Reports

Every person working with Zúme has their own story of how it has spread to the people around them, and we love nothing more than hearing those stories! Chad Rehnburg recently shared some of his own stories on our Multiplying Disciples Podcast, which you can check out here or wherever you find your podcasts. 

Chad works with Team Expansion by day and supervises at UPS at night. One night, a young, engaged couple at his job overheard Chad talking with some other employees about Zúme and mission work. It piqued their interest, and Chad soon met up with the couple to get them started on Zúme and hopefully begin a group in their home. These young people are only one of the most recent and local connections that Chad has made. 

Many Somali refugees have found their way to Chad’s home city in Kentucky. One of them, Chad’s good friend and a determined advocate of the Gospel, has started a few Zúme groups in East Africa. Chad continues to maintain contact with him over Messenger, fostering their friendship and encouraging one another to continue in Christ. 

Another friend, Tony, Chad describes as a “person of peace” in his city. Tony spent 36 years in prison, 20 of which in solitary confinement. In that dark and isolated place, he met the God who is the light in the darkness. “And in the last couple years,” Chad shares with pride, “he’s baptized over 400 men out of the prison system.” Tony now serves as chaplain at the same work release house where he used to be an inmate, discipling a dorm of 20 men deep in his former situation and showing them the changing power of God. He continues to make disciples despite enduring persecution. “It’s simple, but it’s not easy,” Chad says. “It’s just amazing watching what God can do when ordinary people say, “I’m in. Sign me up! I wanna live my life on mission.” 

Zúme can connect you to people across the street or around the world, all from your computer at home. If you want to be a small part in the bigger picture of the expansion of God’s kingdom, find out more at Zúme.Training. Add your stories to the dozens we hear every day of the small and remarkable ways that God works through His people. 

Just a few weeks ago, Hamza,* a Middle Eastern gentleman about sixty years old, sat at a checkered orange table and added a few more names to the list in his little notebook. Hamza confessed faith in Christ in December, was baptized in January, and by February was taking part in a Zúme.Training group, learning to make disciples and share the good news of his newfound Savior. He, another believer from a Muslim background, and a foreign worker were on session two of ten, writing 100 names of people in their lives in order to pray for them and steward those relationships well. 

One name stood out to Hamza—a neighbor who happens to be from another people group. Hamza believed the Lord was leading him to share Jesus with this neighbor, so on Wednesday he went and visited the neighbor and his wife. He shared about his new belief in Jesus and reported that the family was favorable to his story.

All three members of the Zúme group went back to visit Hamza’s neighbor’s family on Thursday. After listening to more of Hamza’s testimony and hearing an excellent presentation of the gospel from the other believer in the Zúme group, the neighbor, his wife, and her brother (who showed up out of nowhere during the visit) confessed faith and received Christ on the spot! All three of them renounced any belief that there was another prophet that came after Christ.

During the visit, the neighbor’s wife shared that Jesus had appeared to her long ago in a vision, dressed in dazzling white and looking intently at her with love and kindness in His eyes.

Hamza’s story is just one example of how the free Zúme.Training is being put into effect all over the world. Zúme (which means “yeast” in Greek) uses an online training platform to equip small, in-person groups to follow the Great Commission. Each participant learns how to be the yeast mixed into the flour of the world (Matt. 13:33), saturating the world with the teaching and healing of Jesus. 

Today, believers from 123 countries and 31 languages are learning from Zúme.Training how to spread the Good News to their neighbors and begin simple churches. 

A group in East Asia recently reported that they have so far offered 300+ Zúme classes training over 30,000 people. The training has iterated to 5 generations of teachers, exponentially spreading from class sizes of 10-40 people to sizes as large as 300 people, subdivided under many small group leaders. 

Since the launch of Zúme in 2017, it has come far in its vision to multiply disciples under the instructions and example of Christ. If you want to learn more about Zúme, or maybe sign up with a group of your friends, check our website. 

Continue to pray for new believers like Hamza and his neighbor, who live in crippling poverty and still continue to multiply disciples. Pray continually that no seed that has been sown will be choked out (Matt. 13:7), but that the seeds will “produce a crop—a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”

*Not his real name

Thanks for putting together this great tool for multiplying disciples. Not only is the curriculum just what we need, the action plans (obey, share, train) each week really integrate what we are learning immediately into real life. 

