Testimonials

The testimonies of what God has done through Disciple-Making Movements around the world are almost limitless.  This site is called Time to Disciple America, so we want the majority of our testimonials to come from America.  As we get more and more testimonials of disciples multiplying in the United States, we will add those testimonials to this page.  But until that time, let me begin with a couple of testimonials of things that the Lord has done in and through GoMultiply’s efforts overseas.

The first time I was ever invited to conduct this training in Africa, I was invited by a man named Isaac.  Isaac gathered a group of 50 or 60 elders, pastors, and bishops who were burned out and disillusioned with the lack of fruitfulness they were seeing in their ministries.  The translator for that training was a man named Samuel.  Samuel was a seminary professor and pastor of a small local congregation.  He had been pastoring for nearly 20 years and only had 50 people in his small congregation.  He said that he felt like Peter who worked hard all night and caught nothing.  Samuel was working hard at the ministry, but no new people had come to their church meetings for years.  All he and his small congregation knew to do was to invite people to Sunday morning church services. It wasn’t working.

Samuel translated the GoMultiply Disciple-Making Movement training for three days and was transformed.  After the training ended, he went and shared what he learned with the elders of his church.  He showed them from the Scriptures how Jesus trained ordinary people and equipped them to disciple the nations.  So they shared these things with the congregation.  Samuel and the elders began by repenting to the congregation.  They said, “We have been doing Jesus’ work man’s way and traditions’ way, but we have not been doing Jesus’ work Jesus’ way.”  The congregation forgave them and enthusiastically received the training of Jesus to disciple the nations Jesus’ way.

Ten months later, I found myself in the neighboring country of Uganda and saw Samuel again.  I was not aware that Samuel had been impacted so deeply by the training, or that he was doing anything with what he had learned.  But when I saw him, he looked like a new man.  He had a new lease on life and looked 10 years younger.  Samuel said, “Brother let me tell you what has happened!”  Genuinely surprised, I said, “Tell me.”  Samuel then shared with me how, through implementing Jesus’ training program, God had transformed their congregation from 50 passive spectator, Christian church members to disciples who were equipped and confident to make more disciples.  He said, “Brother we have gone from 50 people in one location, to more than 2500 disciples in more than 100 locations across Northwest Kenya!”  Praise the Lord!

Samuel went home to be with the Lord in the fall of 2023, and by that time, he had become a leader in a movement of more than 10,000 churches, spanning more than 12 countries.  The leaders who keep track of the movement invited all of the generations of churches that they were aware of to Samuel’s funeral.  They invited generations one through five.  But at the funeral, people showed up that no one knew.  When the leaders inquired as to who they were and where they were from, they learned that they were from generations six, seven, eight, and even nine! These were churches that had planted more churches that the leaders didn’t even know about.  They didn’t know about them, because the disciples were making disciples without  permission, and churches were naturally birthing new churches without reporting or asking permission.  This is how Disciple-Making Movements work. Healthy things naturally reproduce.

Here is an encouraging testimony from the US. 

Some years ago, there was a woman who attended a Disciple-Making Movement training in the San Francisco Bay area of California.  She was retired and wanted to spend the rest of her years in productive, fruitful ministry growing the Kingdom of God.  During the training, she learned that she should constantly be looking for a worthy person or a person of peace–a person who is being drawn to Jesus by the Father–and that she should begin her disciple making efforts there.  She said, “Lord, I don’t know any persons of peace.  Will you please show me one?”  Then she had a dream, and in the dream, she saw a street sign with the name of a street on it.  

When she woke up, she realized she knew right where that street was.  So she got in her vehicle and drove down to that street.  As she slowly drove down the street, she was looking for people but there were no people to be found.  She pulled up to a stop sign, and a woman stepped out from behind the building and walked across the street, directly in front of her car.  They made eye contact through the windshield as she crossed. Then, after the woman walked past, she turned back to look over her shoulder at the driver.  It was a beautiful day, so the driver had her window down.  When the two women made eye contact without the glass of the windshield separating them, the driver made a statement.  She said, “Hasn’t God given us a beautiful day today?!” 

