zinzendorf said to himself, I have
loved Him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for
Him. From now on, I will do whatever He leads me to do.35
In May 1721, Zinzendorf purchased his grandmother’s estate at
Berthelsdorf. On September 7, 1722, he married Countess Erdmuth
Dorothea von Reuss, the sister of his friend, Henry. She was a strong
believer, devoted to Pietism. For a time, Zinzendorf devoted himself to
government matters in Dresden. But everything would change for him
one eventful day when a Moravian refuge ended up at his door. The
man’s name was Christian David. He had heard that Zinzendorf would
open his home to oppressed Moravian refuges. Zinzendorf agreed to the
request and a group of ten Moravians arrived in December 1722. His
manor became known as “Herrnhut,” meaning “the Lord’s watch” or
“on the watch for the Lord.” This was only the beginning. By May 1725,
ninety Moravians had settled at Herrnhut. By late 1726, the population
had swelled to 300.

35. Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, 141.

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Practicing Reconciliation
As is often the case, with growth came division. Trouble eventually
began to enter the group over differences in liturgy, economic pressures,
language difficulties and other issues. Zinzendorf knew that God had
called them to be a community of reconciliation, forgiveness and love.
The Bible reminds us that grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation are at the
very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 18:15, Jesus says: “If
your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and
him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
Zinzendorf began meeting with different families for prayer and
counsel and helped regain a spirit of unity and love. He drew up a
covenant calling upon them “to seek out and emphasize the points in
which they agreed,” rather than focusing on their differences. This started
a process of deep reconciliation among members of the community.
On May 12, 1727, they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives
to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. At this time, small groups were
organized to provide the people with a special spiritual affinity to one
another. From that time forward, the Moravian movement was built on
doing mission from a heart of having love for one another.
Jesus calls us to love one another. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “A
new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another.” The phrase “one another” comes from
the Greek word allelon which means, “one another, each other; mutually,
reciprocally.” It occurs one hundred times in the New Testament in
ninety-four verses. About one-third of the “one another” commands
are about Christian unity; and about one-third of these are instructing
Christians to love one another. What is the point? We are called to love
one another. Here is a list of the “one another verses.”

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“One Another” Verses36

• Strengthen one another: Romans 14:19
• Help one another: Hebrews 3:13; 10:24
• Encourage one another: Romans 14:19; 15:14; Colossians 3:16;
1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24-25
• Care for one another: Galatians 6:2
• Forgive one another: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13
• Submit to one another: Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:5
• Commit to one another: 1 John 3:16
• Build trust with one another: 1 John 1:7
• Be devoted to one another: Romans 12:10
• Be patient with one another: Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13
• Be interested in one another: Philippians 2:4
• Be accountable to one another: Ephesians 5:21
• Confess to one another: James 5:16
• Live in harmony with one another: Romans 12:16
• Do not be conceited toward one another: Romans 13:8
• Do not pass judgment on one another: Romans 14:13; 15:7
• Do not slander one another: James 4:11
• Instruct one another: Romans 16:16
• Greet one another: Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:10;
2 Corinthians 13:12
• Admonish one another: Romans 5:14; Colossians 3:16
• Spur one another on toward love and good deeds: Hebrews 10:24
• Meet with one another: Hebrews 10:25
• Agree with one another: 1 Corinthians 16:20
• Be concerned for one another: Hebrews 10:24
• Be humble toward one another in love: Ephesians 4:2
• Be compassionate toward one another: Ephesians 4:32
• Do not be consumed by one another: Galatians 5:14-15
• Do not anger one another: Galatians 5:26

36. List from [Link]

Chap5/[Link].

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• Do not lie to one another: Colossians 3:9

• Do not grumble toward one another: James 5:9
• Give preference to one another: Romans 12:10
• Be at peace with one another: Romans 12:18
• Sing to one another: Ephesians 5:19
• Be of the same mind to one another: Romans 12:16; 15:5
• Comfort one another: 1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11
• Be kind to one another: Ephesians 4:32
• Live in peace with one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:13
• Carry one another’s burdens: Galatians 6:2

Eating Together
A hallmark of the Moravian movement is the “lovefeast,” inspired by
the first gathering of Christians after the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 2:42,
we read, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The early believers
met and broke bread together, thereby signifying their union and love
for one another. These meals were associated with the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper and the lovefeast was a time of fellowship that followed it.
They were called agape, from the Greek word for love. The Eucharist and
the lovefeast were eventually broken up between the latter part of the first
century AD and 250 AD.
The importance of the Lord’s Table can be traced back to its vital role
in the early life of the church. The early church celebrated communion
every time they came together to worship and, in some cases, they
practiced it daily.37 In the Book of Acts, we can see that the life of the
early church revolved around fellowship. At the heart of the Greek word
for fellowship (koinonia) is the idea of participation. Koinonia is used
to describe both the fellowship and actual participation in the Lord’s

37. Many of the early church fathers spoke about the regularity of the Eucharist in the
church’s life and worship, including Cyprian, Ambrose, Basil, and Chrysostom, who
wrote about the Eucharist as a daily practice in the life of the church.

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Supper.38 No single word in the English language fully captures the

meaning of this Greek word. It’s more than just a shared experience and
nice conversation with other people. It is, at the deepest level, a spiritual
connection in Christ, a supernatural bond provided by God’s grace.
The Christian life is rooted in living together in community, sharing
life with one another and with Christ. The early Christians viewed the
communion meals of koinonia as absolutely vital to their life as a church.
If you think about it, so much of life happens when sharing a
common meal around our dinner tables. Most of us eat three meals a
day. That’s about 1,095 meals for each person over the span of a year.
Wow, that’s a lot of meals! Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised to find
that the Bible places a table at the center of the spiritual lives of God’s
people. In the Old Testament, we see the table of Passover and in the
New Testament we find the table of Communion. Jesus Christ often used
the context of sharing a meal to minister to people and to teach others
important lessons about the Kingdom of God. The Gospels show us
that Jesus loved meals. In the book of Luke alone, there are ten stories of
Jesus dining with various people. Each Gospel ends with Jesus breaking
bread and sharing the last supper with His disciples (Matt. 26:17–30,
Mark 14:12–26, Luke 22:7–39, and John 13:1–17:26). Luke even
records Jesus making a meal for his disciples after His resurrection
(Luke 24:42-43). Then, we find in the Book of Acts that sharing meals in
homes was a central place of evangelism, worship and church planting.
The Moravian Church recovered the ancient practice of the lovefeast
in 1727. After a memorable celebration of the holy communion on
August 13, participants were deeply and spiritually moved. They
were reluctant to separate from one another and return to their own
homes for their meal out of a deeply profound sense of community.
Count Zinzendorf sent them food and the group continued in prayer,
conversation, and singing. This incident reminded Zinzendorf of the

38. Compare Acts 2:42–46 with Paul’s use of the word koinonia in 1 Corinthians
11:20–34.

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agape feast of the early church. The idea of regularly practicing lovefeasts
became a custom in Moravian life.
The lovefeasts were introduced wherever new settlements were
founded and so came to America. Wherever its fullest liturgical
development exists, the lovefeast is a service of solemn dignity, in which
the finest Moravian Church hymns and stately music may be heard,
but without any surrender of its central idea. Traditionally, lovefeasts
consisted of a sweetened bun and coffee served to the congregation in
the pews. Today, the food and drink used by congregations may vary.
A Moravian congregation may hold a lovefeast on any special occasion,
such as the date their church was founded, but there are certain
established dates that lovefeasts are regularly observed. Some notable
dates include Watch Night, Good Friday and Christmas Eve. Each
member of the congregation receives a lighted candle at the end of the
service, in addition to the bun and coffee. Regardless of the menu or
time it’s offered, the love feast is a beautiful reminder of the unity among
believers.

