A generation of seasoned pastors who’ve pursued the growth paradigm—and now an emerging generation of new leaders with an eye toward the next move of God—are uniting around the priority of reproduction and multiplication. These churches are leaning into their discontentedness and taking action. They are shining the light on a new and far-less-traveled path to success for leaders who’ve been focused exclusively on the church-growth paradigm of the past 40 years.
Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly and clearly lays out this vision. But nowhere is that plan more vivid than in the ministry of Jesus. From the start (“I will make you fishers of men”) to the end of his time on earth, Jesus focused on the elements of health that produce multiplication. Yes, his plan is for healthy addition as the means to fulfilling the Great Commission. But we know we are being good stewards of his plan when that healthy addition produces multiplication as its fruit.
“From the start to the end of his time on earth, Jesus focused on the elements of health that produce multiplication.”
Disciples who make disciples—who plant churches that plant churches—must become our future norm. God’s call to be fruitful and multiply will produce fruit in us when we follow the ways of Jesus and make disciples his way rather than programmatically. That starts when we embrace the “multiply” intent of Jesus’ teaching over the “accumulate” bias of our own scorecards.
Jesus’ last words on earth focused on kingdom multiplication: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The church-multiplication advocacy group Exponential has championed this biblical call to see the multiplication of disciples and churches in the United States and beyond, and to see multiplication become a normative measure of success in the church.
To help church leaders move from a growth-centric focus to a reproduction and multiplication bias, Exponential has created and is debuting The Church Multiplication Challenge. This declaration of foundational priorities and actions aims to help churches make a public proclamation of their commitment toward multiplication. Exponential CEO Todd Wilson explains what led to this definitive work.
“We want to see reproduction and multiplication become normative,” he says. “We want to see leaders changing their scorecards as they think differently about what it means to lead successful churches and to build legacies that last. The good news is that a growing number of leaders are starting to make those shifts and that others, like this magazine, Leadership Network and LifeWay Research, are also seeing and valuing this emerging shift.”
Sobering Realities
While the numbers and stories are increasingly positive, the road ahead remains long because the reality of what’s happening in the majority of today’s churches and our culture isn’t so positive. In fact, it’s sobering. The truth is that less than 10% of U.S. churches are reproducing or multiplying. And congregational growth—size—is still the normative measure of success in the U.S. church.
The top 100 largest churches can grow 100 times larger, and we will scarcely make a dent in what true fruitfulness looks like. We need an ever-increasing number of churches with a vision to see 100,000 new Christians in the collective churches they’ve planted as a priority above seeing 10,000 in their own church.
Why are so few churches committed to reproduction and multiplication if it’s God’s plan? They identify and flesh out three critical problems that Exponential’s Multiplication Challenge seeks to address.
• We have a disciple-making problem.
Jesus’ method for healthy addition was found in disciples who make disciples who make disciples. It’s the simple engine for reproduction. Our church growth strategies are optimized on programmatic approaches for adding. Unfortunately, these programs never reproduce themselves. The product they produce is often cultural or consumer Christians who are also not capable of reproducing. We produce a product that is essentially infertile.
• We have a posture problem.
Bobby Harrington, founder and CEO of Discipleship.org, is a student of disciple-making movements. He says church-multiplication movements are rooted in disciple-making movements—and disciple-making movements are born out of prayer and fasting. “Are our prayers mostly focused on conquering the next growth barrier, or on restoring us to biblical disciple making?” he asks.
• We have a scorecard problem.
Multiplication starts with the scorecard of the leader. How the leader measures success will define how the church measures success. How we measure success will define how we add, and whether we have the capacity to reproduce. Is our scorecard biased to what we catch, accumulate and consume; or by whom we reach, develop and deploy?
A ‘Lake’ Church vs. a ‘River’ Church
Larry Walkemeyer, leader of Light & Life Christian Fellowship in Long Beach, California, faced these problems as the church considered relocating to a larger property. When he and his wife, Deb, went away for a week to pray over this decision, God gave them a vision from Ezekiel 47.
