Some people hold the idealized but naive idea that, in a movement, each person makes a convert of x number of people (i.e. 3, or 10, or 12) – and that each of those people then do the same with the same number of people: that is, 3 disciple 3, who disciple 3, who disciple 3. (This hearkens back to old ideas about “if only…”).

But if that were to happen, not just millions of people but multiple hundreds of millions, even billions, would be reached within a fairly short time. Globally, there are over 100 million people in movements, but in most locations, the number is often a fairly small percentage (if growing rapidly).

It’s not that, in movements, every person disciples x who disciple _x.

It’s just that, in movements, there are more disciplemakers than in the traditional church. In most churches, it’s the pastor and some number of staff who do the disciplemaking. In movements, there are far more lay disciplemakers.

Some churches verge on this when they have small groups, but small groups are often a very small percentage of the overall church, and are really only turned to as a “feature” when a church gets to a certain size. Movements, on the other hand, do not wait to get to a certain size to build in small groups, discovery groups, or house churches. Movements begin with small groups. (Movements began this way because they are usually in situations where formal buildings are impossible–house churches are the only possibility–but movements rapidly discovered this was a feature-not-a-bug).

Because movements feature a higher % of their people being disciplemakers than churches do, they naturally have more outreach opportunities, more discipleship opportunities, etc. And so they grow faster.

Most movements tell me a small % of their people actually make disciples. It’s definitely not 100%. It’s often below 10%. But this number is high enough to tip the scales into rapid growth. Churches could take a step in this direction by helping their people, to some extent, not just be people who “invite their neighbors to church to hear the gospel message” but find some initial tangible way to “share the gospel message, themselves, with their neighbors.” (I’d prefer churches go full-bore into making their members into disciplemakers, but sometimes small, incremental steps are best.)