We started with 11 people. 2 dropped out before session one when they read the guidebook ahead of time. One dropped out when they realized there was “homework” for each session. We added 1 more who started later and “doubled up” on the lessons to catch up with the class. It looks like we will have 9 to complete the course and I think we will have enough people continue on beyond that to start a 3/3s group. 

Zume was the final step to get me to encourage our small church to make it a goal to transform our church into a Disciple Making Movement. It is something I have been praying about for years and Zume has been a great tool to help bring the church along to owning that goal also.

Since Lesson 3, I have increased my prayer life and we have seen 3 baptisms. More are on the way! I am now making it a goal to pray 2 hours a day and I can’t wait to see what God will do in me and through our church with more abundant prayer.

“Eyo’s” father carried his fully grown, adult son to the bathroom again. Doctors did not know what was wrong, but Eyo did. When I visited their house four years ago, I offered to pray that Jesus would heal him. But Eyo resisted, saying the evil inside him was too strong. For years he laid in bed depending on his elderly parents, becoming weaker day after day…until THE day came. One of our local ministry partners visited Eyo and something changed. Eyo allowed others to pray for him and even began to pray to Jesus himself. The next time I visited their house I was shocked to recognize the man who was walking to greet me and firmly shake my hand. Jesus had healed Eyo’s body and spirit. He welcomed us to lead his extended family in a Bible story group and was willing to pray with boldness for others. 

Recently I have been meeting with Eyo to disciple and train him so that he has become fully confident leading groups that study God’s Word. Eyo now goes to other villages to share his testimony with people who are hearing the Jesus Stories for the first time. Some of the training that helped me most was previously only available in English. I have been working for years to get it available in Indonesian. This prepares people like Eyo to be fully equipped to represent Jesus to those who may not have another chance. (See www.zume.traning and now www.zume.training/id/ ) Recently Eyo said that his goal for the week is to baptize someone who has just come to follow Jesus. Will you join us in praying that Eyo is the first of many locals who boldly share what Jesus did in their lives with all those they have relationships with?

– written by a Zume practitioner

A Zúme coach working in Eastern Europe presented the Zúme Training to the pastor of his church who expressed interest in the content. His pastor encouraged him to train other house group leaders in Zúme Training and to give a seminar on DMM and Zúme for pastors and elders. The coach began using Zúme in his home group following the Zúme TGroup format. Since the completion of this training, different members of the home group are planning to start second generation groups. At the same time, they began to use the Zúme training in their youth ministry and see amazing things happening. Glory to God!

A Zúme coach reported that he is training five men from various parts of Africa in Zúme principles. Recently one of his disciples was able to meet up with these men in person and rejoiced to hear about the multiplication of disciples happening in different parts of the continent.

A Zúme coach recently gathered ten pastors, one of whom was Somali, to go through the first session of the Zúme training together. The feedback after the session was so good, the group asked when they could meet again. One pastor said that his eyes were opened to see how important obeying and making disciples is, even among non-church members.

A participant in a Zúme training began sharing his S.O.A.P.S. Bible study with others. One of his friends replied to him that he had read the Bible more than any time in his whole life as a result of his friend sharing these Bible studies with him. There is blessing when we share what God teaches us with others!

https://zume.training/soaps-bible-reading/

As one couple began implementing the various parts of the Zume Training, they felt led to start a house church. They reached out to people they know to invite them. At work one day, the husband shared the Gospel story and his 3-Minute Testimony with a co-worker. The person described himself as wayward and had just recently started reading the Bible and had asked God to send him someone who could help him. When the Zume participant shared the skills he has been learning through the Zume training, he was also able to invite this person to the house church they are starting. The person said their conversation was nothing short of an answer to prayer and a miracle. 

After one Zume participant started sharing his S.O.A.P.S. Bible study each day with an unbelieving friend, the friend texted and said, “I can’t continue to read these. It is hitting me so hard I choked up, but keep sending them!” Another couple began sending their S.O.A.P.S Bible studies to over 60 people and are finding others are interested in learning the simple tool. One woman shares her S.O.A.P.S. Bible study on Facebook every day. Another couple are sharing their S.O.A.P.S. Bible study every day, especially with unbelieving family members. These are just a few examples of ordinary people using ordinary tools with extraordinary results for God’s glory.