February 3, 2025
LOVING LIKE JESUS
As we partake of the loaf and the cup, we remember the One who loved us enough to die for us. Let us strive to love as he loved so we can be as close to him as possible.
Articles for tag: Disciple
January 14, 2025
TCM’s Faithful Leadership: An Enduring Focus in a Changing Mission
TCM’s tools and mission have adapted to past changes, but the enduring focus today remains the same: to equip Christian leaders for significant service so that every nation will have effective leaders of disciple-making movements impacting their churches, cultures, and countries for Christ.
July 23, 2024
EQUIP Britain International: A New Approach to Missionary Training
EQUIP Britain International launched in 2017 as an immersive, hands-on missionary training program in Birmingham, England
Church Planting in the Restoration Movement
Churches are being started by regional networks all over the country, in all kinds of places. . . .
January 1, 2024
Jan. 7 | Discovery Questions
These Discovery Questions are for use with this week’s Lookout Bible Lesson, “Before Abraham Was, I AM” (John 8:31-58), by Mark Scott.
Disciple-Making Movements and the Restoration Movement
By Bobby Harrington I believe Christian Churches and the Restoration Movement are the best hope for disciple-making movements in North America. A disciple-making movement (DMM) is characterized by a rapid and exponential increase in disciples making disciples. These movements share a distinct group of priorities which provide the environment for viral multiplication. The emphasis on DMM principles started about 30 years ago, and now about 1,500 DMMs are reaching over 1 percent of the world’s population. Here is a four-point summary of the character traits of a disciple-making movement: 1. fast-growing 2. indigenous (of the local culture) 3. multiplying disciples and groups 4.
January 12, 2022
News Briefs for Jan. 12
The work of speed painter Cody Sabol—an alum of Kentucky Christian University—was featured on ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast last week. Plus the 2022 conference dates for ICOM, Spire, Exponential, and more.
November 1, 2021
PrayerFast: A Global Call to Fasting and Prayer
Could This Key Focus of ICOM Over the Next Four Years Restore the Missing Power of Pentecost?
November 1, 2021
Serving God in the Second Half
By Laura McKillip Wood Amy and Terry Ruff visited a friend soon after arriving in Ghana. During that visit, the Ruffs struck up a conversation with another guest. As they got to know one another, the man told the Ruffs, “You need to meet my friend, Solomon*.” He gave Solomon’s phone number to Amy and Terry, and they called him to set up a meeting. Solomon told the couple where to drive and said he would wait for them by the side of the road. After driving several hours, the Ruffs repeatedly thought they had reached the rendezvous site, but
June 15, 2021
PrayerFast Focuses on Growing Deeper and Reaching Out
Early this year, TCM International developed an initiative called PrayerFast to encourage and celebrate prayer and fasting movements around the world.
November 22, 2020
Drinking Tea, Sharing Meals, and Making Disciples
Musa* lives in a Muslim country in the Middle East. Since he grew up hearing stories about the great prophet Jesus, he thought he knew all about him. That changed when he became roommates with Yosef*. Yosef shared his faith in Christ as the Messiah with Musa, and they began studying the Bible together. Before long, Musa accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized. Christians in his country usually baptize new believers in a river, but because of the pandemic occurring at the time, public beaches were all closed. Musa’s baptism would have to wait. As time passed, Musa became
October 24, 2020
‘UNPRECEDENTED’: How CMFI Has Endured the Pandemic’s Challenges . . . and Their Plans for the Future
By Kip Lines People use the term “unprecedented” to describe the COVID-19 global pandemic. But in the grand story of God’s mission in the world, we are not living in unprecedented times. There have been pandemics before. There have been times God’s people could not gather, and yet the church has persevered and grown. Even during the last 100 years, the Restoration Movement has dealt with uncertainty and challenges. In fact, after the first few North American Christian Conventions were held from 1927 to 1929, the Great Depression and World War II dictated that the gathering would happen only seven
Report: State of Discipleship
By Kent E. Fillinger Discipleship is a hot topic in church ministries and global missions today. Churches are placing a greater emphasis on disciple-making. And missionaries are more focused on trying to establish disciple-making movements around the world. As I prepared to write this article, I received an evite to attend a webinar about “discipling people online” in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. In our annual survey, we asked a series of questions about disciple-making processes in churches, and we also asked leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. Would you describe your church today as a “disciple-making church”?