The Power of Prayer

1727 was an important year. It marked a spiritual turning point in the
Moravians community when a spirit of prayer began to spread among
them. They covenanted together to meet often to pour out their hearts
in prayer and hymns. On August 5 of that milestone year, the Count
spent the whole night in prayer with about twelve or fourteen others,
following a large meeting for prayer at midnight. Then a few days later on
Wednesday, August 13, 1727, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them all.
The Moravians experienced a powerful “Pentecost” during a communion
service where the Spirit came upon Zinzendorf and the community. This
experience radically changed the community and sparked a flame of
prayer and missions that would burn for decades to come. Looking back

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on that day, Zinzendorf later recalled: “The whole place represented truly
a visible habitation of God among men.”39
This marked the beginning of the Moravians’ commitment to a
round-the-clock “prayer watch” that continued non-stop for over a
hundred years. On August 26, twenty-four men and twenty-four women
covenanted together to continue praying in intervals of one hour each,
day and night; each hour allocated by lots to different people. Others
joined the intercessors, and the number increased to seventy-seven. They
all carefully observed the hour that had been designated to them and they
had a weekly meeting where they received prayer needs.
The spirit of prayer was not just for the adults of the community, but
even spread to the children as well. The children were also touched by
God and began to pray a similar plan among themselves. The children’s
prayers and supplications had a powerful effect on the whole community.
Parents and others members of the community were deeply moved by the
children’s prayers for revival and missions. From that time onward, the
Moravians prayed continuously for revival and the missionary expansion
of the gospel. As members of the Moravian church continued non-stop
in this “Hourly Intercession,” they became known as “God’s Happy
People.” Their prayers became the catalyst for one of the world’s greatest
missionary movements.
Richard J. Foster reminds us, “If we truly love people, we will desire
for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this
will lead us to prayer: Intercession is a way of loving others.”40 What is
intercessory prayer? According to Webster, “intercede” means simply, “to
go or pass between; to act between parties with a view to reconcile those
who differ or contend; to interpose; to mediate or make intercession;
mediation.” Intercession basically means to stand between two extremes.
It means to earnestly plead with a person on behalf of another.
Intercessory prayer happens when we stand in the gap between God and

39. J. E. Hutton, A History of the Moravian Church. (Fetter Lane, London: Moravian
Publication Office, 1909). p. 207.
40. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 35.

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others. We live in a world that is full of spiritual warfare and God wants
us to pray for the salvation and redemption of others. It is not His desire
that any should perish but that all would receive eternal life (1 Tim. 2:4).
As Christians, we are called to pray not only for ourselves, but to
pray for others—the church, the hurting, the sick, and the world in
which we live. The call to pray for others flows from the command
to love our neighbors. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself”
(Matt. 22:36-40, NIV). We pray because we love, and we love because
God first loved us. Love flows from Him to all His creation. John
reminds us, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10, NIV). Love
begins and ends with God, and flows from us to our neighbors through
our prayers.

Missional Discipleship
Within a short time, Herrnhut became a missionary launching pad that
would send out missionaries throughout the world, which made them the
first great Protestant missionary movement. They gathered small groups
of individuals who gathered for prayer and Bible study and travelled
across Europe sharing the gospel with everyone they met, especially
the outcast of society. Out of this grew a network of small groups
that eventually became known as the “Diaspora.” Under Zinzendorf’s
leadership, Moravian missionaries went out into all the world in an
unprecedented way that had never been seen before! On Sunday,
December 13, 1732, after almost ten weeks at sea, the ship sailed into the
harbor of St. Thomas to reach slaves for Christ. This was a difficult time
where many of the missionaries died. Twenty-two of the first twenty-nine
died, forcing them to retreat from St. Croix for a time. Despite trials and
difficulties, missionaries continued to go out from Herrnhut into all the
world.
By the time Zinzendorf died in 1760, after twenty-eight years of
cross-cultural mission, the Moravians had sent out 226 missionaries and
entered ten different countries. Mission stations had been established

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in Danish St. Thomas, in the West Indies (1732); Greenland (1733);

Georgia, North America (1734); Lapland (1735); Surinam, or Dutch
Guiana, on the north coast of South America (1735); Cape Town, South
Africa (1737); Elmina, Dutch headquarters in the Gold Coast (1737);
Demarara, now known as Guyana, South America (1738); and to the
British colonial island of Jamaica (1754), and Antigua (1756). In 1760
there were forty-nine men and seventeen women serving in thirteen
stations around the world ministering to over 6,000 people.
Moravian passion for mission was grounded in one thing, and one
thing alone. Zinzendorf said, “I have but one passion—it is He, it is He
alone. The world is the field, and the field is the world; and henceforth
that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning
souls for Christ.”41 Over the years, his passion for Jesus grew, as did his
passion for the lost. He was determined to evangelize the world through
raising up and sending out Moravian missionaries who were equipped
only with a simple love for Jesus and the spirit of prayer.
A seal was designed to express their newfound missionary zeal. The
seal was composed of a lamb with the cross of resurrection and a banner
of triumph with the motto: “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow
Him.” The Moravians were missionaries of the gospel. They followed
the call of the Lamb to go preach the gospel to all nations. In 1791, the
Moravians beautifully explained their motivation for missions: “The
simple motive of the brethren for sending missionaries to distant nations
was and is an ardent desire to promote the salvation of their fellow men,
by making known to them the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
Missionary success came with a price to Zinzendorf and his followers.
His opponents sought to undermine him and his ministry. As a result, in
1736 he was banished from Saxony. He took the family with him west to
Wetteravia, near Frankfurt, and found residence in an old castle, called
the Ronneburg. Here a new settlement, Herrnhaag, would thrive nearby,
surpassing Herrnhut in size. Over the following years, the missionary’s

41. John Greenfield, When the Spirit Came: The Story of the Moravian Revival of 1727.
(Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1967), p. 20.

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endeavors continued to spread throughout the world. In 1747 alone, 200

missionaries went out to posts of duty as missionaries to the New World
among the Diaspora. Zinzendorf spent the remainder of his days leading
the growing Moravian movement, traveling, teaching and encouraging
others to follow Christ. He lived out his last days at Herrnhut. The
year 1760 marked twenty-eight years in Moravian missions. In the
final days of his life, he became weak and feeble. By the time of his
death, Zinzendorf had helped found one the world’s greatest missionary
movements.

