The true fruit of an apple is ...

What’s the true fruit of an apple? Another apple . . . an apple tree?
No, the true fruit of an apple is an apple orchard!

This simple picture shows the potential God has placed in one single apple: it can bear fruit that continues to multiply itself until an entire apple orchard is thriving where in the beginning one single apple fell into the ground.

If this is true in the physical world, then how much more potential has God placed in His children and in His church! The challenge for us is to release that potential so we can multiply ourselves and become that thriving orchard.

To use the picture above, we’ve planted a lot of seeds and seen a lot of fruit grow over the years. But I’m convinced that much God-given potential still remains to be released for an even greater harvest. This conviction is summed up in a phrase that I hope will encourage and challenge us all over the coming months:

More and better churches!
Why not you … why not now? 

To go from being a single apple to becoming an apple orchard requires more than just adding new trees one at a time. It requires multiplying the number of trees by each one reproducing itself. What does that mean for us as a church planting movement? It should be our vision to:

• Plant churches which plant new churches which in turn plant new churches.
• Raise up leaders who raise up new leaders who in turn raise up new leaders.
• Make disciples who make new disciples who in turn make new disciples.

An apple can become an apple orchard because God has placed the potential for multiplication in its DNA. This challenge, "More and better churches! Why not you … why not now?" is meant as a campaign call to help implant this vision for multiplication in our 'spiritual DNA'. We’ve been called and equipped by God to multiply ourselves. The more we do that, the more we will release the potential God has placed in us and become a dynamic church multiplication movement.

By Terry Moeller

Terry is a missionary with Christians in Action, an interdenominational mission organization with church planting teams around the world. He has served in Europe since 1977.

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