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MOVEMENT
LET’S
START
A
Have you ever found yourself thinking “Really? Is this it? Sunday morning worship and weekly small groups? Is this really what
it’s all about? Come on…please tell me there is more…please…” At some point all of us will have this conversation with
ourselves. If you don’t, then something’s wrong. What we see in the gospels, and the book of Acts, is largely different than
what we see today. Something is definitely missing.
We believe there is more…much more. In fact, we believe the church is called to be a permanent revolution – a continuous,
transformative movement that impacts every person in every place with the life changing power of the gospel.
This E-book is an invitation to participate in a missional movement, one that multiplies disciples, leaders, and churches in the
Nashville metropolitan area, and beyond…
Does this sound bold? It is!
Does it sound impossible? Think again…
We believe God can do the same thing today that he did back then. Through Jesus, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need to get the job done. We have settled for
less, we have been less. It’s time for us to return to our founder and learn how to be the people
he has created us to be. It’s time to be, once again, a revolutionary movement.
The Key to the Future is Found in the Past
Most of us have never experienced what it’s like to be a part of a movement. That’s why it’s so important for us to go all the
way back to Jesus, the founder of our movement, to stoke our imaginations. For most of us, this means hitting the reset
button – starting over from the beginning. If we will let Jesus show us the way, he can lead us into a new future.
A DANGEROUS QUESTION….
We believe that
whatever God
did back then, he
can do it again
today
The Jesus Movement
When Jesus started his public ministry, the religious landscape was filled with a diversity of religious groups - Pharisees,
Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots to name a few. Each one of these groups had a specific way of engaging culture to bring about
change. To varying degrees, each group made their mark, for better or worse, on the realities of their day. However, for the
most part, their efforts to bring about change were largely unsuccessful.
Jesus stepped onto this diverse religious landscape and, interestingly enough, chose not to adopt any of those existing
strategies. More of the same would only lead to…well…more of the same. No, Jesus came to start something new, something
that would open up a new future for all of us.
The Message of Jesus
Every movement has a message, a compelling vision of what can and should be. Jesus’ message was The kingdom of God is at
hand – repent and believe the gospel.
Hmm…that’s interesting.
At this point, Jesus has not died or risen from the dead, and yet he is talking about believing in
the gospel. How can this be?
The good news, in a nutshell, is that God, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, breaks
in and changes reality. He can take anything that has gone wrong, and through His
transformative presence, start making it right…anything…
Do you believe this? That God can break into every area of brokenness and start healing it?
Your family? Your neighborhood? Your city?
How do we know God can do this? Because he did it first in Jesus…a real human being, just like us. Through his life, death and
resurrection, God started making all things new. He wants to do the same thing with us. This is good news!
So how do we participate in what God is doing? Jesus says we start by repenting. The word repent is metanoia, which means
to zoom out and look at how we are looking. In other words, he is inviting us into a process of re-visioning. God wants us to
The gospel, in short,
is that God reigns,
through Jesus, by
the power of the
Holy Spirit.
start seeing Him, ourselves, people…everything…from a new perspective…his perspective. When we align our vision with his,
we open ourselves up to experience the good news of the kingdom. A new reality becomes possible.
The Methods of Jesus
Many of us have grown up with what I like to call the “red letter” Jesus. We know more about what
Jesus said than about what he did. But what about the black letters? You can’t separate the
message of Jesus from the methods of Jesus. As Marshall McLuhan says, the medium is the
message. Following Jesus means we not only say what he said, we also need to do what he did.
So WHAT did Jesus do? At the risk of being overly simplistic, we can basically say that Jesus did
three things: Discipleship, Community, and Mission. Most of us have made some kind of effort to
do all three of these things. The key to following Jesus is found in doing WHAT he did the WAY he did it. This means looking
really close at both his message and his methods. In order to do this, we have to be willing to hit the reset button. We have to
let Jesus show us how to be like him, in every way. Ready to hit the reset button?
In order to be like
Jesus, we have to
look at the black
letters and the red
letters.
Jesus the Disciple Maker
One of the basic assumptions I make about Jesus is that I can’t improve on what he did, or how he did it. This means every
part of his life and leadership is worth imitating, and this is especially true when it comes to making disciples. Let’s take a look.
Once Jesus started proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel of the kingdom, he immediately
began to invite people into discipling relationships. He said to Peter and Andrew follow me, and I
will make you to become fishers of men. Jesus was not the first person to make disciples. For
example, the Pharisees and John the Baptist made disciples as well. Discipling relationships were
already a part of their culture.1
When Jesus invited Peter and Andrew to follow him, they knew
the kind of relationship they were being invited into: a leader-follower relationship where they
would learn how to be like him.
And what did Jesus invite them to become? Fishers of people! Jesus invited them into a relational process where they would
become the kind of people that other people would want to follow. Their lives would be changed by the transformative
presence of God, and through their relationship with Jesus, they would learn how to invite other people into that same
transformative experience. This is how a movement begins.
Organic and Organized
Jesus took both an organic and an organized approach to making disciples. It was organic because Jesus shared his life with
the 12. They were with him during the spontaneous conflicts with the Pharisees as well as the more serendipitous moments
that happened along the way.2
Jesus was also organized in his approach. For example, Jesus regularly took the 12 to the synagogue where he would teach,
heal, and stir up trouble. There was a certain rhythm to their lives, one that other people could identify and participate in.
1
Ray Vanderlaan has some really good material on what the rabbi-disciple relationship looked like in Jesus’ day http://www.followtherabbi.com/
2
Mark 2:18-23; 5:21-34
What if we let
Jesus disciple us
into being better
disciple makers?
The 5 T’s of Disciple Making
So what did they focus on as they spent time together? Basically, Jesus took them through a developmental track that focused
on what I call the 5 T’s – team, topics, tasks, tools, and tactics.
Team: Jesus invited the 12 to be “with him.” They developed a shared rhythm of life that included spatial proximity, relational
frequency, and situational variety. They shared meals, took trips, and celebrated the holidays together.
Topics: Jesus intentionally pulled away on a regular basis to process what they had been experiencing. He
would ask and answer questions, as well as give real time instruction on how to live and lead in the
kingdom.3
Some of the topics he kept coming back to, over and over again, were the kingdom of God,
faith, servanthood, money, forgiveness and prayer, among others.
Tasks: Jesus had specific tasks he trained them to do. Proclaiming the kingdom, casting out demons,
healing and prayer, to name a few. It’s important to note, however, that Jesus never asked them to do
anything he was not willing to do himself. Jesus led first by example.
