GO AND PLANT

TEAM's Church Planting Blog

Having a Multiplication Mindset

Is it more important for missionaries to win souls or to equip soul winners?

Is it more important to make disciples or to make disciple makers?

One is addition and one is multiplication.


When Jesus saved and chose the disciples, He wasn’t just thinking of their salvation and new life.  He was planning on equipping them to do what He did - fish for souls and make disciples.  Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  I will demonstrate it. You follow me and watch how I do it.  I’ll equip you, and then you will be able to do the same thing as I am doing with you.


When Jesus chose his disciples, he was not just thinking of his disciples.  He was thinking of the many generations to come after them and through them. In John 17:20, when Jesus had finished training the 12 and was preparing to leave the mission with them, Jesus prayed, “I pray not only for these but also for those who believe in me through them.”  


Well, of course, we need both addition of disciples and multiplication of disciples. We need to know how to add people to faith in Christ in order to be able to equip others to do the same and multiply.  And we need to know how to disciple and equip individual disciple-makers ourselves in order to multiply disciples and disciple-makers.  Jesus himself added people to his group of disciples, but he didn’t just have an addition mindset. He had a multiplication mindset.  He added them so that He could teach them to multiply.


Paul had the same mindset as Jesus.  He told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things you have received and seen in me, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Paul was looking through Timothy at 4 generations of disciple makers. 


“Me” (Paul) --> “You” (Timothy) --> “Faithful Men” -->“Others also”


Which could look something like this diagram below.


When I started out in planting churches, I spent almost all my time trying to add new souls. Which is where it had to start. Once they accepted Christ, I spent all my time discipling those I had won. Those were great times in the ministry, and people were coming to Christ and their lives were changing.  But I became restless because I wanted to be winning more to Christ and discipling them, but I didn’t have the time, and the evangelism really slowed down or at times stopped, because I needed to care for the believers.  Something needed to change. 


With time I realized that part of my problem was that I had an addition mindset, and what I needed was a multiplication mindset. The whole process depended on me doing it.  My end product was a maturing disciple, and then I needed to start over again with others.  But my end product should not have been a maturing disciple. I needed to develop maturing, multiplying disciples. I needed to continue to disciple them into being part of the disciplemaking team, and then teach them to do the same with their new disciples.


That meant that my discipleship plan needed to include doing and demonstrating a simple way …

o  to connect with the lost,

o  win them to Christ,

o  instill in them the basic habits and truths of walking with Christ,

o  gather them into healthy groups

o  and a simple process for them to do it all with someone else so that they could pass it all on to others. 


If I could lead each new disciple to win, disciple and equip another person, then evangelism and discipleship could both continue on simultaneously and endlessly.  It needed to be continuing to happen without me being the one to do it. I needed to see my primary role as an equipper of disciple-makers. 


Here is a chart showing the comparison between an addition approach to planting a church and a multiplication approach.


- It works like this…

Column 1 shows a good missionary who starts with 10 believers and is able to add 20 new souls per year through his own witness and preaching.


Column 2 shows a great missionary who starts with 10 believers and is able to add 60 new people per year through his hard work and great preaching.


Column 3 shows a multiplication missionary who starts with 10 believers and spends all his time discipling the 10 to each win, disciple and equip even just one other person to pass it on that year.


After 2 years, the multiplication pastor seems to be getting left behind the other pastors.  We might say he needs to be doing more large outreaches to add more people. He needs to be doing more evangelism. But in 5 years, we see his church is as large as the “great missionary’s” church.  But if we continue to watch as the years tick by, we start to see that the multiplication way starts to accelerate while the addition just plods along, continually dependent on the pastor’s own ability and capacity.

We see that we need to go slow in order to go fast. 

Take the time to build it into each disciple to pass on what they received, and take the time to develop easily reproducible methods and systems that will facilitate all new believers being developed into disciples who make disciples who make disciples.


Of course, real life ministry doesn’t happen exactly like this.  It isn’t an exact science like mathematics. There are many external factors that influence the growth and the spread of the gospel such as what kind of soil we are planting in, the responsiveness of the people, the gifting and calling of the founders, the working of the Holy Spirit, and so on.  But that is true with every kind of ministry.   But the fact is that Multiplication will outpace addition.


