I’d like to talk to you a little bit about the importance of movements in this day and age. Now when we say the word “movement” we’re not talking about something just moving around physically. We’re talking about movements where there’s this big idea, for example, that people find very compelling. They buy into it, they believe in it so much that they are willing to share it with their friends and family and their social network. And those folks find it compelling and likewise. Nobody’s telling them to do it, nobody’s paying them to do it, it’s become a movement. And in the history of the world, it’s been movements that have had a huge impact, for good or bad, in in the course of history. Even more than institutions where you’ve got that paycheck and that position, and that’s what keeps you coming back. In this case, we’re talking about a swarm of locusts with no king. We’re talking about people doing it because they own it. They believe in the vision they have got common values that hold them together. They’ve got relationships the whole together, and that’s what moves the whole thing forward. Now in missions circles, we have been working to catalyze what we call “disciple-making movements”. So instead of just people coming to know Jesus one by one and winning one disciple by one disciple, we win disciples in a way where they can do likewise.
Disciples can make disciples rapidly, empowered to do it right from the beginning and not having to wait for like years equipping to be able to do the stuff. They just, from week one, are equipped to go out and share what they have received. This is so crucial because we need to see a breakthrough in missions today! You might say, well man, things have been going great. I’ve been hearing all these stories so many people coming to know Jesus. Yes, it’s true. It’s never been so many people coming to know Jesus like we’ve seen recently. And yet, that is actually just staying in lockstep with the population growth of the world. So the population has been growing rapidly and the number of people falling in love with Jesus has also been growing rapidly, but about at the same pace.
So researchers have actually given us a little bit of a wake-up call. The mission’s researchers have said “hey look! Over the last 100 years actually, the percentage of Christians of all types has stated about 33 percent”… about 33 percent. We’re like no, that is not acceptable! So what can we do to change this? We can’t keep going with addition type evangelism and church planting. I think we need to see rapid multiplication. We need to work to catalyze disciple making movements and that’s why we’re so tenacious about that. That’s why we’re so dogged to hold onto the idea of movements. Number one we’ve seen them happen like never before. And number two this is the only way we’re going to be able to break that flat line and see the number of people falling in love with Jesus and following him actually outpace the population growth of the planet today.
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