When A Disciple Making Movement Becomes a Missionary Movement

Baptisms, multiplication, and generational growth are all part of what happens when a movement begins. But how does that movement then start to send out missionaries to launch other movements? The following story was told by M. Andersson who worked closely with a Disciple Making Movement that has become a missionary movement.

“What a privilege it was to oversee the first-ever baptisms in Erdenet, Mongolia! They were fourteen young women who initially committed their lives to follow and obey Jesus.

“Now the body of believers had grown to 400 baptized believers meeting in 27 house churches. There were a handful of second-generation churches in the region, one of which met in ten homes. Plans were being made for a third-generation church. Amazingly, all this occurred in just over three years! As foreign church planters, we were able to hand over the work. Mongolian leaders we had been discipling were ready to take the work forward.

Training a Missionary Movement

“Most of us remained a few more months to be available to the Mongolian leaders if they needed help. My family finally prepared to leave for our home in Sweden. The Mongolian church leaders asked us to return as soon as possible. They said “Please train us to do what you did. Like you, we want to cross over cultural and language barriers to spread the Good News and make disciples!“

“After six months back in Sweden, we received a phone call from Mongolia. We listened over a crackling connection. They told us that to celebrate the birth of Jesus, they had just baptized 102 people! This truth was obvious to us: the Holy Spirit hadn’t left Mongolia when the apostolic team did!

Fellowships Double!

“Returning after a year, we discovered that the home fellowships had multiplied to 54. Baptized believers now numbered 600. More second-generation churches and a third-generation church had started! The believers had also started mercy ministry projects. Their purpose was to help the poorest people in the community.

“Our goal was to equip Mongolians to multiply churches in Mongolia and beyond. Our new Mongolia Mission Center (MMC) eventually developed into a YWAM training base. We equipped church planters with skills in Disciple-Making, Frontier Missions, and Biblical Studies
Let me tell you one of many stories of fruit from the MMC.

Onward Toward Genghis Khan’s Birthplace

“A team of Mongolians, trained the MMC, moved to the province of Dadal. It is on the border with Siberia. Genghis Khan was said to be born on a hill outside of Dadal. The population is almost exclusively of the Buryat minority tribe.

“Although Mongolian, Buryats have distinct differences in culture and language from the Khalkh-Mongolians. The team served the community, shared the Gospel through words, works, and wonders. In time, they saw the first few Buryats come to faith in Jesus.

History-Making Baptisms

“The church-planters from Erdenet, along with the new Buryat believers, gathered together. It was morning outside of the log cabin where one of the church-planters lived. They talked, prayed, and worshiped. They waited for the flat-bed truck that would take them to a river about an hour away. To their dismay, the truck never showed up.

“This would not prevent the baptisms. By early afternoon, the leader of the team managed to get hold of two Russian 5-seater jeeps. Somehow 34 people squeezed into the small jeeps. Together with a live sheep (to be served as supper), off we went.

“For us, watching the baptism was seeing a dream become reality. Less than a decade earlier, the Gospel came to the Khalkh-Mongolians. They had reached out cross-culturally to another tribe. Now they were baptizing over a dozen Buryats in a river near the birthplace of Genghis Khan!

“Hearts were full of rejoicing and thanksgiving. We experienced the launching of the first-ever Buryat church in Mongolia!“

Enjoy many more stories from this extraordinary Disciple-Making Movement. Read the book, To the Ends of the Earth—There and Back, by M. Andersson. Order your copy: Alphonce@galacticomm.org

Learn how to start a Disciple Making Movement in our online training. Sign up today as registration is only open for a short period every six months.

What surprised you as you read the story above?