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By Christie Latona
Missional Strategist, Washington Region

To live out our mission in relevant and vibrant ways, two things are required of us: to multiply disciples and to innovate. We can’t manage, restructure or cut our way out of our decline. This is a spiritual problem. Too many leaders nolonger believe in the power of prayer or that God will show up when the body of believers assembles.

Instilling a culture of multiplication begins in faith communities. This requires shifting to multiplying disciples rather than trying to grow churches or ministries. A culture of multiplication is less about managing an institution and more about fanning a kingdom movement.

Faith communities with multiplication DNA don’t focus on maintaining the status quo. They are seeking to live out the great commandment and the great commission, bringing change from the inside-out.

If we look at the mountains of research conducted in the last decade across Christian denominations and cultures, we see vast amounts of information about what propels a Christian church to thrive in a region. There are many accounts of “how we did it” in places that have multiplied disciples. Recently, Paul Nixon (with Path 1) and I distilled that research and identified key factors that influence the rate of multiplying disciples.

Prayer and Discernment

Churches that multiply their kingdom impact pray about everything. Prayer is the main strategy. It is not perfunctory or a ritual performed only by a “professional.” 

Abundant Evangelism

People who encounter Jesus cannot help talking about it. This personal faith sharing tends to result in new people brought to the movement, regardless of whether the movement is theologically right, left or center. People can’t help but talk about what God is doing in their lives or their church.

The church seeks to get the word out about how its ministries are changing lives, but most of these stories are geared more toward our own people rather than those who need to hear the Good News. Evangelism is rooted in relationship.

High View of Scripture

This view has nothing to do with fundamentalism. Rather, people with a high view of Scripture have a sense of expectancy that when the Word is read, God is in the room and is going to say something fresh and new to the people gathered and reading. Therefore the Bible is used easily and freely in every type of gathering.

Theological Simplicity

Not to be confused with theological stupidity. We are not “dumbing down” the Gospel. In the churches that multiply, we find widespread consensus and clarity on the relationship between the Gospel of Jesus and God’s expectations for human beings. The multiplying community manages to get its collective brain around some key principles that tie it all together. They know what a disciple of Jesus Christ is and how that is relevant to the lives of people who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They are able to explain, without jargon, what they believe and why that makes a difference in what they practice.

Economical Approach

In the affluent Western world, we have mastered the art of expensive church. However, there is a continuum in the economy of excellence, and we are wise to stay in the middle of the continuum more often than not.

In the new places where multiplication happens, we see a plain, functional meeting space, often leased or bartered but rarely expensive. And volunteers do more of the work—even some of the pastoral work. Smart economics means giving much of church leadership back to ordinary people. Jesus was essentially homeless for the three years of his active ministry. He didn’t invest significant financial resources to start this movement called Christianity.

High Level of Trust

In churches that multiply, we see trust at every level – among leaders, between leaders and followers, between clergy and laity, and, in all cases, foremost between people and God. Trust is earned when roles are clarified; decision making is transparent; the people of God speak truth in love, without inserting more drama; and the people consistently seek God to bring unity and order as needed.

Focus on Finding and Apprenticing Discipling Leaders

Each one teaches one. Great churches are all about developing ordinary people to live out God’s dreams in new ways.

Simple Systems with Noncompeting Priorities

Places that multiply ministry keep the main thing as the main thing. Multiplying disciples trumps all other concerns. A multiplying church may explicitly limit the types of activity that it will directly sponsor. The structure also needs to help keep the focus on this main thing. As a church we need to actively commit to a culturalchange  with everything focused on multiplying disciples — no rearranging of the deck chairs will help us. We must discern the will of God and claim bold visions for the future.

Some bold visions rally people toward new behaviors that begin the work of culture change and fruitfulness. When people of God come together to discern the will of God, amazing things happen. We can do this, by the grace of God.

This article is excerpted from the Feb./March/April 2014 issue of Circuit Rider magazine, by permission. For a copy of the entire article, visit www.ministrymatters.com/all/article/entry/4683/disciple-multiplication-is-the-main-thing