The Western church seems to be, to quote Bono, “stuck in a moment, and it can’t get out of it.” It remains caught within patterns, paradigms, and assumptions inherited from a previous ecclesial era, struggling to imagine and embody a future that corresponds to the changing realities of its mission. The model we inherited is a complex, resource-heavy institution that runs on professional clergy, large (expensive) buildings, sizeable budgets, and centralized programs. All of that machinery places church life beyond the reach of ordinary disciples and sets a ceiling on how far the gospel can travel. Movements function like living organisms. They carry a simple, potent code that any genuine follower of Jesus can copy and pass on, anywhere, using the resources already present among God's people. The urgency of our moment invites us to rediscover that code and build the church around it.
1. Design for Reproducibility
Every significant movement I have studied has a simple system at its heart, one that ordinary people can pass from person to person. I have long argued that if we want a movement, we need to design for one, which means the idea of innate reproducibility needs to be cooked into the process and thinking from the get-go.
Every structure, practice, and leadership model meets one searching question: can an ordinary believer replicate this in their own context with the resources they already have? Practices that earn a yes join the movement's repertoire. Practices that need redesign get reshaped until they earn one. A living cell carries everything it needs to reproduce, and a movement grows with that same capacity in every believer and every small community.
2. The Code That Multiplies
Biological DNA uses four base pairs to generate the endless variety of life. The church carries a similar code, missional DNA, or mDNA, a short list of essentials that anyone can remember and pass on:
Jesus is Lord, the core confession and the starting point of everything
Disciple making, the core activity of God's people
Missional-incarnational impulse, the posture of sent, embedded presence in the world
APEST culture, the fivefold shape of ministry and leadership in Ephesians 4
Organic systems, the living network through which the church organizes and spreads
Liminality and Communitas, the shared life that forms among people on a life-transforming mission
Each element is simple enough to remember and deep enough to shape a lifetime of faith and mission. Together they form the church's operating system, and they leave room for endless contextual expression, all sharing the same theological integrity. The problem we have to deal with is that even being able to conceive of this is difficult in the prevailing paradigm of the church We have to think like a movement in order to act like one and vice versa. #metanoia
3. Simple Forms, Deep Faith
The simplification I advocate focuses on the form and structure of the church, but the gospel must keep its full weight. A gospel reduced to personal salvation and a ticket to heaven detaches faith from the mission of God and from the costly call to discipleship. I wrote The Forgotten Ways and ReJesus to recover that call. My vision joins high-challenge, high-commitment discipleship with low-control, low-complexity forms, so the deepest faith travels in the lightest vehicle.
The early church shows us how. Its people gathered in homes, around tables, and in shared meals (Acts 2:42-47), a pattern any family could reproduce. The same people confessed "Jesus is Lord" in a world where Caesar claimed that title, held a rich understanding of Christ's Lordship, and stood ready to suffer for the gospel. Simplicity in form and depth in faith strengthened one another at every step of their expansion.
4. Low Control, High Accountability
Profound simplicity shapes how we lead. The institutional model centralizes power and permission to protect quality. The movemental model forms people deeply in the mDNA and releases them to innovate and multiply. Tim and I describe this posture as low control and high accountability.
Control lowers as structural barriers fall, hierarchies flatten, and the need for central permission dissolves. Accountability rises through deep relationships, mentoring, and a shared commitment to the core code. Ephesians 4:11-16 paints the picture beautifully: the fivefold gifts equip the whole people of God, and the body builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
The Seed Carries the Forest
Every seed holds the potential for an entire forest within it. When we simplify, we return the church to seed form: small, portable, reproducible, carrying the full genetic code of Jesus and his Kingdom. Planted in ordinary lives, that seed grows, multiplies and fills the landscape. Every disciple becomes a seed-bearer, and the movement spreads one planted life at a time.
Key Takeaways
Design for reproducibility from day one. Ask of every structure and practice whether an ordinary believer can replicate it.
Let mDNA carry the code. Six essentials generate missional life in any context.
Simplify the form and keep the gospel whole. Light structures carry costly, Christ-centered discipleship.
Follow the early church. Homes, tables, and shared lives multiplied because they were simple and deep together.
Lead with low control and high accountability. Deep discipleship formation and relational mentoring release people to multiply.
Read on!
Explore the mDNA and/or the Movement Intelligence themes as well as the numerous articles on topic on this website
Ch.9 "Organic Systems" in The Forgotten Ways
Pick appropriate chapters across The Starfish and the Spirit
Sections 1 And 2 of On The Verge