Tools: When you ask someone to do something new, you should give them the tools they need to do it. Parables and short
memorable phrases are just some of the tools Jesus used to train them.
Tactics: Jesus not only trained the 12 on what to do, he also trained them, when appropriate, on how to do it. For example,
when he sent them out by themselves on their first mission, he gave them specific instructions on what to say and how to
respond if people rejected them.
Any approach to discipleship that does not include one of these 5 T’s will be missing a key component of how Jesus made
disciples. For example, small groups typically focus on team and topics, (sometimes just topics!) but often exclude focused
training around certain tasks, tools and tactics. This is one of the reasons why small groups have typically not been an effective
way of walking people through a process of transformation that, in turn, leads to more disciple making. We always pay a price
when we do discipleship “our” way.
3
Mark 4:10-12, 33-34; 6:7-13, 30-32; 7:17-23; 8:27-33; 9:1-13; 28-29; 33-37; 10:32-34
TEAM
TOPICS
TASKS
TOOLS
TACTICS
Beginning with the End in Mind
At the end of the discipling process, Jesus turns to his disciples and says “Now it’s your turn. Go and make disciples.” If you
were one of his disciples, you would most likely be thinking “Oh! You mean the thing you have been doing with us for the past
3 ½ years? You want us to find some other people and walk them through a relational process of transformation?” This is how
discipling relationships work– we tend to disciple people in the same way that we have been discipled. Jesus knew this, which
is why he was strategic about the way he discipled them. He was setting an example for them to follow.
Discipleship…in Community
The 12 were not the only people that followed Jesus. There was a larger group of “other disciples” that gathered around him.
Visually, it would look something like the diagram below. This larger group is really important to the way Jesus made disciples.
You see, Jesus wasn’t just training the 12 to eventually lead another group of 12.
No, Jesus knew that in order for the movement to be healthy and sustainable,
people would need to organize themselves into different sized groups, both
small and large. In fact, if you leave people alone long enough, they end up self-
organizing into different sized groups anyway. It’s just what people do. By
including this larger group of “other disciples”, the 12 not only got to see how
Jesus led groups of different sizes, they also got to enjoy all the social and
spiritual benefits of belonging to an extended family on mission.4
4
We know there were up to 70 people who participated regularly in the group of “other disciples” because later, when Jesus sent the disciples out on the limited commission,
he was able to assemble a group of 70(72) people who had enough exposure to the message and the methods of Jesus that they could do it on their own.
Discipleship, in Community, on Mission
So where does mission fit in with discipleship and community? The answer is, at the very front! Jesus was always leading his
community of disciples into the broken world around them, inviting people to enter and receive the rule of God in their life.
Sometimes they threw a really good party and invited people to build new friendships. Sometimes they gathered people and
taught them new things about the kingdom of God. Sometimes they served people’s needs. Sometimes people got healed.
Sometimes they just came together and did what families do – eat food and have fun together. One thing is certain, they did
not exist solely for themselves. They were an extended family on mission to the world around them.
A Redemptive and Generative Culture
After doing 3 ½ years of discipleship, in community, on mission, a new alternative culture emerged
that was both redemptive and generative. It was redemptive because it brought healing and
renewal to people and places that were normally overlooked. Those who were at the
edge were being invited to belong at the center. Those at the center were beginning to
move towards the edge. There was a great reversal taking place. God was starting
to make things right.
It was generative because it was able to reproduce itself across
cultural and geographical boundaries. What started out as a small,
mainly Jewish movement of 120 people, ended up becoming a multi-
cultural network of flourishing missional communities. In fact, by 300 A.D, over
half of the Roman Empire had been saturated with this new, subversive culture.
Jesus used a movemental strategy of discipleship, community and mission to create
lasting change in the world. He started a permanent revolution that he is inviting us to
participate in.
LET’S START A MISSIONAL MOVEMENT…
So far we have been looking at what Jesus did, and how he did it. Now it’s time for us to talk about how we are going to
participate in His movement today. We want to put the message and methods of Jesus into practice, on the ground, in real
life, starting right here in Nashville. This means finding creative ways to do discipleship, mission and community in the same
way Jesus did it.
T-Groups
When looking at how Jesus made disciples, we talked about the 5 T’s of team, topics, tasks, tools, and tactics. We will use a
vehicle for discipleship called T-Groups that helps us put these 5 T’s into practice. Here are some
frequently asked questions that will help explain what T-Groups are, and how they work.
Who should be a part of a T-Group? We feel like Jesus’ teaching about the Person of Peace is a good way
to answer this question. A person of peace is someone who likes you and is open to being led by you. As a
general rule, a T-Group is made up of people who want to grow in the comprehension, competency, and
character of Jesus. Not everyone may be ready to be in this kind of relationship, so T-Groups are not for
everyone.
How many people can be in a T-Group? We have seen groups of 4-6 people work really well.
What do T-Groups Do?
T-Groups focus training and accountability around the 5 T’s of team, topics, tasks, tools and tactics. This can happen in both
organic and organized ways.
Organic: T-Groups hang out together at various times to share life with one another. Since life can get really busy, each group
has to be creative in how they do this. Typically, T-Group members get together around food, fun or family time.
Organized: T-Groups meet weekly for about an hour to discover what God has been saying to us and how we can respond to
it. To help us do this, we use a tool called The Learning Circle that centers around Jesus’ message “The time is fulfilled, the
kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news.” Let’s take a quick look.
KAIROS: A moment in time when God reveals something
to us. It’s a window of opportunity where God’s kingdom
begins to break in.
REPENT: Repentance is a process of re-visioning, of
seeing things from God’s perspective. In order to do this,
we need to stop and OBSERVE our kairos moment,
REFLECT on it, and DISCUSS it with others.
BELIEVE: Once we discover what God is saying to us, we
want to respond in faith. This means developing a PLAN
and allowing others to hold us ACCOUNTABLE. When we
begin to ACT on what he is revealing to us, we begin to
experience transformation.
Do T-Groups have leaders? Yes, like Jesus and the 12, a T-Group has one leader with several followers, for a season. If we
disciple well, at the end of the process, followers will become leaders.
Is there a book to use in the T-Group Meetings? Yes, we have a Discipling Tool Kit that helps guide the discipling process.
Mostly, the book focuses on topics, tools and tactics that helps participants engage in certain tasks of being and making
disciples.
