the Zúme project
the Zúme mission
Zúme means yeast in Greek. In Matthew 13:33 Jesus is quoted as saying, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman who took yeast and mixed it into a large amount of flour until it was all leavened.” This illustrates how ordinary people, using ordinary resources, can have an extraordinary impact for the Kingdom of God. Zúme aims to equip and empower ordinary believers to reach every neighborhood.
the vision
Make disciples in every census tract in the United States (phases 1 and 2) and every Omega District globally (phase 3), using an online training platform focused on equipping participants in the basic disciple-making and simple church planting multiplication principles, processes, and practices.
the status of the mission
Only 1% of church leaders say, “today’s churches are doing very well at discipling new and young believers,” (Barna, State of Discipleship, 2015). And yet this same study says that 77% of all practicing Christians believe discipleship to be very important. We know discipleship is vital to the health and growth of God’s Kingdom, but we just aren’t making it happen. Christians want to be discipled and they want to make disciples of others, but they need tools, training, and mentoring to make it all possible. Zúme aims to address this very specific and timely need.
the curriculum
The curriculum is intentionally aimed at teaching people how to make disciples who make disciples, who make disciples. The 10-week course teaches key principles and processes for making and multiplying disciples using simple, easy-to-use tools and resources. The Zúme curriculum includes training videos (in a video-scribe format), downloadable tools, online coaches, and a group mapping feature enabling groups across the country and around the world access to all the necessary resources they need to make multiplying disciples. You can find the training on the Zúme Training site. There is also a community page called Zúme Vision.
the team
There is no organization that is “running” the Zúme Project and the project is not an organization. It is a coalition of people who have a heart to carry out Christ’s command to make disciples of every people group on earth and expand His Kingdom to every place until His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The idea for the project originated in a meeting of the Jonathan Project leadership but has since spread far beyond that group. The Jonathan Project (https://hill111.com) is a consortium of people committed to multiplying disciples around the world.
phase 1
Focuses on the United States in English. The initial goal is for there to be a training group of four to twelve people in each census tract in the country. Each of these training groups will start two first-generation churches which will then begin to reproduce. There are about 75,000 census tracts so this will mean 150,000 first-generation churches.
phase 2
Focuses on other language groups in the United States. The data available through www.peoplegroups.info is mapped to the census tract level so it will be easy for those working in each of the census tracts to determine which of the target languages are significantly represented within their local area and seek to start training groups in the appropriate languages. These training groups can then start first-generation churches in those language groups.
phase 3
Focuses globally in major world languages. The framework for targeting the training groups is based on population within each of the worlds nations, then provinces/states, then districts/counties. The goal is to have training groups started in each segment of 50,000 people at the district/county level globally.
languages
The training and tools will be as culturally neutral as possible. The project will start in the following languages and made available to those wishing to translate the training and tools into additional languages:
Arabic, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Burmese, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), Farsi, French, German, Gujarati, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi (Eastern), Panjabi (Western), Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba.
enter Zúme training (Soon you can look for an app which allows for offline usage.)
Mission Frontiers issue on Zúme training
training inquiries
If you have questions or want to sign up for training you can call, send e-mail, or fill out the form.
256-496-4511
obeygc2@gmail.com