Lessons for Today

There is a lot we can learn about discipleship from the Moravian
prayer movement and its lasting influence upon the world. They set
up a watch of continuous prayer that ran twenty-four hours a day
for one hundred years. They established more than thirty missionary
settlements internationally on the Herrnhut model, which emphasized
prayer, worship and missional living. These communities provided a
place for Christian training and support for the Moravian Mission work
throughout the world. The Moravians became the first Protestant church
body to begin missionary work. They formed many hundreds of small
renewal groups, which we would call missional communities known as
“diaspora societies.” These groups encouraged their members to practice
the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, Bible study, confession of
sins and mutual accountability. Today the modern Unitas Fratrum (or
Moravian Church), with about 825,000 members worldwide, influenced
other movements such as the Wesleyan revival. We’ll explore that in the
next chapter.
Finally, the Moravians can remind us that mission is the duty of
every Christian believer; young and old. We are all called to be missional
Christians who share the good news of Jesus’ love and forgiveness with
the world. So what does it mean to be missional? Author and researcher
Ed Stetzer explains that being missional means actually “doing mission
right where you are.”

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“Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary,” Stetzer

writes, “learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining
biblically sound.”42 Not only are we called to be missional as individuals,
but also as disciples together. God never intended for us to do mission
alone. We are called to be missional together. But being missional doesn’t
begin with us; it begins with Jesus Christ. Jesus was the first and greatest
missionary. The Bible tells us that He came from heaven to earth to die
for a lost and dying world. As the Father sent Jesus, He also sends us into
our time and culture. We have been chosen by God to live in this time
and place to fulfill the mission of God.
Being missional is God’s way of showing the love of His Son Jesus
through the lives of His followers. Being missional is striving to live like
Jesus, our perfect example. Jesus said, “the Son of man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many”
(Mark 10:45). This scripture beautifully embodies what it means to be
missional. To be missional is to serve and give our lives for others. The
Moravians remind us that we can share our faith together. After all,
Jesus sent his disciples out two-by-two. There are no lone rangers in the
kingdom of God. Being missional doesn’t mean we have to go overseas; it
starts in our own backyard. Find the needs of your community and begin
to fill them by being a missionary to your city and community. We will
never know what the needs of our community are until we begin to get
outside the four walls of our church and answer the call to “go and make
disciples.”

Chapter 2 Questions
1. What was the greatest lesson you learned about disciple making
multiplication from the Moravian movement?

42. Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that’s Biblically Sound
and Reaching People in Culture. (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2006), 19.

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2. Why is reconciliation so critical to the work of disciple making? What

is one example of when you practiced reconciliation in your life and a
relationship was restored?
3. The Moravian Movement was birthed out of a prayer revival. How
strong is your prayer life and what ways might the Lord be calling
you deeper in prayer?
4. For the Moravians, disciple making happened on the road and in the
mission field. What are some ways they might inspire us to think and
be missionaries to our communities?

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Banding Together: The

Discipleship Methods
of John Wesley
“Once upon a time, in John Wesley’s lifetime and for
another century or more, Methodism in Great Britain and
in North America was a contagious Christian movement.”
—George Hunter III

Chapter 3 Summary of Big Ideas

• Empowering Others
• Disciple Making Systems
• Education and Training
• Holistic Mission

T he Methodist movement of the early 18th century was the greatest

multiplication movement ever recorded in the United States.43 We
can trace its roots back to its founder, John Wesley. If anything could
be said about John Wesley, it would be that he was a collaborative
leader who empowered others to become heroes in God’s unfolding
story. He was what Exponential calls a “hero maker.” With skill and
discipline, Wesley quickly became one of the most influential leaders of

43. For a fuller account of the Wesleyan revival as a modern movement, see my book
Marks of a Movement: What the Church Today Can Learn from the Wesleyan Revival.
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Books, 2019).

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the evangelical awakening of the 18th century by leading a movement

that reached thousands of people in his lifetime. He was committed to
seeing lives truly transformed, and during his life, he traveled more than
250,000 miles and preached over 40,560 sermons. The Wesleyan revival,
which started with only a handful of people in the 1700s, grew into a
resurgence that established hundreds of societies in England and in the
United States. By John Wesley’s death in 1791, Methodism had become
a global church movement with more than 70,000 members in England
and more than 40,000 in the new United States, and with even more
among other mission stations around the world.
One of the greatest beauties of Wesley’s influence is that the growth
of Methodism continued well beyond his own life. Only a few years after
his death, Methodism in North America grew from 1,200 to 200,000
strong with more than 4,000 preachers. By 1830, official membership
reached almost half a million people, and attendees numbered 6
million.44 Then, from 1850 to 1905, American Methodism planted more
than 700 churches per year on average.45 In our present day and age, if
we are going to reach the world with the gospel of Christ, we could use a
movement of the same proportions and such astounding success. To this
end, I believe that the wisdom of the Wesleyan revival offers vital and
timeless lessons for disciple-making multiplication in the 21st century.
Wesley’s formal education began in 1714 when he was sent to
Charterhouse, a school that prepared him to enter Oxford University.
He enrolled in Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1720. By the time
of his graduation in 1724, he had become versed in theology, science,
history and classical literature. While at Oxford, John had only a seminal
interest in religious matters and held no interest in inward religion. In
1725, however, his thoughts about the nature of religion began to change.
Many scholars believe that 1725 marked the beginning of Wesley’s

44. Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and
Losers in Our Religious Economy
45. George G. Hunter III, The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2011) p. 5.

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religious awakening and the first of three phases in his theological

development. He began thinking seriously about entering the church, and
his parents enthusiastically encouraged him.
During this time, several major occurrences helped to shape Wesley’s
religious thought life. He came into contact with three writings that
made a profound impact upon his spirituality: Bishop Jeremy Taylor’s
Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying, Thomas à Kempis’
Imitation of Christ, and William Law’s Christian Perfection and a
Serious Call. These books brought him down the path of holiness. Along
with these selected readings, he took communion every week, attended
prayers, avoided outward sins, and sought to live a holy life before God.
Then, on September 25, 1725, he was ordained as a deacon at Christ
Church Cathedral by Dr. Potter, Bishop of Oxford.
On March 17, 1726, Wesley was elected as a Fellow at Lincoln
College. Around the same time, his younger brother, Charles Wesley,
had entered Christ Church College as a student. Charles joined the small
group of Oxford students, where his brother John was already involved.
The group met regularly for the purpose of spiritual formation. Soon after
Charles joined this group, John became the unofficial leader of the group.
Along with their academic pursuits, these devoted students engaged
in prayer, Bible study, fasting, communion, and social work, which
included prison visitation and caring for the sick. These practices earned
them the nickname “Methodists,” and that name would become the title
of the Wesleyan movement. Around this time, the Wesley brothers and
George Whitfield, who would later become a leader in the evangelical
revival, formed an important alliance. Whitfield was a fellow student and
member of the “Holy Club” (another name for the gathering of Oxford
Methodist students). Wesley was impressed with Whitfield’s wit and
piety, and soon, the two became close friends. These various influences
mark Wesley’s time at Oxford as an important season of religious
development. A combination of selected readings, academic training,
and certain influential persons all laid the foundation for the Wesleyan

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movement that would sweep the country and travel across the Atlantic
during the next eighty years.

