GDI Disciplemaking Goes Viral
(1-minute read)
Sometimes we are out of breath because it feels like we are pushing a rock up hill. It is much better to be out of breath because we are keeping up with the fresh wind of the Spirit! After 8 years in existence as a nonprofit, the Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI) is at a “tipping point” of disciplemaking across the globe. These are a few of the highlights this year in 2024.
- Ukraine: Even in a war-torn country, people travel through dangerous territory to get to a disciplemaking conference so that eager women can introduce me to their 3 generations of MicroGroups.
- Africa: Just over 4 years ago, we were getting started in Zambia. Now we have expanded MicroGroup training groups also in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Kenya and in 20 other African countries.
- Balkans: University student ministries in Serbia, Albania, and Macedonia are birthing reproducing MicroGroups.
- United States of America: We gather in regional conferences to introduce the genius of a relational MicroGroup to make disciples who make disciples. In October I was approached by a man at our Midwest conference, who said, “I have found my calling; I will do this the rest of my life.”
Help us keep up with this organic, viral growth. Here's how.
Maximize Your Impact: Give Stock!
Many of us have appreciated stock in this banner year. Did you know you can donate appreciated stock directly to GDI? By doing so, you can avoid capital gains taxes and maximize your generosity, helping us expand our reach while benefiting from potential tax savings.
Empower Disciplemaking Through Your Giving
You can make a donation in one of five different ways:
- Text to give securely: Text the words GOMICRO (small or caps) to this number: 805-476-4195
- Give securely using a debit card, credit card, or PayPal online at https://www.theglobaldiscipleshipinitiative.org/donate.
- Mail a check to GDI, 1322 Las Posas Road, Camarillo, CA 93010.
- Donate to GDI from your qualified IRA accounts that can be structured as tax-free qualified charitable distributions (QCD's) if you are over 70-1/2. Contact your retirement plan administrator to learn how to donate from your IRA.
- Set up transfer of your capital gains from stock investments to GDI FEIN: 77-0573902; GDI CA Corp No.: C2350302; GDI Fidelity Account No.: Z40463347. Provide this information to your brokerage firm, and they will handle the rest.
Join the mission to transform lives and fulfill the Great Commission through MicroGroups—intimate, trust-filled gatherings designed to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus who catch the vision to continue to hand off their faith to make more disciples.
Your support equips local churches and leaders around the world with tools like Discipleship Essentials, a biblically-based curriculum that fosters spiritual growth, accountability, and Christ-centered relationships. Together, we can multiply disciplemakers and transform communities globally.
For the Rest of the Story:
GDI at the Tipping Point
(3-minute read)
GDI is on the birth of a new era. We have “good” problems. We have outgrown our leadership structure’s ability to sustain the extent of our worldwide growth. Our vision is to have MicroGroup-based, disciplemaking churches in every country of the world. That is massive. We have been trying to run everything from a small team centered in the US. We came to the realization that some form of decentralized regional leadership would be necessary, but how do we get there?
The Future
To help us transition so that we can support and grow all across the world in an unlimited fashion, we have retained a guide and a coach. Terry English is certified in Leadership Challenges and Practices Inventory, as well as a certified Working Genius facilitator associated with Patrick Lencioni. Six of our core leaders met for three days at the end of October. Terry's challenge:
The Past
As we pass the 8-year mark of our ministry, let me take you on a brief journey of how we got to where we are. The Lord converged the paths of two lives: Greg Ogden and Ralph Rittenhouse.
I, Greg, had spent a 38-year pastoral career with a focus on small, reproducible discipleship groups. I discovered that these MicroGroups of 3-4 were very effective in empowering the average person to be disciplemakers. Then I chronicled my experience in two key books, Transforming Discipleship and a widely popular disciplemaking tool, Discipleship Essentials.
The church was my laboratory, and the experiment kept growing and transforming these reproducing disciples.
GREG OGDEN INVESTS IN GDI-GO MICRO
In 2010 Ralph, as pastor of Camarillo Community Church in Southern California, was seeking a way to carry out the Great Commission. The church had concluded that they were not meeting the disciplemaking challenge. On a flight home from another “this-conference-will-fix-your-church,” Transforming Discipleship was referenced in an article by John Ortberg that he was reading. Ralph ordered 4 copies for his core team, and then they started MicroGroups using Discipleship Essentials that year.
In the above article, he was impressed by the model of groups of 3-4 gathering around the disciplemaking foundation of Discipleship Essentials in an open, honest, transparent environment. They decided to try an “experiment.”
Five years later that experiment exploded from zero to 130 “quads,” as they called them, and had turned the congregation inside out. Greg had been invited in on a number of occasions as the "virus of disciplemaking" was spreading. The dominant impression was one of Holy Spirit unleashed energy.
