Catch It. Live It.
David Broodryk Reflections Part 5
By Lim MY
Photo by Felipe Correia on Unsplash
David Broodryk has been on a long journey into discipleship movements and seeking to see cities impacted by and for Jesus. He and his team now serve teams and leaders in cities all over the world. He recently spent time with several Asian city teams as part of the Urban Wheat Project. Over a series of blog posts I will share some key highlights and reflections from our time together.
As we wrestle with the complexity of cities, what insights can we gain from the early Christians? What about other significant movements throughout church history?
David and his team were asking those questions earnestly.
Invariably, as David talked to his teams who had ventured from rural environments into the cities to start discipling groups, he found them struggling to apply DMM strategies that had been fruitful in villages. Over three years, his team sought to adapt and evolve and develop a “formula” that could be plugged in to serve the unique needs of an urban environment but they hit a wall.
The primary challenge? The complexity of the city.
Turning to Scripture and HIStory
The team was not giving up looking for answers.
The Scriptures and the history of the various church movements became their go-to.
The first believers were not called Christians. They were called “followers of the way”. In other words, it was not just what they believed that changed. They were following a certain way and that way - their changed lifestyle - was observable to the people around them.
Acts 2:42-47 shows us the rhythms that they started to follow the moment the Holy Spirit was poured out.
When we look through church history, the Celtic Christians, the Moravians, the Wesleyan Movement, the cell church movement, the G12 movement and the missional community church movement - similar patterns were found.
They didn't just teach that Jesus is Lord and we should follow Him but they also taught a way of life.
Two words summed up the first key David and his team found to replicating disciples in the city - “Live It!”
The opposite of “Live it” is “Just do it” - just start a program, just get an event going. At the end of it, success would likely be measured by how many people attended the event.
However, Kingdom movement strategy is not about “doing things to” people.
It is about carrying towards others a lifestyle so that they can catch it.
It begins with us becoming followers of this lifestyle and living it. The very first church followed Jesus in a community. So the team knew that as Christ’s people they too had to live out what they were going to carry to other people.
Three Big Ideas that Launch
David lays out three big ideas that he believes underlie the New Testament.
1) Jesus is Lord. Caesar is not.
This was key for the early church and declaring that Jesus is Lord got them into a lot of trouble.
2) Everyone gets to play.
When Christ died, the curtain of the temple was torn into two.
It signifies that now all of us have access to God, not just the priests. In fact, as followers of Christ, all of us are priests and all of us get to participate and that's what the Kingdom looks like. Not just watching others do the work.
3) The world needs to know.
Across the different movements in church history, the team discovered common patterns that created movements. These patterns had nothing to do with a building or a band.
The same rhythms the early church practised together can be lived out as we follow Jesus simply in a complex city. And that is how David encourages the city-dwelling team members to begin to live.
Five Rhythms to Follow
Here are 5 elements of community that are core to how we can follow Jesus in practice and transfer that to other people :
1) Empowering Leadership
Leaders see their role as helping others rise up and to become leaders. We see this in Ephesians 4:11-16.
How does one become an empowering leader?
(a) Train every single person to facilitate groups
Each disciple can learn skills to draw out thoughts from those they are discipling. This rests on the importance of creating opportunities for every voice to be heard and feedback given. People who grow spiritually are people who hear the sound of their own voice.
(b) Become a leader that equips.
Mostly, equipping should happen with disciples in action, serving the brokenness that God has shown. When someone stumbles in the process, the leader is around to encourage and help them stand up again.
(c) Release people.
Leaders train their disciples to surpass them. They raise other leaders who will go further and “Do greater works than these” (Jn 14:12). Disciples don’t grow in a war where generals are ones sent into battle while everyone watches them fight.
One reason that the church is easily tossed and turned today is because the leaders have not equipped the people. We mature as a body when everyone gets to participate (Acts 4:31). An empowering leader is someone who understands that God does his best work through the most ordinary people.
2) Abiding Prayer
This happens when everyone in the group or the meeting (not just the key leaders) participates in prayer. It happens on the backdrop of confession, vulnerability and results in deep bonds of love and is central to all movements.
3) Redemptive Mission
There are mission-driven people going out to the broken and the lost. Disciples are growing in one of the most important skills that Jesus demonstrated - to have spiritual conversations with people, daily conversations that enable them to open up their lives.
4) Joy-filled Belonging
This is more than being in community.
It involves sharing and sharing and helping those in need, connectedness, gladness to be in the presence of each other, eating together around the Lord’s table after putting aside conflict and/or differences (as Jesus commanded).
5) Scripture Engagement
Engaging Scripture (like in Discovery Bible Study) becomes a lifestyle. Being anchored in the Word of God is the greatest protection from going off track or getting distracted by methods or strategies.
Living It As A Team
How, as a team, do we live DMM (Disciple Making Movement)?
Rhythms of eating together, sharing stories, reading Scripture in a group, having fun, bearing one another’s burdens…Such rhythms can be quarterly, weekly, in a team or one-to-one. The possibilities are endless.
Whatever rhythms you decide are appropriate for your team, the learning for David and his team was clear - for teams to transition to movement thinking, they too need to live what they are going to carry to other people.
Reflection
1) Read Ephesians 4:11-16. How can you play your part in a way that empowers others? Who can you give more authority and responsibility to?
2) What insights do you get from church history?
3) Which of the five areas are you and your team strongest? Weakest? What can you change?
Discipling the Urban Harvest provides practical insights and encouragement to walk with God in multiplying discipleship in an increasingly urban world - growing as children of the Father, serving the communities He has called us to, and discipling those hungry to know Him.