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TEAM's Church Planting Blog
Building Your Multiplication Process
Start with Understanding What it Takes
It was my personal goal that everyone in our church could help plant a new church in the future. For that to happen, we needed to discover or develop methods that would be transferable.
We needed a process that would enable all the members to join the work of making disciples.
As we try to build a growth track for Making and Growing and Equipping disciples, it is helpful to clarify the stages it normally takes for a person to grow from being “lost and unconnected” to becoming the mature and fruitful disciple God wants. Of course, each person grows in a unique way, but there normally is a flow of the stages of spiritual growth as a person moves from Lost and Unconnected to becoming a 3M disciple (Maturing, Ministering and Multiplying).
As we desire to multiply disciple-makers, it is important to help them grow themselves as disciples in these phases, but also to enable them to lead another person through these phases. That’s why I chose simple, reproducible tools and methods for our disciple making process. I want everyone in the church to be able to help another person through the same journey.
As I thought of the process of growth, I made a list of
1. The Stages of growth, and then brainstormed…
2. What has to happen for a person to move from one phase to another, and then…
3. Choose tools and methods that we as a church can use to help people move forward as growing, serving and multiplying disciples.
We brainstormed these stages and the following results together as a team.
i. The Stages of Growth
ii. What Steps does the disciple-maker need to take in order to bring their lost friends through the process of becoming disciples who make disciples? (See following Chart)
Connect, Win, Grow, Gather, Equip, Multiply
iii. Practically, what will it take see them grow to the next level? What sort of activities can we do to connect, win, grow, gather, and multiply. The following chart was our attempt to discover and create a flow toward seeing a disciple making movement start through our church.
Who are the target at each stage,
and what do you want them to become,
and what is the main thing needed to move them.
For example, for the Lost to become Contacts, we have to Connect with them. What will that take? Well, it will take going to their spaces, building relationships with them, serving them, connecting with their interests and their needs in their spaces.
iv. Finally, we brainstormed and chose simple, reproducible Methods and Materials that would enable all our people to lead others through this growth process. Some of the methods and materials would be led and taught by the church leaders, but we also wanted to have ONE basic tool for each stage that our believers themselves are equipped with to move a person through the whole process.
The chart below was developed along the way, listing the tools that we felt would be simple, effective and reproducible for all members in the church. The tools in blue were ones that every disciple would be equipped to do. The others are methods and tools that the church leadership would ensure were happening.
Take Time Together To Work It Out
Each church planting team leader should work through this process carefully and then work through it with their team. You may come up with something better than we did. No church’s process is perfect yet. There will always be factors that we didn’t plan for or expect. We will always want to improve the plan to see it better reach our audience.
To begin with, we want to find ONE effective method and multiplication process to equip our people for each stage. They may learn other methods along the way, but we want to get everyone started with a simple, commonly used method for each stage that they can then teach others. This simple method helps people get started in ministering, and it becomes a tool they can pass on to their new disciples.
Imagine your youth using each method at each stage, your moms, your working people, the singles in your community. Make it simple enough for everyone to start using it. Begin working on a plan that would enable them in their everyday world to make disciples who also will pass it on to others.
Be sure to start with reaching the lost.
Feel free to share comments below.
By David North
David and Kathy North were planting churches with TEAM for 33 years in various sized cities of the Philippines. David is currently the Church Planting Coordinator for TEAM's international network of church planters and disciple makers. The Norths are involved in Coaching, Training, Mentoring and encouraging front line workers.