T-Groups and Movement
The goal of a T-Group is to experience transformation and multiplication. Transformation takes place when we begin to
develop the comprehension, competencies and character of Jesus. Multiplication takes place when, at the right time, each
person starts their own T-Group. It would look something like this:
It is through T-Groups that we will guard and grow the DNA of the movement, providing
support and accountability to both emerging and existing leaders.
Follow me as I follow Christ
One really important thing to remember about making disciples is that we are not ultimately asking people to follow us. We
offer our life and leadership as a model of what it can look like to follow Jesus in this particular place and time, but we are all
looking to Jesus as our perfect example. So just like Paul, we should say “Follow me AS I follow Christ.”5
Everyone who is
making disciples should practice being weak and vulnerable with those they lead. This means confessing sin and being humble
enough to admit when we have made a mistake or are not good at something.
Tim’s Experience in Being and Making Disciples.
Tim has spent the last 7 years of his life using T-Groups to coach and disciple a wide range of people. From those living out the
gospel in their day to day jobs, to church planters and local church staff, as well as
entrepreneurial leaders in the non-profit and business sectors. Through these relationships
he has seen lives transformed and disciples multiplied. It’s amazing what God will do when
we intentionally invite people into our lives and walk with them through a relational process
that supports and stretches them to live out their identity in Christ.
So yes, this is not just theory. Tim has on the ground experience of making disciples in a
variety of contexts. At the end of this E-book you will find a few people sharing their
experience of walking through a developmental relationship with Tim and how that has impacted their life and leadership.
Missional Communities
Just like Jesus, we want to do discipleship, in community, on mission. In order to do this, we will use a vehicle called Missional
Communities - an extended family of 20-50 people who are on mission to a specific missional context – a neighborhood or
network of relationships. As an extended family, they will share food, fun, friendship and faith as they organize their rhythm of
5
I Corinthians 11:1
“I found my discipling
experience with Tim to be
transformational, educational
and empowering. Feeling
confident of being properly
equipped for the task, I have
started discipling other people.”
Harry Robinson, Clarksville TN
life around developing an UP-ward relationship with God, IN-ward relationships with their Missional Community, and OUT-
ward relationships with people in their missional context. Here are some guiding principles for how these three relationships
will be developed in a missional community.
Creative Worship There are lots of ways to worship God. We don’t always have to sing or have music. As a
way to encourage experimentation, every missional community will have a list of ideas on how to worship
God in creative ways.
Fresh Word Teaching in missional communities should flow out of our relationship with God and his
activity in our lives. Teaching will be conversational and interactive. No lecturing!
Eating Healthy families share meals together. It doesn’t always have to be a full blown meal, but food will
be a regular part of the gathering. Eating together is a great way for people to belong before they believe.
One-Another-ing There are over 50 one another passages in the New Testament. One of the ways to
practice these during an MC gathering is to break down into smaller groups of 3-5 so people can “share
and care” in more personal ways.
Showing Sharing our faith often happens best when we first share food, fun and friendship with those we
are being sent to. Sometimes people need to witness Jesus in us before we witness Jesus to them.
Telling Sharing our faith involves telling others the good news: God’s transforming presence is near,
through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He changed me, and he can change you too. There is no
need to be pushy or press for a decision. We merely want to participate in what the Spirit is doing.
Missional Community Rhythms
Every missional community
will develop a shared
rhythm of life that organizes
around the three
relationships of UP, IN and
OUT.
So for example, in the
calendar to the left, when
the misisonal community
gathers on Tuesday nights
for UP, they may eat a meal
together and then do some
form of creative worship.
Then on every second
Saturday they gather to
serve their missional context
in a tangible way. The
second Tuesday centers
around developing their IN-
ward relationships with one-
another. The IN gathering
could also invite people they met during their previous OUT gathering to enjoy a time of food, fun and friendship.
Notice how the 4th
week is left open? We think its important to allow space for people to connect organically outside the
organized rhythm of the MC. This also builds in a time of rest for everyone involved.
FAQ’s ON MISSIONAL COMMUNTIES
Do missional communities have leaders? Yes, every missional community (MC) will be led by one T-Group. For example, look
at the diagram to the right. Notice how the T-Group is located inside the MC? Two to four people from that T-Group will
function as the MC’s principle leaders, with the leader of that T-Group
being first among equals.
Where do small groups fit in? During MC gatherings people can break
down into smaller groups of 4-6 to share and pray with one another.
This creates an opportunity for deeper interactions without having to
add another group with formal leadership positions.
How does an MC figure out what their missional context will be?
This can happen in different ways. Generally speaking, it starts when
someone feels the Spirit is sending them to a particular missional
context. As they share this vision of being sent to a particular
neighborhood or network, they can discover persons of peace who
also feel led to be on mission with them. This sets the stage to start
the first T-Group and begin gathering people into community. It’s
important to recognize that it’s the Holy Spirit who sends people on mission, not us. Our role as disciple makers is to, at the
appropriate time, release people to pursue their callings, providing support and accountability in the context of community.
Why do mission in groups of 20-50? Why not smaller groups?
We believe mission can happen in any sized group, but our experience is that sustainable mission takes place through groups
of 20-50, what the New Testament commonly refers to as the oikos, or household. The great thing about doing mission as an
extended family of 20-50 people is that a group that size is small enough to have a shared vision, but big enough to actually do
something about it.
ONE LIFE: A Diverse Network of Missional Communities
Before Jesus ascended back to the Father, he told his disciples “You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends
of the earth.” Notice how the Holy Spirit was going to not only empower them, but also
lead them to cross geographic and cultural boundaries? When the Holy Spirit is allowed
to direct the mission, the movement will eventually break out of its original culture
and become multi-cultural.
We expect to see this same thing happen. At some point, as people are
discipled, the Spirit will awaken them to their callings, creating the
opportunity for new missional communities to be formed, each with
their own unique missional context. We want to see the gospel of the kingdom
move into every neighborhood, and every network of relationships in the city, and
beyond.
It is through this de-centralized approach to mission that we can experience a truly multi-
cultural expression of the church. Instead of asking people of diverse cultural backgrounds to
come to us, we will go to them, participating in the already existing rhythms of their culture. This means each missional
community will have the freedom to organize their rhythm of life around the unique cultural context in which they are being
sent.
New Church Plants
Each MC is potentially a new church plant waiting to happen. As the Spirit leads, the local church will provide support and
accountability for MC’s to “spin off” and form their own local expressions of the Church, moving towards their own cultural
identity and leadership. This movement of multiplying disciples, leaders and churches will be called OneLife.
