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Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the DiscipleMakers podcast.
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Today we are excited to feature a recording from Discipleship.org's 2026 pre-conference
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on Empowering the Mission, a Simple, Effective, Reproducible Model.
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Let's get into it.
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We're so glad to be with you today as we talk about Simple, Effective, and Reproducible
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Models.
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I just want to let you in on a little secret, I spent two years or 14 years together with
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Alicia doing church planting in New Jersey and man, it's hard work to do missions in
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North America.
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So if you're out there thinking, man, this stuff is great, but it's hard.
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We're with you.
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We're with you with this.
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After 14 years of church planting in New Jersey, we moved to a place called Searcy, Arkansas,
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where we work for a university called Harding University.
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And there, when we began, I started thinking about a tool belt for evangelism and disciple
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making and church planting.
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And here's what I thought would work best is maybe if we knew as many models as possible,
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we would just have those as a tool belt.
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We could train students in various models, whichever one fit them best.
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And then that would really produce disciple makers and church planters.
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But here's what we found out.
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It actually didn't work very well.
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When you have lots of people trying different kinds of models, we really didn't see very
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much fruit.
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And so after four years of being at Harding University, I really, I was like a failed
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disciple making teacher.
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And my friend, Grant Fitzhugh, was standing outside of my door one day and he was not
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a student in one of my classes.
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And he said, hey, could I come spend the summer just sleeping on your floor?
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And I said, this is strange.
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And he said, actually, I want to become a disciple maker.
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I said, well, if you come spend the summer with me, that'd be great.
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But we'll just go ahead and begin.
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The whole first week we'll begin in fasting and prayer.
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And actually, I knew another student on campus from Kenya named Hosea Kiptu.
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And he and Grant and I, we all just prayed and fasted together that summer.
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And we did evangelism and we were practicing disciple making.
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Well, the very next semester in the fall, I had been working with Bobby and Bobby came
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to Harding and he began talking to us about a model that he believed would work really
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well. And since then, in the four decades or so that I've been alive, I've realized
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more fruit from this disciple making model than anything we did in church planting,
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anything we did early on in our college days.
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And so that's why we're going to tell you a little bit about this model.
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You've heard already in the definitions video, a definition of a disciple.
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But I want to remind you of this.
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That a disciple is someone who's following Jesus, being changed by Jesus and committed
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to the mission of Jesus.
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You can see that up on the screen there.
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A disciple is someone who's following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, committed to the
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mission of Jesus. Here's what we found when Bobby came and he said, hey, you really have
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to be clear on the definition.
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That clarity on the definition helped create a simplicity on our campus that really we
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all started to know what it is we were actually doing.
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We were trying to become disciples, but actually we're not trying to become disciples.
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We're trying to become disciple makers.
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And this comes from Matthew 4 19, by the way, that where Jesus says, come, follow me and
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I will make you fishers of men.
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That's where the definition comes from.
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Matthew in his gospel was never intending to create a definition, but it's good to find
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the definitions of what we're trying to do from scripture.
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And there it is in Matthew chapter four, verse 19.
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We're trying to go to become disciple makers, which disciple makers are helping others to
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follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus and committed to the mission of Jesus.
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Now here's how the clarity of the definition really helps in our disciple making groups.
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We're going to tell you the five steps to starting a group, but it really helps with
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this coaching model that we have, which we call this the group web tool.
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And in this group web tool, we coach groups once they get started.
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And we start asking the question, are you being changed by Jesus to follow him better?
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And these lines on the inside here are all to help us to stay accountable to sin struggles
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and the living and following Jesus better.
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And so, so on the inside here, these are four members of a disciple making group and they
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identify things that they want to become more like Jesus with.
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So I might say, I want to be somebody who has the joy of the Lord in me, but then I
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also want to think of things that I don't want to become.
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Like I don't want to be bitter at God's church.
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And so my disciple making group at one point was praying for those two things for me, because
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I'm, I'm being changed by Jesus to follow him better.
