We have been called to multiply. In the very beginning of Genesis God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” All of creation was created with the ability to multiply. God created male and female in his image, and his intent was to fill the earth with his glory through his image bearers.

Because of mankind’s rebellion, God sent his son, Jesus, to be the perfect image bearer, the image of God in physical form. And now, we his body, the church, are sent by Jesus to multiply recreated image bearers to the ends of the earth.

Francis Chan, in his ebook “Radically following Jesus” says:

If I just read the scriptures, I wouldn’t even think so much about the gathering. My first thought wouldn’t be “Let’s have a gathering”. Out of the scriptures, I would think, “I’m on a mission. I love this God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And now, I’ve got to go out and make disciples.”

Radically Following Jesus – Chan, Francis

If we start with the church gathering, we are starting in the wrong place. There is a saying that “ if you plant churches you may not make disciples. But if you make disciples, you will always multiply churches”

So what is our strategy to multiply?

It is useful that we measure our Sunday gathering attendance, small group attendance, and the giving of the church church. These are helpful metrics. But what about measuring:

• How many gospel shares were there this week?
• How many disciples are making disciples?
• How many new disciples were baptised this week?
• How many people are being sent, being released to new places?

Big Vision

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)

Do we have an “end of the earth” vision?

Of course it starts in our “Jerusalem”, then our “Judea” and “Samaria”, but it is to the “ends of the earth”.

So what is your big vision for city/ town / village? Has the gospel been taken to every corner of your “Jerusalem”?

What is your vision for your “Judea”?

What is your vision for “Samaria”?

What is your vision for the nations?

Whatever your understanding of vision, I do believe that we need to sow seeds of multiplication into everything. When discipling a new Christian I am immediately teaching them to do what I do, i.e. share the Gospel and make disciples. I say things like “you need to be able to use this Gospel tool, as you too will be making disciples”. With our small groups, we need to be sowing seeds of multiplication, encouraging many new small group leaders, so that we are ready to multiply. With our churches there should be an expectation of multiplication.

Even at baptism why not sow the seeds of mission and multiplication. Jeff Vanderstelt in his ebook “5 Steps to Reproducing Disciples” says that when they baptise people they say:

“We baptise you in the name of the Father because now you belong to his family, and you’re now going to love one another as brothers and sisters. We’re going to baptise you in the name of the Son, because Jesus is now your king and you are to serve him as he served you. And we baptise you in the name of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has now, not only given you new life through regeneration, but he’s going to empower you to be his missionary to the world.” “We baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” [Take them out of the water] “And now you’re commissioned to the Great Commission to make disciples to make disciples”

5 Steps to Reproducing Disciples – Vanderstelt, Jeff

In this way baptism is not an introduction to Christianity, it is the commission from the Spirit to do the work of Jesus which is disciple making.

Once you have clarified your big vision, and as we continue sowing seeds of multiplication into everything, the question we have to ask ourselves is;

Are we willing ourselves to live for this vision? Are we willing to die to self, for the sake of this vision? Are we willing to lead the church into this core missionary task of making disciples, and give the church this big “ends of the earth” vision?

Clear Pathway

The clearest process that I have come across for a clear strategy is the “Four Fields of Kingdom Growth” tool. (If you are unfamiliar with the tool there is a link on my resources page).

Just as a reminder, the four fields (five parts) are:

1. Entry -connecting with those who are are far from God (our Entry Strategy)
2. Sowing – abundant sowing of Gospel Seeds (Our Gospel Strategy)
3. Growing – Making disciples who are growing in the faith. (Our Discipleship Strategy)
4. Harvest – Forming New Testament churches (Our Church Planting Strategy)
5. Multiplication – How to multiply leaders (Our Multiplication of Leaders Strategy)

I find this to be an incredibly helpful tool and I use it in many situations. When meeting with our Ministry Leaders, I use each of the fields to ask how their ministry is doing, with the expectation that every ministry is active in each of the fields.

I have also used the Four Fields to form a Leadership Meeting agenda. I use this and trained people all over the world with this tool, and find it incredibly helpful in giving a very clear pathway as we set about making disciples and planting churches.

Simple Tools

An oak tree does not reproduce another oak tree, it produces an acorn. In the same way we need to multiply in the most simple form, with simple reproducing tools.

Simple tools are transferable! We have just experience the spread of a highly transferable disease, COVID. The Gospel should be like this, easily taught and passed on, not dependant on culture, education, class, or language. We do not want to slow down multiplication by expectations of buildings, programmes, staff teams, finances. Let us make sure that it is simple and transferable.

Of course the most evident simple tool that we have used is the “3 Circles” Gospel presentation tool. However, there are many more tools that we use, such as:

• Early offer of prayer
• 15 second testimony
• Three Circles
• Three Thirds
• Discovery Bible Study
• C.O.S.T.
• 411
• Commands of Christ
• Stories of Hope
• Church Circle

Are you equipped to connect with people who are far from God, share the Gospel, make disciples, plant churches, and raise up leaders?
Are we equipping the church for the mission of Jesus?

Conclusion

It is very clear from the bible that God wants us to multiply. Are you involved in sharing the Gospel and making disciples? If you need help, or want to discuss anything in this post, please contact me!

David Bareham

16 July 2022