Urban DMM Research Report: Multiplication from the Margins

Multiplying disciples often begins not with the capable and connected, but among the broken and overlooked. The margins are not just a place to serve. They may be where everything starts.

Monoculture’s biggest advantage is high efficiency and scale. But did we know that it is also very fragile?

One practitioner discusses the insights to disciple-making that were hidden in a farming documentary and what happens when harvest workers embrace complexity.

Maybe making disciples isn’t that complicated? Maybe we’re already qualified?

A practitioner shares his story and what he concluded.

“Where do you go to church?” A simple, straightforward question for many Christians, but the assumptions it contains make it awkward for disciples whose ministry means that their community doesn’t fit the traditional mould.

One harvest worker shares how God shaped him through his wrestle with this question.

Cities scatter us. The communal heart of the Great Commission may feel out of reach. But what if the problem isn't commitment — it's that we're holding a fixed picture of what "going together" has to look like?

Four approaches from Asian cities suggest there may be more options than we think.

A young man stranded in Kabul told the missionary who'd spent weeks with him: "I really like your Jesus, but I can't stand you."

That line has stayed with Marko for years — and it gets at a potentially uncomfortable reality. The lack of harvest in our cities may not be from a lack of care or vision. It may be because we never stopped to ask what we needed to become.

The same Spirit, working across wildly different cities. Practitioners from East Asia to Central Asia keep reporting the same patterns — brokenness opening doors, simple obedience producing fruit, youth moving without waiting for permission.

These aren't coincidences, and they aren't models to copy. They're fingerprints. What does it mean when God's methods look this consistent across such diverse contexts?

What else is left to do?

In the final article of this current series, David shares a critical step that sets up his team to keep learning and growing in effectiveness.

I need to tell you about something that shook me during our last gathering in our city.

What shook me was not someone sharing a revolutionary new strategy, but because I finally saw what was already there.

In the last blog we talked about adopting a coaching posture to empower urban mission. In this article we’ll dive into some practical ways our team is learning to do this.

How can we best serve across contexts and between generations?

Here are three powerful principles that are catalytic and collaborative.

We’re surrounded by infinite possibilities to join in what God is doing. So what is that unique assignment that God has given us for this season?

Here are some questions that will give you greater clarity as you discern.

The idea of ‘love languages” could apply to those whom we serve.

See how we can imitate Jesus who spoke to unique groups of people and individuals about God’s kingdom in a way that they understood.  

“Why don’t people grow up?” 

As pastor of a church, David often found himself asking this question in frustration. His congregation members seemed unmotivated and apathetic.

The urban harvest can seem overwhelming.

Where do we start? How do we offer our 2 fish and 5 loaves in a way that can have a meaningful impact on the brokenness and lostness we see in our cities?

In today’s post we’ll take a look at some of the key urban challenges Indian movement leaders identified - the invisible "walls" they believe prevent the fullness of God's peace touching and blessing their cities.

God has an army. The army is not made up of pastors, professors or theologians, but it is filled with ordinary people … like every single one of us.

David Broodryk has been on a long journey into discipleship movements and seeking to see cities impacted by and for Jesus. He recently spent time with several Asian city teams as part of the Urban Wheat Project. Over a series of blog posts I will share some key highlights and reflections from our time together.