OUR MINISTRY PHILOSOPHY
THEREFORE GO, MAKE DISCIPLES.
Disciple-making movements (DMM) is our core strategy for evangelism and discipleship in the Middle East. GCM’s disciple-making ministry is rooted in sound, evangelical doctrine and obedience to Christ. The methodology goes beyond bringing people to Jesus and bears lasting fruit. Based on Christ’s instructions in Matthew 10, GCM’s approach is scriptural, relational, and in-depth. We disciple people to Christ, then we disciple them to leadership. The result is obedient disciples who are making more disciples, which results in churches that are constantly reproducing more churches. The GCM strategy can be summarized as love God, love your neighbor, and go make disciples who obey the commands of Christ. The synergy of individuals extending this process through their natural networks brings an ever-increasing spiral of transformation within families and communities.
Following God’s leading, GCM teams initiate conversations with men and women in parks, coffee shops, markets, on trains, etc. The teams focus on finding “persons of peace”—people who are open to spiritual answers to their problems, are hospitable, and eager to influence others. Ideally, the first discovery bible study (DBS) group is formed among friends and family members of the person of peace. The purpose of this group is for spiritually-open people to discover God together as He is revealed in the Bible. This group context of discovery produces disciples who are accountable to one another to obey what God has revealed to them through His Holy Spirit each week.
GCM disciple makers read the Bible with those interested and invite them to learn more about Jesus. When they come to Christ they are celebrated as part of the family of God! We continue to lead believers into more deeply understanding biblical truth, live a Christ-transformed life, overcome persecution, safely reach others with the Good News. We then disciple believers into leadership where they form new churches and replicate the disciple making process.
HOW IT WORKS
Core disciple makers train, coach, and mentor volunteer disciple makers to launch and sustain an ever-expanding chain reaction of DMM. They transform their communities and the process repeats without dependence on outside elements. As a security measure against aggressive persecution of Christians, each core disciple maker directs the ministry of a group of volunteer disciple makers in his/her network. In addition, GCM has a “silo” structure, which helps protect all GCM disciple makers should anyone in the network be arrested.
CORE DISCIPLE MAKER'S
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Community Outreach: Identify target communities by discovering an unmet need that can be addressed, as a way to gain legitimate access to share God’s Word among Muslims.
2. Prayer Mobilization: Enlist a number of intercessors to undergird every aspect of the evangelism/disciple-making/church-planting process.
3. Training and Coaching: Conduct ongoing disciple-making training and coaching within local communities to recruit and equip a continual and ever-expanding stream of self-replicating disciples.
4. Mentoring: Mentor national volunteer disciple makers throughout their own network to encourage, prevent or correct doctrinal drift, upgrade the skills of network disciple makers, enable and sustain the momentum of reproduction, and ensure that those on the outer reaches of the far-flung movement feel they are part of a greater team.
5. Compassion Ministry: Carry out acts of service to meet significant human needs as a tangible expression of God’s care and concern for hurting people, and as a means of identifying “persons of peace” within communities.
6. Leadership Development: Grow and nurture a never-ending stream of nonprofessional volunteer disciple makers by training, coaching, and mentoring them “on-the-job” and in their natural setting.
7. Reporting and Documentation: Collect, compile, and regularly report comprehensive and accurate field data (successes and failures) in order to verify results, inform and coach on course corrections, shape future strategies, and celebrate what God has done.
8. Resource Provision: Equip volunteer disciple makers with Scriptures in heart languages, cell phones, and materials needed for discipling and compassion ministries to support them in effective disciple making and fruitful church planting.
9. Partnership Formation: Develop partnerships with like-minded international ministries and organizations to multiply the overall DMM impact by leveraging existing people, resources, relationships, and networks.
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
A movement is something that can ripple from generation to generation. In order for it to succeed, it cannot be complicated. DBS is the engine that drives DMM, which can turn into a movement. As the Holy Spirit leads, GCM’s ultimate objective is to catalyze indigenous DMM movements of seven generations of self-replicating and self-sustaining churches inside Muslim nations of the Middle East. Learn more about our unique strategy.