“God revealed we had been a ‘lake’ church where we were seeking to get as many people as possible to flow into one place, around one pastor, giving to one budget—and keep them there,” he explains. “But the Spirit was calling us to become a ‘river’ church where people flowed in, and then many of them would flow out to start other churches.”
“The Spirit was calling us to become a ‘river’ church where people flowed in, and then many of them would flow out to start other churches.”
Walkemeyer and multiplying leaders like him have come to see that the prevailing growth-focused operating system in the majority of U.S. churches is producing cultural or consumer Christians versus surrendered disciples who are obedient to Jesus’ teaching. As a result, increasing percentages of people are distanced from Jesus and especially the church.
And as the culture continues to shift, more leaders are discovering that these prevailing models that launch and grow large multisite churches are becoming increasingly difficult to reproduce in the hard corners of society. “The more Americans become urbanized, the harder it’s going to be to reproduce megachurches,” says Walkemeyer.
Addition, Reproduction and Multiplication
While “being fruitful and multiplying” is the definitive biblical call, a new conversation is critical to carrying out God’s kingdom vision, Exponential says.
Couchenour urges church leaders to first assess whether their church is intentionally reproducing, and, if not, why not? “Too often leaders say, ‘We will plant a church when [fill in the blank] happens.’ Unfortunately, that elusive day never comes for most. But that trigger continues to change with each church-growth obstacle. Leaders unintentionally prioritize growth over reproduction.”
To press further into this question of intentionality, church leaders must also confront the principle of firstfruits. Every leader knows that where we allocate money is the most direct indication of what we value, both personally and as a church. Wilson notes that every one of the 320,000-plus churches in the U.S. is “one priority decision away from tithing to church planting.”
“Imagine the impact if just 20% of churches called a board meeting today and decided to begin tithing for reproduction and multiplication activities?” he says. “We’d quickly change the spiritual landscape of our country.”
Unfortunately, he adds, the financial demands of feeding the internal church-growth engine often keep church leaders from stepping out in faith to commit the church’s firstfruits to multiplication-producing activities.
Addition or Reproduction?
In addition to offspring that can’t reproduce, Exponential has identified yet another issue that can be a roadblock.
“We’re planting churches that aren’t reproducing even though they have the capacity to reproduce,” says Wilson. “What happens to the world’s population if only 1 out of 4 children ever reproduce? In essence, when we plant churches that don’t plant churches, our efforts are really focused on addition and not reproduction.
Unfortunately, that’s the current reality. According to a LifeWay Research study, 73% of all church plants in the U.S. don’t turn around and plant. That statistic is frustrating to Exponential. “Not all church planting is reproducing,” Wilson says.
“We have to be planting churches that can plant churches - to the fourth generation.”
“It’s not enough to plant a church or site,” adds Ferguson. “We have to be planting churches that can plant churches—to the fourth generation. We’ve got to get more serious about that.”
Exponential is encouraged by the number of prominent churches, such as The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, that are beginning to shift their multisite strategy to increase their multiplication capacity. Led by pastor and author Matt Chandler, the church is now using its multisite model as a strategy for church planting. They plan to transition their remaining campuses into autonomous churches by 2022, Chandler explains. “By planting these churches—whose people can continue the good work of making God known and enjoyed in Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond—we multiply his kingdom.”
The Call to Your Church
With minds and hearts to the future, the Exponential team and its growing community of thought leaders are asking today’s church leaders critical questions: What if the next great wave of opportunity to build on the church-growth movement is an awakening to the importance of healthy reproduction? What would it look like for your church to pursue becoming a reproducing church with the same priority you pursue growth? What would that take?
“What would it look like for your church to pursue becoming a reproducing church with the same priority you pursue growth?”
To help churches embrace and carry out this big vision God has set in motion, Exponential has developed The Church Multiplication Challenge. The Challenge is a simple declaration of multiplication that helps a church embark on the journey towards multiplication. The declaration includes foundational priorities and seven specific commitments to move a church from good intentions to action.
