Contagious Disciple Making

Recently I learned about Contagious Disciple Making, a ministry started by Paul Watson.  His father, David Watson, is the missionary to India whom God taught in the 1990s to make disciples by means of Discovery Bible Study.  When Paul was only 16, David began inviting him in on discussions about disciple-making movements.  Together, father and son authored Contagious Disciple Making, one of the best titles on the topic.

Paul and his colleagues at contagiousdisciplemaking.com have developed some fine tools to help us make disciples in the US and Canada.  Here are resources I’ve found so far.

A. VIDEOS. 

Eight Whiteboard Videos explain the basics of how Discovery Bible Study grows into Disciple-Making Movements.    I am already using the practical advice in these concise videos, only 1:30 to 4 min. long.

1. Making Disciples Together – Disciple Making Community
2. How to Lead Your Friends to Jesus
3. Helping Others Discover God – Discovery Bible Study
4. Making Disciples While Social Distancing – Community Prayer Calendar.
5. How to Talk With Friends Who Don’t Know Jesus – Conversation Quadrants
6. Start with These 4 Habits
7. How to Join a Worldwide Prayer Community 
8. How to Pray Like a Disciple Maker – Prayer Calendar

A series called “Story of the Week” features brief testimonies from people actually doing the activities proposed in the 8 White Board videos — bridging the gap from information to action.

In an older video from 2011 called Putting Vineyards Back into Seedless Grapes, Paul applies biological facts about DNA to explain why churches in the West have limited ability to multiply, and how Discovery Bible Study resolves the problem.  Brilliant!

B. PODCASTS. 

One or two are produced weekly.  I listened to:

1. “Are We Fully Obedient” (Pt 1) with David Watson (May 25, 2021).  He makes the crucial distinction between obedience coerced by legalism and obedience born out of love for Christ, often quoting John 14:23: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”  An amazing promise!
2. “Rethinking Campus Ministry” interviews a pastor on a Texas campus (Feb. 27, 2020).  He trained 12 students to start DBS groups, and within a year the Holy Spirit had added 10 more groups.  Quite a start!
3. “The Only Way to Mobilize the Prayer Calendar” shows how establishing a daily Prayer Calendar habit develops into mentoring others to prayer for lost people and to use DBS.  The advice was so good, I started doing this myself.

You can listen to these episodes and more here.  Or listen to them on your device by downloading The CDM Podcast from wherever you get your podcasts.

C. PERSONALITY.  

I also had the opportunity to talk directly with Paul Watson and Rebecca Ewing, who hosts the CDM Podcast.  What young, compassionate disciples of Christ!  They have a lot to teach us about making disciples in our neighborhoods.  

For all these reasons, I will be frequenting contagiousdisciplemaking.com often.