How Movements Emerge (The 7 Stages)
At The DMM Platform, we work with disciple making movements (DMM) or church planting movements (CPM); we are passionate about seeing them empowered to integrate Scripture into every layer of movement life. We wanted to share briefly on how movements emerge, develop and grow to be explosive moves of God’s kingdom.
They initially tend to start with people engaging the heart of God and discerning where God is about to be (Lk 10:1). These individuals make plans and move into the neighborhood, just like Jesus did with us (John 1). This is commonly referred to as stage 0.
From here, the mission takes off (Mt 28:18-20) and these initial people do their best to make new disciples and form new discovery groups. This tends to be the longest stage as disciples are made, groups are formed and consistency is built. People like to talk about how fast movements can grow but it’s often only after a long season in this space, commonly referred to as stage 1.
Once established disciples are made and groups are formed the work can start to multiply. Multiplication happens when that initial generation of groups and disciples make a second generation of groups and disciples. This is stage 2.
This initial generational expansion typically - hopefully! - leads to a breakthrough where there is consistent growth in the second and third generations. This is stage 3.
It’s at this point that the work begins to show the signs of being an emerging movement. Third generation groups are commonplace and fourth generation groups are popping up as well. This is stage 4.
CPMs are commonly defined as moves of God where group and disciple formation can be tracked to the fourth generation. When there is consistent fourth generation growth in multiple streams of the movement, it is officially labeled as a movement. It is also considered to be stage 5.
At this point, tracking gets difficult. What does increasingly happen though is the emergence of visionary indigenous leadership and a decrease in the presence of outsiders. When this happens and it has lasted for more than a “hot minute” (what we in the west consider a rushed time period) the movement is considered to be in stage 6.
The final stage of movement is when the movement catalyzes additional movements. They send people out, target new languages and engage in the discernment process of stage 0 all over again. This is stage 7, the final stage of movement.
The Role of The DMM Platform
Practically, we tend to be focused primarily on later stage movements. At stage 5, we can help ensure that Scripture is accessible in all needed local heart languages. At stage 6, we help movement leadership get their content in their languages in their app to share within the movement. At stage 7, we prepare them to move to the next language (and the language after that)!