You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. John 15:16
Those of you who know me well would laugh at the title of this article. I don’t do math well; even on a calculator, I can get the wrong answer. I would never have gone to grad school if I had been required to take math courses. But I digress. This article is about the most effective ways to grow the kingdom for Christ.
I have spent more time in ministry, talking and learning about church growth. There was always a conference or seminar (usually given by pastors of mega-churches) I could attend. But I’ve come to believe that growing larger churches is less helpful than multiplying churches. I will explain this using the early church as an example and then discuss what that means for today’s churches. Even though we’re 2000 years removed from the early church, will the same methods they used still work?
Let’s consider Paul. Would there be a church in America today if Paul had stayed in Damascus instead of traveling worldwide? Or even if he had stayed in Antioch, where believers were first called Christians. Would the gospel have spread as fast and as far? I don’t think so. I’m glad that when the Holy Spirit said to the praying men, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work I have for them.” (Acts 13:2), Paul and Barnabas went. They went above and beyond what God called them to do, so many churches were planted.
C. Peter Wagner, in Church Planting for a Greater Harvest, writes, “Church planting is the New Testament way of extending the gospel. Trace the church's expansion through Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, and you will see that church planters led the way.” Methodism started when Wesley started groups around England and America that eventually became churches. Multiplication happened when Americans traveled west and planted congregations where they settled, which is why Methodists were the largest denomination in the early days of our nation.
We cannot be content to stay in our building, wait for people to come to us any more than those first disciples could, and keep the movement going. Phil Stevenson writes in Becoming a Ripple Church, “We need to start new churches. New churches are better leveraged to connect with those who do not seek spirituality from the existing church.” By multiplying, more communities are reached. Author and speaker Lyle Schaller, in his book 44 Questions for Church Planters, writes, “Historically, new congregations have turned out to be the most effective approach to reaching new generations.”
Any size church can be a planting church, and in doing so, it will fulfill the Great Commission to “go and make disciples.” Additionally, the process will carry out the five functions of all churches: worship, discipleship, ministry evangelism, and fellowship. The Global Methodist church is in a perfect position to grow by multiplication. As a new denomination, we have a limited number of congregations, and we will probably not see growth through the addition of congregations. Therefore, we must utilize other methods to grow the denomination.
We have great potential to grow if most, if not all, of our congregations become parent churches and produce daughter churches in the communities around us. In The Ripple Church, Stevenson writes, "So the challenge for today's church leaders is twofold: First, we must realize the need to propagate the gospel by multiplying congregations; and second, we must make sacrifices in order to do so. That will mean resisting the temptation merely to grow larger as a congregation, and that will require faith."
Stevenson further contends, "We need to start new churches. New churches are better leveraged to connect with those who do not seek their spirituality from the existing church."Our current churches cannot always transition enough to bring in new people, but new churches excel in bringing in unbelievers and new converts.
Church planting by current churches requires the leaders to rethink how to reach unbelievers in their community. This will require overcoming the fear of doing something new and different and being willing to sacrifice finances and people to risk planting a new faith community. Paul and the other believers in the first century understood that the Great Commission required them to go. They couldn't stay and wait for people to come to them, and we can't either.
I believe we are on the cusp of God doing a great thing in our communities, and he wants to do it through us. When we finally embrace the mentality of disciples making disciples and churches planting churches, God will bless the Global Methodist Church, and we will grow exponentially. How will you partner with God to fulfill the Great Commission?
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