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But then we're also trying to be changed by Jesus in disciple making to be committed or
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to join the mission of Jesus together.
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And on the outside of this map, you'll see, it's sort of like an Oikos map.
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An Oikos map is where you identify yourself and then you identify individuals in your
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sphere of influence and those individuals that you begin praying for.
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And sometimes people say to me, well, I don't know anyone who's not a Christian.
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I'll say, well, where are the locations you go?
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Put those locations on the map and then identify and pray that God will give you individuals
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within that sphere of influence.
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What we've found, big picture is that at Harding University, when we began becoming clear on
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the definition of a disciple, and then we had clarity on how to help students start
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disciple making groups, and then we had clarity on how to coach groups.
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We began seeing multiplication of groups, two by two, so groups of four, that then we
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encourage them to stay two people together and invite two others in.
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And those groups continue to meet for a year or a year and a half, and then they multiply
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again.
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Here's what I know about statistics in North America, that Americans love mentoring and
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coaching, but when they're mentored and coached, they're often not multiplying or reproducing
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for many years to come.
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What we need is a model where students believe they can walk alongside other individuals,
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and then fairly quickly, they learn to multiply.
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And so that's why we're encouraging that to multiply with someone, so you have the courage
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to do it.
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We've also realized in America that groups won't multiply if you're in the group for
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longer than two years, groups in our churches simply don't multiply.
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That's kind of why we do this.
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Why am I telling you all of this?
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Because what I'm describing, what Alicia's about to describe here in five steps, is we're
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describing what I call a North American mission model.
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We're not taking something from the global South and then just blindly making that our
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own.
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We have to think about how we do disciple making within our current situation within
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our churches and in North America as it is today.
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So Alicia, tell us a little bit about those five steps.
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Yeah, so I'm going to walk you through how we teach our students how to start a group.
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So the very first step is the most important one, but it's the easiest to skip.
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And that is you start in prayer.
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When you start thinking, man, even today, like I want to do something like this.
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I want to encourage you to not jump to who to invite, but begin with God.
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God, who in my life would be someone that I could invite into a disciple making group?
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And see who God continues to kind of nudge you towards and pay attention to that.
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Because prayer, when we allow prayer to be the beginning spot, we invite the Holy Spirit
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to be the missional force in this type of work.
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And it's awesome to see what God does.
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We have continued to watch our students pray and then invite someone that said, that's
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exactly what I've been praying for, that somebody would invite me in.
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So we start with prayer and then you've got to invite.
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Once you have that person in mind, you know, if we're thinking of the two by two model,
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which is generally what we do.
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So if I'm in a group with another friend of mine, we're both praying for one other person
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we can invite.
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But then when that invitation time comes, I want to go face to face with that person.
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And I want to talk to them about what the group is.
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I want to be clear about what I'm inviting them into.
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The disciple making group is something that's intended to take some of your time.
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And I want to tell the person that I'm inviting, hey, this is going to take a commitment.
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And if you don't have the time for that commitment, that's okay.
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I'd rather you say no now than say yes to the group and then end up not showing up for
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the group.
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So you want to be pretty clear on what the expectations are for the group and tell them
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why you invited them.
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A lot of times when I invite someone, I'll tell them God was placing you on my heart.
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And these are some of the ways that I saw that happen.
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And it just reminds them of how much God cares for them and how much he's still active in
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the life that we have.
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So we want to do a face to face invitation, inviting them into the group and sharing with
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them.
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And this is kind of the third part.
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We want to share the expectations.
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Generally with the first time we meet with someone and invite them into a disciple making
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group, we go over the general parts of the group.
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We're going to meet once a week.
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We're going to agree to do life on life.
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In other words, we're going to come to the group and we're going to be prepared to talk
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about stuff.
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We're going to be real.
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We're not going to pretend with one another.
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When we can share those expectations before we get together, it helps everybody understand
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where we are.
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But then once we're together the first week, we want to go through those expectations,
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all four of us together.
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Let's find a time where every single week we'll make the commitment to be there.
