“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7
The church is designed not just to grow, but to multiply. Just as plants and animals reproduce according to their kinds and multiply, so disciples of Jesus Christ all have the potential to make other disciples.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Jesus said this in reference to himself as he prepared to go to the cross. He was the original grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died. But even as he said that he also applied that principle to his disciples.
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me.” John 12:25-26
Our calling as followers of Jesus is to do as he did – to surrender our lives in service to Him and the mission He gave us – to make disciples of all nations. If everyone who wears the name of Christian became a disciplemaker we would reach the remaining unreached people groups on earth in a matter of weeks or months. But most “Christians” are not followers of Jesus, they are just fans who cheer for Him and sometimes cheer for other gospel workers who are out there in the harvest fields doing the work. We have created a comfortable, American version of Christianity that keeps Jesus and His commands on the fringes of our lives. We have reduced “discipleship” to learning truth from the Bible, not obeying it.
This is why we are working hard to become a disciplemaking church. Check out the vision and strategy on our Discipleship Groups page. Our hope is to help lead and support a disciplemaking movement in our city that will ripple out through Florida and the U.S. and beyond. There is a growing shift in the American church away from the operating system of church growth and to the new and Biblical O.S. of gospel saturation. Saturate has excellent resources, including a podcast. Christ Together is a city convening network that is guiding our leadership team as we develop Tampa Bay 4 Christ. A Third of Us is a fantastic podcast on mobilizing gospel movements to the ends of the earth, as Finishing the Task seeks to coordinate that mission. Steve Addison’s books and podcast, Movements, have assembled a lot of the data and synthesized the strategy. And the Timothy Initiative has packaged this content and strategy for the U.S.
The key books that have helped me understand the situation and begin to see the way forward are:
- Ying and Grace Kai’s Training for Trainers – the story of God’s Work in southeast Asia that multiplied beyond anyone’s expectations.
- Damian Gerke’s In the Way – explaining how the American church has drifted so far from disciplemaking and what it could look like to begin turning back.
- Ford and Wegner’s The Starfish and the Spirit – combining Biblical principles, movement insights and some business concepts to build momentum that could become a movement in the U.S.
We have a long way to go as a church, a city collective and a national church. But it begins with each of us embracing our calling to be followers of Jesus, not just fans. It begins with us submitting to the Great Commission as our primary directive in life, fueled by the Great Commandment and supported by the Great Companion (that’s a riff on Rick Warren).
Remember the parable of the soils. We often think of that story mainly about individual salvation – what is the condition of your heart? And it certainly applies to that. But notice what the good soil does!
“But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:20
Often we consider discipleship helping people hear and accept the Word so they understand it. We have replaced obedience and bearing fruit with knowledge and understanding. But according to the Bible knowledge “puffs up” while love “builds up.” So we have created a proud, “puffed up” church that is weak on love, weak on obedience and not very fruitful. We have grown content with very slow addition and nonexistent multiplication. We have resigned ourselves to a version of Christianity that does not bear much fruit.
But each of us has the potential to multiply 30, 60, even 100 fold – if we will first surrender to the Lord Jesus and be that grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies; and if we will reorganize our lives around Jesus and His kingdom and the Great Commission. This will mean a lot of small steps and incremental shifts. And we need each other so we can sustain the changes and find ways to engage with non-believers and seek to share the gospel with them.
What is your next step? Check out the vision of D-Groups at Oakwood and consider meeting with a Christian you respect and talking about starting a D-Group! You might use the book God Space (Doug Pollock) – that has helped a lot of our leaders to begin to reorient our lives toward relational outreach – to create more space for God to work in and through us.
Only God can give the growth. Only He can create a multiplying movement. But we can and must pray for this gift of His grace and we can and must commit to being faithful workers in the harvest field! Let’s put our hands to the plow and not look back!