Multiplication: God’s Amazing Method for Church Growth!
Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 5:1-11
Kate and David Nicol
Fourth Sunday of Lent: Year C
“…from now on you will fish for people,” Jesus said, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. Yes, I said Church Growth this time—We’re on to another Natural Church Development sermon, but today, we’re tackling Multiplication: God’s Amazing Method for Church Growth.
Much of NCD is about Church Health, but this growth force is about Church Growth—healthy church growth, but church growth nonetheless. Harnessing the power of All-By-Itself-Growth in Multiplication isn’t always easy…but usually, that’s because we fail to understand what God is calling us to do! So what is God calling us to do? God is calling us to multiply rather than add; God is calling us to accept the natural life cycle of things when necessary; God is calling us to remember that the true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree! Multiplication works within nature, much like it ought to operate in the Church. Trees, like any other plants, produce fruit not for the sake of fruit, but to carry the seeds of more trees. In nature, that is what multiplication looks like.
What is God’s form of growth? How does multiplication work in the life of the church? The first thing we need to recognize is that our standards aren’t the same as what we learned in school. When it comes to mathematics, the opposite of multiplication is division—but when we think about the natural processes at work in the church and the plant and animal world, the opposite of multiplication is addition—in fact, division is often a key part of multiplication!
We aren’t called to add to our numbers, but instead, to reproduce ourselves—disciples making disciples, leaders making leaders, and churches making churches… This concept is radically different from the way we think things ought to operate. In most committee meetings, or discussions about Church life we talk about adding to our numbers. But we never really talk about multiplication. Instead, we want to see what we have enlarged, with no end in sight. We worry about where to find another committee member to do some of the work. We obsess over finding a couple more pledgers to make up the gap in our budget. We don’t usually think about making more of ourselves, more disciples, more Christians, who will continuously make more disciples, so that these petty, addition problems won’t really be problems…In essence, it’s all about reproduction. That’s what the early church was like. Jesus called the disciples, who themselves called disciples, and whose disciples even called disciples! In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul reminds the Corinthian church about their real purpose—the ministry of reconciliation, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” And so we too “…implore…on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Multiplication today should still look like it did in the early Church. Just like the disciples at Pentecost, and the believers in Corinth, we too have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. As Disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be ambassadors to a hurting, broken world, offering them new and full life in Christ!
If we are to produce more life for the Kingdom of God, we need to understand the kind of fruit we are called to produce—and this is probably the place where we get it wrong as good church folks most often. The true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree. So it follows, the true fruit of a leader isn’t a follower, but a leader; the true fruit of a disciple isn’t a seeker, but a disciple; the true fruit of an evangelist isn’t converts, but more evangelists; the true fruit of a small group isn’t more active and committed Christians, but more small groups that can help active and committed Christians reproduce themselves! It also follows, in what might be the most difficult leap NCD will ask any of us to make, that the true fruit of a church isn’t believers, but churches!
Multiplication sounds like a “happy” growth force… But, just as in the natural world, death is a natural part of the process for churches. There is a natural limit to everything, from plant life, to human life, to Church life. What we often fail to see is that when we have been faithful, when we have multiplied our numbers by making more disciples and starting more Churches, it is not about keeping the doors of one single Church open, it is about whether or not we can continue to advance the Kingdom of God where we are. Now that does not mean it is time to close the doors here. It does mean that God has called us to do something other than what we are doing. God is calling us to apply the growth forces in order to produce all-by-itself-growth. We are not just being called to produce more Church people here. We are being called to produce more life for the Kingdom.
“…From now on you will fish for people…” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. As disciples our job is never done. As disciples, we are called to make disciples who make disciples, so that we don’t fish to add to our project, our ministry, our small group or even our church—we fish to contribute to the growth of God’s Kingdom! God promised us new life in Christ, new life for us that we can share with others! To advance the Kingdom of God we must let go of what we want, and how we want it, and trust that God fulfills promises. God promised that if we shared the love of Christ, we would be transformed and would transform the world around us! Disciples make disciples, and churches plant churches, and leaders make leaders! We are called to fish for people, to be ambassadors for Christ, releasing the power of Multiplication by reproducing ourselves through the ministry of reconciliation. This is the call of all Christians, to make more of ourselves, for the sake of Christ, whose Body we are!
Kate and David Nicol
Fourth Sunday of Lent: Year C
“…from now on you will fish for people,” Jesus said, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. Yes, I said Church Growth this time—We’re on to another Natural Church Development sermon, but today, we’re tackling Multiplication: God’s Amazing Method for Church Growth.