According to Exponential, the goal is to provide a simple accountability pathway churches can follow to embrace a commitment toward multiplication. The simple step to begin your journey is visit ReproducingChurches.org and take The Church Multiplication Challenge. When you do, you will endorse a declaration and assess where your church is now on the journey to church multiplication.
A Declaration of Multiplication
Because We Believe …
- Any thought or effort toward reproduction and multiplication must be bathed in prayer and fasting.
- A new scorecard for success is non-negotiable.
- Multiplication requires personal surrender.
- All multiplication movements find their roots in relational disciple-making movements rather than programmatic growth strategies.
- To multiply, we must intentionally mobilize everyday missionaries into their everyday mission fields.
We Commit to …
- Tithe the firstfruits of our income to church planting regardless of our financial position.
- Support church multiplication beyond our finances with tangible, direct involvement.
- Make sending a priority and to see every person as a missionary and potential planter.
- Taking risks with evangelistic urgency and a missionary mindset that takes us into new places with new models and approaches.
- Planting autonomous churches with as much (or higher) priority as adding new programs.
- Partnering with others to do more together than we can do alone.
- Being intentional about reproduction, including prayer, fasting and strategic planning.
Exponential’s hope and prayer is to see a tipping point of churches that embrace and act on The Church Multiplication Challenge as they risk to find and pour into new wineskins. The impact has the potential to be church-transforming and world-changing.
New Life Christian Church in Chantilly, Virginia, has seen God’s hand move in ways they would never have imagined since getting serious about the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. The church plants 10 autonomous churches a year.
“You will never discover who you are until you risk and lose,” New Life Pastor Brett Andrews says. “Your church will never discover the redemptive capacity God has placed within her until you’re willing to fail and lose. And to try.”
To take the Challenge and read how churches are pursuing reproducing in prayerful, strategic and powerful ways, visit ReproducingChurches.org/challenge. And for more information, stories and church profiles, also visit Outreach100.com/reproducing-churches.
5 Types of Churches and their Kingdom Impact
Level 1—Churches That Are in Decline
Level 1 churches are characterized by subtraction, scarcity and survival. These churches experience some combination of declining attendance, staffing, income and conversions. Without a turnaround, Level 1 churches eventually close.
Level 2—Churches That Are at a Plateau
Level 2 churches are plateaued and looking for the next catalyst to spark a season of growth. These churches experience some combination of flat attendance, staffing, income and conversions. These churches may see temporary ups and downs, but their overall trend is flat.
Level 3—Churches That Are Growing
Level 3 churches are characterized by addition, growth and expansion of impact. These churches have a strong growth culture with some combination of increasing attendance, staffing, income and baptisms. Leadership development and conquering the next growth barriers are often key priorities in these churches.
Level 4—Churches That Are Reproducing
Level 4 churches are characterized by the value and priority they place on starting new churches—they have a strong programmatic emphasis on it. They see their fruit as more than the apples on their own tree, but by the other trees they plant in the orchard—or the new orchards they establish. These churches continually feel the tension pulling them toward investing in addition at their own church on the one hand, and the kingdom expansion of new churches on the other.
Level 5—Churches That Are Multiplying
Level 5 churches are characterized by multiplying, releasing and sending everyday missionaries and church planters. Multiplication is so deeply embedded in the DNA of these churches that they would need a strategy to stop multiplication. These churches plant churches that plant churches to the fourth generation, resulting in hundreds of churches in their multiplication family. These churches reach non-Christians at a much higher rate of conversion than other churches and see disciple making to the fourth generation as a cultural norm.
How do I begin the Journey toward Multiplication?
Visit ReproducingChurches.org and Take The Multiplication Challenge.
The Church Multiplication Challenge includes a short survey to endorse the declaration and an assessment to help you discover where you are now on your multiplication journey. It’s all free and can be completed in less than 30 minutes.
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