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The groups that have been most successful—and we're dealing with college students.
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They think they have a lot going on and we tell them it's going to get harder, but they
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are busy.
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So we have found our groups to be most successful when they can pick one time and they commit
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to that one time every week.
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It's just like we do other things that are important to us.
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We put it in our calendar and we block that time off.
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And it's been amazing.
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We work with 19 and 20 year olds and they will make the effort to be a part of these
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groups.
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Sometimes we don't think our young adults will do it, they will.
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And the same has been true with our church groups with people that are a little older.
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That consistent time meeting is really important to kind of figure out that first week.
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The second thing that you really want to be clear about is the expectation is that this
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group is going to multiply.
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One of the things about small groups in our churches which are so good is there's no expectation
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of multiplication most of the time.
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So the same group can stay together for 15 years and they never grow because of that.
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So these disciple making groups are intended to multiply, but we have to tell people that
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because they're going to learn to really, really love each other and that's going to
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be hard to do.
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So from the beginning we say we're going to meet for a year, maybe a year and a half,
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and then after that point we're going to multiply.
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At Harding what we've started doing is in January we have a disciple making retreat
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and it's a great launch point for many of our groups to multiply.
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So typically they'll start in January, we'll meet through the semester.
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Some groups meet over the summer, a lot of them have to be apart then.
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They meet through the fall and then they start praying who they can multiply and invite into
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the next group.
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But you've got to tell people that ahead of time so they know that expectation.
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Once we've kind of got those things out, part of what we want to do is we want to make a
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covenant with one another.
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Carl and I have helped write a book along with Bobby Harrington with this model in mind
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and on the appendix of the book we have several resources that have to do with this, but one
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of those is the group covenant.
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It's an actual paper that you write and you sign together as a group saying we're going
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to be all in with this group.
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We make commitments and covenants all the time, like do you agree to these cookies?
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Yes, I do.
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Just keep me moving on to the website.
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We do this all the time in our life.
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This is an important commitment and so we want to have a signature page in which we
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say we're in with this and then we begin to live it.
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Carl's going to walk you through kind of our process of how we do this in our groups.
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So Alicia's been telling you that all of our groups, this is how they begin and so at the
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beginning when they're sharing expectations, everyone in the group knows how to start a
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new group.
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So if it gets messy and groups break apart, which they do, then everyone knows and this
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book becomes like a resource for here are the five steps to starting a group.
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Here's a group covenant and then these other things are also going to be in there as a
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resource for us in North America.
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Remember we described this as a North American mission model and I don't know why, but us
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Americans, well, we don't memorize things quite as well as some other countries and
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so this sort of becomes a resource that you always have available and for some reason
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we love things that are printed or, you know, published or something and so we value it
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00:13:23,020
and we keep it maybe on our bookshelf and so what we've found is students will come
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00:13:26,140
back to this reference and they'll actually start.
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Maybe even if they don't keep replicating, they'll come back to this in the future.
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00:13:33,780
So we'll often talk about then the values of Jesus.
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00:13:35,460
What are these groups actually about?
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Well, these are three values.
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00:13:41,059
They're not the only values of Jesus, but we see in humility that we should be growing
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like Jesus in prayer and fasting and we see that in our groups that as groups are maturing,
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they grow in prayer and fasting.
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00:13:49,119
It's amazing to see students.
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00:13:51,619
We did an all night prayer session the other day.
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00:13:56,559
We did a beginning prayer and fasting for three days at the beginning of the semester.
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00:14:00,219
This is all coming out of groups that are maturing in disciple making.
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We should be becoming more like Jesus.
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As he was walking along the road, he's constantly inviting people.
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It's constantly in crowds and he's inviting people along.
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We should become more like Jesus in the way we follow him.
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He is about multiplication.
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He's multiplying the three and the 12 and the 70 and he's sending them out.
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We should be becoming more like that.
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In other words, you might say that it's all about abiding in Jesus.
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John chapter 15 or 1 John, all describing those things.
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00:14:30,659
We're becoming more like him.