Public Worship Gatherings
While we see T-Groups and MC’s as being absolutely foundational to the
sustainability of the movement, at some point during the life cycle of the
first plant, once we have multiplied into two sustainable MC’s, we will
start a weekly public worship gathering where we will cast vision,
celebrate what God is doing, meaningfully connect with others in the
movement, and communicate the gospel in compelling ways. The design
of these initial gatherings will be light weight and low maintenance so as
not to overburden existing T-Group and MC leaders.
Being in the Bible Belt, the public gathering will naturally serve as a front
door for some people to be introduced to the gospel and the movement.
The public gathering will honor this reality, while at the same time
intentionally subverting a culture of consumerism. For example, some
gatherings may only have music and preaching for 40 minutes, with the
remaining time focusing on interactive times of people-to-people ministry.
In order to accommodate the different learning stages of children, there will also be age appropriate learning environments
incorporated into these public worship gatherings.
Youth Ministry
While parents should be the primary disciplers of their children, we believe it takes a village to raise a child. We commit to
discipling parents, as well as children, in age appropriate settings that facilitate the development of UP-ward, IN-ward and
OUT-ward relationships. Overall, we value an inter-generational approach to developing young people into the way of Christ.
PUBLIC
WORSHIP
GATHERING
MC
MC
MCMC
MC
EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY
APEST
We believe each one of us has been gifted by Christ to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher (APEST).6
This
means every person has a unique set of skills and sensibilities that can help the movement grow and mature into the fullness
of Christ. For example, apostles help us to be missional; prophets help us to be incarnational; evangelists help us to be
attractional; shepherds help us to be communal, and teachers help us to be instructional. When each one of these giftings has
the opportunity to equip the rest of the body, we grow and mature into the fullness of Christ.
Practically speaking, we envision T-Groups and Missional Communities as the primary environment where APEST will find its
most fruitful expressions. As the movement grows, we will start a training track for each respective APEST ministry to ensure
each gifting is able to both give and receive equipping within the movement.
Naturally Supernatural
The Spirit is given to each one of us as a gift, uniting us to Christ in redemptive and generative ways. We open ourselves up to
the leading of the Spirit, producing the fruits and gifts of his presence in our lives. We believe the gifts of the Spirit should be
expressed in naturally supernatural ways. In other words, it doesn’t have to be weird or spooky in order to be from the Spirit.
The Spirit points us to Jesus, not himself, which means the Spirit will always express himself in Christ-like ways.
My wife and I, having recently moved to Nashville, are looking for people who want to walk with us on this journey of
discipleship, community and mission. If you would like to have some conversations about what it would look like to lock arms
with us as go on this journey together, you can contact us here: onelifenashville@gmail.com
6
Ephesians 4:7-16
JOURNEY WITH US
Every movement has a name, and after much prayer and reflection, we have decided to
use the name OneLife. It captures several core passions that run deep in our hearts.
Tim was raised in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. His journey with
God started out in a Christian reform school in the heart of southern
Georgia. It was there that he encountered some authentic Christian
people who really cared, leading him to experience the redemptive power
of Christ’s love.
Tim later went on to college and received a degree in Biblical Studies. As
someone who always had a pioneering spirit, he began to focus his
entrepreneurial skills and sensibilities toward starting new kingdom
ventures. Over the last 20 years, by God’s grace, he helped plant two
churches in both urban and suburban contexts, started a campus ministry,
an inner city mentor program for at-risk youth, as well as several
businesses.
Most recently, Tim co-authored a book with Alan Hirsch entitled The
Permanent Revolution where they outline the movemental significance of
the five-fold ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and
teachers. For the past 3 years Tim has been coaching and consulting
planters, church leaders and training organizations on how to become
more movemental in their approach to ministry and leadership. After this
extended season of investing in other leaders, Tim and his wife Tiffany
have been called by God to re-enter the field to plant churches again.
Tiffany grew up in Montgomery, AL where she was actively involved in mentoring teenagers and adults in under-resourced
urban neighborhoods. After receiving her degree in social work, she began focusing her experience and training around
ministering to women as well as empowering women in their callings for ministry.
Tiffany is passionate about efforts related to social justice and sustainability. In recent years, she has volunteered with Hope
Pregnancy Center as a Mom2Mom mentor, while running her own start-up business called GreenHouse: Natural Products,
Healthy People.
Tim and Tiffany value leading together as a team and, after 13 years of marriage, have learned how to draw from each others
unique giftings to meet the diverse challenges of pioneering leadership.
A FEW PEOPLE SHARING ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIM
Tim is an exceptional teacher with an innate ability to help others understand biblical truth through visual means. He has played a huge role in
helping me to transition from a purely evangelistic culture to a discipling culture. He is an awesome and loyal friend who loves the Lord.
Scott Hedges – Founder at Paraclete Aviation Life Support, Clarksville TN
I have never met anyone quite as passionate about making disciples as Tim. He is an apostolic leader who uses his innovative strategies to help
other people live out their calling. As someone who has been personally invested in by Tim, I trust his character and competence to lead other
people in the way of Jesus. Jason Horn – Founder of Ironmen: Mobilizing Men for Missional Movement, Clarksville TN.
Tim is passionate about every step of the discipling process. He genuinely loves people, and has a unique ability to assess where they are in their
spiritual journey. In my own discipling relationship with him, I was exposed to tools that have not only helped me to grow and mature, but also
equipped and empowered me to disciple others in their own unique spiritual journeys. Jenna Jimenez – Director of Mom2Mom Mentoring at the
Hope Pregnancy Center, Clarksville TN
I appreciate Tim's ability to lead an intentional discipleship session with purpose and direction so that all group members can participate and be
challenged spiritually. But Tim does so much more than dispense information. He invites you into a genuine life on life relationship. Grant Rathe –
Disciple Maker and Stay at Home Dad
When Tim started coaching me, I was struggling. It was the end of Year 1 of a new missional-incarnational community I helped start in an urban,
multi-cultural setting. It is now Year 3, and after roughly 2 years of Tim's coaching, I know the direction I am called to go in, and have the tools to
lead in that direction. I am a firm believer in Tim and his approach, and would recommend him to anyone. - Josh Shepherd – Leader of Mission
House Network, Kansas City, KS
Tim was my mentor during my time with the V3 Church Planting Movement. Let me say honestly, this is one very brilliant and helpful guy! His
insight and ability to teach various missional methods for spreading the gospel is astounding. He really has much to offer anyone who is serious
about planting the gospel in today’s ever-changing cultural climate. John Boggs – Founder of Portico Church, Bloomington IN
Like most people, I would have said I knew and understood discipleship. It wasn’t until my coaching relationship with Tim that I was exposed to
tools and practices that helped me, not only be a better church planter, but a better discipler of people and leaders as well. Now, after two years
of discipling both new and existing Christians, God is allowing us to see the beginnings of a movement that is multiplying disciples, leaders and
churches in both our city and region. Mike Pumphrey – Founder of Awaken Church and Church Planting Strategist with The Bridge Network,
Virginia Beach VA.

