If We Are the Church, Where Are the Disciples? Innovative British Ministry Seeks to Revive Biblical Discipleship (Part I)
'Do We Have A Plan for Making Disciples, And Is It Working?' Says 3DM Leader; Part I of A Series
The night concluded with a short dinner at a local residents home where a mock version of what 3DM calls a "Missional Community," was held. This one focused on a meal in a home. They can include brief spiritual activities such as prayer or worship, but mostly function as social gatherings that could appeal to non-believers, according to Pfeiffer.
Mike Breen then compared the current church to the European feudalist society of old with one leader or lord holding all the power over the land.
"Even though America has been constructed on a different social contract and sees the world from a different perspective from European feudalism, the church still functions in an un-American way," said Breen. "There are feudal lords [in the church] who are given power and are expected to provide."
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Breen feels that Jesus encouraged a different model for his body based on scripture that urges the church to function as a 1st-century family would. Jesus distributed power and responsibilities to all in his household.
"If we maintain the feudal model, we never release people from being serfs," he said. "If you never do this, you never give them the opportunity to be producers. If you are always dependent upon a provider, you will naturally become a consumer, and Jesus said this, all of you are supposed to be producers, all of you are supposed to multiply yourselves, all of you are supposed to make disciples. The principle obstacle for [the church] to make disciples [today] is that we think it's someone else's job."
Pfeiffer concluded this first segment by discussing 3DM's concept of "Invite and Challenge" and stated that believers are responsible for handing down the keys to the kingdom to others.
"We want to empower our children to drive, not drive them around for the rest of their lives," he said.
In order to make this possible, the church must raise up leaders in an effective manner. 3DM employs a tool known as a "Huddle," which are small groups of 4-8 leaders, where each member maintains high accountability with one another and is trained to pass on what they learned.
The Huddle focused on something called a Life Circle, and all of us were asked to recall one thing God may have communicated to us recently. The goal of this exercise was to teach leaders how to hear from God and interpret what he is saying. The Huddle is an essential tool, Mueller illustrated.
Read part 2 of the series about 3DM and biblical discipleship here.
