Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Contagious Disciple-MakingBy David L. Watson, Paul D. Watson Thomas NelsonCopyright © 2014 David L. Watson and Paul D. WatsonAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-0-529-11220-0ContentsIntroduction, xi,PART 1 THE MIND-SET OF A DISCIPLE-MAKER, 1,Chapter 1 Disciple-Makers Embrace Lessons Taught by Failure, 3,Chapter 2 Disciple-Makers Deculturalize, Not Contextualize, the Gospe, l9,Chapter 3 Disciple-Makers Plant the Gospel Rather than Reproduce Their Religion, 19,Chapter 4 Disciple-Makers Realize How Hard Completing the Great Commission Will Be for Strategies and Organizations Built Around Branded Christianity, 23,Chapter 5 Disciple-Makers Realize the Structure of the Community Determines the Strategy Used to Make Disciples, 29,Chapter 6 Disciple-Makers Realize Their Culture and Religious Experience Can Negatively Influence Their Disciple-Making Unless They Are Very Careful, 35,Chapter 7 Disciple-Makers Understand the Importance of Obedience, 39,Chapter 8 Disciple-Makers Make Disciples, Not Converts, 47,Chapter 9 Disciple-Makers Understand the Importance of the Priesthood of the Believer, 51,PART 2 PRACTICES OF A DISCIPLE-MAKER, 57,Chapter 10 Thinking Strategically and Tactically About Disciple-Making, 59,Chapter 11 Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples, 65,Chapter 12 Prayer, 79,Chapter 13 Engage Lost People, 105,Chapter 14 Finding a Person of Peace, 123,Chapter 15 Discovery Groups, 141,Chapter 16 Establishing Churches, 157,Chapter 17 Leadership, 173,Chapter 18 Mentoring, 203,Afterword, 233,Appendix, 235,Notes, 237,CHAPTER 1DISCIPLE-MAKERS EMBRACE LESSONS TAUGHT BY FAILUREI (David) participated in the meeting where the term Church-Planting Movement was coined. We-a group of mission practitioners and strategists-wanted to describe what we had observed in several countries as we took seriously our understanding of the Great Commission's charge to go and make disciples of all peoples, baptize them into local churches, and teach them to obey all the commands of Christ.None of us, in our wildest dreams, ever thought we would witness what happened. Initially, our goals were to establish "beachhead" churches in resistant or inaccessible locations and people groups. We planned on establishing a single church where there was none. We had no plans for starting hundreds or thousands of churches. We didn't even dream it was possible to see that many churches started in the places where we worked. These places we were targeting had already demonstrated their resistance to the Gospel, to church planting, and to any other outside influence. We just did everything we could think of in hopes that something would work and at least one church would start. We defined success as one church started in a people group where there was none.As one of the first in my denomination to take on this challenge, I had no clue how to make it happen. My wife and I were considered successful church planters because we took risks and tried new things. And, perhaps most important, because we were not afraid of failure. When we failed, we just tried something else.Our organization trained us in good research skills. We discussed access and evangelism techniques. We developed prayer networks, security protocols, and communication and administration systems. As a result of research, I knew reaching the new people group could not depend on me, because I did not have access. This people group would not respond to outsiders because their history was full of wars resisting outside influence. What was I to do?God taught me, through many failures, that I had to focus on making disciples of Christ, not followers of my church or denomination. He also taught me that I needed to teach these disciples to obey the commands of Jesus, not my church/denom-inational doctrines or traditions. This is what led to the breakthrough that resulted in more than eighty thousand churches among a people considere