INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH MULTIPLICATION—Ralph Moore

“He maximized all he had!”

 These are the words I want to see on my tombstone. Every one of us hopes that we will someday hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For me, getting there means leveraging every one of my spiritual gifts, skills and resources for the Kingdom of God.

If you’re reading this, I bet you feel the same way.

IN THIS SESSION I’LL TEACH YOU

I’m hoping to help you along your way. My purpose is to help you satisfy both the investments and callings that God put in you. I want you to die happy, knowing you did all you could with what you had.

What would it take for you to be part of God’s work in bringing a million people to faith in Jesus Christ?

                230,000 total estimated people in church while I never pastored more than 2,000 people.

               Direct Disciplemaking

               Church of less than 100 magnified by multiplication–teaching disciples to make disciples.

THREE ASSUMPTIONS

Let’s start with three assumptions that might help move us along a natural pathway from mega to multisite to multiplication. They show that repeating the forms of the recent past will only hinder the kind of multiplication enjoyed by the first century church. Understanding these assumptions will help us build new forms of ministry that better service the function of the Great Commission.

Assumption 1: Most megachurch pastors are apostolic (e.g. pioneering, entrepreneurial, activators, etc.), but not all apostolic pastors lead megachurches. You may be apostolic and lead a smaller (MORE NORMAL-SIZE) congregation.

Assumption 2: You don’t need to lead a large church to make a large impact.

               Barnabas/Antioch/Paul/John Mark

Assumption 3: Every church contains the DNA for a movement.

·        Churches around the world have morphed from single congregations into fast-growing movements. This is the history of Europe dating back to Barnabas, Paul and the folks in Antioch.

·        Most American denominations got their start in the same way. The Methodist movement traces its strength back to Francis Asbury.

Baptists became the largest segment of American Christianity by rapid church multiplication, spawned from local churches.

·        Calvary Chapel (Costa Mesa, California)

·        The Vineyard (Yorba Linda, California)

·        Hope Chapel (Hermosa Beach, California)

. Calvary, The Vineyard and Hope Chapel all morphed into movements (chronicled by University of Southern California professor Donald Miller in his book, Reinventing American Protestantism).

The key is leadership. If you’re dissatisfied with the status quo, you are a potential catalyzing movement maker. My goal is to get you there.

Assumption 4: EVERY church should multiply.

The rise of the American megachurch is both inspiring and disappointing.

The megachurch movement in the US is a recent phenomenon, dating back to the 1970s. The number of these churches has grown quickly, and they are effective in evangelism. Their rise is positive, but congregations exceeding 1,000 members still account for only about 10 percent of all evangelical churchgoers. We cannot expect them to shoulder the load of cultural change alone.

Megachurches grow faster than mid-size or smaller congregations but that does not make them better. In fact, smaller congregations are better at evangelism and disciplemaking. Their relative poverty and/or isolation forces them to be more relational.

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

Pulling together the above assumptions points to a singular problem: Our focus on building bigger, addition focused “come and see” churches, without a balanced “go and be” dimension, does inhibit most pastors from experiencing multiplication.

Our forms tend to restrict the methods Jesus gave to us for accomplishing the Great Commission. The Great Commission remains unfulfilled as potentially apostolic leaders focus on single congregations (large and small) instead of multiplying in other locations and few local churches reach the potential that lies dormant within them. We need new scorecards for success that will allow us to embrace new wineskins for action.

Multiplication then appears more complicated and inaccessible because our addition paradigms get in the way.

But what about you? If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe. You may also want to connect via www.ralphmoore.net and wordofhope.online .To read more about the Hope Chapel churches, check www.hopechapelchurches.com.

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