The Heart of Multiplication

Less than 4% of US churches ever reproduce, while over 96% are consumed in the lust of addition growth. That statistic burdens me and the entire Exponential team. The church and the people of God are made to “be fruitful and multiply.” So why is our fruitfulness lacking multiplication as an outcome?

A few weeks ago, I spent several days dreaming about moving the needle on multiplication with two different groups of national influence leaders. These leaders come from diverse backgrounds, are passionate about church multiplication, and are absolutely united on ONE thing. Healthy Biblical disciple-making is the key to multiplication. Multiplication is not something we do. Instead, multiplication is the overflow and fruit of disciple-making Jesus’ way.

Ralph Moore, pastor of one of the only Level 5 multiplying churches we’ve found in the US says, “Multiplication is 90+% the fruit of disciple-making.” Multiplication occurs when we see disciples making disciples who make disciples. It is the strategy of Jesus that’s embedded in the operating system of Christianity.

If we are not seeing churches multiply, we need to do a gut check on the quality of our disciple making. Is our prevailing operating system producing armies of Biblical disciples? Could it be that our prevailing addition growth strategies are programmatically and consumeristically adding disciples rather than adding disciples Jesus’ way? Could it be that we are optimized on producing cultural Christians? Could it be that the quality of disciples we are getting (and making) is at the core of our lack of fruitfulness in multiplication?

Sometimes we get so caught up in gathering a larger and larger attendance that we lose focus. Multiplication requires us to be as intentional in making disciples as we are in making converts. The 4% statistic is simply a measure of the health of our disciple-making.

Exponential is committed to helping your church multiply its Kingdom impact through discipleship by providing a variety of FREE resources. The newest Exponential eBook Dream Big, Plan Smart: Finding Your Pathway to Multiplication will be released in a few weeks and highlights the vital importance of healthy disciple-making as our core. We have hundreds of other free resources on disciple-making.

We invite you to check out some of our newest disciple-making resources featuring Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, Robby Gallaty, and others on creating a disciple-making Church. You can find more on discipleship by checking the Discipleship Channel on our website hosted by Discipleship.org.

And don’t forget to sign up for Exponential East featuring Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, Louie Giglio, Wayne Cordeiro, Eric Mason, and over 100 other leaders. Also, signup for the Discipleship Pre-conference hosted by Discipleship.org. Join Jim Putman, Ralph Moore, Bobby Harrington, Daniel Im, Ariyana Rimson, and Bill Hull to learn how to become a better disciple-maker.

Todd Wilson

Director, Exponential