Much of NCD is about Church Health, but this growth force is about Church Growth—healthy church growth, but church growth nonetheless. Harnessing the power of All-By-Itself-Growth in Multiplication isn’t always easy…but usually, that’s because we fail to understand what God is calling us to do! So what is God calling us to do? God is calling us to multiply rather than add; God is calling us to accept the natural life cycle of things when necessary; God is calling us to remember that the true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree! Multiplication works within nature, much like it ought to operate in the Church. Trees, like any other plants, produce fruit not for the sake of fruit, but to carry the seeds of more trees. In nature, that is what multiplication looks like.
What is God’s form of growth? How does multiplication work in the life of the church? The first thing we need to recognize is that our standards aren’t the same as what we learned in school. When it comes to mathematics, the opposite of multiplication is division—but when we think about the natural processes at work in the church and the plant and animal world, the opposite of multiplication is addition—in fact, division is often a key part of multiplication!
We aren’t called to add to our numbers, but instead, to reproduce ourselves—disciples making disciples, leaders making leaders, and churches making churches… This concept is radically different from the way we think things ought to operate. In most committee meetings, or discussions about Church life we talk about adding to our numbers. But we never really talk about multiplication. Instead, we want to see what we have enlarged, with no end in sight. We worry about where to find another committee member to do some of the work. We obsess over finding a couple more pledgers to make up the gap in our budget. We don’t usually think about making more of ourselves, more disciples, more Christians, who will continuously make more disciples, so that these petty, addition problems won’t really be problems…In essence, it’s all about reproduction. That’s what the early church was like. Jesus called the disciples, who themselves called disciples, and whose disciples even called disciples! In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul reminds the Corinthian church about their real purpose—the ministry of reconciliation, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” And so we too “…implore…on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Multiplication today should still look like it did in the early Church. Just like the disciples at Pentecost, and the believers in Corinth, we too have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. As Disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be ambassadors to a hurting, broken world, offering them new and full life in Christ!
If we are to produce more life for the Kingdom of God, we need to understand the kind of fruit we are called to produce—and this is probably the place where we get it wrong as good church folks most often. The true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree. So it follows, the true fruit of a leader isn’t a follower, but a leader; the true fruit of a disciple isn’t a seeker, but a disciple; the true fruit of an evangelist isn’t converts, but more evangelists; the true fruit of a small group isn’t more active and committed Christians, but more small groups that can help active and committed Christians reproduce themselves! It also follows, in what might be the most difficult leap NCD will ask any of us to make, that the true fruit of a church isn’t believers, but churches!
Multiplication sounds like a “happy” growth force… But, just as in the natural world, death is a natural part of the process for churches. There is a natural limit to everything, from plant life, to human life, to Church life. What we often fail to see is that when we have been faithful, when we have multiplied our numbers by making more disciples and starting more Churches, it is not about keeping the doors of one single Church open, it is about whether or not we can continue to advance the Kingdom of God where we are. Now that does not mean it is time to close the doors here. It does mean that God has called us to do something other than what we are doing. God is calling us to apply the growth forces in order to produce all-by-itself-growth. We are not just being called to produce more Church people here. We are being called to produce more life for the Kingdom.
“…From now on you will fish for people…” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. As disciples our job is never done. As disciples, we are called to make disciples who make disciples, so that we don’t fish to add to our project, our ministry, our small group or even our church—we fish to contribute to the growth of God’s Kingdom! God promised us new life in Christ, new life for us that we can share with others! To advance the Kingdom of God we must let go of what we want, and how we want it, and trust that God fulfills promises. God promised that if we shared the love of Christ, we would be transformed and would transform the world around us! Disciples make disciples, and churches plant churches, and leaders make leaders! We are called to fish for people, to be ambassadors for Christ, releasing the power of Multiplication by reproducing ourselves through the ministry of reconciliation. This is the call of all Christians, to make more of ourselves, for the sake of Christ, whose Body we are!
posted by Rev. David Nicol at 11:00 AM
1 Comments:
I recently moved to elm street.I love the website to your church.I really enjoyed alot of the stories like,fishing for people.I need to get back to church and so do the children.We are a lrge family and always very busy(not 2 busy for god though)I desperately need to talk with you about my wedding.Id really love to have it there.Im getting married JUNE 20th I am crossing my fingers I can have it at the elm street church @ 1:00 I will talk with you about this ASAP as I need to make out the invitations.Itll be a small wedding but Im trying to make it as nice as possible on a light budget as we have a large family to support.Ive left you a few messages and even tried to go to the church but never go @ the right time.If you see this beforeI speak to you please contact me so I can set time to speak eith you BARBARA MACKIE@ 799-2505 or via email@ blondbyn8ture@yahoo.com thank you I look forward to seeing you @ church...
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