Movements - Interview with Steve Addison

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I recently had the privilege of interviewing one of the world’s leading experts on movements Steve Addison. He has been a life-long student of movements that renew and expand the Christian faith. Steve distills the characteristics of dynamic movements and makes them available to leaders committed to multiplying disciple-making churches. 

He is the author of two books: Movements that Change the World: Five Keys to Spreading the Gospel and What Jesus Started: Joining the Movement, Changing the World. His website is www.movements.net and he host a podcast page on movements at http://www.movements.net/resources/the-movements-podcast.

In particular I wanted to know his thoughts about movements, how they work, and are they still happening in the West. Here are a few of my takeaways from our discussion. 

  1. People in the West think that a movement should happen, they just don’t believe it can happen. 
  2. It will require a massive paradigm shift in our thinking if we are going to see a movement happen in the West. The shift that needs to happen in our thinking is from church to movement. 
  3. We think how many people can we get into our church, instead of how many generation of disciples can we make. Don’t think about the next 100 people, instead think how many generations of disciples can we multiply. 
  4. A movement happens when new believers lead someone to Christ. A movement happens when a church begins to have grandchildren and great grandchildren. 
  5. We need to allow and equip people to share their stories of discipleship. 
  6. We need a God sized vision that is beyond our own capacity to fulfill. 
  7. If we want to see a movement then we should move from conferences to immediate mobilization for rapid multiplication of disciples.  

Steve recommended the following books:

  1. T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution by Smith and Kai.
  2. What Jesus Started and Movements that Change the World.
  3. David Watson has a book coming out in the next 1-2 weeks: http://www.movements.net/2014/10/08/a-must-read.html
  4. Miraculous Movements: http://www.movements.net/2014/10/27/miraculous-movements-how-muslims-are-falling-in-love-with-jesus-podcast.html