Trials in Georgia
In 1735, only eight weeks after their father’s death, John and Charles
Wesley set sail for Savannah, Georgia. They had been commissioned
there as missionaries by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
the missionary wing of the Church of England. After a two-month trip
by sea, the Wesleys landed in America on February 6, 1736. While John’s
primary intention for traveling to America was to minister to Native
Americans, he found himself serving as parish minister to the colonists in
Savannah. Meanwhile, Charles became the personal secretary to governor
James Oglethorpe. Oglethorpe had been a friend of Samuel Wesley and
was anxious to have Samuel’s two sons help in Georgia.
The mission in Savannah lasted less than two years for John and
Charles. Their ambitions for coming to America were never fully realized,
but the mission proved revolutionary in John’s life. It was through
this endeavor that Wesley became acquainted with a group called the
“Moravians” (sound familiar?) on his way to Georgia, during his stay, and
on his return to England. Don’t you love how God connects the dots? As
we read in the last chapter, the Moravians were German pietists who were
associated with teachings of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
They taught a simple faith and assurance of salvation through the inner
witness of the Spirit in a way that John had never witnessed. He was
impressed with their confidence, piety, and assurance of faith. They were
instrumental in leading him to search for an inward Christianity of the
heart.
When he returned to England, Wesley spent several months in
spiritual distress and deep introspection. He was challenged by the
Moravians’ example of a simple faith in Christ. After their return,
John and Charles met another Moravian by the name of Peter Böhler
in England. He further convinced John that conversion happens in an
instant and that real Christians have assurance of their salvation from

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the witness of the Holy Spirit. Böhler testified to this experience and
brought to Wesley several other witnesses who also testified to the same
experience of instantaneous faith. As Böhler shared about the mercies of
God, Wesley wept and determined that he would seek full assurance of
salvation.
On May 24, 1738, while attending a prayer meeting at Aldersgate
Street in London, John Wesley had a personal encounter with Christ that
forever changed his life. He writes:
In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate
Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the
Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change
which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation;
and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even
mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.46
This experience has been called Wesley’s “evangelical conversion.”
(His brother Charles also had an experience like this only three days
before.) Aldersgate proved to be yet another revolutionary milestone in
John’s religious life and changed the course of his ministry.
The power of his conversion experience served as the catalyst
that helped to ignite the fires of the Great Awakening. This genuine
experience of faith in Christ moved him with compassion to do all he
could to share his experience with others. It was Wesley who said the
now-famous quote: “I look upon all the world as my parish.” He was not
exaggerating, because wherever he went, he preached that everyone could
have a relationship with Jesus Christ. This belief was against the grain
for the nominal Christians of Wesley’s day. He was accused of excessive
“enthusiasm” because he believed and taught that a person could have a
real, life-changing encounter with the Lord.
The beauty of Wesley’s emphasis on a real encounter with Christ
was how he integrated this belief into the framework of his emphasis on

46. Thomas Jackson, The Works of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1979)
1:103.

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holiness. At this point in his life, he had seen the importance of both
intense accountability that strove for holiness (“The Holy Club”) and
also the importance of having assurance of salvation that is found only
through the power of the Holy Spirit. The emphasis of grace for inward
transformation and recognition of the need for vital relationships in
community for growth would prove to be integral for the birth of the
Methodist movement—and its growth.

Empower Lay Leaders

As Methodism grew, Wesley saw the need to appoint lay preachers to
assist him in preaching the gospel to the masses. This was a bold decision
on his part, because it meant breaking from the traditional view that only
ordained clergy could preach the gospel and do ministry. Part of Wesley’s
genius was in his ability to select, train and gather lay leaders around
him. These leaders became extensions of his ministry. The rapid and
miraculous growth of Methodism would not have been possible without
the endeavors and self-sacrifice of those early Methodist lay leaders. John
Wesley famously said in a letter, “Give me one hundred preachers who
fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw
whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of
hell and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth.”47 This truth of the
1700s Wesleyan revival remains true today in the 21st century: We need
both ordained and lay people to plant new churches.
Wesley was no lone ranger and his Methodist Movement was not
a one-person operation, but a collaborative movement that over time
empowered hundreds of thousands of people to do ministry. In order to
replicate his model, Wesley identified, trained and appointed lay leaders
to oversee these societies of believers. He carefully hand-picked lay
leaders according to their gifts. They were men and women of piety and
experience. As he empowered lay leaders, the societies began to multiply
and grew rapidly throughout England. Everywhere they went, societies

47. [Link]

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kept and nurtured new converts, and the number of Methodists grew at
an amazing rate. They started from literally a handful of people and grew
into the thousands. Today, as a result of Wesley’s message of discipleship,
Methodism’s spiritual descendants are in every part of the world. Yet
even with all his effective preaching, George Whitfield’s name is hardly
known. Instead, most people remember the name and legacy of Wesley
because he recognized an invaluable and timeless truth that fostered a
true and lasting movement: We cannot overestimate the importance of
discipleship and fellowship in the life of Christians in every age.
John Wesley had a bias to say “yes” by empowering others to work
together for the sake of multiplication. As Methodism grew, Wesley
identified the need to appoint lay preachers to assist him in preaching the
gospel to the masses. This was a bold decision on Wesley’s part because
it meant breaking from the traditional view that only the ordained
clergy could preach the gospel. As the movement expanded, the number
of Methodist lay preachers continued to grow, too. As a result, there
was an increasing need to organize them in a way that fostered deep
collaboration.
In 1744, Wesley began to meet with his preachers annually. They
would discuss Methodist doctrine and discipline and appoint preachers
to specific locations for the coming year. This was the origin of the
“Methodist Conference” as we know it today. By this, we see that lay
preachers played an important role in the development of Methodism.
The Conference gave them a voice and strengthened their support
of Wesley’s leadership; it also united them and gave them a sense of
ownership for their ministry. Although only a few attended the first
Conference, hundreds of lay preachers were attending by the time of
Wesley’s death.
The most important leaders that Wesley helped raise up were an
army of on-fire women and men. The role of lay leaders in the life and
mission of a new church cannot be overstated. Wesley embraced this
understanding in a time when the church relied almost solely on clergy.

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Regardless of the context, there is nothing more powerful than ordinary

men and women who do the work of ministry in a new church.
The lay leaders of early Methodism gave their whole life for the cause
of Christ and to the spread of Methodism. Many of them put their life
in harm’s way to assure that Methodism would continue to grow. They
had grit and determination, which has scarcely been seen since the
persecution of the early church. It can be said that Methodism was born
with a great price—the lives of great men and women, among whom were
prominent women of piety who served as leaders of class meetings, visited
the sick, and preached the gospel. Together these men and women helped
Methodism become one of the fastest-growing movements the world has
ever known.

Disciple-Making Systems
The Wesleyan revival has made many contributions to the church as a
whole. Wesley’s society structure, for example, can be found in many of
our contemporary denominations. A part of his genius was to put new
converts into these societies to receive care, accountability, and fellowship.
Examples of this influence can be seen in cell groups, ministry and
accountability groups, as well as in group structures of other discipleship
movements. Another contribution of the Wesleyan movement is a
reminder that the Great Commission involves both evangelism and
discipleship. While Whitfield focused on evangelism, Wesley saw that
evangelism and discipleship are two sides of the same coin; they cannot
be separated. Evangelism is the beginning of the journey, and discipleship
is the process of spiritual growth. The church today needs to rediscover
the integrative process that focuses on serious disciple making, not just
leading people to make a decision. The Great Commission compels
Christians to focus on making disciples through discipleship as much
as they focus on reaching people through evangelism. If we want to
see a multiplication movement, it will begin with a renewed focus on
discipleship!

