Multiplication vs. Addition

Multiplication is a natural tendency in the world. Whether it is population growth, the spread of a cold, or the spread of weeds in my yard, multiplication is the norm.

Jesus knew this. That is why he knew that if the Kingdom of God was ever going to make an impact it had to multiply. He told stories about yeast spreading through dough, about a mustard seed, about a seed in good soil that multiplies 30, 60 or 100 times, and about how a seed falls to the ground before another tree can grow. It is why he started with 12 disciples instead of 12,000. Jesus understood the power of multiplication.

This is a concept that business world and church world are rediscovering. If you ever want to grow at a rate faster than population growth, you must multiply. The church in China and India has experienced this seeing millions of believers were there had previously been thousands. Business has seen it happen with Facebook and Twitter - words we wouldn't have recognized a few short years ago which are now a part of our everyday life. The idea that each individual person can invite others into the process who then in turn invite others is a powerful one.

However, I fear as we try to implement the concept, we are too easily tricked. Whether we are talking about multiplying leaders, customers, churches, or trees, we often miss the key point. Namely, that for multiplication to be multiplication it has to continue past the second generation. The second generation must reproduce.

I think we too often see that 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4, and we say 'we multiplied four times'. But this is inaccurate. We only added. Multiplication looks like this 1 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. We can be easily confused because the early stages look similar, but look what happens if you keep going.

4 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7
8 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 64

Now we see the difference emerging. So what's my point? If you want to change the world, do something that multiplies. The way to tell if you are multiplying is to look at the 3rd generation and beyond. Don't be fooled by looking only at the generation you started. If that generation doesn't reproduce, you are only adding.

Making Disciples vs Building Church

I've been spending some time reading the Gospels ... and had an interesting thought this morning.

Jesus gives us a clear command to 'go and make disciples' (Matthew 28:19). But, who did He say would build His church? He said 'I will build my church'. (Matthew 16:18)

Maybe we should spend less time worrying about how to do church, and more time worrying about how to make disciples. Seems like Jesus has said 'I'll take care of the church part.'

Just a thought.

Global Neighbors

For the first time in history the entire world is our neighbor. Isn't that amazing?

I'm reading a book called 'The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the President of Worldvision. At one point in the book, Stearns reflects on the well known parable of the Good Samaritan. Realizing, that the Good Samaritan story is Jesus' response to the question "Who is my neighbor?", Stearns emphasizes that Jesus is telling us 'neighbor' has nothing to do with race, social status, or economic status. Instead, neighbor is simply defined as any person we see in need.

If I can see the need, I am a neighbor - and therefore should use whatever resources I have to help.

This challenged me as I watched the horrific destruction in Haiti. My initial response, and unfortunately my most common one to these type of disasters, was to try and ignore the situation. I did not want to stop and see what was going on there because I didn't want to feel bad. After all, why should I ruin a good week of feel-good K-State basketball?

Then I slowly began to realize that according to Jesus, these Haitians are my neighbors, and there is no excuse for ignoring them. God has blessed me with resources and if I don't help out, I am no different than the Priest who walked by the injured man on the other side of the road.

For the first time in history the entire world is our neighbor. TV and the internet allow us to see their need. So the question becomes, will we be good neighbors?

Merry Christmas!!

It is amazing to me the impact that a baby boy who was born about 2000 years ago had on the earth.

No matter, what you believe about Jesus, it is undeniable that he has changed the world.

This year people in China will exchange gifts and sing songs. People in India will attend Christmas events around the nation. People throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and even here in the States will all celebrate. Many may not even know they are celebrating the Savior's birth - yet they still celebrate. The impact of Jesus is amazing.

Who could have imagined this when He was killed on a cross? At that time he had a handful of close followers, and a mixed reputation. Who could have even comprehended the impact he would have on billions of people?

Jesus is amazing.

Merry Christmas.

I Hate All Your Show and Pretense --God

There is a song called 'Instead of a Show' written by Jon Foreman. It is direct, convicting, and I imagine to a lot of people, controversial ... just the kind of thing I like. The theme is that God hates all your shows, pretense, and noisy hymns. Instead, he desires justice and righteous living.

I have often wondered about it. It sounds right, but I wasn't quite sure about the 'hate' word. Does God really hate all the things he commanded us to do like gather together, celebrate, sing, and have festivals? Then I found it in the Bible.

Amos 5

21 “I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of
your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your
burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your
choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of
praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24
Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous
living.