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Let's start a movement

  • 2. Have you ever found yourself thinking “Really? Is this it? Sunday morning worship and weekly small groups? Is this really what it’s all about? Come on…please tell me there is more…please…” At some point all of us will have this conversation with ourselves. If you don’t, then something’s wrong. What we see in the gospels, and the book of Acts, is largely different than what we see today. Something is definitely missing. We believe there is more…much more. In fact, we believe the church is called to be a permanent revolution – a continuous, transformative movement that impacts every person in every place with the life changing power of the gospel. This E-book is an invitation to participate in a missional movement, one that multiplies disciples, leaders, and churches in the Nashville metropolitan area, and beyond… Does this sound bold? It is! Does it sound impossible? Think again… We believe God can do the same thing today that he did back then. Through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need to get the job done. We have settled for less, we have been less. It’s time for us to return to our founder and learn how to be the people he has created us to be. It’s time to be, once again, a revolutionary movement. The Key to the Future is Found in the Past Most of us have never experienced what it’s like to be a part of a movement. That’s why it’s so important for us to go all the way back to Jesus, the founder of our movement, to stoke our imaginations. For most of us, this means hitting the reset button – starting over from the beginning. If we will let Jesus show us the way, he can lead us into a new future. A DANGEROUS QUESTION…. We believe that whatever God did back then, he can do it again today
  • 3. The Jesus Movement When Jesus started his public ministry, the religious landscape was filled with a diversity of religious groups - Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots to name a few. Each one of these groups had a specific way of engaging culture to bring about change. To varying degrees, each group made their mark, for better or worse, on the realities of their day. However, for the most part, their efforts to bring about change were largely unsuccessful. Jesus stepped onto this diverse religious landscape and, interestingly enough, chose not to adopt any of those existing strategies. More of the same would only lead to…well…more of the same. No, Jesus came to start something new, something that would open up a new future for all of us. The Message of Jesus Every movement has a message, a compelling vision of what can and should be. Jesus’ message was The kingdom of God is at hand – repent and believe the gospel. Hmm…that’s interesting. At this point, Jesus has not died or risen from the dead, and yet he is talking about believing in the gospel. How can this be? The good news, in a nutshell, is that God, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, breaks in and changes reality. He can take anything that has gone wrong, and through His transformative presence, start making it right…anything… Do you believe this? That God can break into every area of brokenness and start healing it? Your family? Your neighborhood? Your city? How do we know God can do this? Because he did it first in Jesus…a real human being, just like us. Through his life, death and resurrection, God started making all things new. He wants to do the same thing with us. This is good news! So how do we participate in what God is doing? Jesus says we start by repenting. The word repent is metanoia, which means to zoom out and look at how we are looking. In other words, he is inviting us into a process of re-visioning. God wants us to The gospel, in short, is that God reigns, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • 4. start seeing Him, ourselves, people…everything…from a new perspective…his perspective. When we align our vision with his, we open ourselves up to experience the good news of the kingdom. A new reality becomes possible. The Methods of Jesus Many of us have grown up with what I like to call the “red letter” Jesus. We know more about what Jesus said than about what he did. But what about the black letters? You can’t separate the message of Jesus from the methods of Jesus. As Marshall McLuhan says, the medium is the message. Following Jesus means we not only say what he said, we also need to do what he did. So WHAT did Jesus do? At the risk of being overly simplistic, we can basically say that Jesus did three things: Discipleship, Community, and Mission. Most of us have made some kind of effort to do all three of these things. The key to following Jesus is found in doing WHAT he did the WAY he did it. This means looking really close at both his message and his methods. In order to do this, we have to be willing to hit the reset button. We have to let Jesus show us how to be like him, in every way. Ready to hit the reset button? In order to be like Jesus, we have to look at the black letters and the red letters.
  • 5. Jesus the Disciple Maker One of the basic assumptions I make about Jesus is that I can’t improve on what he did, or how he did it. This means every part of his life and leadership is worth imitating, and this is especially true when it comes to making disciples. Let’s take a look. Once Jesus started proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel of the kingdom, he immediately began to invite people into discipling relationships. He said to Peter and Andrew follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. Jesus was not the first person to make disciples. For example, the Pharisees and John the Baptist made disciples as well. Discipling relationships were already a part of their culture.1 When Jesus invited Peter and Andrew to follow him, they knew the kind of relationship they were being invited into: a leader-follower relationship where they would learn how to be like him. And what did Jesus invite them to become? Fishers of people! Jesus invited them into a relational process where they would become the kind of people that other people would want to follow. Their lives would be changed by the transformative presence of God, and through their relationship with Jesus, they would learn how to invite other people into that same transformative experience. This is how a movement begins. Organic and Organized Jesus took both an organic and an organized approach to making disciples. It was organic because Jesus shared his life with the 12. They were with him during the spontaneous conflicts with the Pharisees as well as the more serendipitous moments that happened along the way.2 Jesus was also organized in his approach. For example, Jesus regularly took the 12 to the synagogue where he would teach, heal, and stir up trouble. There was a certain rhythm to their lives, one that other people could identify and participate in. 1 Ray Vanderlaan has some really good material on what the rabbi-disciple relationship looked like in Jesus’ day http://www.followtherabbi.com/ 2 Mark 2:18-23; 5:21-34 What if we let Jesus disciple us into being better disciple makers?
  • 6. The 5 T’s of Disciple Making So what did they focus on as they spent time together? Basically, Jesus took them through a developmental track that focused on what I call the 5 T’s – team, topics, tasks, tools, and tactics. Team: Jesus invited the 12 to be “with him.” They developed a shared rhythm of life that included spatial proximity, relational frequency, and situational variety. They shared meals, took trips, and celebrated the holidays together. Topics: Jesus intentionally pulled away on a regular basis to process what they had been experiencing. He would ask and answer questions, as well as give real time instruction on how to live and lead in the kingdom.3 Some of the topics he kept coming back to, over and over again, were the kingdom of God, faith, servanthood, money, forgiveness and prayer, among others. Tasks: Jesus had specific tasks he trained them to do. Proclaiming the kingdom, casting out demons, healing and prayer, to name a few. It’s important to note, however, that Jesus never asked them to do anything he was not willing to do himself. Jesus led first by example. Tools: When you ask someone to do something new, you should give them the tools they need to do it. Parables and short memorable phrases are just some of the tools Jesus used to train them. Tactics: Jesus not only trained the 12 on what to do, he also trained them, when appropriate, on how to do it. For example, when he sent them out by themselves on their first mission, he gave them specific instructions on what to say and how to respond if people rejected them. Any approach to discipleship that does not include one of these 5 T’s will be missing a key component of how Jesus made disciples. For example, small groups typically focus on team and topics, (sometimes just topics!) but often exclude focused training around certain tasks, tools and tactics. This is one of the reasons why small groups have typically not been an effective way of walking people through a process of transformation that, in turn, leads to more disciple making. We always pay a price when we do discipleship “our” way. 3 Mark 4:10-12, 33-34; 6:7-13, 30-32; 7:17-23; 8:27-33; 9:1-13; 28-29; 33-37; 10:32-34 TEAM TOPICS TASKS TOOLS TACTICS
  • 7. Beginning with the End in Mind At the end of the discipling process, Jesus turns to his disciples and says “Now it’s your turn. Go and make disciples.” If you were one of his disciples, you would most likely be thinking “Oh! You mean the thing you have been doing with us for the past 3 ½ years? You want us to find some other people and walk them through a relational process of transformation?” This is how discipling relationships work– we tend to disciple people in the same way that we have been discipled. Jesus knew this, which is why he was strategic about the way he discipled them. He was setting an example for them to follow. Discipleship…in Community The 12 were not the only people that followed Jesus. There was a larger group of “other disciples” that gathered around him. Visually, it would look something like the diagram below. This larger group is really important to the way Jesus made disciples. You see, Jesus wasn’t just training the 12 to eventually lead another group of 12. No, Jesus knew that in order for the movement to be healthy and sustainable, people would need to organize themselves into different sized groups, both small and large. In fact, if you leave people alone long enough, they end up self- organizing into different sized groups anyway. It’s just what people do. By including this larger group of “other disciples”, the 12 not only got to see how Jesus led groups of different sizes, they also got to enjoy all the social and spiritual benefits of belonging to an extended family on mission.4 4 We know there were up to 70 people who participated regularly in the group of “other disciples” because later, when Jesus sent the disciples out on the limited commission, he was able to assemble a group of 70(72) people who had enough exposure to the message and the methods of Jesus that they could do it on their own.
  • 8. Discipleship, in Community, on Mission So where does mission fit in with discipleship and community? The answer is, at the very front! Jesus was always leading his community of disciples into the broken world around them, inviting people to enter and receive the rule of God in their life. Sometimes they threw a really good party and invited people to build new friendships. Sometimes they gathered people and taught them new things about the kingdom of God. Sometimes they served people’s needs. Sometimes people got healed. Sometimes they just came together and did what families do – eat food and have fun together. One thing is certain, they did not exist solely for themselves. They were an extended family on mission to the world around them. A Redemptive and Generative Culture After doing 3 ½ years of discipleship, in community, on mission, a new alternative culture emerged that was both redemptive and generative. It was redemptive because it brought healing and renewal to people and places that were normally overlooked. Those who were at the edge were being invited to belong at the center. Those at the center were beginning to move towards the edge. There was a great reversal taking place. God was starting to make things right. It was generative because it was able to reproduce itself across cultural and geographical boundaries. What started out as a small, mainly Jewish movement of 120 people, ended up becoming a multi- cultural network of flourishing missional communities. In fact, by 300 A.D, over half of the Roman Empire had been saturated with this new, subversive culture. Jesus used a movemental strategy of discipleship, community and mission to create lasting change in the world. He started a permanent revolution that he is inviting us to participate in.
  • 9. LET’S START A MISSIONAL MOVEMENT… So far we have been looking at what Jesus did, and how he did it. Now it’s time for us to talk about how we are going to participate in His movement today. We want to put the message and methods of Jesus into practice, on the ground, in real life, starting right here in Nashville. This means finding creative ways to do discipleship, mission and community in the same way Jesus did it. T-Groups When looking at how Jesus made disciples, we talked about the 5 T’s of team, topics, tasks, tools, and tactics. We will use a vehicle for discipleship called T-Groups that helps us put these 5 T’s into practice. Here are some frequently asked questions that will help explain what T-Groups are, and how they work. Who should be a part of a T-Group? We feel like Jesus’ teaching about the Person of Peace is a good way to answer this question. A person of peace is someone who likes you and is open to being led by you. As a general rule, a T-Group is made up of people who want to grow in the comprehension, competency, and character of Jesus. Not everyone may be ready to be in this kind of relationship, so T-Groups are not for everyone. How many people can be in a T-Group? We have seen groups of 4-6 people work really well. What do T-Groups Do? T-Groups focus training and accountability around the 5 T’s of team, topics, tasks, tools and tactics. This can happen in both organic and organized ways. Organic: T-Groups hang out together at various times to share life with one another. Since life can get really busy, each group has to be creative in how they do this. Typically, T-Group members get together around food, fun or family time. Organized: T-Groups meet weekly for about an hour to discover what God has been saying to us and how we can respond to it. To help us do this, we use a tool called The Learning Circle that centers around Jesus’ message “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news.” Let’s take a quick look.
  • 10. KAIROS: A moment in time when God reveals something to us. It’s a window of opportunity where God’s kingdom begins to break in. REPENT: Repentance is a process of re-visioning, of seeing things from God’s perspective. In order to do this, we need to stop and OBSERVE our kairos moment, REFLECT on it, and DISCUSS it with others. BELIEVE: Once we discover what God is saying to us, we want to respond in faith. This means developing a PLAN and allowing others to hold us ACCOUNTABLE. When we begin to ACT on what he is revealing to us, we begin to experience transformation. Do T-Groups have leaders? Yes, like Jesus and the 12, a T-Group has one leader with several followers, for a season. If we disciple well, at the end of the process, followers will become leaders. Is there a book to use in the T-Group Meetings? Yes, we have a Discipling Tool Kit that helps guide the discipling process. Mostly, the book focuses on topics, tools and tactics that helps participants engage in certain tasks of being and making disciples. T-Groups and Movement The goal of a T-Group is to experience transformation and multiplication. Transformation takes place when we begin to develop the comprehension, competencies and character of Jesus. Multiplication takes place when, at the right time, each person starts their own T-Group. It would look something like this:
  • 11. It is through T-Groups that we will guard and grow the DNA of the movement, providing support and accountability to both emerging and existing leaders.
