Conversations as you Go

In this episode, Aila Tasse draws from Scripture and his own leadership experience to explore how we can build disciple-making teams following the examples of Jesus and Paul.

Jesus prayed his team into existence, invited people into relationship, trained them through modelling and apprenticeship, sent them out together, and coached them as they learned through experience. His example reminds us that the workers, leaders and resources needed for the harvest are often already within the communities we are seeking to reach.

Aila also explores the multicultural, multi-gifted team in Acts 13. As they prayed, fasted and listened, the Holy Spirit set apart and sent Paul and Barnabas. Throughout Acts, teams were formed and redirected through dependence on the Spirit—not simply through human plans or strategies.

Building multiplying teams means inviting people into relationship, modelling disciple-making, releasing responsibility early and coaching people as they learn by doing. It also requires leaders to get out of the way and create a culture in which everybody counts, contributes and thrives. Shared vision leads to shared ownership, shared effort and shared celebration.

Finally, Aila reflects on the humility of Jesus in Philippians 2 and the importance of honouring people across cultures. God’s Kingdom celebrates diversity, bringing together people from every nation, language and background into one body.

As you listen, be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit: What will you take away from this episode and apply immediately as you build disciple-making teams in your context?

How can existing churches and emerging movement leaders work together to reach the lost?

The first generation of movement leaders often comes from local churches, as Christians catch God’s heart for the lost and begin engaging in the harvest. Rather than distancing ourselves from the existing church, Aila encourages us to graciously include and catalyse its leaders, recognising the gifts and experience they bring.

Aila shares practical insights into:

Bringing existing and emerging leaders together for training and mutual learning.

Finding “inside leaders” who understand the language, culture and relationships of the people being reached. Discovering these persons of peace who may eventually become leaders.

Engaging urban “tribes” formed around interests, communities or shared experiences.

Helping church leaders focus on forming new groups in the harvest rather than bringing people back into existing congregations.

Building coalitions around a shared Great Commission vision.

Drawing on Lifeway’s experience in Ethiopia, Aila describes how leaders from different denominations were invited into a gracious vision-casting process. With the blessing of many but not all exisiting church leaders, grassroots disciple makers began forming groups that multiplied among unreached communities.

As Aila reminds us, the language we use matters. He encouraged us to focus on equipping leaders from the bottom up, while building a shared Great Commission vision with those leading from the top down. 

As you listen, consider: Who within the existing church might God be inviting you to encourage, equip and catalyse for the harvest – and which church leaders could you invite into a shared Great Commission vision?

What does church really look like—and how do new disciples discover that they are the church?

In this short episode, Aila Tasse shares why disciple making must move beyond decisions to developing communities that live out the functions of church together. Rather than bringing people to church, the goal is to see people become church.

In this episode:

Why becoming church is a slow but essential discipleship journey.

The role of leaders as community builders from the very beginning.

Helping new believers learn to care for one another, break bread, fellowship, and reach people of peace.

The importance of being faithful, patient, and trusting God to multiply through a few committed disciples.

A reminder that every culture will ultimately express church in ways that fit its local context.

An example from international student ministry

Leaders in the room reflect on the challenge facing many international students who return home after coming to faith while studying overseas.

Rather than simply helping students connect into churches while abroad, they also need to discover a reproducible expression of church that they can take back to their home nations.

Some ministries estimate that 50–80% of Chinese students who come to faith while studying overseas struggle to continue following Jesus after returning home.*

Further reading on returnee student ministry

The resources below come from ministries with a more traditional approach to discipleship and integration into existing churches. While they are not written from a Disciple Making Movement (DMM) perspective, they offer valuable insights into the challenges faced by Chinese international students returning home.

Thriving Turtles (Australia) – Australian perspective and practical preparation for Chinese returnees.
https://www.thrivingturtles.org/

OMF International – “Preparing Diaspora Converts for their Return to East Asia” (Dr Stuart Bullington)
https://omf.org/preparing-diaspora-converts-for-their-return-to-east-asia/

ChinaSource – “Returnee Ministry at Home and Abroad” (Lydia S.)
https://www.chinasource.org/articles/returnee-ministry-at-home-and-abroad

In this episode, we continue listening to Aila Tasse as he trains some of our Praxeis leaders. Aila shares about the important transition from Discovery Bible Study into gatherings and groups that begin to function as church. He highlights the need for different people, with different gifts and passions, to play their part so the functions of church can emerge and multiplication can continue.

Aila Tasse shares his remarkable journey from being a Muslim-background believer and respected ministry expert to embracing disciple making movements. Along the way, God challenged his assumptions, dealt with his pride, and reshaped his understanding of church, leadership, and multiplication.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Aila moved from expert-led ministry to empowering ordinary believers.

The paradigm shifts that transformed his understanding of church and leadership.

Why discovery, obedience, and the Holy Spirit became central to movement growth.

How God expanded the vision from reaching 14 unreached people groups in northern Kenya to a regional vision for 320 UPGs across eight nations—from Sudan to Tanzania and Zambia—with over 160 UPGs now engaged and 68+ movements underway.

Why movement sustainability depends on raising multiplying leaders rather than building personal ministries.

Aila also reflects on identity, success, and what it means to faithfully finish the race by investing in the next generation of movement catalysts.

Reflection question: Where are you on your own disciple-making journey, and what is God asking you to change? What question do you need to bring to a coach or mentor as you continue to grow?