DMM: A Durian Debacle and Leadership Development
“There is foul air among us!”—to borrow loosely from Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.
There certainly was foul air among us that morning.
A tsunami-like wave of olfactory pungency swept over my fellow airline passengers and me. We were traveling home on an early morning flight from Mdn to Jta when a ruckus erupted somewhere between rows 38 and 40.
The aircraft had not yet departed when a scuffle broke out among the passengers. There was a mutiny on the Lion—Lion Air, to be exact.
The source of the uprising was not a mechanical failure, a security concern, or even an unruly passenger. Somewhere aboard the aircraft was an enormous cargo of durian.
Durian is a sticky tropical fruit with a powerful and unmistakable odor. People tend either to love it or hate it; there are few nominal believers when it comes to durian.
The fruit’s pungent odor permeated the cabin, provoking protests from passengers and delaying our departure. In the end, the demonstration failed to dislodge the durian. The odor remained, and so did we.
Yet the commotion prompted a thought that was both comforting and disturbing.
A Gospel Heard but Not Fully Obeyed
The majority people group in that region—whom I will call the Fierce people—had once been known for a violent tribal history that included ritual cannibalism. As I watched the passengers’ forceful protest, I found myself thanking Jesus that this practice no longer defined their culture.
Yet I was also grieved.
Although the gospel had reached this people more than a century earlier, its transforming influence was often described as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Christianity had spread broadly, but deep transformation of character and culture remained largely unredeemed. Obedience-based, multiplying households of disciples were still rare.
At the time of this experience, the Fierce were among only a handful of people groups in the country that had responded broadly to the gospel. Approximately 320 other distinct people groups remain unreached. Most are Muslim, while a small number—including the Bese and Trese—follow Hindu traditions.
The incident aboard the aircraft became an unexpected parable.
A group may identify with Christianity. People may attend worship services, understand Christian language, and affirm Christian beliefs. Yet old patterns of fear, intimidation, pride, sexual immorality, dishonesty, or relational control may continue to permeate their lives.
Like the odor of durian in a sealed aircraft cabin, tolerated sin eventually fills the atmosphere.
When Disobedience Becomes Normal
One essential element of Disciple-Making Movements is the development of local leaders and facilitators whose lives increasingly reflect the character of Christ.
This means addressing patterns of sin that have not yet been surrendered to the lordship of Jesus or brought into the freedom He offers.
When character issues are repeatedly tolerated, disobedience begins to seem normal. We learn to live with the stench. Eventually, we may no longer notice it.
Those who long to honor and glorify the living God, however, will cultivate a holy dread of displeasing Him or bringing dishonor to His name. They do not pursue holiness to earn His love, but because they have encountered His goodness and desire to respond in loving obedience.
Imagine how different our fellowships, communities, and spheres of influence would become if obedience to Jesus were our normal expression of love and adoration.
As a colleague once observed:
“I do what I do as a slave to my worldview.”
—J. K.
Our behavior does not emerge from a vacuum. What we do reveals what we believe—about God, ourselves, other people, authority, relationships, power, sexuality, money, and success.
The question is not whether we possess a worldview. The question is whether our worldview is continually being transformed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
Leadership Development Must Address Character
Worldview transformation brings us to crossroads moments.
God’s heart and His view of reality confront our deeply patterned ways of interpreting life. His ways are radically countercultural and often highly counterintuitive. They challenge assumptions inherited from our families, communities, religious traditions, and personal experiences.
Unless we are transformed at the deepest level of our allegiances and desires, the abundant life of Christ will be hindered. Our old worldview will prevail, and its odor will permeate our lives and relationships.
My husband and I have sensed the Father preparing both our hearts and the hearts of our local partners through a recent season of increased sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Personal repentance and utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit are essential as we seek God for spiritual breakthrough among unreached peoples.
Movements do not need gifted facilitators. They need leaders whose private lives increasingly agree with their public message.
They need leaders who repent quickly, receive correction humbly, remain accountable, and allow the Word of God to confront both their behavior and their underlying worldview.
Obedience and Accountability in Movements
A DMM trainer and colleague shared findings gathered from 38 movement trainers who, at that time, were serving around the world and connected with more than 80 Kingdom Movements.
