Today, purely for the sake of asking the question, we did some serious Google searching on a quest of trying to find the DOWN side of disciple making movement (DMM) principles and practices. Interestingly, we couldn’t find much (any?) at all. Do you know of anyone who is saying negative things about disciple-making movements? If so, please click “Comment” following the web version of this item. We couldn’t find any. At all.
Great question. I am really interested in this…. I would like to get into DMM after our (current) furlough in a few months time.
Yes there is…..
…if you are on Screwtape’s Facebook page. They’re taking away multitudes of “Likes.”.
A friend was very excited several years ago about the DMM training he had received. We said, “Please try it in (our shared) context X, and if it works, we will gladly adopt it.” We suspected that what sounded like a “one size fits all” approach would not work in many contexts. After a couple of years of no progress, he reported, “It will need some adjusting for our people group.” Several years later, my friend is a disappointed and discouraged worker. One tends to blame oneself when the “magic formula” does not work. Although there is rhetoric about adapting, at heart God has made all cultures distinct. Learn what one can, but no tool in the toolbox replaces people developing their own movement with its own appropriate and perhaps unique shape, as they come to Christ. A product of our (Western) scientific worldview is the mistaken belief that if we simply find the correct formula, the job will be simple. We see the same in church fads in our home context, yet the church continues to decline in the West. It should give us pause before we think we have the solution to the problems of others!
A lot of these situations arise because people don’t understand the principles are universal, but the tactics *always* have to be adapted to the context. That’s one of the big failure/stuck points.
Check with Radius International. They talk about some serious concerns with DMM.
Seedbed 25:2 in December 2011 had a critical review with a couple responses from Ted Esler and LD Waterman.
I do not know of negative critiques of DMMS, but I know of some in regard to Church Planting Movements. The Southwestern Journal of Theology had a issue on this, as did the Journal of Evangelism and Missions, published by Mid-America Baptist Seminary.
Check out this link to a pretty comprehensive critique on DMM…https://radiusinternational.org/a-brief-guide-to-dmm/
As far as I can tell, this is a fair and thorough review of a growing trend in Disciple Making Movements. Well worth the effort of anyone interested in such things.
https://www.radiusinternational.org/a-brief-guide-to-dmm/
A brief view of history reveals godly men who “discovered” and implemented new (to them) emphasis theology regarding Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We have slapped names (armenia, calvin, luther, Wesley, etc) on these new movements started by Godly men. Seems to me the height of arrogance to critique what God has/is doing with the body of Christ, especially when He is bringing millions thereby into His Kingdom. He even raised up non-believers in the OT to speak to His people (Heb 1:1-3), It may be more productive to personally get in step with what Jesus is doing in the world as we see with millions of new followers, instead of giving pious criticism of godly men who are being bleast by God in their ministry. Also a review of “contention” and “dispute” in new testament scripture may be helpful.