In Disciple-Making Movement trainings, the trainees are taught to season their speech with spiritual salt, (Colossians 4:5 & 6) so that they might be able to identify those who are hungry for God and being drawn to Jesus by the Father already. Hearing the driver’s statement, the woman crossing the street came over to the driver and said, “You know God?  She replied, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m here because God sent me here to find someone who’s looking for Him.”  The woman said, “I’m looking for him!”  Then the driver said, “When can I come to your home to share the details of following God with you and all the people who matter to you?”  You see, in a Disciple-Making Movement, we are taught to win and disciple households and towns, not just individuals.  That is the primary example we see in the New Testament. We call it “fishing with a net.”

So the two women set up a time for the disciple maker to come to the home of this woman who was seeking God. When the disciple maker arrived, the house was packed with people with music coming out of the house.  There were people on the porch, people in the driveway, and she could see that the house was full of people through the windows.  She thought the woman was having a party, so she began to back up her vehicle to leave.  The woman came running out of the house and said, “Where are you going?”  The disciple maker said, “I came to share how to follow Jesus with your friends and family, and you’re having a party!”  The woman said, “All these people are here to hear what you have to say about how to follow God!”  

When I heard that story, more than 100 simple New Testament churches had started along relational lines from Northern California, all the way down the coast of California through Mexico, and into Central America! Glory to God! This happened because people naturally share the things that are important to them with the people who are important to them.  And, if we do it right, we can start new fellowships of believers among the people that we interact with!

In one place, a very active and well known lady in her congregation went through this training.  After the training, she shared what she learned with everyone who would listen and enlisted a team of nearly 100 people.  In less than six months, she and her team started more than 500 simple New Testament churches that continue to multiply to this day!!

In a closed Muslim country, in the Middle East, we trained hundreds of Christian church members, pastors and elders.  Within six months, those trainees started more than 1400 simple fellowships like the kind we see in the pages of the New Testament. They continue to multiply today!

A disciple maker in Ohio went into a fast food restaurant to get some lunch, and when he sat down to eat his food, he bowed his head to pray.  One of the workers noticed him and came over and said, “What were you doing there when you bowed your head?”  The disciple maker said, “I was talking to God…thanking him for my food and asking him to bless the hands that prepared and delivered it.”  The worker said, “I have been thinking that I need to get to know God” to which the disciple maker replied, “I show people how to get to know God in the comfort of their own homes with their friends and family.”  The worker said, “That sounds perfect to me!” 

The disciple maker wrote down a process called the Discovery Bible Study and gave it to the worker along with one verse of scripture to study.  He said, “I’ll come back next week at the same time and you can share with me how it went.”  When he came back the following week, the worker was so excited.  He said, “I didn’t know that studying the Bible with your family could be so meaningful and enjoyable.  Would it be okay if I start a second group with all my friends?”  As you can imagine, the overjoyed disciple maker said, “Yes! That would be more than OK!” This unsaved but hungry fast food worker had started 2 fellowships before he was even born again! That’s the power of Disciple-Making Movements.

You see, these people of peace (or worthy people) who are being drawn to Jesus, by the Father, (John 6:44) are all around us, and they’re looking for people who can help them connect with God. In fact,  in most cases, these people are looking for us more than we are looking for them.  But we must remember that Jesus told us to make people into disciples and not into passive spectator, Christian church members.  If you commit to actually disciple these people who are seeking Jesus, then the Lord will begin to show you who they are.  But, if you commit to pass them off to a local congregation and an already overworked pastoral staff, don’t be surprised if the Lord does not show you who they are. You see, plugging people into a local church seems like the correct thing to do at first, but when we do that, these new disciples assimilate to the other people in the congregation and become passive spectators within just a few short weeks!