THREE Reasons Why Your Church Can And Should Multiply Itself In At Least One New Congregation In The Next 3-5 Years

#1 CHURCH Multiplication is as Biblical as Church Growth

The primary explanation for why we should shift from forms and strategies which produce addition to those resulting in multiplication is that it is biblical.

Form follows function---Values beget vision

The great function of the church is the Great Commission: “… to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). You might summarize this as everyone on earth praying, “Thy will be done …”

Regardless of the forms we choose, we must be faithfully committed to, and be good stewards of, Jesus’ command to “go”, “make” and “teach” in the Great Commission. The bulls-eye of these action words is a surrender to the Lordship of Jesus that produces transformed lives.

The Great Commission provides me with a framework for understanding my own life: I’ve always assumed that making disciples and teaching them to obey includes a mandate to plant churches.

A church with “add and grow” mentality will have less impact on the world than a church possessing an “add and grow so we can multiply” mentality. 

Many churches seek to optimize the teaching dimension while falling short on the “go and make disciples” bit.

The Level 5 multiplying church must seek the holistic intersection of all 3 commands.

Back to the Great Commission

In the Greek, “go” communicates, “as you are going”—suggesting that being a follower of Jesus is something we do naturally, on a regular basis. While the fruit of our faithfulness to this command produces fruit geographically to the ends of earth, it’s not referring to a special “missionary mode” reserved for a few select saints. Instead, Jesus expressed this part of the Great Commission to define a way of life for His followers, a mindset to inform their understanding of what it means to be His disciples. Disciples are always in a state of readiness to engage in this mission.4

Jerusalem as a Level 3 Addition Model

In its early days in Jerusalem, the Church functioned at Level 3, locally. It became a megachurch in one day and remained that way until persecution forced change. It took on Level 4 reproduction attributes (adding preaching points) only after Saul’s persecution (Acts 8:1; 11:19- 20). From Antioch outwards, it looks like Level 5 multiplication.

Antioch as a Pointer toward Level 4 Reproduction

Intentional multiplication and commissioning

The Jerusalem church was a megachurch that almost accidentally planted churches due to persecution. The first church planters were those who ran away due to the threats of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 7:57-8:4). Philip got something going in Samaria and if it lasted, it became a church, though Acts mentions no Samaritan follow-through. Others spread the gospel in Cyprus, Cyrene and Antioch because of the same mistreatment. There seems to have been little motivation for intentional church planting in Jerusalem.

Antioch, however, sent missionaries who planted churches. Antioch was a substantial church that intentionally commissioned some of its best leaders to take the gospel to other locations. This single congregation generated the movement in the West that we enjoy today.

Real multiplication is found, not only in the wider travels of Barnabas and Saul, but specifically after Paul was stoned and left for dead in Derbe.

Derby and Asia Minor as Setups for Level 5 Multiplication

Paul and Barnabas snuck back into that city and went on preaching “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith…. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:21-23 ESV). When they appointed select disciples as elders they, themselves, became Level 5 church multipliers.

The choice is never to grow or to plant. It is always to do both. They should naturally happen together. The power is in the AND, not the tyranny of the OR.

Adding AND Multiplying

Addition and multiplication should walk hand-in-hand. All churches should attempt growth, and all should reproduce themselves toward new congregations. There is little merit in size for size sake. And there is nothing gained by keeping a church small. This is not an argument for small over large. In fact, using a multi/micro approach, a church of 30 can reproduce as easily as a church of 3,000 (and smaller might actually make it easier).

The bottom line: Let your church grow as big as it can, but whatever its size, seek to value multiplication as the intentional and natural outcome of healthy, Biblical disciple making. Do this Jesus’ way, as you seek to “make” and “teach” don’t leave out the “go.”

#2 It works Where it Works

The second reason why we should multiply our congregations is that we have lots of room to grow and evangelize our country.

By 200 A.D., the Church had grown from zero to about 1.8 million out of the earth’s population of 250 million people, or about 7/10ths of one percent of the world. That incredible growth came mostly through multiplication.

Eighteen centuries later, roughly 33 percent of the people in the world call themselves Christians. That’s good, but two-thirds of the people on earth remain estranged from Christ.

Christianity currently grows faster in Nepal than anywhere. Nigeria boasts the highest rate of Christ followers per capita. Asia, Africa and Latin America see serious church growth in the macro sense. Church multiplication is a primary cause for success in these nations.

#3 We’re a shrinking minority with a DEMAND NEED to multiply for SURVIVAL

Between 1990 and 2006 the number of people born in the United States equaled the size of the church in 1990. The downside to this is that the church was almost exactly the same size in 2006 as it was in 1990. Sixteen years and many more large churches brought no measurable growth to Christianity in America.

Evangelicals numbers are growing. But compared to the overall population, our share of the pie is now smaller. Between 2007 and 2014, the evangelical segment of the U.S. population fell by 0.9 percent.6

It is possible for your church to grow rapidly while falling behind the growth curve in your own community. More people attend U.S. churches than ever before but when measured against the larger population, but we’re still a shrinking minority. We need to stop measuring church growth and begin measuring cultural penetration.

Moreover, church attendance doesn’t always translate into cultural “lift.” We focus on evangelism while neglecting poverty, crime and oppression. To combat this, churches have coined terms like “missional church,” or “missional Christians.”

A. Every church should reflect Jesus’ calling, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD's favor has come” (Luke 4:18-19, NLT). Our mission expects true spiritual transformation of communities, not just individuals.

B. Every church & every Christ-Follower should reflect Jesus’ commandment—great commission.

C. Every disciplemaker should reflect Paul’s admonition in 2 Timothy 2:2

NEXT TIME: Your Church as a Launch Platform rather than a Content Portal

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