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This kind of becomes like a coaching piece for us.
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00:14:37,580
Are we becoming more like Jesus or is this just about fun groups?
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That's sort of the expectation.
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00:14:43,940
And then we often talk about these groups living in rhythms of Jesus.
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Sometimes this is like a light bulb moment for me because when I was like 12 years old,
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00:14:51,380
I would have told you I need to do Bible study after Bible study after Bible study after
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00:14:54,500
Bible study with someone until they become a follower of Jesus.
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They're baptized and then I let them go.
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00:15:00,539
Hopefully they get connected in the church, but we tell groups differently than that.
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00:15:04,739
Yes, you need to be in the Bible because it is the word of God that's living and active,
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00:15:07,859
but you also need to be doers of the word.
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00:15:12,580
And so we encourage our groups to not only learn the word of God together, but actually
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to eat, to serve and to rest together, to do these other rhythms.
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00:15:21,099
You and I both know that when we eat together, when we hang out together, when we have fun
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00:15:26,419
together as a part of the kingdom of God, God's mission expands in incredible ways.
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00:15:30,020
So we're telling our groups, don't study the Bible together more than two weeks in
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00:15:31,539
a row.
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00:15:35,859
After two weeks, then you go to another thing, which kind of gets you to, okay, well, what
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00:15:36,859
do these groups do?
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00:15:40,900
Well, I have up on the screen a list of what these groups do.
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00:15:47,340
Week one, we encourage groups to share their spiritual autobiography, tell their testimony,
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00:15:48,500
share their story.
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00:15:53,359
And so a lot of our groups, college students will go tank camp, go on a vacation together,
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00:15:56,520
go for the weekend and they'll share their story.
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00:16:00,679
We have an example of it in the back of the book, because it's a resource to help people.
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00:16:05,039
I found college students can do this easily, adults that we train, they're like looking
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00:16:08,799
in the book, trying to figure out how to share their spiritual autobiography.
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00:16:15,679
That's week one, week two and three, because we've found that 50 and 60 and 70 year olds
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00:16:18,280
in our churches have been at church for so long.
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00:16:23,320
And if I say, just use the Bible as your curriculum, which is what I want, they don't do it.
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00:16:25,640
We have eight studies in here.
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00:16:30,640
So do chapter one on your own and then come together and have conversation about it.
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00:16:34,799
Then chapter two, and then week four, what are you going to do?
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00:16:37,479
Well, you're going to either eat together or you're going to serve together, or you're
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going to rest together.
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00:16:42,280
You're going to hang out and then go back to the book and you keep going through that
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00:16:44,520
until you've gone through eight chapters.
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That's only eight weeks.
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00:16:49,880
If you can use the Bible as your total curriculum, then do it that way.
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00:16:54,760
You don't need the Bible studies in the book, but after eight weeks, we're saying in no
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00:16:59,719
uncertain terms, you got to go back to the Bible and let that be your guide.
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00:17:02,599
Use DBS study, use the three-thirds study.
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00:17:08,380
Those are resources in the back and it's all there for you so that you can actually multiply.
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00:17:14,560
This clear process we've found really helps students to be able to start groups, but then
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00:17:16,359
also to replicate groups.
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00:17:21,040
Bobby mentioned earlier, this movement on our campus started with a very small group
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00:17:24,040
right after he came to visit with us.
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00:17:28,040
The small group, there was about three groups started from that workshop.
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00:17:31,920
We just said, we're going to go all in with this, give it a try.
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00:17:36,479
We're on our third generation of groups around campus.
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00:17:38,760
I just want to share with you a couple of things.
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00:17:43,560
One of the concerns we had is, would these groups just be groups of Christians just talking
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00:17:44,880
about Christian things?
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00:17:46,479
Would they be evangelistic?
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00:17:49,079
Would we see people coming to faith?
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00:17:52,920
While maturing faith, I believe is one of the most important things we can do in these
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disciple-making groups.
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00:17:58,040
We don't want to forget about joining God's mission.
