Underground Disciple-Making Movements

Jesus didn’t “plant churches,” and neither did St. Paul. Rather they planted the Gospel, which grew disciples that eventually produced extended spiritual families - the Church. The New Testament points to a strategy for the advancement of God’s Kingdom that is about people, about the leading of God’s Spirit, about relationships - and living in a way that is naturally supernatural.

The engine of mission is discipleship but this plan must be simple and reproducible - for ordinary people. The primary tool we use for discipleship is used around the world in what leaders are calling “Disciple-Making Movements,” or DMM for short. Disciples are being multiplied and churches are emerging through a simple tool called “Discovery Bible Study” (DBS). Check out a DBS resource HERE.

We would love to come alongside and train you through the Missionary Pathway in order to see a disciple-making movement in New England.

Of course, there are so many tools to make disciples and DBS can be integrated with many of those tools - but the heart of discipleship is discovery and hearing God and then obeying God. Once the Gospel is planted and disciples are growing a church or an extended spiritual family emerges.

What is a church anyway?

“Church” (ecclesia in Greek) means gathering - a gathering of “called out ones,” they are disciples of Jesus called out for the purpose of blessing the wider community.  In Acts 19, “ecclesia” is a town council: a civil, ruling body in the city of Ephesus. The Greek word “ecclesia” is correctly defined as: “The called-out (ones)” [ECC = out; KALEO = call]. So, you can see how this word was used to indicate a civil body of called/elected people tasked with ensuring their spheres of influence flourish - the places they are called to BLESS.

Why “the underground?” 

1. The early church lived a quiet and simple life among their neighbors witnessing to another age, another economy, and another Kingdom through discipleship and small, simple, church expressions. It was organic, relational, and incarnational as it joyfully subverted the spirit of the age. 

2. The underground railroad had a “freedom road” that cut through New England in the 1700s and 1800s as men, women, and children sought to flee the dominion of enslavement and into a spacious place of liberty where they could enjoy the freedom to flourish - under the radar, broadcast through whispers of hope, abolitionists developed an intricate network of homes and businesses through which thousands were ushered into lasting freedom.

These simple expressions of church can be connected to a larger church family (sometimes called “missional communities”) or can be autonomous gatherings networked with others in a region (sometimes called “micro churches”).