A Church That Multiplies 3: Multiplication

In the last months, I have been expanding on the idea that some qualities need to be present for a church to multiply healthily and productively for the Kingdom of God to advance among us. Last month I shared how having a "Healthy, Interdependent Plurality of Leadership" allows more leaders to thrive and leads to a culture of multiplication. Before that, I shared how a culture that multiplies will always be marked by "Divine Expectation and Engagement", which is marked by placing ourselves into a posture of dependence on God and His mission while expecting that God is up to something good and is already at work before we even show up.

This month's quality is going to seem redundant. A church that multiplies will have Multiplication at the heart of its culture and practice. How can a church multiply if it does not value multiplication? Yet for most of us, when we think of the value of Multiplication, we think merely of the outcome of a church planting another church. For a church to truly have a culture that will lead to multiplication there must be pathways and expectations of multiplication built into every area of church life.

Let me give one example: One of our district objectives is the raising up of 3000 leaders. As I shared at District Conference our biggest pinch point in planting new churches is the lack of equipped leaders that are qualified and gifted to plant churches. For new churches to be planted, we need more leaders. For us to develop more leaders, we must develop them. So, before we get to multiplying churches, we must multiply leaders. For us to really value developing more and better leaders we must value multiplication, because multiplication will be the outcome of leadership development.

Another example that might be helpful to consider is missional presence. Why would we think we could multiply a church if we have not been intentionally multiplying missional presence in our community and the communities around us? So, to get to a point of multiplying churches, the multiplication of missional presence in our community must be wired into the fabric of our church community. Multiplication needs to be valued and lived out at every level of our church structures.

Is there an area of your church you have begun to bring a multiplication mindset to? For us to be effective in reaching the call that is before us we all must begin thinking through ways we can value multiplication in every sphere of our life and ministry. May your ministry be marked by multiplication at every level as you continue to examine the qualities of multiplication.

Kyle Magstadt

Associate Superintendent for Church Multiplication
North Central District of The C&MA