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00:18:03,599
What we started to see, now at this point, Carl and I are no longer at all in control
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00:18:04,680
of these groups.
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00:18:09,280
They're multiplying, God's moving, and we just get to watch it and it's awesome.
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00:18:13,800
We're starting to see people becoming Christians in the third generation of the groups.
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00:18:16,560
I'll give you a couple examples just from our own family.
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00:18:22,000
We have two daughters who began doing disciple-making groups when they were in high school.
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00:18:24,760
They learned the model and we were like, give it a try.
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00:18:26,959
The two of them did it together for the first time.
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00:18:30,560
Our oldest daughter, Zoe, is on her third generation group.
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00:18:34,280
With this group, she decided to invite in one of our international students from Kenya
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00:18:36,239
who was not a Christian.
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00:18:40,000
She said to me the other day, she said, Mom Milka, that's her name, she said she doesn't
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00:18:41,719
know it, but she's about to become a Christian.
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00:18:43,599
I can see it.
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00:18:47,239
She called me two weeks later, she said, Mom, you want to come to Milka's baptism?
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00:18:50,760
I said, yes, and that's awesome.
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00:18:55,520
You love watching your kids do that, but what's even more amazing is the second part, which
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00:19:00,359
was after Milka was baptized, there was a group of students that were in a disciple-making
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00:19:06,000
group that came up to Grant, our friend that Carl talked about, who's the campus minister,
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00:19:10,400
and they said, Grant, you're not going to believe it, but on our Oikos map, Milka was
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00:19:12,760
who we've been praying for.
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00:19:17,280
Zoe invited her into her group, and now she just became a Christian tonight.
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00:19:21,839
I want you to imagine what that does to the faith of our 20-year-olds.
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00:19:26,359
It reminds them that God is working and He's moving, and we're starting to see that over
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00:19:27,719
and over again.
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00:19:30,119
Yesterday, we were sitting in church.
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00:19:35,319
We're sitting behind one of our friends who got invited into a third generation disciple-making
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00:19:36,319
group.
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00:19:41,119
So just to walk you back a little bit, the man that's in his group now was in Carl's
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00:19:42,800
original group.
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00:19:45,000
He is in his late 70s.
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00:19:49,280
He was in a group with three guys in their 40s, and he was just willing to try.
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00:19:54,599
He's an elder at our church, and their group met together, multiplied.
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00:19:58,760
He went with another one of the guys from the group, multiplied that group, so now his
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00:19:59,760
name is Jerry.
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00:20:03,619
He's on his own, but he's invited a couple more into his group.
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00:20:05,520
One of those guys' name is Jacob.
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00:20:08,319
That's our friend that was there with us at church.
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00:20:10,800
He became a Christian back in the fall.
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00:20:14,520
Jacob just told us, hey, by the way, the other guy that's in our group, he's getting baptized
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00:20:17,199
Thursday, as in in a couple days.
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00:20:22,760
And then next to Jacob at church is his co-worker who they just invited into the group.
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00:20:27,359
That group is about to have three baptisms just in the one group.
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00:20:30,640
And we were wondering, would these groups be evangelistic?
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00:20:32,640
Yes, they will.
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00:20:37,920
It takes some time, sometimes, to get that evangelism kind of running and growing, but
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00:20:44,199
as the disciples are maturing, they're then able to reach out beyond just other believers
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00:20:47,800
and say, who else needs to be in a group like this?
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And it's amazing.
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00:20:53,479
It's just awesome work, and we're praising the Lord for it, because this is not our effort.
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00:20:55,719
We're just watching the beauty of multiplication.
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00:20:57,719
Praise God.
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00:21:03,119
All right, well, I have some questions for you.
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00:21:09,479
I think the last time I talked to you guys, I mean, the good news that I know you thank
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00:21:13,439
God for is up to 320 students in the groups.
