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The mandate to Christ’s followers to “go and make disciples” can feel burdensome. We can fall into the belief that it is our work, time, or faithfulness alone that will lead our friends, coworkers, and community to repentance. We can forget that ultimately it is God that causes growth. It is His kindness and mercy that leads us to repentance and leads us to full life in Christ.

Fellowship missionary, Johnson Hsu, has grasped this truth. Through Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) and Disciple-Making Movements (DMM), Johnson has familiarized himself with the teachings of 1 Corinthians 3, sharing, “…that what each of us does is not really important — that it doesn’t matter if you’re planting a seed or watering a seed — ultimately it’s God that causes growth. And I think that’s a really important concept for me, that it’s not my actions that cause someone to accept Christ. My actions are really planting a seed and what happens to that seed is up to God.”

For Johnson, DMM is really about God causing the growth, because if we truly believe that is the case, “then we need to let God do the work, and move a little bit away from our culturally discerned kind of leadership models. We all know that there is a priesthood of all believers, and yet in actuality, we have a hierarchy. And so, to me, what DMM is trying to do is bring us down to place the work of God firmly in the Spirit of God in the people of God.”

What kind of effects has DMM had on participants in Johnson’s study? One young lady who joined mid-way into their study for only two or three sessions was a Catholic believer from Pakistan. When Johnson touched base with her three to four months after the study, he asked how she had found the Bible studies. To Johnson’s delight and surprise, she shared that she had enjoyed them so much that now, whenever she calls her relatives and friends back in Pakistan, she’s started to lead them through the study over the phone.

Johnson hadn’t given her any extra encouragement to share the Gospel or to read through the Bible with her family at home in Pakistan. Nor was she given a training manual to do so. It was simply the impact of reading God’s Word, made alive through the Holy Spirit, that enabled and encouraged her to begin these over-the-phone Bible studies. 

Imagine if each believer lived with confidence that it was not them, but God who caused the seed to grow? Simply read the Bible with others and let the Bible speak for itself? Johnson believes it ,“would be like a tsunami hitting the world.” 

When we as believers recognize that our role is simply humble obedience, while the role of the Father is to cause growth, there is an opportunity for God to make perfect His power in our weakness and for His name to be glorified through the freedom and redemption of His people.