By Jay Fast: I’ll never forget the moment when I was struck with the fact that Jesus intentionally used short-term, cross-cultural mission trips as part of his disciple-making process. It was the spring of 2013, I was sitting on a bench made from rough-cut logs on a beautiful day at the property of the Latin America Multiplication Center in Heredia, Costa Rica. I was living there as a missionary, overseeing FUSION, Sonlife’s short-term missions process for teenagers.

Consider What Jesus Actually Did

As I sat on that bench, evaluating the investment of time, energy, and resources that churches (and student ministries in particular) pour out every year toward short-term mission trips, I was struck with a frightening thought: What if I’ve moved my family overseas to invest our lives in something that Jesus never did? At that point in my life, I had participated in and led numerous mission trips, but I had never stopped to consider if this whole “short-term, cross-cultural mission trip” thing was something that Jesus had done. And if Jesus didn’t do it, I didn’t want to either.

Of course, I knew the impact that short-term mission trips have. Like many of you, I first participated in a short-term mission trip as a teenager. It had a profound impact on me, and God used that experience to change the course of my life. After college, I served as a youth pastor for 13 years. During that time, I took students on dozens of short-term mission trips. I had the opportunity to see God work in, and through, the lives of students over and over again. Most (if not all) of us would agree that short-term mission trips are generally good experiences, but maybe you’ve found yourself asking similar questions as those on my mind that day:

Are short-term mission trips worth all the hassle?
Is the work being done actually accomplishing anything?
Are the mission trips we plan actually just glorified exotic vacations for our students?
Is the money being spent really the best investment of Kingdom resources?
Do our mission trips teach and equip our students to engage with the mission of Jesus and live as disciples in their own culture and context, or just when they go overseas?
Would it be more beneficial if we simply wrote a large check to a missionary instead of taking up a week of their time and adding significantly to their workload, hoping that we make some sort of impact?
Does anything about the way we do short-term, cross-cultural mission trips need to change?
Did Jesus model taking his disciples on short-term, cross-cultural mission trips?

We Have a Model for Short-Term, Cross-Cultural Missions

In studying the life and ministry of Jesus, I’ve discovered that the answer to that last question is a resounding YES! Additionally, a careful study of Jesus’ use of mission trips actually informs all of these other questions as well. In our blog post entitled “Equipping Cross-Culturally,” we saw that Jesus took his disciples on short-term, cross-cultural mission trips on at least 6 different occasions. Not only did Jesus take his disciples on multiple short-term, cross-cultural mission trips, but as we study them, we find a model for how we can and should do likewise.

This study of Jesus’ model for short-term, cross-cultural mission trips and how he used them as a disciple-making tool has led to the development of Sonlife’s FUSION process. FUSION is a short-term mission experience that strategically partners churches in North America with churches in Latin America for the purpose of multiplying healthy, disciple-making student ministries. It’s a four-step process that’s specifically modeled after Jesus’ ministry strategy and how he did short-term mission trips.

Although there are four short-term mission trips throughout the process, FUSION is anything but a typical mission trip experience. The primary purpose of FUSION is not to construct a building, lead a vacation Bible school program, or do street evangelism. Instead, we ask our FUSION teams to incarnate, invest and multiply. This is a reflection of Jesus’ strategy of entering our world, pouring his life out into a few, and reproducing his character and priorities in them. Students on FUSION teams have the opportunity to enter the world of Latino teenagers, invest their lives in building relationships with those students, and help them build a healthy, disciple-making student ministry by reproducing the character and priorities of Jesus in them.

Jesus Used the Trips to Develop the Disciples’ Hearts

Looking at the short-term mission trips that Jesus did with his disciples, it’s clear that his focus wasn’t solely on the people where they were going. He used these trips as a tool to develop his disciples’ hearts and to teach them necessary skills in disciple-making. In the same way, FUSION is designed to be a tool that can be used by youth pastors to develop a disciple-making ministry. As students engage with the mission cross-culturally, they develop both the heart and skills necessary for making disciples back home in their own culture and context.

Throughout the process, there are a number of key ingredients that make the experience fruitful. FUSION is student-led, which means that once a team arrives in-country, the students are responsible to take the lead in building relationships, group training experiences, English classes in the local public schools, living as disciples in their host homes, and various outreach opportunities. The emphasis during the entire process is developing relationships between students in the partner ministries so that disciple-making DNA can be shared. The adults who are part of the team (youth pastor, volunteer leaders, etc) serve in the role of shepherds during the process, praying for, caring for, and encouraging the students by reminding them of the training they’ve received to prepare them for their cross-cultural disciple-making experience.

The FUSION Process

Each step in the FUSION process involves a short-term mission trip, and each step has a different focus.

