church multiplier Archives - Passion for Planting

SABOTAGE

Sean Cronin — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:00:40 +0000

by Peyton Jones: In France, the efforts of the French Resistance were significant enough to make a significant impact on the outcome of the war. They dismantled tank treads, put sand in the grease of vehicles, and stole ball bearings.

Sabotage.

It’s the enemy’s oldest and favorite tactic. He sabotaged Eden. He infiltrated the children of Israel by seduction when Balaak’s army couldn’t defeat them in a head on confrontation. In the early days, his tactic is to sow tares among the wheat making it clear that “An enemy has done this.” He is trying to derail the carriage of the troop transport off course. In WW2, my grandfather who served in the 101st airborne was delayed from crossing the Atlantic, but the ship he was originally scheduled to be on was sunk by a German U-boat.

In the early days, you’ve got to chart a course, set your face like flint. Like Jesus heading towards the cross, set your face steadfastly towards Jerusalem…and lock your sights on Calvary.

ILL FITTING ARMOR

Launching with the right focus is essential if your plant is going to avoid defaulting just another big church after you’ve grown. If you’re using the New Testament apostolic model, then the solution is hard-wired into your church already. You’re not wired to grow big, but to reproduce. As soon as the tender shoots begin to grow, you’ll be splicing them to ready them for transplants. Outgrowing your building means that you’ve got to start assembling some new teams for planting outwards. Multiple services, outlying campuses, and other forms of ecclesiastical greed will make you want to vomit instead of causing you to salivate as you indulge your insatiable appetite for more. Getting your priorities right from the start involves setting a missional agenda that seeks to grow the church outward, rather than just upwards. It also details how to ensure that you’re starting by reaching the lost, rather than just attracting disillusioned Christians from other churches.

But starting out well isn’t a guarantee that all will end well. It is possible to start out a champion like Gideon earning the moniker of “Baal-slayer”, only to end up establishing your own form of idolatry in its place as people bow down to your sacred ephod. If people worshipped Gideon’s armor, rest assured that they will find ways to worship your success too… If you let them. The masses will flock to you and burst the fire capacity of your four walls, but at that juncture, you have a choice. If I had my way, most of you reading this would constantly be shedding the ephod like David, finding Saul’s megachurch armor too big and cumbersome. Instead, you’d be opting for a sling-shot, the Spirit’s power, and enough confidence in the Almighty to keep running at giants.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

Source: SABOTAGE

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Three Things Successfully Multiplying Churches Do

Patrick Bradley — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 09:00:57 +0000

By Daniel Im: Churches that multiplied within their first five years did a few things at a far higher percentage than those that didn’t. The first thing is that they were consistently ruthless about communicating their vision to multiply on a monthly basis. Multiplying churches didn’t just preach about it once a year, occasionally take up a special offering, nor did they relegate their plan to multiply to a dusty old pamphlet. Instead, they communicated a vision of multiplication consistently and clearly to their whole congregation on a monthly basis starting from their very first Sunday.

The second thing that multiplying churches did was that they partnered with another organization to plant churches. Partnering with another church, network, or denomination to plant a daughter church is far more effective than doing it alone. Plus, partnering is a natural result of the first characteristic, as well: a Kingdom vision. God has a plan for your city, and it’s going to take more than just one church to saturate your city with gospel preaching churches.

Churches that multiplied not only had a clear strategy of constantly communicating the vision and partnering with others for multiplication, but finally, they invested holistically into other church plants. In other words, multiplying churches invested time, energy, resources, and finances into other plants. Following the biblical imagery of reaping what you sow, churches that experienced the fruit of multiplication were churches that sowed the seeds of multiplication.

Think about a farmer. Unless a farmer invests money, time, energy, and labor into a field, he will fail to yield a crop. Likewise, unless a church is investing time, energy, resources, and finances into other church plants, they will fail to become a multiplying church. One of the ways multiplying churches sowed seeds of multiplication was for their staff to regularly invest in new or potential planters at least quarterly via mentoring, coaching, residencies, training, and/or internships.

But the investment didn’t stop there. They poured resources and money into other plants by designating a percentage of their budget to newer works because they realized that while having a future planter speak at your church is great and sheds light on the concept of multiplication, it doesn’t necessarily make you a multiplying church. Thus, what’s better for them is sending out short-term mission teams, commissioning their own launch teams, and financially contributing to other church plants. Possessing a clear strategy of investing holistically into church planting is connected to churches multiplying within their first five years of existence.

*This article is an excerpt fromMultiplication Today, Movements Tomorrow that I wrote with Ed Stetzer. Download the e-book for free or purchase hard copies of this book here.

Source: Three Things Successfully Multiplying Churches Do

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