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Discipleship for every believer was absolutely essential for John

Wesley. (He would have problems with our modern, individualistic
approaches to Christianity.) Wesley warns that “preaching like an apostle,
without joining together those that are awakened and training them up
in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer.”48 This
was one of the major differences between the ministries of Wesley and
Whitfield. At the close of his life, Whitfield lamented that he had not
cared enough about discipleship. He looked up to Wesley for how he had
prioritized discipleship. Wesley knew that preaching was not enough to
keep people in the faith. He wrote, “I determined, by the grace of God,
not to strike one stroke in any place where I cannot follow the blow.”49 He
followed the “blow” of salvation by putting people into groups to make
sure they continued to grow in Christ.
In his best-selling business book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm
Gladwell notes the significance of the Methodist movement. He
highlights Wesley’s organizational genius and emphasis on community:
“He wasn’t one person with ties to many other people. He was one
person with ties to many groups, which is a small but critical distinction.
Wesley realized that if you wanted to bring about a fundamental change
in peoples’ belief and behavior, a change would persist and serve as an
example to others, you needed to create a community around them,
where those new beliefs could be practiced and expressed and nurtured.”50
In terms of Christian movements, the genius of Wesley was that
he realized the importance of creating disciple-making systems. He
organized people into three interlocking discipleship groups: societies,
class meetings, and bands. Societies were larger gatherings of fifty to
seventy people that provided worship and teaching (much like a new
church). It was the smaller, more intentional class meetings, however,
where deep discipleship happened. Class meetings were about twelve

48. Works, 3:144.

49. Works, 1:416.
50. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point. How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
(New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2000) 173.

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people, and bands were five people. D. Michael Henderson says, “It could
be said metaphorically that the society aimed for the head, the class
meeting for the hands, and the band for the heart.”51
Wesley would take new converts and place them into class meetings,
which were much like small groups; they were designed to meet spiritual
needs. These class meetings met weekly for prayer, instruction, and
mutual fellowship. Each group had a designated male or female leader.
The leaders served their group with a kind of pastoral oversight. Wesley
himself described these societies in the following way:
“Such a society is no other than a company of [people] having the
form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together,
to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love,
that they may help each other to work out their salvation.”52
Part of Wesley’s training included admonishing leaders to do the
following things: first, do no harm and avoid evil; do good of every
possible sort; and attend upon all the ordinances of God, including
prayer, the sacraments, searching the scriptures, and fasting.
Christians who were even more spiritually mature became members
of a band. The bands had fewer members and more rigorous requirements
than societies. They were divided by gender and marital status, designed
to provide a forum where each member of the group could confess their
sins, encourage others and pray for one another. The rules of the band
were as follows:
The design of our meeting is to obey that command of God, “Confess
your faults to one another, and to pray one for another, that ye may be
healed” (James 5:16). To this end, we intend:

1. To meet once a week, at the least.

2. To come punctually at the hour appointed, without some
extraordinary reason.

51. D. Michael Henderson, John Wesley’s Class Meeting: A Model for Making Disciples
(Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 1997) 112.
52. Albert C. Outler, John Wesley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) 178.

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3. To begin (those who are present) exactly at the hour, with singing or
prayer.
4. To speak each of us in order, freely and plainly, the true state of our
souls, with the faults we have committed in thought, word, or deed,
and the temptations we have felt since our last meeting.
5. To end every meeting with prayer suited to the state of each person
present.
6. To desire some person among us to speak his own state first, and then
to ask the rest, in order, as many and as searching questions as may
be, concerning their state, sins, and temptations.53

The account above gives us a little glimpse into what it was like to
participate in one of these group meetings. These groups were for the
committed, although Wesley made the general requirement for admission
that people “desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their
sins.” Wesley wanted the members to show constant progress in their
walk with the Lord, and through the grace of God, these groups provided
structure and relationships that fostered this progress. Wesley exhorted
them to:
Never omit meeting your Class or Band; never absent yourself
from any public meeting. These are the very sinews of our Society;
and whatever weakens or tends to weaken our regard for these, or our
exactness in attending them, strikes at the very root of our community.
As one saith, “That part of our economy, the private weekly meetings for
prayer, examination, and particular exhortation, has been the greatest
means of deepening and confirming every blessing that was received by
the word preached, and of diffusing it to others, who could not attend
the public ministry; whereas, without this religious connection and
intercourse, the most ardent attempts, by mere preaching, have proved of
no lasting uses.”54

53. Outler, John Wesley, 181.

54. Works, 11:433.

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Christians need discipleship that involves the whole body of Christ.

There are no lone rangers in the kingdom of God. Wesley recognized
the importance of meeting together with other Christians to share
experiences, hold one another accountable, and pray for one another. The
goal was that Christians grow in the faith and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they knew that such growth didn’t happen in isolation.
We must constantly be growing in our relationship with the Lord, which
involves interdependence with fellow believers. Forming people into these
groups was a successful part of John Wesley’s ministry.

Education and Training

Another unique contribution of John Wesley’s discipleship was creating
innovative forms of education and learning. Personal piety was not
enough; he was committed to the process of life-long learning. Wesley
promoted education to make his followers more knowledgeable and his
preachers more effective in their ministry. There are several ways in which
he promoted the education of the people called “Methodists.”
Wesley wanted to make Christian literature available to every
Methodist. He did this by publishing hundreds of books, pamphlets
and other publications, which included a wide range of topics. The
various subjects included poetry, history, grammar, dictionaries and
doctrine. He published his sermons, letters, journals and his Explanatory
Notes Upon the New Testament. He also edited a 50-volume Christian
Library, which included many Christian classics. The printing press was
a means of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the British
Isles, and Wesley used the press to defend the doctrines of Methodism,
provide guidance for his followers, and address the various needs of the
movement.
Wesley founded several schools in places with a strong Methodist
presence. He wanted to make education available to everyone, and he
was particularly interested in the education of children. One of the most
prominent schools he founded was Kingswood School in Bristol, which
opened in 1748. School administrators required students to maintain

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a rigorous schedule of study, which included philosophy, reading,

writing, mathematics, science, music and theology. In addition, they
were expected to learn Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French. Wesley also
supported the use of Sunday schools among Methodism. He empowered
a woman named Hannah Ball to organize the first Methodist Sunday
school in 1769. After Wesley’s death, Methodists continued to build
schools, universities and seminaries around the world, many of which
remain in existence today.

Holistic Mission
The Wesleyan revival sought to transform all of society with holistic
mission. While Wesley valued “inward religion,” he wasn’t concerned
simply with the soul of a person, but with the whole person and the whole
gospel. He sought to meet the needs of the entire individual, not just
aspects of an individual, as well as seeking to alleviate the evils of society.
John and his brother, Charles, were moved by compassion for the poor,
the lower classes, and the disenfranchised people of society. They were
not afraid to associate themselves with others who stood for human rights
causes, including fighting slavery, equal rights for women and children,
and establishing better labor laws. John wrote a letter to abolitionist
William Wilberforce, who fought against slavery in England, in which he
said, “O, be not weary in well doing! Go on, in the name of the God and
in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever
saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”55
Not only did John Wesley support different social causes, he was
also actively involved with them. He used societies as a means of “doing
good” to others. He urged his followers to actively participate in meeting
the needs of those around them:
By doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power; as
they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and as far as is
possible, to all men: to their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by

55. Outler, John Wesley, 86.

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giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping

them that are sick, or in prison; to their souls by instructing, reproving,
or exhorting all they that have intercourse with.56
John Wesley was no hypocrite, because he practiced what he
preached. He often made fourteen hundred pounds in a year from his
book sales; he would, however, keep only thirty pounds for himself.
He gave his money to the poor and other worthwhile causes. He said,
“If I leave behind me ten pounds, you and all mankind bear witness
against me that I lived and died a thief and a robber.”57 His denial of
self and property for the sake of the less fortunate is very much like the
early church, but this type of practice is almost totally foreign in North
America and Europe today.
Wesley felt that the church should care for all of society, especially
those who could not take care of themselves, and he purported that
believers have a social responsibility to the world: “‘Holy Solitaries’ is
a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than ‘holy adulterers.’ The
gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness, but social
holiness. Faith working by love is the length and breadth and depth
and height of Christian perfection.”58 The church is to be the body of
Christ for the sake of the world and to offer community for those within
the world, especially for those who are less fortunate. This is a natural
outworking of faith.

Lessons for Today

There is so much we can learn today from the methods of the Wesleyan
revival and the ministry of John Wesley. His ministry contributions are
timeless and can be applied to our present ministry situation—whether in

56. Ibid, 179.

57. Bready J. Wesley, England: Before and After Wesley (London: Hodder and
Stoughton, n.d.) 238.
58. John Wesley, Poetical Works, I: IX-XXII; cited in D. Michael Henderson, John
Wesley’s Class Meeting: A Model for Making Disciples (Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing
House, 1997) 86.

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a local church, university, or the mission field. His basic ministry strategy
had to do with meeting the needs of the total person. Evangelism—or
sharing the gospel—speaks to the human need of salvation from sin and
death; it is a message of hope and healing. All who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ can experience genuine Christianity. This experience is open
to all the people of the world regardless of their economic, racial, social
or political background. John Wesley reminds us that discipleship begins
and ends with Jesus Christ. Wesley’s own experience was the fuel that
sparked the fire for his disciple-making revolution. Being a disciple means
that we are called to simply live out the basics of the Christian faith—
basics that are directly connected to our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Regardless of the culture or time period, the church needs an authentic
faith that comes from Christ alone.
Discipleship and the gathering together of believers can offer many
spiritual blessings. Accountability, fellowship, encouragement and study
are only a few. Social witness allows the Christian family to move beyond
themselves and reach out to meet the needs of those in our societies that
are hurting and in need. The church should draw from the witness of
John Wesley and take up his missionary charge to meet the needs of the
whole person in society.
One of the main things we can learn from this chapter is that
movements happen through deep collaboration that empowers others
to work together for the sake of the kingdom. Movements focus on
identifying, training and empowering the next generation of leaders.
Significant movements, such as the Wesleyan revival, are built on
empowering non-ordained lay leadership to work together for a common
mission and purpose.
Most people don’t realize that John Wesley did more for lay ministry
than any other major Christian leader in history since the time of the
reformation. Until the 1700s, lay people could not serve in any type of
ministry with a leadership position in the church. They were excluded
from teaching, visiting the sick, or holding a leadership role in the church.
Clergy were the only ones who had the authority to teach or preach in the

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church. As a result of Wesley’s decision to begin using lay ministers in the

Wesleyan revival, lay people today have an open door in most churches to
share in ministry. In this regard, Wesley was a forerunner to the modern-
day lay leader revolution in the church. Therefore, if we want to see a
collaborative multiplication movement today, it must be built on a model
that empowers and releases lay leadership for ministry and evangelism—
like the Wesleyan revival was. The Great Collaboration happens when we
work together to advance the kingdom of God in our day!

Chapter 3 Questions
1. How do small group settings help foster discipleship?
2. How do deep personal friendships also help foster discipleship?
3. Why is regularity and structure crucial for the growth of a
movement?
4. What is the meaning and purpose of “holistic mission?” Why is a
holistic approach vital for movements?
5. Does your church have a special focus on ministry to the poor?
Explain.

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 Epilogue

Marks of a Disciple-Making
Movement
“While we need the past, we must not let ourselves
become imprisoned by it or allow it to become an idol.”
—Esther de Waal

A s we come to the end of this journey, I hope you have gained some
insight and wisdom from the movements and methods we’ve
explored together. After being a pastor, teacher, church planter and
disciple maker for over twenty years, I have sensed a growing need among
Christians, both old and new, to rediscover the disciple-making wisdom
of the past to live out our faith in the present and to help shape the
future. There is an old saying, “You can’t know where you’re going until
you know where you have been.” The past is like an anchor that keeps us
grounded, rooted and centered. With our feet firmly rooted in the past,
we can move forward with confidence into the future knowing that we
have a firm foundation.
As much as we want to see a disciple-making multiplication
movement today, most of us are unable to envision what that might look
like. We are familiar with the status quo—the existing models of church
largely focused on group gatherings for worship and teaching. To begin to
clarify our vision, we can benefit from a closer look at church history and
the global church.

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 Epilogue

In my book, Marks of a Movement, I have developed a list of the

six essential marks of disciple-making movements.59 There is no better
example of a successful disciple-making multiplication movement in the
West than the Methodist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. I
believe it serves as an indispensable paradigm for how we can multiply
today’s church.
These six marks provide a genetic structure—much like the DNA in
a living organism—mutually working together to create the movement
dynamics. As you read through them, think of them as an interconnected
ecosystem rather than focusing on the individual parts. And I want to
emphasize that this list is neither authoritative or comprehensive. Rather,
it is designed to offer you a simple and accessible snapshot of the key
elements of disciple-making movements. As you read them, consider how
they might be applied today.

Changed Lives
Movements begin as people’s lives are changed by a fresh encounter
with the living God. Movements often begin with a catalytic leader
like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, or William Seymour whose
lives has been touched by God. Sometimes the change is a conversion
experience. At other times it is a personal renewal that results in a radical
commitment to follow Christ. Movements are not primarily about
numbers or slogans, but about changed lives that lead to broader cultural
transformation. In renewal movements, there is usually a tipping point
where the transformation occurring in the lives of individuals as they
embrace a vision for renewal begins to spread like wildfire, leading to
broader social and cultural change.

59. See Winfield Bevins, Marks of a Movement. What the Church Can Learn from the
Wesleyan Revival. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019).