  • 12. Follow me as I follow Christ One really important thing to remember about making disciples is that we are not ultimately asking people to follow us. We offer our life and leadership as a model of what it can look like to follow Jesus in this particular place and time, but we are all looking to Jesus as our perfect example. So just like Paul, we should say “Follow me AS I follow Christ.”5 Everyone who is making disciples should practice being weak and vulnerable with those they lead. This means confessing sin and being humble enough to admit when we have made a mistake or are not good at something. Tim’s Experience in Being and Making Disciples. Tim has spent the last 7 years of his life using T-Groups to coach and disciple a wide range of people. From those living out the gospel in their day to day jobs, to church planters and local church staff, as well as entrepreneurial leaders in the non-profit and business sectors. Through these relationships he has seen lives transformed and disciples multiplied. It’s amazing what God will do when we intentionally invite people into our lives and walk with them through a relational process that supports and stretches them to live out their identity in Christ. So yes, this is not just theory. Tim has on the ground experience of making disciples in a variety of contexts. At the end of this E-book you will find a few people sharing their experience of walking through a developmental relationship with Tim and how that has impacted their life and leadership. Missional Communities Just like Jesus, we want to do discipleship, in community, on mission. In order to do this, we will use a vehicle called Missional Communities - an extended family of 20-50 people who are on mission to a specific missional context – a neighborhood or network of relationships. As an extended family, they will share food, fun, friendship and faith as they organize their rhythm of 5 I Corinthians 11:1 “I found my discipling experience with Tim to be transformational, educational and empowering. Feeling confident of being properly equipped for the task, I have started discipling other people.” Harry Robinson, Clarksville TN
  • 13. life around developing an UP-ward relationship with God, IN-ward relationships with their Missional Community, and OUT- ward relationships with people in their missional context. Here are some guiding principles for how these three relationships will be developed in a missional community. Creative Worship There are lots of ways to worship God. We don’t always have to sing or have music. As a way to encourage experimentation, every missional community will have a list of ideas on how to worship God in creative ways. Fresh Word Teaching in missional communities should flow out of our relationship with God and his activity in our lives. Teaching will be conversational and interactive. No lecturing! Eating Healthy families share meals together. It doesn’t always have to be a full blown meal, but food will be a regular part of the gathering. Eating together is a great way for people to belong before they believe. One-Another-ing There are over 50 one another passages in the New Testament. One of the ways to practice these during an MC gathering is to break down into smaller groups of 3-5 so people can “share and care” in more personal ways. Showing Sharing our faith often happens best when we first share food, fun and friendship with those we are being sent to. Sometimes people need to witness Jesus in us before we witness Jesus to them. Telling Sharing our faith involves telling others the good news: God’s transforming presence is near, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He changed me, and he can change you too. There is no need to be pushy or press for a decision. We merely want to participate in what the Spirit is doing.
  • 14. Missional Community Rhythms Every missional community will develop a shared rhythm of life that organizes around the three relationships of UP, IN and OUT. So for example, in the calendar to the left, when the misisonal community gathers on Tuesday nights for UP, they may eat a meal together and then do some form of creative worship. Then on every second Saturday they gather to serve their missional context in a tangible way. The second Tuesday centers around developing their IN- ward relationships with one- another. The IN gathering could also invite people they met during their previous OUT gathering to enjoy a time of food, fun and friendship. Notice how the 4th week is left open? We think its important to allow space for people to connect organically outside the organized rhythm of the MC. This also builds in a time of rest for everyone involved.
  • 15. FAQ’s ON MISSIONAL COMMUNTIES Do missional communities have leaders? Yes, every missional community (MC) will be led by one T-Group. For example, look at the diagram to the right. Notice how the T-Group is located inside the MC? Two to four people from that T-Group will function as the MC’s principle leaders, with the leader of that T-Group being first among equals. Where do small groups fit in? During MC gatherings people can break down into smaller groups of 4-6 to share and pray with one another. This creates an opportunity for deeper interactions without having to add another group with formal leadership positions. How does an MC figure out what their missional context will be? This can happen in different ways. Generally speaking, it starts when someone feels the Spirit is sending them to a particular missional context. As they share this vision of being sent to a particular neighborhood or network, they can discover persons of peace who also feel led to be on mission with them. This sets the stage to start the first T-Group and begin gathering people into community. It’s important to recognize that it’s the Holy Spirit who sends people on mission, not us. Our role as disciple makers is to, at the appropriate time, release people to pursue their callings, providing support and accountability in the context of community. Why do mission in groups of 20-50? Why not smaller groups? We believe mission can happen in any sized group, but our experience is that sustainable mission takes place through groups of 20-50, what the New Testament commonly refers to as the oikos, or household. The great thing about doing mission as an extended family of 20-50 people is that a group that size is small enough to have a shared vision, but big enough to actually do something about it.
  • 16. ONE LIFE: A Diverse Network of Missional Communities Before Jesus ascended back to the Father, he told his disciples “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Notice how the Holy Spirit was going to not only empower them, but also lead them to cross geographic and cultural boundaries? When the Holy Spirit is allowed to direct the mission, the movement will eventually break out of its original culture and become multi-cultural. We expect to see this same thing happen. At some point, as people are discipled, the Spirit will awaken them to their callings, creating the opportunity for new missional communities to be formed, each with their own unique missional context. We want to see the gospel of the kingdom move into every neighborhood, and every network of relationships in the city, and beyond. It is through this de-centralized approach to mission that we can experience a truly multi- cultural expression of the church. Instead of asking people of diverse cultural backgrounds to come to us, we will go to them, participating in the already existing rhythms of their culture. This means each missional community will have the freedom to organize their rhythm of life around the unique cultural context in which they are being sent. New Church Plants Each MC is potentially a new church plant waiting to happen. As the Spirit leads, the local church will provide support and accountability for MC’s to “spin off” and form their own local expressions of the Church, moving towards their own cultural identity and leadership. This movement of multiplying disciples, leaders and churches will be called OneLife.
