Joe isn’t a pastor. He’s just a normal guy who loves his grandkids and goes to a church in a small town in Texas. He had learned about Disciple Making Movements (DMM) online and it lit a fire within him. He became desperate to see God do it in his community.

But how could he? He wasn’t a fiery preacher, or a charismatic evangelist. He loved serving at his local church and helping out whenever he could. Joe tried to garner interest in DMM with people at his church anyway, but no one seemed to “get it.” The people at his church were great people, but he just couldn’t seem to get across what exactly he meant by making disciples.

Despite being part of a great church that loved and served its community, Joe felt alone in his passion for disciple making. That’s when he found out about online cohort of people going through the Waha Disciple Making Course from different places in the world. Joe joined the cohort, along with other disciple makers… One was in Spain and the other was in Kenya, yet their common passion for making disciples that multiplied, as well as their shared struggles formed a quick bond. For the first time Joe felt a sense of community in his disciple making journey, but it still wasn’t the same. He wanted this with his in-person church community.

Joe remained faithful to the training, putting into practice everything he was learning. Sharing the gospel with strangers wasn’t the easiest thing, but eventually, he decided to serve the poor in his community as a way to share his faith—An idea that came up in one of their meetings as the group was discussing that week’s lesson. He joined several different groups helping the underprivileged in various ways, and eventually, he started a DBS group with a family he met doing this!

At first, the man of the house was not interested. Life had been too hard for him to let his guard down around religious people. But his partner wanted to keep learning. Slowly, the family began to experience true life change. The man came home one day in tears. He told his partner that she was right. They needed to turn their lives around and get right with God. Joe helped them commit their lives to Christ.

As if this wasn’t amazing enough, the elders at Joe’s church got wind of this and were excited! They asked Joe if he wanted to share about his experience at a men’s breakfast. This time, he got to speak from experience, telling the men of his congregation real stories of what God was doing in and through him. The men were encouraging, but Joe didn’t think much of it. One Sunday morning, a friend of his from the men’s breakfast grabbed him by the elbow after the service and asked if he wanted to grab lunch. When they had been seated with their food, this friend excitedly leaned over the table during their meal and told Joe the news.

“I have a surprise for you… I started a DBS!”

Joe nearly spat out his hamburger!

“I loved what you shared at the men’s breakfast, so I thought I’d try it out myself and some of my friends agreed to do a DBS with me!”

This gave Joe the encouragement to talk to his pastor about all the Lord was doing and ask if he could lead the Waha DMC at his church. To his delight Joe’s pastor agreed! The church has now gone through the course together, and are working as a church family to change the trajectory of their community. But the most significant fruit for Joe is that he doesn’t feel alone anymore!