In future blogs we will look at ways to build multiplication into our ministry plans.


GO SLOWER IN ORDER TO GO FASTER


FOR THOUGHT:

-       Is your ministry primarily from an addition mindset or a multiplication mindset?

-       Do you see each new believer as a connection to their life network?

-       Do you have an intentional strategy to help them grow into Maturing, Ministering, Multiplying followers of Christ?


Subscribe to the blog!

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.

Connecting with the Lost - Entry Phase

By David North • 25 Mar, 2024
I’m new in this place. I don’t know anyone. Where do I begin? How do we get started when we enter a new town or city? In this blog, we will provide a few tools you may be able to use to get started in Connecting with the local people.

One Verse Discipleship - Craig Querfeld

By David North • 31 Jan, 2024
Many discipleship Bible study methods require lots of time and work. In our busy world, it is hard for many to take the extended time sometimes required. If you need a simple, flexible, reproducible method of discipleship, here is an example you could consider.

Building A Multiplication Process - What Will It Take

By David North • 01 Dec, 2023
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.
A Multiplication Tool - 3 Thirds Process

A Multiplication Tool - 3 Thirds Process

By David North • 21 Nov, 2023
How do I build multiplication of Disciple Makers into the Process of Discipleship? How can I make it a natural part of discipleship that the new disciples will learn to pass it on to others? The 3 Thirds Process is one way to do that.

Building Your Multiplication Process

By David North • 30 Oct, 2023
The right materials and methods won’t result in multiplication unless we have an intentional process designed to multiply. Learn some helpful tips on building your multiplication process.

Examples of Exit Plans for Church Planters: #2 A House Church Health Plan

By David North • 04 Jul, 2023
What does a healthy house church look like? What are the elements of a healthy house church that would indicate to you that it will continue on and grow and multiply without you being present at the meetings?

Examples of Exit Plans for Church Planters: #1 An Urban Church Plant

By David North • 22 May, 2023
How will you know when your church plant is ready for you to leave? Can you prepare for that day from the beginning of the work? In our blog, “https://www.goandplant.com/having-an-exit-plan-from-the-start,” we noted that an Exit Plan, or Transition Plan, is our vision of the essential parts of the planted church that we need to see in place and functioning that will indicate to us that this church will continue to thrive without us and that our work as church planters is done. When these are present, we know that we can either transition out to a new role such as equipper and mentor, or we can move on to begin a work in a new area. Today we will look at an example of an exit plan from an urban church plant in an open country.

Having an Exit Plan from the Start

By David North • 29 Sep, 2022
Before we started our church plant, I said to the team, "We need to have an exit plan." They all looked at me strangely and said, "An Exit Plan? We haven't even started yet." But before we start, we need to know what it is that we are building and when our work will be done.

Starting a Church or Starting a Movement?

By David North • 22 Sep, 2022
In my first church planting work, I remember being asked in a small group, “What gives you the most happiness in life?” My answer was, “Leading someone to Christ.” That really gave me so much joy. But I remember being asked that question again during my most recent church plant. My answer this time was, “When I see people I led to Christ and discipled leading others to Christ and discipling them.” It seemed almost weekly that we heard of a fairly new believer starting evangelistic Bible study with someone new. Often it was someone that was being discipled by someone who was being discipled by someone we had discipled. Kathy and I would just laugh with joy and amazement at the way the Gospel was going way beyond our reach.

Make Disciples: What Kind of Disciples? 3M Followers of Christ

By David North • 15 Sep, 2022
The primary command of Jesus for His church was, “make disciples.” When Jesus told His disciples to go and make other disciples, He had some specific things in mind of what a disciple is. When we make things like furniture, vehicles, tools, factories, and so on, we carefully determine what it is we want to make before we start creating it. When Jesus was developing His disciples, it was clear that He already had in mind the kind of disciple he was developing. He said things like, “I will make you fishers of men,” “keep my commands,” “receive me,” “believe in me,” “love one another,” “love my Father,” and “love me…” His three years of ministry are a picture of Him building these characteristics intentionally into His disciples so that they would be ready to carry on the work by the power of the Holy Spirit when He left.
More Posts
Share by: