by Ken Adams
The answer is “yes!” Your church can be a multiplying movement. In my last blog I discussed four essential questions you need to ask concerning your church. The first question was whether or not your church was a movement of addition or multiplication. To be clear, Jesus started the Church to be a movement of multiplying disciples, not simply adding them. Being a multiplying movement is the only way the Church can actually reach “all nations.” If we only add disciples, we can’t even keep up with the growth of the world’s population. Every church needs to become a movement of multiplication. How does that happen?
There is a lot I have not yet figured out about leading a church to be a multiplying movement, but I HAVE seen multiplication happen, and here is what I know.
First, you must identify the right people. Selection was the first step in the way Jesus built a multiplying movement. He selected people who had the potential to become leaders who would reproduce the same results He had produced with His disciples. Second, you must teach them what you want them to know. Equipping is the second step in the way Jesus created a movement of multiplication. Jesus actually spent three years teaching His disciples what He wanted them to be and what He wanted them to do. Jesus modeled and gave His disciples on the job training for how to be and build disciples. Third, you must mobilize people. Once a disciple has been trained you must send him or her out to reproduce and make more disciples. Jesus commissioned His disciples on a mountain in Galilee and they obeyed His command to make disciples of all nations.
Jesus started the greatest movement in history by selecting, equipping, and mobilizing a handful of people. They, in turn, reproduced His process, and a movement was started. When you read the book of Acts, you see first-hand how the apostles led the original Church to become a multiplying movement that reached the nations. In order for those apostles to lead the Church to become a movement, several things had to be true for the Church. These same things have to be true in your church today if you want it to multiply disciples.
A shared mission: A church must have a shared mission to become a multiplying movement. If everyone is following their own path, a movement will never result. A movement will only result when everyone in the organization shares the same mission. There is power in a shared mission. The the original Church in Acts shared the mission of Jesus.
A shared strategy: A church must have a shared strategy. If everyone is making disciples their own way, those efforts are unlikely to result in a a movement of multiplying disciples. This doesn’t mean that good things won’t happen, but individual efforts will not have the power to become a movement unless everyone is working the same process and strategy. The original Church in Acts shared the strategy of Jesus.
A shared passion: A church must have a shared passion among its members. When everyone is equally as committed to the mission and strategy, a movement can occur. It is unlikely to occur if people don’t share a passion for what they are doing. The members of the original Church were willing to give up their own lives to see the mission fulfilled. That kind of commitment and passion cannot be stopped. The original Church in Acts was filled with people who shared Christ’s passion.
Your church can become a multiplying movement if you select, equip, and mobilize people with a shared mission, strategy, and passion. That’s the way Jesus did it, and it is the same way we can continue His work today!
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Used with permission.