MULTIPLYING DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES & CHURCHES CHURCHES CHURCHES CHURCHES conversation guide Peter Roennfeldt new environments to experience God and community A resource of the South Pacific Division Discipleship Ministries Team January 2018
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MULTIPLYING
DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES & DISCIPLES &
CHURCHESCHURCHESCHURCHESCHURCHES
conversation guide
Peter Roennfeldt
new environments to experience God and community
A resource of the South Pacific Division Discipleship Ministries Team
January 2018
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DISCIPLE MAKING & CHURCH PLANTING RESOURCES
Following Jesus. Walk through the Gospels. Explore in depth Jesus’
journey and His example and teaching of disciple making and movement
building.
Following the Spirit. Be inspired. Explore the book of Acts—experience
the resilience of early believers in disciple making, church planting and
Small Group Principles – Discovery Bible Reading groups 23
3. CULTIVATE 24
Answering questions – learning from the order of Revelation 14:6-13 24
Elementary teachings – essential beliefs 25
After reading the Gospel of Mark 27
Introducing seminars and evangelistic meetings 28
CHURCH PLANTING 29
4. HARVEST 29
Why do churches exist? 30
What is church? 31
Why Plant New Churches? 31
Theological Foundations for Church Planting 32
Key foundational beliefs 33
Essential values and attitudes 34
ACTIVITY: Work on Church Planting Project Plan 35
What model will be planted? 35
Who will lead? 35
How will the plant be sustainable? 36
Where will the plant gather? 36
What will we do? 37
Functional Structures 38
Evaluation Plan 39
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5. MULTIPLY – disciples and churches 40
A common blockage: members are not disciples 41
Program evaluation worksheet 42
People flowchart 43
Jesus’ and Paul’s models of multiplication 44
Our Multiplication Plan 46
CHURCH PLANTING PROJECT PLAN 47
Acknowledgments 49
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GETTING STARTED
Jesus began His ministry making disciples. Before He ascended He commanded: ‘Go and make
disciples of all nations.’ (Matthew 28:19)1 This is our commission. On the evening of His
resurrection, He said: ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ (John 20:21)
A new church is a gathering of new disciples
While the Gospels outline Jesus’ method and model of disciple making, the book of Acts
is our guidebook for planting new churches. A basic insight from Paul’s missionary
journeys of church planting is: each local church that is planted is responsible to multiply. And
note this observation: ‘Upon all who believe, God has placed a burden of raising up churches’
(E. G. White, Medical Ministry, 315).
A church planting movement
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is to be a movement – a movement of church planting. This
is how it started, and this is how it will complete its work. God has called us to plant new and
multiplying communities of faith in un-entered places. This is the work that God has placed
upon all disciples – all believers, pastors and leaders:
‘Our ministers (speaking of pastors) are not to spend their time laboring for those who have
already accepted the truth. With Christ’s love burning in their hearts, they are to go forth
to win sinners to the Saviour. Beside all waters they are to sow the seeds of truth. Place after
place is to be visited; church after church is to be raised up. Those who take their stand
for the truth are to be organized into churches, and then the minister is to pass on to other
equally important fields’ (E. G. White, 7 Testimonies, 19-20).
Further:
‘We must do more than we have done to reach the people of our cities. We are not to erect
large buildings in the cities, but over and over again the light has been given me that we
should establish in all our cities small plants which shall be centres of influence’ (E.
G. White, 7 Testimonies, 115).
This conversation guide is designed to equip you and your team to make disciples and plant
‘church after church’ – churches that multiply. This is what the apostle Paul did. He planted
multiple churches, and they multiplied. His two years and three month’s work in Ephesus
resulted in churches multiplying across what is Turkey today – and, ‘all the Jews and Greeks
who lived in the province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord’ (Acts 19:10).
Welcome to the challenges, excitement, rewards and drama of planting new communities of
faith – of gathering new disciples into multiplying churches. This puts you on the cutting edge
of mission; it is a spiritual journey that demands teamwork, faith, and prayer.
Peter Roennfeldt
1 Bible references are from the New International Version, Holman Bible Publishers, 1986.
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DISCIPLE MAKING & PLANTING TEAMS
Because Jesus always worked with teams, equipping His disciples to do the same, we equip
in teams. We form teams of 3-5 to discuss this guide. We can work through this guide over
5-6 days, or do a section each day over 5-6 weeks.
FORMING A TEAM
1. Restructure Sabbath School classes into 6-12 people who live near each other – and they
become a team to work their area with activities, a branch Sabbath School, and Discovery
Bible Reading groups.
2. Form a team of 4-5 believers. During this training time:
a. Learn to pray together conversationally.
b. Read and re-read your textbooks, the Gospels and the book of Acts.
c. Work through this Conversation Guide and put into practice what you learn.
d. Don’t let the training days go by without looking for a ‘person-of-peace’. Check out
again what Jesus said to do in Luke 10:8-9 – and do it! See what happens!
e. Share your journey with other believers, encourage them to make disciples and
form more church planting teams. Watch for the activity of the Holy Spirit in the
lives of others, fan that spark of interest and multiply your work.
ACTION PLANS
Who will record the decisions in your team?
Make a list of those who you could encourage, even while you are training, to form another
group that will multiply into another, and another.
