Conversations as you Go

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?

In this episode, Aila continues exploring the lifestyle of a movement leader. Through the inspiring story of Roba, a person of peace in a remote African village whose influence has now extended through more than 14 generations of disciple-makers and churches, Aila shares why movement leaders must develop every disciple into a leader.

Key Takeaways

Faithful disciples pass on what they have learned to others who will do the same (2 Timothy 2:2).

Ministry gifts are not positions, but are given to movement leaders to equip and develop others for the work of ministry.(Ephesians 4:11–12).

Effective equipping develops the head, heart, and hands.

Healthy leaders release others to become fruitful leaders themselves.

Disciple-making movements grow through observing, obeying, modelling, and multiplying.

"A seed does not grow on a tree. It grows away from the tree to become another tree—and eventually a forest."

Scriptures

2 Timothy 2:2

1 Thessalonians 1:6–8

1 Thessalonians 2

Ephesians 4:11–12

In this episode, Aila Tasse continues to unpack the importance of modelling as a disciple-maker and movement leader. Drawing from Scripture, movement experience, and his own story, Aila begins to explore the three critical stages of Disciple Making Movements: starting movements, multiplying movements, and sustaining movements.

At the heart of each stage is leadership development, and Aila emphasises the importance of learning to model the DNA at each of these stages. He reminds us that movements are not built primarily through programs, tools, or information, but through lives that model obedience, faithfulness, service, and dependence on God. What we model is what we multiply, and what we multiply is what we sustain.

Through powerful stories of disciple-making, servant leadership, and sharing life with others, Aila encourages us to move beyond merely teaching principles and instead invite people into a lifestyle of following Jesus.

Key question: How are we modelling the life we want others to reproduce?

Aila Tasse unpacks 1 Thessalonians 2:1–13 as a foundation for modelling a lifestyle of a movement leader, drawing from both Paul’s example and his own journey in disciple-making movements. He challenges us to identify the obstacles that hinder this lifestyle and to ask how they can be overcome. He calls us to respond to Jesus’ Great Commission through a daily rhythm of listening, obeying, applying, and multiplying.

Key Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:1–13

[1] You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. [2] We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. [3] For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. [4] On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. [5] You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. [6] We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. [7] Instead, we were like young children among you.Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, [8] so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. [9] Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. [10] You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. [11] For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, [12] encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. [13] And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is—the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.

Three Key Questions Aila Raises

How do we model a lifestyle of a movement leader?Paul shows this through “how we lived among you”—a shared life, not just words.

What obstacles stop us from modelling this lifestyle?Aila highlights that most barriers are internal—unbelief, disobedience, and cultural or religious systems that resist biblical disciple-making.

How can we overcome these obstacles?Through honesty, accountability, patience, and obedience. Growth comes through faithfulness over time, trusting God to produce fruit.

Closing Reflection

Aila calls us to respond personally: “What are the obstacles that stop us from modelling a lifestyle of a movement leader and how can we overcome these?”

We continue our series with Aila Tasse as we explore the heart of movements: multiplying our lives into the lives of others. Aila moves beyond methods and strategies and calls us back to the deeper lifestyle of a movement catalyst. Drawing from Acts 20, Philippians 3, and the life of Jesus, Aila reminds us that movements are not built through impressive resumes or polished presentations, but through authentic lives poured out into others.

“God doesn’t want to do things in other people’s lives that He has not done in our lives.”

Aila reflects on Paul’s words in Acts 20:18: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you…” The credibility of the message comes not merely from what we tell people, but from the life we live. People are not looking for something fake. They are looking for reality.

A woman's question

Aila shares a story of visiting a remote village while delivering relief food. After sharing the gospel with around 300 people gathered under a tree, the entire village responded to Jesus. But as Aila prepared to leave, a woman stopped him and asked a question that would shape the rest of his ministry:

“Who is going to remain behind and teach us about this God who loves us?”

That question broke Aila’s heart. He realised that evangelism alone was not enough. People did not only need to hear about Jesus; they needed someone to remain, disciple, and multiply their lives into others.