The last event prior to Ralph’s retirement in November of 2015 was a Global Discipleship Summit at his church in August, 2015. Unbeknownst to either Greg or Ralph as the Summit approached, both heard the Spirit say,
“We need to form some sort of ministry and take this discovery on the road to a wider world.”
We were aware that both the church in America and the broader world was “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Christian leaders know how to get people to say “yes” to Jesus, but they do not know how to grow up in Jesus. It was like a Macedonian call,
“Please come and help us.”
The Present: What Has Happened in the Last Eight Years?
Sometimes the best way to tell the story of explosive growth is simply through an image. Our primary training tool is Discipleship Essentials. We never initiate translations. Translations come through the request and needs of people who want to partner with us to start a disciplemaking movement in their language group.
Discipleship Essentials is in at least 33 languages and counting. The latest is Shona in Zimbabwe and South Africa. That may give a feel for the viral nature of the growth.
China
Through the influence of a publishing house in Hong Kong and their relationship with the Nanjing Theological Seminary, the oldest seminary in the country, Discipleship Essentials and three other of my books were translated into “simplified” Chinese, the official script of mainland China, only used in China. These books were fast-tracked through the official approval process of the Chinese government. What normally takes 2-3 years was done in 6 months. They are printed at Amity printing in China and sold at a reasonable price.
Nepal
Through our national director in Nepal, who is a Wycliffe-trained translator, we started with Nepali in 2013, and now have two other of Greg’s books in Nepali and now in Hindi, with Discipleship Essentials as the next book in Hindi. Can you imagine the size of this ministry opportunity as India is the largest country in the world?
Ukraine
Discipleship Essentials is available in Russian and Ukrainian now, though as you might expect, the Russian version has fallen out of favor. It is a wonder to see these brave Ukrainian followers of Jesus continue to multiply MicroGroups in this war-torn world.
The Present
To expand into the vision of our Lord’s call, we need sustained financial support that extends over multiple years. The following list reveals major challenges to propel us on the way toward the 10-year vision of building teams in 16 regions and raising up 150 regional leaders:
- Underwriting Contractual Costs of our Consultant, Terry English: Our contract with our consultant is for a two-year relationship that will be completed in 2026.
Approximate expense: $25,000 - Underwriting Support for our National Directors. We are a faith-based ministry, which means each person on our team must raise their own support. As you can imagine in countries like Nepal, Zambia, and certainly now Ukraine, to find resources in their own countries is more than challenging.
Other countries like Romania, Philippines, and Zambia do not have a cultivated habit of supporting missions. Too many are looking for handouts from the rich West. Pray about your part. Click the drop-down arrow to see the list of our national directors individually or donate to a fund.
Estimated Fund: $50,000
- Ukraine: Igor Federovych
- Romania: Gigi Dobrin and Sabin Boruga
- Zambia: Mwamba Besa
- Philippines: Jim Gustilo
- Nepal: [name omitted for security reasons]
- USA: Dave Schanuel
- First In-Person Gathering of National Leaders:
From October 19-25, 2025 we are planning our first in-person gathering of all our worldwide directors, as well are rising prospective leaders. The location has not been determined. The criteria: a country that has easy access, and is inexpensive (e.g., Bangkok, Thailand).
Estimated cost: (flights, lodging, and food for 18-20 people) $40,000 - African Leadership Conference: A handful (10-12) of carefully selected, high leverage leaders will gather in Livingstone, Zambia from June 10-12, 2025 for in-depth executive leadership training to populate new regional leadership teams. Budget: $19,700
- Travel Fund: On the short run, there are increased travel needs by the Executive Director, Board Chair, and others to meet, vet, and train our rising leaders who can populate our regional leadership structure. For example, we are already conceiving of 5 national regions in Africa. Substance of the visits is to share our plan to move future leaders across a 7-step process toward becoming an executive leader.
Travel Fund: $25,000
How to Give
- Text to give securely: Text the words GOMICRO (small or caps) to this number: 805-476-4195. Select a person or fund as your designated, personal gift.
- Give securely using a debit card, credit card, or PayPal online at https://www.theglobaldiscipleshipinitiative.org/donate.
- Mail a check to GDI, 1322 Las Posas Road, Camarillo, CA 93010.
- Donate to GDI from your qualified IRA accounts that can be structured as tax-free qualified charitable distributions (QCD's) if you are over 70-1/2. Contact your retirement plan administrator to learn how to donate from your IRA.
- Set up transfer of your capital gains from stock investments to GDI FEIN: 77-0573902; GDI CA Corp No.: C2350302; GDI Fidelity Account No.: Z40463347. Provide this information to your brokerage firm and they will handle the rest.
Pray about it
As I hope you can see, we have an entirely more ambitious leadership challenge before us. We ask you to spend some time before the Lord and ask what your part might be.
Member discussion