I'm preferring the term disciple making movement

I’m preferring the term “disciple making movement” (DMM) over “church planting movement” (CPM) more and more these days. Although the two phrases are generally used to mean the same thing, often “CPM” can be read the wrong way in the reader’s mind. When we Westerners think “churches” often we don’t have the right image. Our idea of “churches” is colored far too much with buildings, programs, Sunday morning worship, and the like.

On the other hand, when we say “disciple-making movement,” we use words that are not commonly in use in the typical Westerner’s head. “Disciple” almost immediately conveys a picture of the original Twelve. And while I prefer the agrarian symbolism in “planting” over the industrial symbolism in “making,” there’s enough “artistry” connotations and “cottage house industry” connotations in “making” in the West that I’m not completely opposed to it.

In my experience the phrase “disciple making movement” conveys more of the one-on-one, modeling, Paul-Barnabas-Timothy imagery that is so crucial to a working DMM. I’m going to try to start using this phrase more in the future. What about you? Does it work better when you’re trying to explain it?