STEP 1 focuses on the foundational priorities from Jesus’ life and ministry. Students lead the training, looking at how Jesus built a disciple-making ministry and what it looks like for us to do the same.
STEP 2 shifts the focus to targeted ministry training and outreach. Students equip their peers in the partner ministry to share their testimony and the Gospel with a spiritually lost friend, and then both groups go on an outreach retreat together where those lost friends hear the Good News.
STEP 3 is all about transmitting the DNA of cross-cultural missions and equipping a team of ministers. In this step, things are reversed and students are challenged in a new way as the student ministry from Latin America does a mission trip, traveling to their partner church in North America.
STEP 4 focuses on multiplication. The student ministry from North America returns and travels with their partner ministry to a third location where the students “pass the baton” and the four-step process begins again. In this way, both student ministries are learning to make and multiply disciples like Jesus.

Regardless of where your student ministry finds itself in the process of becoming a disciple-making ministry, we’d love to talk with you about how cross-cultural, short-term mission trips can play a significant role. If we’re serious about following Jesus’ example, we have to recognize that we can’t build disciple-making ministries without taking our students out of their comfort zones and across cultural barriers. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a trip to the other side of the world, which is why we’re currently developing the FUSION process domestically as well. We’d love to talk with you about what it might look like for you to engage in the process, and how we can serve you as you continue investing in students.

By Jay Fast

Originally posted here:

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Source: Jesus-Centered Missions

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Source: Applying the 70/20/10 Learning Principle to Church

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By Justin Gravitt: The future is coming. If you look closely toward the horizon you can see a hint of light pushing against the darkness. As the future rises now is the time to seize the day! Though we currently sit in the darkness of the in-between, a new day is dawning.

For church leaders the transition from now to next has already been dizzying. Even the most experienced pastors are on a steep learning curve. Instead of a ministry marked by the incarnational presence of Jesus, their ministry is marked by technology. Life on life has been replaced by life to screen. Their connection to the flock has been disrupted. Even regular rituals such as weddings and funerals barely recognizable.

The dawn of what’s next for the culture and the church isn’t comfortable, but it shouldn’t intimidate us. After all, we are God’s people. Jesus himself, promised that the forces of evil would not conquer us (Matt. 16:18). Still, in order to thrive in the future churches must adjust their methods while adhering to the mission.

The time is coming for churches to shift their focus from surviving to thriving. During this in-between season, they have leaned into practices that have allowed the past to continue into the present. As churches think through the new landscape, there are four focus shifts that will help churches make disciples who make disciples in the days to come.

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1. Shift from a Content Focus to a Connection Focus

Most churches have responded to the pandemic by producing more content than ever before. I get it. Pastors miss interacting with their people. They wonder how they are doing and want to communicate the importance of faith during this time. Too much content muddies the water of what’s important. The answer to separation is connection, not content.

Disconnection was a problem even before the pandemic. Consumerism teaches us to solve our problems with information rather than connection. It’s the reason we ask Alexa instead of a neighbor. Our true problems are solved by connection, not content. Consumerism isn’t going away, so churches that want to thrive in the future will focus on ministering to people by fostering meaningful connection to one another and to God.

2. Shift from a Digital Focus to a Tribal Focus

There’s no doubt that digital is here to stay. Online experiences allow people an easy way to connect and to test the waters before getting in. For churches, an online presence is helpful, but only if it leads to deeper engagement and connection. Too often an online experience has replaced offline connection. In other words, the means have replaced the end.

Instead of a digital focus measured by clicks, views, and comments churches of the future will measure emerging tribes. In tribes, people know they belong to one another and out of that belonging develops a way of being. In other words, a common culture. It’s the mindset that says, “people like us do things like this.” As churches move into the future, instead of optimizing for eyes, we must cultivate a sense of being through connection and culture. When connection only happens online a common culture IRL (in real life) isn’t possible.

3. Shift from an Entertainment Focus to an Equipping Focus

One of the biggest challenges churches face is getting people to engage the mission of Christ. Many churches work hard to make their services entertaining. The result is some come, while most don’t. Even the best attractional churches lose the entertainment game to the likes of Netflix and Amazon. In the future, churches who focus on entertaining people at the expense of equipping them will simply not survive.

Entertainment is nice for consumers looking for a show, but soldiers, athletes, and farmers (2 Tim 2:1–13) prefer to be equipped for the task at hand. The thriving church of the future not only connects people to one another, but they also connect people to the mission of Jesus. Instead of focusing on entertaining, they focus on equipping. As people see the important role God has for them, they will find tribes of people who are committed to that mission and who can help train them for success. The church of the future is smaller, but mightier.

4. Shift from a Focus on Breadth to a Focus on Depth

The last shift is almost required if the first three are to take place. It’s a shift that has already occurred in many segments of society. Books, tv shows, and movies are made for a segment of society rather than everyone. In doing so, niches have emerged that allow people to go down deep rather than out wide.