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00:21:19,239
I met with Mike Williams, the president of Harding University, earlier this year, and
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00:21:24,199
he was telling me about, like, I don't even think he knew of our connection, really, which
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00:21:29,439
is fine with me, but he's telling me all these, like, on the golf team, people are being baptized
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00:21:32,800
and the women's basketball team and all that stuff.
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00:21:35,079
We just thank God for that.
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00:21:36,079
That's really wonderful.
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00:21:37,079
Yeah, we praise God.
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00:21:42,439
I mean, it's just, if you think about disciple-making, so these are one-size groups, transparency
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00:21:43,439
groups, right?
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00:21:45,560
T-groups, you call them D-groups, call them whatever you want.
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00:21:48,199
We don't actually kind of have a name for them at Harding.
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00:21:50,040
We're just doing disciple-making.
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00:21:54,280
But then Bobby described that we also want disciple-making to be part of the other size
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00:21:56,359
groups in our church.
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00:22:01,839
Well, we're working at Harding, and so I have this group called Mission 431, based off of
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00:22:05,239
Acts 431, where we're just praying for our teams.
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00:22:09,880
And I choose individuals from every sports team, and I work with those individuals over
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00:22:11,520
the course of an entire year.
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00:22:12,520
And here's what we do.
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00:22:15,599
We get together once every two weeks, and we just pray for our teams.
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00:22:19,439
And you would be, I mean, it's just so amazing what God does.
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00:22:22,199
Through those prayers, it's like there's a baptism on the golf team.
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00:22:24,319
There's a baptism on the basketball team.
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00:22:26,060
There's a baptism on the volleyball team.
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00:22:31,359
And I get to come together with those students and hear them talk about bringing lost people
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00:22:32,359
to faith.
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00:22:36,599
And of course, what we then do is say, hey, why don't you start a disciple-making group
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00:22:40,160
with that individual, help them mature or help them grow?
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00:22:43,359
Or what if you had a disciple-making group on your team?
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00:22:49,319
And so that's kind of the things that we describe that goes like another level from these disciple-making
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00:22:50,319
groups.
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00:22:51,319
That's good.
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00:22:57,520
So we began with the idea that every church needs a simple, effective, reproducible model,
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00:23:03,280
or in your case, every campus needs a simple, effective, reproducible model.
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00:23:04,560
We're not saying there's just one.
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00:23:12,199
In fact, in just a second, we're going to hear from Kerry Cox and Ashley Katazon on
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00:23:13,719
a different model.
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00:23:17,439
Here's the key thing, though, is that if it's going to be reproducible, if people are going
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00:23:21,640
to experience it and do it for others, it needs to be clear.
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00:23:26,199
And again, those three words, simple, effective, and reproducible.
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00:23:31,239
One of the things I've noticed, Carl, and I'm just really grateful that you are this
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00:23:31,239 -->
00:23:37,239
way, both you and Alicia, is you guys really pray and you really trust God about that.
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00:23:39,880
You do that more than most.
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00:23:41,199
Tell us about that.
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00:23:47,280
Yeah, I think we've just found, especially as the groups have multiplied more and more,
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00:23:47,280 -->
00:23:51,880
the more we try to control or be in charge, the more it shuts them down.
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00:23:57,319
We've just seen God do things, and so we know the most powerful thing we can do is actually
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00:24:01,000
ask Him to work and then just get to be a part of that.
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00:24:02,719
And so prayer's been a big part.
400
00:24:02,719 -->
00:24:05,239
Carl is really good about this.
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00:24:05,239 -->
00:24:10,400
Before any training we do, there's always fasting that goes on with those that are teaching
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00:24:10,400 -->
00:24:11,400
it.
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00:24:11,400 -->
00:24:14,119
And most of the time, those that are teaching are our students.
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00:24:14,119 -->
00:24:18,199
We really try to empower them as much as we can.
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00:24:18,359 -->
00:24:23,560
But even what they learn from the fasting the two days before is probably way more powerful
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00:24:23,560 -->
00:24:28,599
than what they learn in teaching it, because it's God who moves, and we're just part of
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00:24:30,319
His mission.