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 Multiplying Disciples

Contagious Faith
Movements become contagious when ordinary people share their faith
with others. One of the reasons a movement grows and spreads is because
it has a simple, life-changing message that ordinary people can easily
understand and share with others. Revival can spread as people rediscover
the simplicity of the gospel or an essential aspect of the Christian faith
that inspires and mobilizes them to action. A common feature of these
revival movements is an invitation to commit or join a cause, often
effective in helping recruit others to join the movement. In Christian
movements, this growth typically results from a renewed passion to
share the gospel with others, and this passion spreads from one person to
another like a contagion.

The Holy Spirit

Movements emphasize the person and work of the Holy Spirit in
peoples’ lives. Fresh encounters with the Holy Spirit create a renewed
sense of spiritual vitality among the followers of Christ, leading to
personal and corporate renewal. More specifically, the reciprocity of the
Word and the Spirit interacting together offers a potent mix that renews
peoples’ faith and compels them outward to engage the world in mission.
The Word of God becomes the foundational authority and guide for life,
while the Holy Spirit fills and empowers people to live holy lives and to
share their faith with others.

Discipleship Systems
Movements develop systems for discipleship and spiritual growth.
This frequently looks like some form of small group structure to
facilitate ongoing spiritual growth and commitment. Preaching alone
is not enough; people need ongoing support, community and structure
to help them continue on the spiritual journey. A holistic ecosystem is
needed to help people grow at every stage of their journey. This involved
an interlocking discipleship group structure. Each of these structures
gathered people into groups of different sizes focused on different aspects

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 Epilogue

of the discipleship process to help individuals grow in their faith. There

were also spiritual practices that undergirded and reinforced the entire
discipleship system.

Apostolic Leadership
Movements have an apostolic impulse—drawn from the models and
methods of the early church—that empowers and mobilizes all of
God’s people for mission. Movements draw their inspiration from the
faith and spirituality of the early church, especially the church of the first
two centuries (the pre-Constantine era). Movements work to empower
ordinary, non-ordained Christian men and women to fulfill the Great
Commission to make disciples in every nation.

Organic Multiplication
Movements have an outward missional focus that naturally leads
to the multiplication of disciples and new communities of faith.
Movements don’t become movements by naval gazing, but by looking
outward, by inviting people in, and by growing and multiplying its
mission and influence. There is a natural dynamism and excitement
among the people that makes them contagious, helping the movement
spread widely and organically from one person to another. We can
describe the growth of movements as organic because it tends to happen
naturally, rather than being forced by the leadership at the top level.
Movements look outward and grow and multiply; as people’s lives are
changed, they begin making disciples and then start new ministries and
communities of faith to facilitate the ongoing growth of more individuals.

Conclusion
These six marks form the basis of what I believe a disciple-making
multiplication movement would look like in our day. By looking to
the past, we will better understand how God brought revival, first to
an individual and a group of their close friends, then to the nation of

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England, eventually forming a worldwide movement. But what about

today?
A wonderful example of a disciple-making movement happening
here in my own backyard is Fuente De Avivamiento (Spring of Revival),
led by my friend Dr. Iosmar Alvarez in Lexington, Kentucky. Fuente
De Avivamiento bears all the marks of a movement, and it all began
when Iosmar had a life-changing encounter with the Lord. Iosmar was
born and raised in Cuba and became a veterinarian. Yet all his worldly
ambitions changed when he was gloriously saved during a Methodist
crusade in Cuba. When Iosmar came to the United States, he sensed the
Lord calling him to plant churches—not just one church, but a whole
movement of new churches. Since planting Fuente in Lexington, that
single church has become a contagious movement reaching hundreds of
people in the Latino community. Every week new people come to faith
in Christ, and the church is teeming with the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit.
Members of the church have a fervent spirituality that is Spirit-filled
and marked by a hunger for the Word of God and prayer. They have
developed an organic discipleship ecosystem that keeps their members
connected and committed in active discipleship. They gather across the
city once a week in nearly one hundred groups that meet in people’s
homes for worship, teaching and prayer ministry. Fuente’s house churches
function just like the class meetings of early Methodism, which met in
people’s homes throughout the week. They are committed to holistic
mission by caring for people’s felt needs.
Their growing movement has an apostolic DNA that is especially
committed to empowering non-ordained people to do the work of the
ministry. Their leaders are ordinary women and men who work ordinary
jobs throughout the week but also serve as the pastors of their house
churches. As they demonstrate faithfulness in their house churches, some
eventually become leaders over ministries, and others are sent out to
plant churches across the region. Finally, they are reproducing themselves
through organic multiplication, planting several other churches across

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the Lexington area and helping launch a national network of churches

being planted all across the country.
In closing, this book is not exhaustive, but a teaser to point you
toward the need for rediscovering the lost art of disciple-making
multiplication for the 21st century! If it happened then, it could happen
now. Why not you? Why not now?
We have much to learn and a long way to go as we look to the future
of Christianity. My humble prayer is that this book will be a call for the
church to glean wisdom from the passionate faith and spirituality of
previous generations of followers of Jesus so that we can offer a vibrant,
healthy, life-giving faith for our generation and generations to come!
I believe that the wisdom of the past can and will help us make the
disciples of the future.

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 Acknowledgements

A book on disciple making would not be complete without mentioning

people who have been a part of my own discipleship journey. I would
like to acknowledge several key people who have influenced me toward
writing this book.
First, I am especially thankful for the life and legacy of Dr. Robert
Coleman. His watershed work, The Master Plan of Evangelism, has been
one the most influential books on my life and ministry. I am thankful to
have you as a mentor! I am also thankful for my friends Todd Wilson and
his team at Exponential and Bobby Harrington at [Link] who
are helping leaders develop a vision for disciple-making multiplication. I
am excited to write this book for the Exponential book series.
I would like to thank Chad Harrington at Harrington Interactive
Media for his help throughout the editorial process and for helping me
make this a more accessible and readable book. I am thankful to my
friend and brother Dr. Iosmar Alvarez, for his friendship and partnership
in disciple making and church planting. May God grant us many more
years of working together for Christ!
I am thankful for my assistant, Dylan Ziegler, who helped in so
many ways with editing the manuscript. He is more than an assistant; he
is a friend and brother. I am thankful for the amazing team at Asbury
Seminary for our collaborative efforts to join together in God’s mission
to train a new generation of church planters! Especially Drs. Timothy
Tennent, Greg Okesson, Jay Moon and Tom Tumblin.
Finally, I am thankful for the hundreds of men and women that I
have taught and coached over the years. You are my heroes, and this book
is written for you!

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 Appendix

10 Affirmations of a
Disciple-Making Movement
[Link] is a collaborative community of men and women committed
to the discipleship lifestyle—being disciples of Jesus and making disciples of
Jesus.

