DBS in Your Church

Church Members: Start Small

If you are a lay person, don’t think that you need to convince everyone about the benefits of DBS-DMM.  Since some of the principles of DMM-DBS are counter-intuitive and different from what church workers are taught in their academic training, they might not comprehend DBS until they see some results.  So, don’t bother to bring it before a church board and ask for a vote.  

To start, all you need is one or two persons in your church who want to use Discovery Bible Study.  Partner with them and see what happens as you each follow the 3-step procedure outlined in the previous blog post: Finding a Person of Peace.

Pastors and Church Workers: Start Small

Even for a church professional who is highly respected by congregational elders and members, it is still wise to begin gradually.  Rather than attempting to launch a congregation-wide DBS effort, you can plant seeds by using the DBS questions in sermons and Bible classes. 

1. Before you preach or teach on a Bible text, invite your people to read it ahead of time and identify what it teaches about God and about people.  Let them discover on their own.
2. Encourage your folks to identify one specific action to take in response to what God’s Word taught them this week.
3. Encourage your sheep to share the Bible passage during the coming week with one lost sheep whom they know.

Sermons and Bible classes will no longer be monologs but lively, Spirit-led conversations.  Within a year, some of your people will have established the good habits of: mining truth from Scripture; obeying God’s Word; and speaking about the Lord with others.  In the process they will discover that God personally teaches them and guides them through His Word.  

Then you can:

1. Identify members who desire further training.  Even a few will accomplish much.
2. Train and mentor them to facilitate a Discovery Bible Study and find a person of peace.  
3. Send them out as Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72, and see what happens.
4. Pray through every step of this process, learn from every failure, and celebrate every accomplishment

In time God will set your ocean liner on a new course to make disciples who make disciples.

More Details and Encouragement

For help implementing DMM-DBS in the local American church, read Spent Matches and Hybrid Church, two books by Roy Moran, pastor of Shoal Creek Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri.  Pastor Roy has great insight into what American Christians need to learn — and unlearn — before we will dare to follow God into the adventure of a disciple making movement in our backyard.  See also www.roymoran.com and www.shoalcreek.org.

Coming Up

The next blog in this series describes how to initiate Discovery Bible Study in a local church. You can also learn more from these earlier blog posts. 

1. DMM — In a Class by Itself
2. DBS — Who Is the Leader?
3. Reading the Bible with Know-Nothings
4. The Discovery Questions
5. Jesus Led a Discovery Group
6. Like Wildfire
7. Sheep among Wolves
8. Discovery Bible Study in Your Home
9. Finding a Person of Peace

If you desire training to use Discovery Bible Study where you are, I am willing to advise you (at no charge) and point you to training resources available online or in your area.

Art: Painting “Christ Our Pilot” by Warner Sallman, 1950.