Raising the Remnant

07/25/2025

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06/23/2025

"A leader’s job is to guide and equip the saints so that the entire church becomes a mature community in which disciples flourish. It involves releasing the ministry and gifts of all believers. It’s about creating a place where everybody learns to be a minister by growing, serving, and making disciples themselves."

Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 114.

06/07/2025

"It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago of someone opposed to D. L. Moody’s emotion-stirring altar calls for people to be saved from their sins and the fires of hell. When confronted directly, Mr. Moody was reported to have said he did not much like his method either, but was curious to know whether or not he had another approach to recommend. The curt answer was something to this effect: “Well, Mr. Moody, I do not have a method for evangelism.” To which Mr. Moody replied, “Well, in that case, … I like my method better.”

Rod Dempsey, “Analyzing the Attractional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 250.

06/07/2025

"Any model that discourages or prevents God’s people from becoming and doing all that God has in mind is not only harmful but unbiblical. The way to reach the world with the good news of Christ is by mobilizing all the members of Christ’s body. I am not saying that the leaders of traditional churches are doing this intentionally (unless they know the truth). I believe most leaders of traditional churches are good people with good motives, but the result is still the same: God’s people are not encouraged and mobilized to fulfill their God-given purpose.
Since this mind-set is so prevalent, I often encourage students to plant new churches that will win people to Christ, develop disciples, and deploy new leaders who will ultimately reproduce new churches. God’s plan is to reach the world. Why should we be satisfied with anything less? This leads me to one final observation: there is no reason for excuses. If your church is not structured to win the lost to Christ, grow them up in their faith, and send them out for the mission, then change it. If you are unable change it, for God’s sake (and yours, too), do not reduce your calling to a career decision."

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 245.

06/07/2025

"Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird conclude, “As we watch churches who are initiating multiplying movements, they are, if nothing else, aggressive in reaching out to new people. Their leaders bore easily of ministry that is preservation focused or lacking in challenge. In fact, they are driven to the edge of insanity by maintenance mode. Leaders of great movements are those driven to find new people and carry them into a new future.” Finding new people (evangelism) is one thing; developing and releasing them to the mission (discipleship) is the challenge of disciple making."

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 244.

06/07/2025

"Albert Einstein’s reflection on insanity is apropos here: “Insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.” What are we doing? Why are we stuck in this approach when it is so obviously not working? How did we get so far away from the simplicity of making disciples who make disciples, to a model that does not equip, empower, and release God’s children for His mission?"

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 243.

06/07/2025

"Yet another term that needs to be redefined is the imbalanced view toward “Bible study” that seeks deeper truths, but not necessarily the goal of application. Stated negatively, it seeks not the obvious interpretation and application of Scripture, but deeper theological truths of the Word—so deep that we argue and wrangle about peripheral doctrines and then look down on people who do not share our level of understanding and knowledge. Another challenge is the way we do evangelism. We have shifted from “they went out and preached everywhere” (Mark 16:20; Acts 8:4) to “let the pastor handle it.” This approach persists even though Jesus is the one who stated in His mission statement (Luke 4:18–19):

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 243.

06/07/2025

"Further, it seems we have changed the way Jesus defined “disciple.” Instead of someone willing to sacrifice all (“take up your cross and follow Me”), we prefer Christians who do not get too carried away with that religious stuff. We have also redefined the word “church.” It seems we are saying that “church” is a location where people go to “worship.” We corral believers into a big room and talk about how we should be reaching the world, but do not equip and empower the individual members to go across the street to their neighbor."

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 243.

06/07/2025

"Another challenge in the traditional church is that it is trying to reach the world almost exclusively through paid professionals. I call this the bottleneck problem. You have seen what happens in a bottleneck: there is a constriction that limits the amount flowing through a container. The mission of the church cannot and should not be limited to only a few professional clergy who are the “ministers.” All God’s children need to be committed to, and involved in, accomplishing the Great Commission."

Rod Dempsey, “Weighing the Traditional Model,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 242.

06/07/2025

"The most important “vital sign” for the church is the degree to which all the parts of the body of Christ work together."

Rod Dempsey, “Realizing the Importance of the Body,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 190.