  • 17. Public Worship Gatherings While we see T-Groups and MC’s as being absolutely foundational to the sustainability of the movement, at some point during the life cycle of the first plant, once we have multiplied into two sustainable MC’s, we will start a weekly public worship gathering where we will cast vision, celebrate what God is doing, meaningfully connect with others in the movement, and communicate the gospel in compelling ways. The design of these initial gatherings will be light weight and low maintenance so as not to overburden existing T-Group and MC leaders. Being in the Bible Belt, the public gathering will naturally serve as a front door for some people to be introduced to the gospel and the movement. The public gathering will honor this reality, while at the same time intentionally subverting a culture of consumerism. For example, some gatherings may only have music and preaching for 40 minutes, with the remaining time focusing on interactive times of people-to-people ministry. In order to accommodate the different learning stages of children, there will also be age appropriate learning environments incorporated into these public worship gatherings. Youth Ministry While parents should be the primary disciplers of their children, we believe it takes a village to raise a child. We commit to discipling parents, as well as children, in age appropriate settings that facilitate the development of UP-ward, IN-ward and OUT-ward relationships. Overall, we value an inter-generational approach to developing young people into the way of Christ. PUBLIC WORSHIP GATHERING MC MC MCMC MC
  • 18. EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY APEST We believe each one of us has been gifted by Christ to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher (APEST).6 This means every person has a unique set of skills and sensibilities that can help the movement grow and mature into the fullness of Christ. For example, apostles help us to be missional; prophets help us to be incarnational; evangelists help us to be attractional; shepherds help us to be communal, and teachers help us to be instructional. When each one of these giftings has the opportunity to equip the rest of the body, we grow and mature into the fullness of Christ. Practically speaking, we envision T-Groups and Missional Communities as the primary environment where APEST will find its most fruitful expressions. As the movement grows, we will start a training track for each respective APEST ministry to ensure each gifting is able to both give and receive equipping within the movement. Naturally Supernatural The Spirit is given to each one of us as a gift, uniting us to Christ in redemptive and generative ways. We open ourselves up to the leading of the Spirit, producing the fruits and gifts of his presence in our lives. We believe the gifts of the Spirit should be expressed in naturally supernatural ways. In other words, it doesn’t have to be weird or spooky in order to be from the Spirit. The Spirit points us to Jesus, not himself, which means the Spirit will always express himself in Christ-like ways. My wife and I, having recently moved to Nashville, are looking for people who want to walk with us on this journey of discipleship, community and mission. If you would like to have some conversations about what it would look like to lock arms with us as go on this journey together, you can contact us here: onelifenashville@gmail.com 6 Ephesians 4:7-16 JOURNEY WITH US
  • 19. Every movement has a name, and after much prayer and reflection, we have decided to use the name OneLife. It captures several core passions that run deep in our hearts.
  • 20. Tim was raised in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. His journey with God started out in a Christian reform school in the heart of southern Georgia. It was there that he encountered some authentic Christian people who really cared, leading him to experience the redemptive power of Christ’s love. Tim later went on to college and received a degree in Biblical Studies. As someone who always had a pioneering spirit, he began to focus his entrepreneurial skills and sensibilities toward starting new kingdom ventures. Over the last 20 years, by God’s grace, he helped plant two churches in both urban and suburban contexts, started a campus ministry, an inner city mentor program for at-risk youth, as well as several businesses. Most recently, Tim co-authored a book with Alan Hirsch entitled The Permanent Revolution where they outline the movemental significance of the five-fold ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. For the past 3 years Tim has been coaching and consulting planters, church leaders and training organizations on how to become more movemental in their approach to ministry and leadership. After this extended season of investing in other leaders, Tim and his wife Tiffany have been called by God to re-enter the field to plant churches again. Tiffany grew up in Montgomery, AL where she was actively involved in mentoring teenagers and adults in under-resourced urban neighborhoods. After receiving her degree in social work, she began focusing her experience and training around ministering to women as well as empowering women in their callings for ministry. Tiffany is passionate about efforts related to social justice and sustainability. In recent years, she has volunteered with Hope Pregnancy Center as a Mom2Mom mentor, while running her own start-up business called GreenHouse: Natural Products, Healthy People. Tim and Tiffany value leading together as a team and, after 13 years of marriage, have learned how to draw from each others unique giftings to meet the diverse challenges of pioneering leadership.
  • 21. A FEW PEOPLE SHARING ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIM Tim is an exceptional teacher with an innate ability to help others understand biblical truth through visual means. He has played a huge role in helping me to transition from a purely evangelistic culture to a discipling culture. He is an awesome and loyal friend who loves the Lord. Scott Hedges – Founder at Paraclete Aviation Life Support, Clarksville TN I have never met anyone quite as passionate about making disciples as Tim. He is an apostolic leader who uses his innovative strategies to help other people live out their calling. As someone who has been personally invested in by Tim, I trust his character and competence to lead other people in the way of Jesus. Jason Horn – Founder of Ironmen: Mobilizing Men for Missional Movement, Clarksville TN. Tim is passionate about every step of the discipling process. He genuinely loves people, and has a unique ability to assess where they are in their spiritual journey. In my own discipling relationship with him, I was exposed to tools that have not only helped me to grow and mature, but also equipped and empowered me to disciple others in their own unique spiritual journeys. Jenna Jimenez – Director of Mom2Mom Mentoring at the Hope Pregnancy Center, Clarksville TN I appreciate Tim's ability to lead an intentional discipleship session with purpose and direction so that all group members can participate and be challenged spiritually. But Tim does so much more than dispense information. He invites you into a genuine life on life relationship. Grant Rathe – Disciple Maker and Stay at Home Dad When Tim started coaching me, I was struggling. It was the end of Year 1 of a new missional-incarnational community I helped start in an urban, multi-cultural setting. It is now Year 3, and after roughly 2 years of Tim's coaching, I know the direction I am called to go in, and have the tools to lead in that direction. I am a firm believer in Tim and his approach, and would recommend him to anyone. - Josh Shepherd – Leader of Mission House Network, Kansas City, KS Tim was my mentor during my time with the V3 Church Planting Movement. Let me say honestly, this is one very brilliant and helpful guy! His insight and ability to teach various missional methods for spreading the gospel is astounding. He really has much to offer anyone who is serious about planting the gospel in today’s ever-changing cultural climate. John Boggs – Founder of Portico Church, Bloomington IN Like most people, I would have said I knew and understood discipleship. It wasn’t until my coaching relationship with Tim that I was exposed to tools and practices that helped me, not only be a better church planter, but a better discipler of people and leaders as well. Now, after two years of discipling both new and existing Christians, God is allowing us to see the beginnings of a movement that is multiplying disciples, leaders and churches in both our city and region. Mike Pumphrey – Founder of Awaken Church and Church Planting Strategist with The Bridge Network, Virginia Beach VA.