Churches that make this shift are comfortable saying, “we do this not that,” and “we must grow, not just go (and vice versa).” A focus on depth is a commitment to individual and tribal development that’s at least as strong as global development.

Churches who commit to fleshing out the details of these shifts will be poised to thrive as the future comes. These focus shifts allow disciple making to thrive in a future that could be very challenging to our past models of church. Which focus shifts will you and your team make NOW?

By Justin Gravitt

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Source: The Future of Disciple Making: Four Focus Shifts Churches Must Make NOW

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by Bobby Harrington: You’ve embraced the disciple-making lifestyle, but now what? You need to get equipped on what to do.

In this series about our disciple-making partners we help you find excellent guides so you can become a more effective disciple maker.

Meet Robby Gallaty, leader of Replicate Ministries.

Tell us about the name of your ministry.

Replicate is a ministry designed to equip the local church to make disciples who make disciple makers. The word “Replicate” indicates that discipleship is an on-going process in the life of every believer.

What is your unique disciple-making emphasis?

Replicate is unique in that it focuses on equipping church leaders. While every believer should be making disciples, we have found that leaders must first embrace disciple making, if there is to be any significant impact for the church to embrace the whole process.

Making disciples is such a needed and missing element in most churches, our vision is for every church to have discipleship groups.

Picking up from the blog . . .

Our hope is that there will come a day when discipleship groups are as common in every church as a Sunday school or small groups ministry.

When Replicate began, we focused on training everyone. While we saw some impact, there was a disconnect from people who attended that were not in leadership. They would tell us that they understood the process and went back to encourage their leadership to embrace it, but the leaders simply did not get the vision.

This is when we made a specific shift to impact leaders in the local church. By training and investing in leaders, we feel we are more effective with implementation, but we also feel strongly that we are not to bypass church leaders to equip their people. That is the church leader’s role, and we want to help them accomplish the task.

Join Replicate at the National Disciple Making Forum this year in Nashville, Tennessee—November 7-8! Reserve Your Seat Here.

How do you help everyday disciples who aspire to be disciple makers?

Replicate helps churches make disciples who make disciple makers by equipping church leaders to implement an effective disciple making process. At the heart of this process is what we call the “Discipleship Pathway.” The Pathway is simply overlaying Jesus’ model of discipleship across the church. Jesus ministered to crowds, a congregation, in community, and with a core of four (including himself).

Rather than building a church by using the latest and greatest fad, we believe church leaders can and should implement Jesus’ model for maximum effectiveness in making disciples. We offer a simple tool for this through our Disciplemaking Jumpstart. By helping leaders implement the Pathway, we can help them see their people become disciple makers at every step along the way.

One of our most useful tools that everyday disciples can access is our “Making Disciples with Robby Gallaty Podcast.” This resource is available each week and will help anyone become more effective as a disciple maker. Likewise, our blog at www.replicate.org is a library of effective insights on disciple making and related topics users will find invaluable as they strive to make disciples who make disciple makers.

Who are the key leaders in your network?

Robby Gallaty is the President and founder of Replicate Ministries as well as the Senior Pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN. Kandi Gallaty helps lead Replicate and has been making disciples for over a decade. She is passionate about cultivating a biblical worldview from the truths of Scripture. Chris Swain is the Executive Director of Replicate. Chris utilizes his two decades of ministry experience to help church leaders launch disciple-making movements.

How can people connect with you?

How Can People Connect with You? The easiest way people can connect with Replicate is through our website at replicate.org. In addition to our aforementioned podcast and blog, people can connect with us through our Discipleship Blueprint live training. We love to connect with leaders and create conversations that lead to effective disciple making.

For King Jesus,

Bobby Harrington, Point Leader, Discipleship.org

Join us at our National Disciple Making Forum!

November 7th- 8th in Nashville, TN

Sign up Today!

New Blogs

“Family Discipleship Activity: Empty Pursuits”

by D6 Family

READ THE BLOG

“Recognize a Mature Disciple by Looking for These 5 Character Traits”

by Jim Putman

READ THE BLOG

“Discipleship and Money Management”

by Impact Discipleship Ministries

READ THE BLOG

New Podcast Episodes

LISTEN NOW

S6 Episode 50: Reproducible Disciple Making Process: My Part, Their Part, God’s Part (Jim Putman, Bob Reed, Brandon Guindon, and Luke Yetter

S6 Episode 49: Christ-Like Environments: Mature Disciples Are Made in Real Relational Environments (Jim Putman, Bob Reed, Brandon Guindon, and Luke Yetter

S6 Episode 48: Spiritual Maturity: What Is It and How Are You Defining It? (Jim Putman, Bob Reed, Brandon Guindon, and Luke Yetter)

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Source: An Actionable Plan to Replicate Disciples Where You Live

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