So there it is ... When we make following God all about attending a worship service, we have completely missed the point, and He hates it.

The tragic thing is that our first response to this passage is to think we need to fix our shows. We think we need to make them more flat, boring, and uninspiring, or do away with them completely. (Everyone knows that boring is more authentic, right?)

I guess in some ways this is accurate. If we're not following God, cancelling the show is probably the best thing we could do. However, if we want to address the core issue, we need to look at what God tells Amos in verse 24 - following God should be about justice and righteous living. The 'show' is intended to flow out of that.

Festivals and assemblies were commanded by God - we should not do away with them, but they must become a celebration of our justice and righteousness rather than take the place of it.

I confess, that too many times I make following God all about participating in the shows rather than doing justice and living righteously. I don't think I'm alone in this regard. Americans as a whole are on a dangerous path. Think about it. When we hear the word 'church', we automatically think 'a meeting on Sunday'. We measure our spirituality based on attendance. We feel good about ourselves for just showing up (particularly if we sing something heart-felt while we're there). This is exactly what God hates.

Church, Death, and Multiplication

What would happen if local church institutions were willing to add dying and multiplying to their mission?

I stumbled on this article today. It details some of the recent events in China between large unregistered churches and the government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091210/ap_on_re_as/as_china_mega_church

Here is the crazy thing. Although it sounds like this is bad for the church, I believe that government actions like this are precisely the reason the church is thriving in China.

Think about it. The government just broke up a 50,000 person church. So what will be the likely result? It will result in an energized and supremely dedicated group of tens of thousands that will now likely form hundreds or thousands of new individual churches.

In 5 years, many of these new churches if not most will likely have doubled or tripled in size. If the large church were left alone, it is highly doubtful that it would experience this type of growth.

Jesus knew this and explained over and over again that the kingdom would grow through multiplication. We in the church tend to forget this when left to our own decisions.

I have often heard it said that a church is 'organic' and that organic things grow so a church should be focused on growth. However, this is a very incomplete and somewhat dangerous thought, particularly when applied to a single local church institution. In addition to growing, organic things also multiply and on an individual level, they die. While everything in our world is busy living, dying, and multiplying, the local church is busy trying to exist and grow - and losing ground in the process.

So think about it ... What would happen if local church institutions were willing to add dying and multiplying to their mission?

The Start of Something Big in India

I apologize that it has taken this long to update you on what happened with the Pastors Conference in India. I know many of you were praying for it consistently, and I am very excited to report that your prayers were answered.

For those of you who don't know, we kicked off our church planting strategy during my recent trip to India. We have a dream to facilitate the finish of the spread of the Gospel in the Visak district. To us, this looks like a home in every village where people are regularly gathering together to follow Jesus.

Our first challenge is to find some core leaders. We started that process by holding a Pastor's Conference where we taught the 'First Steps' church planting training developed by E3 Partners. In a few months, we will follow-up and see if anyone is implementing what they learned. When we find the 'doers', we will have our core leaders.

I was praying for 50 pastors to attend, but more than 200 pastors showed up. We focused our teaching on the barriers to multiplication. This was a tough message with the pastors. We told them that the Gospel would not spread in this area as long as they tried to maintain control. The church could not center on their salary, their people, and their building. It had to change from an institution with them in the lead to a movement with them playing a part.

The Spirit of God is an interesting thing. There are a handful of times in my life where I truly felt that I was a part of something much bigger than myself - where it was almost as if it wasn't me doing the work. This was one of those times. I can't describe what happened under that tent in India, but God showed up. We delivered a tough message, but the pastors felt the presence of God and were excited about the teaching. How humbling that I even got to be a part of it!!

We counted commitments, and tallied up the numbers. They were very significant, but all that pales in comparison to the fact that God's Spirit was evident. The truth is that I don't know if 100 people will follow through or 2 people will. Number are important, but can often be misleading. For this reason, I am not near as excited about the numbers as I am about the presence of the Spirit of God. That presence confirms that we are working with Him, and if we are working with Him, some good things are just around the corner.

Thanks to all of you who prayed while I was gone. Your prayers were answered. Wouldn't it be cool if this was the beginning of a church planting movement in Visak ...

a movement where nobody knows who we are or what sparked it

a movement where churches were not concerned with authority, denomination, or money, but instead with the love of Jesus and of people

a movement that sees poverty lessen, orphans and widows cared for

a movement where the followers of Jesus multiply exponentially in the area

a movement where isolated villages who have never heard that any God or any person cares about them, hear that for the first time

This will be cool!