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What are we going to do?
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·
We are going to
discuss the following:
o
What is the vision, mission and passion of disciples in CDMCPM?
o
What is the
priority in CDMCPM?
o
What should the
missionary do?
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What are we going to do?
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What is
the vision, mission and passion of disciples in CDMCPM?
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Matthew 28:19-20
19Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.
As we pursue the Great
Commission, we would make disciples and teach them to obey all things
whatsoever Jesus has commanded including the Great Commission. As they obey and pursue the Great Commission
as they ought if we have done our part in making disciples of them, they would
in turn make other disciples and teach other disciples to obey all things
whatsoever Jesus has commanded including the Great Commission. We have done our part in making disciples of
them when we have helped them become disciple makers. In other words the measure of a true disciple
includes the disciple’s obeying and pursuing the Great Commission.
But let’s be a bit
clearer. We have helped others succeed
in becoming disciple makers only when the disciples they make in turn obey and
pursue the Great Commission by making yet other disciples, in light of the
measure of a true disciple. If the disciples
they make have not made yet other disciples, the disciples they make have not
really obeyed and pursued the Great Commission.
It casts doubt on their status as disciple makers. It is when the disciples they make have made yet
other disciples that the disciples they make have obeyed and pursued the Great
Commission.
But what about these other
disciples that are made, don’t they need to obey and pursue the Great
Commission too by becoming disciple makers themselves in accordance with the
measure of a true disciple? They
do. Where then does a disciple’s
downstream responsibility end when it comes to making disciples in accordance
with the Great Commission?
As discussed in the document
‘Reproducing Discipleship, Leaders and Churches in CDMCPM’, the three
mobilization chains as laid out in 2 Timothy 2:2 are focused on the most
peripheral generation of disciples becoming disciple makers. In the process a disciple helps a child disciple
successively become a disciple maker, a disciple maker of disciple makers, and then
a disciple maker of disciple makers of disciple makers in the discipleship
continuum. The reason Paul did not go beyond four generations in
the longest mobilization chain is that mobilization becomes less effective when
the mobilization chain gets beyond four generations. So helping others become disciple makers of
disciple makers of disciple makers is the upper limit for every disciple
including the apostle Paul, taking into account human limitation.
Let’s adopt the following
acronyms to make the descriptions easier:
·
Disciple maker is
DM1.
·
Disciple maker of
disciple makers is DM2.
·
Disciple maker of
disciple makers of disciple makers is DM3.
So a disciple is accountable
for the downstream responsibility of helping others become DM3 in accordance with the Great Commission and to the
extent that is practical and humanly possible. We need to examine the Great Commission in
Matthew 28:19-20 along with 2 Timothy 2:2 for us
to come to a nuanced understanding of discipleship. The three mobilization chains are proceduralized
in CDMCPM to mobilize disciples to help
others successively become DM1, DM2 and then DM3 in the discipleship continuum
in order to meet Jesus’ nuanced spec of
discipleship in the Great Commission.
In discipleship we succeed
only when those we help have succeeded.
Our success is bound up with and dependent on the success of those we
help. We put the success of others ahead
of our own in CDMCPM so that we can succeed together. The central tenet and overarching principle of
CDMCPM is helping others successively become DM1, DM2 and then DM3 in the
discipleship continuum. It is about
others, not selves. It is only when we
care about the disciples we make enough that we make sure that they develop
their potential as disciple makers to the fullest extent that is practical and
humanly possible. It is discipleship truest
to its meaning.
Please note that a disciple’s
downstream responsibility of helping others
become DM3 is based on the assumption that downstream disciples that are
involved are also willing to help others
become DM3. If the assumption is not
true, the upstream disciple would not be able to help others become DM3, at
least not those in focus; if the assumption is true, the upstream disciple
would be able to. So helping others become DM3 is truly the upper limit for any
disciple, taking into account human limitation and volition.
It should be every disciple’s
vision, mission and passion to help others become DM3 in CDMCPM. Helping others become DM3 should be the
vision, mission and passion of every disciple who participates in CDMCPM. Every disciple in CDMCPM, upstream or
downstream, would need to make a conscientious choice whether he/she wants to
adopt such a vision, mission and passion.
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What is
the vision, mission and passion of disciples in CDMCPM?
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What is the priority in CDMCPM?
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Matthew 16:18
18And I tell you that you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
While he commanded us to make
disciples, Jesus promised that he would build his church. Making disciples is every disciple’s responsibility
while building the church is Jesus’ responsibility. The ordering of disciple-making before
church-planting in the acronym CDMCPM reflects the priority between the two
from a human perspective. If we make
disciples as commanded, Jesus would build his church as promised because disciples
are his church, and a movement to Christ would then ensue, hence the
disciple-making church-planting movement in its totality, if we assist by making
discipleship and church biblical, simple and reproducible and yes, if Jesus is
willing. Ultimately only Jesus can start
a movement when we have the right plumbing in place for it.
Discipleship and church have
indeed been made biblical, simple and reproducible in CDMCPM. If a significant number of disciples who participate
in CDMCPM choose to adopt the vision, mission and passion of helping others
become DM3, Jesus’ willingness is the only remaining
variable that decides whether a movement would come to pass. That gives disciples who participate in CDMCPM
another reason to make that choice.
The missionary must know
Jesus’ command and promise well and in the right relationship in terms of
priority. The missionary must not be
overly fixated on planting churches or getting beyond the 4th
generation of churches for the sake of reaching movement at the expense of
helping others become DM3. The Great
Commission does not tell us to plant churches or catalyze movements. If we are only concerned with planting
churches and catalyzing movements without focusing on developing the quality of
disciples, we have the wrong focus. It
is a grievous thing for the missionary to care more about numbers than
people.
Just casting a grand vision
to existing disciples of a huge number of people becoming disciples is not
going to make it happen. They would only
feel numb about and rather helpless in fulfilling the grand vision. Having a huge number of people becoming
disciples is a welcome outcome but not the motivating vision, mission and
passion. We should simply do what the
bible says that we should do and leave the outcome to Jesus and let Jesus take
responsibility for the outcome. On the
other hand the missionary does need to talk about how many people in the target
unreached people need to become disciples for it to become reached, i.e.,
having 2% evangelical Christians, for the sake of making preparation and
planning.
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What is the priority in CDMCPM?
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What should the missionary
do?
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The missionary must make
helping others become DM3 his/her vision, mission and passion without
compromise and then as a mobilizer help other disciples make that same choice.
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What should the missionary
do?
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