TEAM VALUES
1. Doing everything to please God
2. Encouraging each other in team work
3. Spending time in prayer and worship
4. Networking as active missionaries with our community
5. Multiplying disciples – equipping other disciples and teams
6.
7.
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THE GREAT COMMISSION Matthew 28:16-20
Read using the Discovery Bible Reading process (see page 22 for details)
• One person will read Matthew 28:16-20 - then another will read the same verses.
• Then one will share the story in their own words – with the others helping.
1. What one thing did Jesus commission disciples to do?
2. The word ‘nations’ is ethne. What does this mean for disciple making?
The Relational Streams Approach
3. VISION: What is God’s vision for disciple making?
New disciples are able to make and multiply disciples.
A gathering of new multiplying disciples is a new church plant.
4. MISSION: The reason why your church plant will exist:
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Jesus’ method
PHASES OF MOVEMENT – Jesus used five invitations & disciples used His method
John 1:19-51 – Jesus calling His first disciples
Jesus gave His first invitation to Come and See after His baptism and temptations. The
response of John’s two disciples who spent the day with Him indicates that Jesus
shared with them the evidence of His messiahship – from the first 30 years of His life
(the Preparation phase). This is why Come and See is the Preparation invitation.
What can you apply for your disciple making and church planting?
• Preparation phase – Come and See (John 1:35-39)
• Foundations phase – Follow Me (John 1:43)
• Participation-training – Fish with Me (Matthew 4:18-20)
• Multiplying leaders – Love your enemies/sacrifice with Me (Matt 5:43-45; 16:24)
• Movements phase – Receive the Spirit (John 20:21-22)
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DISCIPLE MAKING – Jesus used five invitations & disciples use His method
John 4:1-42 – Jesus calling the Samaritan woman to be a disciple
Read using the Discovery Bible Reading process to review John 4:1-42.
From first contact Jesus was equipping disciples to use His five invitations to make and
multiply disciples. Identify the five invitations (above) in His witness to the Samaritan woman
at the well and how she immediately followed His example.
Within a few minutes the Samaritan woman could share her testimony and invite others to
Jesus. How did Jesus lead her? –
• To know Him (come & see)
• To be like Him (follow Me)
• To be able to (fish with Me) –
o Share her experience of Him
o Invite others to ‘come and see’
ACTIVITY: Use the People Flow Chart to identify –
1) where are you on this journey of discipleship and
2) where are your core church planting team members on this journey:
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Harvest model - Mark 4:26-29
Use the Discovery Bible Reading process to review Mark 4:26-29 (cf. 4:3-20)
Jesus shared harvest parables to reveal ‘the secret of the kingdom of God’. (Mark 4:11, 26)
We use the parable of four types of soils – with the ‘good soil’ (prepared, cultivated, and full
of manure) producing a ‘multiplying’ crop (Mark 4:3-20); as well as the harvest model (Mark
4:26-29) – sometimes referred to as the four fields.1 It is one field, but the field changes.
Discuss this agricultural and disciple making model.2
1 Nathan and Kari Shank, Reproducing Churches Using Simple Tools, 2007. 2 Peter Roennfeldt, Following Jesus: disciple-making and movement-building, Signs, 2017: 134
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Jesus’ disciple making – Luke 10:1-24 Use the Discovery Bible Reading process to review Luke 10:1-9
After a short time, Jesus had many disciples. (John 3:22; 4:1-2) When He called the twelve to
be apostles He had a ‘crowd of disciples’. (Luke 6:12-19) Luke 10 tells of Him calling and
training many more. This was five or six months before His crucifixion. We will look carefully
at how He trained these disciples to make new disciples.
STEPS IN DISCIPLE MAKING & CHURCH PLANTING: An overlay of Jesus’ teaching on
entering new fields (Luke 10:1-24) with His harvest model (Mark 4:26-29) reveals five steps:
DISCIPLE MAKING
1. Prepare (empty field):
2. Sow:
3. Cultivate (growing ‘all by itself’):
CHURCH PLANTING
4. Harvest (Gather):
5. Multiply:
Farmers in the Middle East harvest to sow new fields the next season. They keep the best to
plant again – to multiply. They ‘sow in tears’ – ‘weeping’, for their families are hungry; but
they cannot eat the seed, they must plant or next season they will starve. (See Psalm 126:5,
6.) This is a foundational idea. How would you understand this for friends you are leading to
be disciples?
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DISCIPLE MAKING ‘CHRIST’S method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with
men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs,
and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me”.’ (MH143)
1. PREPARE The field and people where you will make disciples
[1] TEAMS: going ‘two by two’
Jesus worked in teams. He sent them ‘two by two’, ‘ahead of Him’ (Luke 10:1).
a. Where did Jesus find the first members of His team of disciples?
Compare John 1:35-51 with Matthew 4:12-22
b. Where will we find our team members? Compare Matthew 9:35-38 and Luke 10:2
c. Who could you invite to join you? Where will you find these people?
d. Know the SHAPE of each other in your team.
Spiritual Gifts
Heart passion (character)
Abilities (competencies)
Personality (chemistry)
Experiences
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[2] PLACES: where you will work
Name the empty field (the people and places) where you will work?
How would you describe those you will work with?
a. How would you describe their families, communities or relational streams?
b. Who are some of the key people in their relational streams?
c. What do you see God doing in their lives?
What things will you do to prepare the places where you will work?
What community service projects are needed in this area?