In the book of Acts, churches were growing and multiplying exponentially. What can and should we learn from the description given and stressed to us there? Acts 2:47 says, “…and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.” Acts 5:14 states, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” Acts 6:1 speaks of multiplication, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied…” Then, in verse 7, this growth continues to be spoken about, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly…”.
You read in Acts 9:31, after Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” This increase in disciples and churches does not seem to slow down because, according to Acts 11:24, “…and much people was added unto the Lord.” The gospel impact through evangelism is clearly evident in Acts 12:24, “But the word of God grew and multiplied,” and Acts 16:5 adds this, “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.”
You definitely see a pattern in Acts that is commonly referred to as the Pauline Cycle. In Planting Churches Cross-Culturally, David J. Hesselgrave describes it as “missionaries commissioned, audience contacted, gospel communicated, hearers converted, believers congregated, faith confirmed, leadership consecrated, believers commended, relationships continued and sending churches convened.” There was an inward focus on spiritual growth (edified and established), while there also continued to be an outward focus on spiritual expansion (added, increased and multiplied). The call to spiritual growth is first a call to depth before it is a call to width.
LifeWay’s new research project studied five levels of churches where Level 1 churches are subtracting churches and represent 19% of all evangelical churches. Level 2 churches are plateaued and represent 43%. Notice here that almost half of all churches are not growing but rather have accepted the status quo. They have seemingly settled for the existing state of affairs — the way things are currently. There is a desperate need today for churches to break out of where they are in order to be where God desires them to be. Level 3 churches represent 38% of all churches, and at least they are adding and experiencing growth.
Reproducing churches, Level 4, only represent 7% of all churches. Some good news here is that 17% of these churches, according to the study, “were directly or substantially involved in opening an autonomous church in the last three years.” Every church needs to be involved in church planting at some level of our P5 Multiplication (Pray, Prepare, Partner, Parent, Plant). Another praise is that 25% of these churches say that “more than 1% of their budget went directly to church plants or church planting ministries in the last 12 months.” BMA Global now has 20 church planters who need your support.
Reproducing churches are characterized by “the value and priority they place on starting new churches. They invest in church planting and have established strong ongoing relational and financial support for starting new churches. Rather than the fruit of their own tree, they count the harvest by the other trees they plant in the orchard.” That is what the church in Antioch (Acts 13) was doing, and it defines the purpose of Paul’s missionary journeys. While in Ephesus for three years, it appears that three churches were planted — Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. In the New Testament, you see the multiplication of disciples, leaders and churches.
Level 5 describes congregations as Multiplying Churches. These churches are characterized by “multiplying, releasing and sending everyday missionaries and church planters… These churches plant churches that plant churches for multiple generations.” The reality is that only a few of these churches exist, and in the LifeWay study, none of the churches analyzed qualified for this level. They are few and far between, but the real goal is being the church God intended you to be and starting the journey from your present reality to God’s preferred future.
What can you do? Evangelize your community and neighbors. Take making disciple makers seriously and partner together for the purpose of multiplying disciples, leaders and churches. Evangelism and discipleship must become who we are and not a program. Most churches seem to be over-programmed and under-discipled, and it is time to get back to what Jesus did and commanded us to do — go and make disciples. Who are you discipling? If the answer is “no one,” begin to prayerfully consider who you might invite to commit to a discipling relationship. Think small, not big, by beginning one-on-one.
Allow me to remind you of one discipleship tool, SmallCircle. They are offering webinar training on how to use their discipleship app and navigate their new 4.0 version. I recently spent some time with Pastor Steve McCoy, the developer, and he asked me to invite anyone who may use SmallCircle currently or might be interested in using it in the future to this webinar. It is invite-only and free. Steve will be doing a walk-through of all the new features. He believes the one-hour time frame will help you understand and navigate this free app so much better than trying to figure it out alone. Two available dates are April 3 and April 5.
Here is some great news. The training has been recorded, so even if these dates have passed before you read this, you can email Heidi Sorrells at heidi@bmaglobal.org and ask for the sign-up information or recording. She will be happy to send it to you. Multiplication begins with discipling one disciple who will disciple others and then repeat that process. Pray, go, disciple, plant, revitalize and repeat. Maybe in pursuing church health, the focus should not be on doing what we are already doing better but doing it differently.