October 16, 2019
Renew Gathering Emphasizes Theology Behind Disciple-Making
By Chris Moon A new gathering of disciple-makers within the Restoration Movement—and beyond it—will meet Nov. 6 in Nashville. The Renew Gathering is expected to draw about 600 people. It is aimed at helping participants grasp solid disciple-making theology. The conference will serve as a precursor to the annual National Disciple Making Forum, which also will meet in Nashville and is set for Nov. 7, 8. “At Renew, you get the theology. At the National Disciple Making Forum, you get the methodology,” said Bobby Harrington, who is organizing both conferences and leads their accompanying websites, Renew.org and Discipleship.org. Harrington is
September 27, 2019
Intentionally Small: The Places Where Discipleship Happens Best
By Michael C. Mack In his October Metrics column on small and very small churches, Kent Fillinger noted that “only 4 percent of very small churches relied on small groups as their primary form of discipleship.” That’s not surprising. Some might say very small churches are small groups. Well, that depends on how we define small groups, purely by size or by how they function. Tom Claibourne made this point in a 2012 Christian Standard article: “I have actually observed deeper interpersonal relationships, confession, and openness in the lives of Christians involved in small groups in large churches than I’ve
June 22, 2019
Spending Time with the Teacher: A Christian Standard Interview with Robert Coleman
By Michael C. Mack As he talks about Heaven, he reminds me of a young bride on her wedding day. He is a mixture of excitement, confidence, reverence, and awe. He is wide-eyed with anticipation for the doors to open and the music to begin. This 91-year-old man has studied and taught about Heaven for years, yet he humbly acknowledges his finite understanding. His wife, Marietta; his older sister, Joy; his friend Billy Graham; and many others he has known and served with over the years are already there. I had saved my question about Heaven for last—I knew it
May 22, 2019
What Is the Restoration Movement?
By Jim Estep The United States is becoming increasingly divided politically. Conservatives keep moving further to the right, liberals are gravitating toward the left, and those in the center are stretched between the two. It’s similar to what has happened to the Restoration Movement. A Formula for Effectiveness When I attempt to describe the Restoration Movement to someone, I draw on this formula: Biblical Authority + Church Unity → Global Disciple-Making The Restoration Movement affirms biblical authority and binds it to a strong commitment to church unity (beyond the level of unity by agreement), all for the sake of making
October 31, 2017
More Than Bible TranslationÂ
By Greg Pruett It was my first day on the job back in 1994, and I was eager to get started. I walked onto the West African scene fully trained to translate the Bible””tomes of knowledge about Greek, linguistics, and missiology crammed into my mind. But when the sun rose on my first workday at Pioneer Bible Translators, my mentor didn”t escort me to a desk to show me how to translate. Instead, he walked me over to a well he had hand-dug for the village to show these Muslim people the love of Christ, and we started troubleshooting a
Our Grandparenting Ministry””and Yours
(This article is a sidebar to “Grandparenting Ministry” by Michael Crosley.) By Michael Crosley We have a core team of nine grandparents guiding the ministry and working closely with the Next Gen Ministry team. Future plans include: 1. Developing strategies to incorporate the concepts of intentional grandparenting into the thinking of our church. This will be achieved through using social media and regular references about grandparenting in church publications and services. 2. Providing equipping opportunities such as classes and occasional seminars. 3. Sponsoring “grand events.” We plan to have two or three special events each year just for grandparents
December 30, 2016
Growing the Kingdom
By Bruce Webster The Bible”s mandate is to grow quickly, not to grow large. Look what happens when believers today take their strategy from the New Testament instead of the church in the West. Are you like me? For many years when I read the parable of the mustard seed1, I pictured a tiny seed growing slowly like an oak tree, attaining good height as it matured. But when the people listening to Jesus heard him tell that parable, they had a very different picture. They knew the mustard plant didn”t grow very big””maximum height about 10 feet””but it grew