Their observations highlighted obedience and accountability as essential qualities within Kingdom Movements among unreached people groups.
As you consider these observations, prayerfully evaluate your own ministry and leadership.
1. Invest in Responsive People
Leaders learned to move forward when people remained persistently unresponsive or unproductive. They continued loving and praying for them but invested their primary training time in those who obeyed and passed on what they learned.
2. Let God’s Word Correct Error
Healthy movements do not casually tolerate doctrinal or moral error. Obedience-based discipleship brings beliefs and behaviors under the authority of Scripture.
The standard is not the preference of the outside trainer or the personality of a powerful leader. The standard is God’s Word.
3. Establish Clear Goals and Accountability
Leaders set practical goals and lovingly held one another accountable. They regularly asked what God had shown them, how they had obeyed, and whom they had trained to do likewise.
Accountability was relational and grace-filled, but it was also specific.
4. Look for Generational Growth
Leaders did not evaluate fruit only in first-generation groups. They asked whether spiritual “children” and “grandchildren” were emerging.
How are the third- and fourth-generation disciples and groups progressing? Are they continuing to obey, reproduce, and develop new leaders?
5. Map Groups and Generations
Leaders mapped house fellowships and generational streams. Drawing or diagramming the groups helped them assess actual progress rather than relying on impressions or inflated reports.
Mapping also helped identify which elements of a healthy house fellowship were present and where further strengthening was needed.
6. Gather Leaders Periodically
Movement leaders met at appropriate intervals for encouragement, evaluation, prayer, and additional training. Depending on their responsibilities and geographic spheres, these gatherings occurred monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually.
7. Address Character Issues
Leaders did not ignore character problems in the name of rapid multiplication.
Patterns of pride, sexual sin, dishonesty, misuse of authority, relational conflict, or financial compromise were addressed with truth, grace, repentance, and accountability.
8. Practice Unflinching, Grace-Filled Evaluation
When multiplication did not occur after faithful perseverance, leaders were willing to evaluate their methods honestly.
They did not abandon biblical principles, but they were willing to change strategies, tools, schedules, or ministry assumptions that were not bearing fruit.
Healthy evaluation is neither harsh nor defensive. It is humble, honest, and anchored in a desire for God’s glory.
A Discovery Bible Study on Purity and Holiness
The following exercise can help leaders discover what Scripture teaches about sexual purity, holiness, and accountability.
Suggested Passages
- Matthew 5:27–28
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–10
- 1 Corinthians 6:13–20
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7
- Hebrews 13:4
- 2 Samuel 11:1–17, 26–27
- 2 Samuel 12:1–14
Read each passage aloud together. Then ask participants to restate the passage in their own words.
Avoid beginning with a sermon or teaching. Allow participants first to examine what the text itself reveals.
Discovery Questions
- What do these passages reveal about God’s view of purity and holiness?
- What do they reveal about humanity, temptation, sin, and its consequences?
- Is there an example to follow, a warning to heed, or a command to obey?
- What must change in your life for you to obey these truths?
- What practical plan will you establish to guard your areas of vulnerability?
- To whom will you make yourself accountable so that you may honor God and grow in purity?
- How frequently will you meet with this person for honest conversation, prayer, and accountability?
- With whom will you share what God is teaching you?
Conclude with a time of listening prayer. Invite each participant to ask:
“Lord, what practical step of obedience are You asking me to take?”
Allow time for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction. Then encourage each person to identify a specific, measurable act of obedience and an appropriate accountability relationship.
The Fragrance of Christ
Leadership development in Disciple-Making Movements cannot be reduced to strategy, generational mapping, or numerical multiplication.
Movements must reproduce the character of Jesus.
If leaders multiply groups without addressing pride, impurity, deceit, or the misuse of power, they may reproduce the very patterns from which the gospel came to set people free.
But when leaders remain tethered to God’s Word, respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and walk in humble accountability, a different atmosphere emerges.
The stench of tolerated sin gives way to repentance. Fear gives way to freedom. Control gives way to service. Hiddenness gives way to truth. Cultural Christianity gives way to obedient discipleship.
May our lives and movements carry not the odor of tolerated disobedience, but the fragrance of Christ.
—R. A.
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