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00:24:30,319 -->
00:24:33,400
So a couple of things.
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00:24:39,280
One is, Carl, tell everybody what you're hoping to do, just in terms of this potential church
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00:24:39,280 -->
00:24:40,280
plant, even.
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00:24:40,280 -->
00:24:47,280
Yeah, you know, churches need to have a culture of disciple-making to really see church planting
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00:24:48,400
take off.
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00:24:48,400 -->
00:24:54,640
And so we're looking to now try to do a church plant in Searcy where there's a disciple-making
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00:24:55,640
culture.
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00:24:55,640 -->
00:24:56,640
And here's kind of how we're trying.
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00:24:58,880
We're trying something innovative.
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00:24:58,880 -->
00:25:04,000
We're currently sending students from Harding out into the community to locate themselves
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00:25:04,000 -->
00:25:08,400
in some part, whether it's another campus, which is one of the locations, at the health
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00:25:08,400 -->
00:25:10,839
food store, different places on campus.
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00:25:10,839 -->
00:25:12,640
We call this ethnography sometimes.
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00:25:13,640 -->
00:25:18,839
And then making relationships there, praying for people of peace, starting disciple-making
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00:25:18,839 -->
00:25:19,920
groups there.
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00:25:24,479
And then out of that, what we're praying is that a church plant will form.
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00:25:24,479 -->
00:25:29,920
Less like sort of the old style now, like you're kind of launching the church and you
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00:25:29,920 -->
00:25:32,280
set the date and you make all the plans.
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00:25:32,280 -->
00:25:34,280
And so it's really kind of scary.
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00:25:34,280 -->
00:25:38,239
We're just praying and saying, God, what are you going to do here?
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00:25:42,319
In our prayer, what we're hoping is that God will take those students and replicate
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00:25:46,239
disciple-makers and church planters that will go across the globe.
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00:25:46,239 -->
00:25:49,599
And we're so blessed in our city to have incredible students.
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00:25:49,599 -->
00:25:53,000
Some of your students, probably, that you trained who come there.
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00:25:53,000 -->
00:25:57,599
And we want to do our part in actually training them to be disciple-makers and church planters.
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00:25:57,599 -->
00:26:06,199
So one of the things that Carl's pursuing is the idea of raising up residences and interns.
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00:26:06,199 -->
00:26:11,040
Fred Andrews is there at the back, helps head up Passion for Planting.
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00:26:11,040 -->
00:26:13,040
And I know you have some residences.
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00:26:13,040 -->
00:26:19,439
And if anybody's interested, I know with what Carl's going to do, they need some financial
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00:26:19,439 -->
00:26:20,439
support.
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00:26:20,439 -->
00:26:25,400
But the idea is eventually you raise up disciple-making movements among students, and then you send
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00:26:25,400 -->
00:26:26,959
them in different parts of the world.
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00:26:26,959 -->
00:26:32,520
Yeah, without saying too much, I'll just say I was praying for $100,000 and I was sharing
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00:26:33,000 -->
00:26:37,839
strongly with somebody the other day, like super strong, like, just like, you just either
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00:26:37,839 -->
00:26:42,800
give this to me or we'll be done kind of thing.
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00:26:42,800 -->
00:26:44,959
And I was praying and I didn't even tell you about this.
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00:26:44,959 -->
00:26:49,160
But then someone later that week through prayer just came to me and was like, hey, I'll pay
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00:26:49,160 -->
00:26:55,959
for 10 interns and I'll pay you $10,000 to do it, which is not about the money for me.
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00:26:55,959 -->
00:26:58,040
I was trying to raise $100,000.
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00:26:58,040 -->
00:26:59,719
It was only going to students.
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00:26:59,719 -->
00:27:01,640
But isn't that the way our God is?
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00:27:01,760 -->
00:27:05,439
It's like you pray and then God is the one who provides.
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00:27:05,439 -->
00:27:10,880
And so we've just seen God is just really amazing and we're trusting that he'll bless
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00:27:10,880 -->
00:27:11,880
us.
