SO … eventually Dave asked for less time in church based responsibilities, but would keep Dale (senior pastor) in touch with stories from what he was doing … very little fruit to show for some time … he would get outside the office, seek God, and prayer walk. Eventually it moved into the present model of training disciple makers to prayer walk areas (postcodes/regions/workplaces), seek the person of peace (a la Luke 10), doing very simple DISCOVERY BIBLE STUDIES with them (unpacked later), and encouraging them to link in others who may be open, by modelling what they’ve seen done (just like Jesus doing, and then calling the disciples to emulate … “imitate me as I imitate Christ” said Paul. Greater structure formed—addressed below—but this was in essence the form the model developed into. Crossway has continued running its regular deal—though has intentionally scaled back their program to free people’s time for greater connection with their pre-Christian contacts—but as the fruit has been seen in this MP, more people have got involved, as they are seeing God move more outside the church (in healings, in conversions, etc.), on the front line of mission, than they are inside church based programs.
2. What were the main challenges of developing this ICC? Summary: Current Church and Christians were the main challenge. Crossways busy program tied up people’s time and passion so they were largely disconnected from the wider unsaved culture, and were too thinly spread to invest into front-line disciplemaking. The church environment was so comfortable and safe that most were reluctant to get out. Andrew said plainly that it was harder to make a disciple maker from a person entrenched in the church, than starting again with someone from the harvest. Dave lamented that even whole series preaching on these themes yielded essentially no fruit of people getting involved … he had to go out and do it himself, for a model to emulate, inviting others to join, rather than simply trying mobilize people to do what they’d never seen and were scared of.
3. How did you address those challenges? What successes encouraged you to continue? Summary: Modelling. By devoting most of his work hours to actually walking the talk … praying > connecting > making disciples with 1, 2, up to 5 families, then bringing others along for this, some would catch the vision and get out into the harvest. Now they have ~60-80 trained multiplying agents, all networked together, who pray together and do the Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) in their own time together (having the same DNA and modelling all the levels down), each of whom has anywhere from 1-5 mutiplying communities they are reaching … so I would guess conservatively that there are ~500+ pre-Christians and new converts (perhaps up to 2000 or so people) who are being discipled, outside the large church setting— including a Muslim convert now running DBS with some friends in a mosque, exploring from the Koran “who is Issa [Jesus]” … the front line discipleship and mission throws the leaders and participants back into the Scriptures and worship and community, as they grapple with what it means to follow Jesus in the everyday, beyond the predictability of a church program. All the way through, it has been key for Dave Lawton to have the support of the Senior Pastor, even as what he’s doing in some ways could be perceived as taking energy and people and finances from Crossway’s larger community. They keep open channels through sharing stories, all of which is only possible because Dale (senior pastor) has a heart that beats for the lost, and understands we must go to them, rather than building the church around them coming to us.
GROWING TOGETHER
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ICC SURVEY 2011