That night, Aila sensed God speak clearly:

“Multiply yourself into the lives of others.”

Years later, Aila returned to that same village and witnessed a thriving church meeting under the very same tree — now led by a seventh-generation leader from Aila's own training. The movement is now spreading beyond this area into other tribes and communities because leaders had continued to multiply leaders.

Aila reminds us that Jesus Himself spent most of His ministry investing deeply into a few ordinary, broken, and even doubting people (Matthew 28:17). Yet through them, the gospel spread across the world.

Examining our own lives as movement leaders

This episode also challenges us to consider the internal obstacles that hinder movement. Often the greatest barriers are not external opposition, but the “self” within us — perhaps our fears, unbelief, experiences, pride, or comfort.

Aila leaves us with a powerful question:

What is there in my lifestyle that can hinder God’s movement?

May this episode encourage us to examine our lives and ask how we can intentionally pour ourselves into others so that disciples, leaders, and movements continue far beyond us.

What does it take not only to start a disciple-making movement, but to see it multiply and remain for generations to come?

In this episode, Aila Tasse calls us back to the heart of disciple-making: becoming before doing. Drawing again from John 15, Acts 20 and decades of experience training thousands of leaders across the nations, Aila shares why sustainable movements are ultimately “God stories” — born through abiding in Jesus, shaped by obedience, and carried forward through everyday disciples who model the life of Christ.

Aila unpacks three essential stages of movement:

Starting

Multiplying

Sustaining

He explains why the DNA present at the beginning of a movement determines what it will become generations later. “The way you start is the way you finish,” he says. If movements are not started with multiplication and sustainability in mind, they will struggle to endure.

The conversation explores:

Why every disciple is a leader in movements

How leaders are developed through modelling a lifestyle of a disciple

The danger of movements losing their DNA across generations

Why sustainability must be built in from the very beginning

The importance of preparing now for the people God will send in the future

Aila also reflects on Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, reminding us that movements survive not because of one charismatic leader, but because healthy leaders are raised, developed and released.

“If you don’t have a movement, soon God will give you one,” Aila says. “It has already been started.”

This episode is a timely challenge for anyone longing to see disciple-making movements that not only begin well — but continue multiplying for generations to come.

People sharing from a time of waiting on God in the room before Aila shared:

Luke 11:23 — “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” A call to gather with Jesus rather than scatter.

A challenge to keep asking God, “What shall I do with my gift or talent Lord?” rather than looking first to worldly solutions.

1 Kings 19:9-13 — Elijah encounters God not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in the gentle whisper.

We’re celebrating our 200th episode of Conversations As You Go!

Thank you for being part of this journey. With more than 30,000 listens from people all around the world, we’re grateful for the way this podcast continues to encourage and equip people to go and make disciples.

In this milestone episode, we once again hear from Aila Tasse as he shares about abiding in the Vine from John 15:1-16.

This message gets to the very heart of what it means to become truly fruitful.

Don’t skim past this episode or think, “I’ve heard this before.” Instead, take time to listen carefully to what Aila is sharing and what God wants to speak to you. As we learn to abide in Jesus, we discover that lasting fruitfulness does not come through our own effort, but through the life of Jesus flowing through us.

Our prayer is that this, our 200th episode, will help us become people who are found abiding in Christ, so that the fruit we bear will be the result of His life at work in and through us.

Key questions Aila asks:

Discovery questions from John 15:1-16

What do we learn about disciple making?

What principles of Kingdom movement do we learn? (How can we apply these?)

Principles Aila identifies are:

Remain: abiding (with Jesus)

Bear fruit: starting (with the DNA you want to multiply)

Bear much fruit: multiplying

Bearing fruit that will last: sustaining

Final challenge from Aila: 'If God expects fruit, then what am I doing to see fruit in my life?'

What does God want to prune in my life so I can bear more fruit?

What areas of my own personal life does He want me to grow in so I can abide more in Him?

What are the prayer items He wants me to take to Him so I can bear more fruit?