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00:27:11,880 -->
00:27:16,520
You know, I was sharing with another guy, Cal Hultgren at the back, who's about to plant
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00:27:16,520 -->
00:27:17,520
a church.
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00:27:17,520 -->
00:27:21,319
And I said to him, two things you just want to get really good at.
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00:27:21,319 -->
00:27:26,300
One is praying, fasting and praying, which you guys are definitely modeling.
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00:27:26,300 -->
00:27:29,719
And then a disciple-making strategy that's effective.
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00:27:29,800 -->
00:27:36,040
Well, Carl, I wanted to ask you to mention a couple of things.
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00:27:36,040 -->
00:27:38,520
You've got some resources.
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00:27:38,520 -->
00:27:43,280
If you are more interested in this, one of the things we try to do at Renew is really
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00:27:43,280 -->
00:27:48,119
help you to be aware of resources that can really help you in your church.
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00:27:48,119 -->
00:27:52,920
So one is, how do you invite people to be a part of a disciple-making group?
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00:27:52,920 -->
00:27:54,920
And I think you have a video, a training video.
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00:27:54,920 -->
00:27:59,359
Yeah, so this first one is just an article that Grant and I wrote together, because some
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00:27:59,400 -->
00:28:03,199
of you are asking the question, wait, who do I invite into these disciple-making groups
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00:28:03,199 -->
00:28:07,839
that have kind old ladies say to me, well, the spirit never guides me to any particular
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00:28:07,839 -->
00:28:08,839
person.
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00:28:08,839 -->
00:28:11,359
Well, this article addresses that.
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00:28:11,359 -->
00:28:12,359
Like who do you invite?
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00:28:12,359 -->
00:28:14,920
And we have kind of a unique way to describe that.
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00:28:14,920 -->
00:28:17,719
I'll also be talking about this Wednesday at 8am.
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00:28:17,719 -->
00:28:21,920
For those of you early risers who come, I'll talk more about this model.
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00:28:21,920 -->
00:28:26,439
You're welcome to come and I'll give you a free book if you come and we'll do a training.
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00:28:26,439 -->
00:28:28,000
So if you want to do that.
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00:28:28,040 -->
00:28:30,400
The second thing is probably better than that resource.
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00:28:30,400 -->
00:28:31,680
That's this resource.
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00:28:31,680 -->
00:28:39,000
And this is really me standing on stage, introducing students to train this particular model, which
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00:28:39,000 -->
00:28:44,079
is really what we're trying to do is give students the resources to do the training
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00:28:44,079 -->
00:28:45,119
of disciple-makers.
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00:28:45,119 -->
00:28:47,800
I believe in this generation of students.
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00:28:47,800 -->
00:28:53,920
I believe that they're going to change the world by trusting and following Jesus.
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00:28:53,920 -->
00:28:57,359
And so that's a video of students doing that training.
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00:28:57,719 -->
00:29:01,520
So if you heard this and you're like, I'm more interested, we'll go watch that video
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00:29:01,520 -->
00:29:02,839
or share it with somebody.
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00:29:02,839 -->
00:29:03,839
That would be really great.
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00:29:03,839 -->
00:29:04,839
Isn't that awesome?
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00:29:04,839 -->
00:29:05,839
Yeah.
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00:29:05,839 -->
00:29:06,839
Give them a hand, everybody.
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00:29:06,839 -->
00:29:07,839
And there's good stuff.
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00:29:07,839 -->
00:29:08,839
All right.
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00:29:08,839 -->
00:29:13,599
We're going to give you, we're going to give you a few minutes to talk about some learning,
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00:29:13,599 -->
00:29:20,839
some takeaways, and then we're going to expose you to a second model in just a few minutes.
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00:29:20,839 -->
00:29:25,199
Thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode of the Disciple Makers podcast.
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00:29:25,199 -->
00:29:27,640
Check us out next time for more great content.
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00:29:27,640 -->
00:29:32,560
And in the meantime, come check us out as well at www.discipleship.org.