1. We believe the gospel and it is our message—this good news is

focused on Jesus as our Messiah (King) and his death, burial
and resurrection. All who respond to salvation are freely saved and
called to discipleship, no exceptions, no excuses (Mark 8:34–38;
1 Cor. 15:1–8). The gospel we preach and believe dictates the kind of
disciples we are and the kind of disciples we make. If we attempt to
make a Christlike disciple from a non-discipleship gospel, we will fail.
A non-discipleship gospel is one that does not include discipleship as a
natural part of the message and expectation.
2. We are compelled to be and make disciples of Jesus. We believe
Jesus Christ is supreme and worthy of all devotion, worship and
emulation; and that disciple making is a natural and necessary life
response to Jesus. With laser focus, it was Jesus himself who made
disciples who could make disciples . . . and Jesus commands us to
do the same (Matt. 28:16–20; John 20:21). We prefer to use the
expression “disciple making” over “discipleship” because the former is
closer to the words of the Great Commission, and the latter is often
mischaracterized (Matt. 28:18–20).
3. We believe Jesus is the model (for life and ministry). Jesus showed
us how to live life and how to make disciples. We seek to emulate His

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method and model. As the sinless second Adam, Jesus was man as
God intended man to be. He then told us, “Do the works I have been
doing” (John 14:12). John said those who “claim to live in him must
live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6). Paul understood this when he said,
“Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1 NLT). Discipleship
demands us to “follow” the resurrected Christ and “imitate” the
priorities and patterns of the incarnate Christ. We like the expression
“Jesus model and method of disciple making” as a summary of what
we do.
4. We believe love is the driving motive. The Great Commandment
precedes the Great Commission. Loving God and loving people are
the passion behind the priority, the motive behind the mission, the
heart behind the hands. Love is the signature card of true disciples.
Disciple making cannot happen apart from loving and caring
relationships—both tough and a tender love (1 Thessalonians 2).
Larger ministries require more relational disciple makers to keep
growing. Disciple making is relational and, as ministries grow, more
relational disciples are needed. “By this everyone will know that you
are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
5. We believe verifiable fruit is the measure. God’s agenda for
each one of us is that we stay close to Him and bear “fruit,” “more
fruit,” and then ultimately “much fruit, showing yourselves to
be my disciples” (John 15:8). God transforms our hearts as we
“remain in [Him]” and He leads us into lives of love (John 15:4,
17). Jesus modeled the focus of love as He came to seek, save, and
disciple people (Luke 19:10; 6:40). Jesus masterfully showed how
love produces disciples, reaching and developing His men and
helping them grow from nonbelievers all the way to disciple makers
reproducing disciple makers (Matt. 28:19–20). There is a natural
process of moving people from those who do not know Jesus all the
way to becoming mature disciple makers. Jesus showed the model
to us. In short, we haven’t truly made mature disciples until they are

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 Appendix

following Jesus’ model of love and helping to make more disciples.

This is fruitful multiplication.
6. We believe Holy Spirit power is the means. Disciples cannot
be made through fleshly efforts. Jesus, in His humanity, fully
acknowledged His dependence on the Spirit. Disciple making is not
just a good strategy—it is a way of life, accomplished through the
fruit of the Holy Spirit living through a person’s yielded and holy life
(2 Cor. 3:16–17). If Jesus fully depended on the Holy Spirit’s power,
how can we do any less? The Holy Spirit will lead us to be obedient
people who live holy lives to God’s glory.
7. We believe the local church is the primary environment for
disciple making. The church is for discipleship, and disciples
manifest the kingdom of God to the world (Col. 1:28–29). When the
church reverses this process and primarily attempts to get the world to
go to church instead of the church going to the world, you get chaos.
Pastoral and ministerial work should be evaluated and rewarded
based on how many disciple makers are produced and the kind of
people a church sends into the world. Jesus was a man for others; the
church, likewise, is for others. Any plan that does not create disciples
who live for others is a failure.
8. We believe that equipping leaders is the linchpin of the
movement. All Christians are called to be disciples who grow to
help make disciples, using the unique gifts God has given each of
us. Leaders are also called to grow a movement of disciple making.
This is called the church (2 Tim. 2:2). How Jesus built a movement
differs from how Jesus made a disciple. If we are going to create a
disciple-making movement in North America, it is our conviction we
must train leaders in how Jesus built a movement. This is harder and
takes more time, but in the end, this will bear fruit that will remain.
Practically, this means we must develop a team of disciple-making
leaders (pastors), with various disciple-making best practices (church
models), who can continue to fan the flame of disciple making.

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9. We believe definitions are vitally important. Our definitions are

in agreement with the following and where possible, we will use
these definitions.
a. Discipleship – is simply the state of being a disciple. This word
(like the word evangelism) is not in the Bible. Unfortunately,
in the North American church, discipleship is typically seen
as an educational process designed to orient new believers to
the biblical and everyday practices of our churches—and so we
often prefer disciple making.
b. Disciple – someone who is following Jesus, being changed by
Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus (Matt. 4:19).
c. Disciple making – is entering into relationships to
intentionally help people follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and
join the mission of Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20).
d. Disciple maker – a disciple of Jesus who enters into
relationships with people to intentionally help them follow
Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus.
e. A Church – a spiritual family growing in surrendered
obedience to all the teachings of Jesus Christ who gather
together regularly under biblically recognized leadership for the
purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission (making disciples)
with a Great Commandment heart (loving God, loving people).
f. A Disciple-Making Culture – the beliefs, habits and
narrative of a church constantly repeated with congruence and
intentionality that make it clear to almost everyone, all the
time, including newcomers; disciple making is what everyone
does in this church.
g. A Disciple-Making Church (Level 5) – a church where
disciple making is the core DNA and culture of the church,
where the average church member makes disciples to the fourth
generation. This disciple-making activity is regularly produced
in significant and diverse streams within the church that
consistently multiply into new churches.

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 Appendix

h. Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) – a disciple-making

movement exists when churches plant multiple churches
(within a few short years) through gospel activity that has
abundant fruit among the lost; and multiplies these disciples
(people growing in obedience to all of Jesus’ commands), who
in turn replicate themselves in others. Through this fruit, we
can see at least four generations regularly produced in multiple
streams of disciple- making activity that consistently multiply
into churches.
10. We believe Jesus and Scripture are the basis. We believe the
sixty-six books of the Bible are the authoritative, reliable and
ultimate standard for disciple making and life (2 Tim. 3:16–4:2).
The Bible was written by disciples, to disciples, and for disciples.
We find healthy guidance for our movement in the Apostle’s and
Nicene Creeds. Jesus is our focus, and He rightfully deserves our
commitment and imitation as we seek the fullness of the kingdom He
offers us, both in this life and the next.

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 About the Author

Winfield Bevins is an author, artist, and speaker whose passion is to

help others connect to the roots of the Christian faith for discipleship and
mission. He is the Director of Church Planting at Asbury Theological
Seminary. He frequently speaks at conferences on a variety of topics
and is a regular adjunct professor at several seminaries. Having grown
up in a free-church background, Winfield eventually found his spiritual
home in the Anglican tradition, but freely draws wisdom from all church
traditions.
Having authored several books, his writings explore the convergence
of liturgy, prayer, and mission. His latest book, Ever Ancient, Ever New,
with Zondervan examines young adults who have embraced Christian
liturgy and how it has impacted their lives.
As an artist, Winfield is dedicated to connecting the church and the
arts community. He is a visual artist who enjoys painting iconography,
landscapes, and portraits. Over the past decade, he has helped start
numerous arts initiatives, including a non-profit art gallery and studio
and an arts program in North Carolina.
He and his wife Kay have three beautiful girls Elizabeth, Anna Belle,
and Caroline and live in the Bluegrass state of Kentucky.

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