LEVERAGE: Making the great commission doable.

Jesus' Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is a tall order. Many pastors live under a cloud of guilt because their efforts toward its fulfillment seem to consistently fall short. In fact, this is true of the entire Christian church. We are always looking at that goal as unmet.

Some have even given up on the Great Commission as a doable task, surrendering to the idea of merely building the largest congregation they can in hopes of making a small difference.

This is perhaps most true among leaders of smaller churches. This form of stewardship still falls short and leaves us feeling short. Multiplying our churches is the only realistic way to approach the Great Commission. It's all about leverage.Our problem is as old as the gospel itself, we still lack enough labor to bring in the Harvest.

Answer this question: Would it be easier to grow a church stalled at 80 members, to 400, or would it be easier to launch five churches that might grow to 80 persons each in a decade? Multiplication opens new realms of possibility.

Leveraging Your Influence

A wise man once wrote, "Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor" (Eccles. 4:9). I recently experienced an example of this truth as I was helping my neighbor and his wife repair their small floating boat dock. The contraption is basically a wood deck built on top of a half dozen large plastic barrels. One barrel had slipped out and broken free from the frame during a heavy storm. I'm new in the neighborhood, and trying to make friends, so I offered a hand at what seemed an impossible task. They were trying to force a large air-filled barrel under a heavy floating motorized raft. The raft relies on these
barrels to stay afloat.

My neighbor had positioned his wife on the opposite end of the raft, hoping to lift his side of it out of the water enough to slip the barrel under the raised structure. But they lacked enough leverage to do the job. When I volunteered to help, he positioned me next to his wife on one end of the vessel, leveraging our combined weight. At first we nearly capsized the raft. Together we had leverage that neither of us could have had alone. Once we learned to balance the thing, we easily lifted the contraption enough that my friend could slip that obstinate barrel underneath with one hand. Our combined weight could accomplish far more than that of either of us
operating singly.

There is a lesson in this for the church. What is impossible for a single congregation gets easy when more become involved. I'm not just talking about church unity here. What would happen if you were to double the number of congregations in your town? What if you could multiply your church 10 times, or 100? What difference could you make if you really set out to make disciples of all the nations? Leverage is the key to Great Commission success.

The writer of Ecclesiastes went on to say, "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back- to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken" (Eccles. 4:12). Let's paraphrase it:
"Two have a better chance at victory in spiritual warfare than one; and a bigger team is better than a smaller one."

Again, leverage comes to mind. I learned this lesson as soon as we planted our first daughter church. My disciple immediately became my peer. Something healthy happened in our relationship that strengthened both of us. And my own church took on a new sense of victory knowing that we had multiplied ourselves into two strong congregations.

The lesson came home in a greater way when we began planting churches in Honolulu. We set out to reach 1 percent of the population of Hawaii, in churches we had started or helped to start, in 10 years (Easter attendance). This took place when only four percent in the state identified themselves as Christians. It took us 11 years to reach the goal. As a bonus, our activities stimulated the launch of two other church multiplication movements. Along with the three movements, several individual congregations have launched one or two churches. Better yet, some of those leaders who currently plant churches were the very people who resisted the idea (and us) in the beginning.

When we started, we couldn't rent public schools for church services because of a legal snag. That got resolved, but today we face the same problem, but for a different reason. We now have difficulty renting a school to plant a church because there are churches meeting in virtually every school in the state. Some schools host three separate congregations on a weekend. As a result, we are now learning to launch house churches.

Have you ever noticed the shrinkage that takes place through mergers? In business that shrinkage is the intended purpose. You merge two entities, lay off redundant people and build a more profitable company. But mergers often break down, and they may never result in the joined entity taking a broader share of the market. In order to gain market share, a company needs to open lots of branches or get into franchising its operation. Joining two businesses can result in less than the sum of the parts, while hiving off new locations enlarges profitability. In other words, you subtract by adding two entities together, and you multiply by dividing them.

The same is true in church. If you merge two Bible studies, a month later you will net fewer people than you started with. Merge two congregations and the same thing happens. But if you multiply a Bible study by dividing it into two, what do you have in a month? More people! The same holds for churches.

If you've adequately trained leadership, you are on your way to the Great Commission by making disciples and sending them out to multiply your church. Evangelism is not as difficult as we've made it. I like to think of this process as "equip and release." Not too different from fishermen who "catch and release." Most
churches think of equipping people so they can serve the organization.

They want to keep them. It's more fun and far more productive to train leaders and then release them to multiply the Kingdom.

Why Should You Care?
I have a suspicion that you are a lot like me. You often lay awake at nights worrying about how to leverage the influence of the gospel in our culture. You probably try to assess your own limits. The conversation in my head goes like this: Just how much of the world am I responsible for? I know I can't touch everyone. But how much is enough? What will earn me those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant"?

Well, I can't argue your limits before God. I'm not even all that sure of my own. I do know this. I am not responsible for the whole world. But I also know that I am responsible to do all that I have with the hand the Lord has dealt me. I can pastor only so many people. If I knew how to pastor more (in my own church) I would. But I don't. Meanwhile, multiplying our church has allowed me to leverage my somewhat limited gifts to touch a whole lot more people around the world than I would have by beating my brains out trying to grow our church.

Exponential Growth Is Possible
Church multiplication carries the potential for exponential growth of the gospel. We see this all over the world. Churches that multiply cover greater geography with their message. Those that don't remain confined to a given locality.

I recently spoke with a pastor in Myanmar who struggled to see the multiplication factor as viable in his hometown while operating it in the countryside. His congregation had launched more than 100 successful churches in a rural state but not a single one in Yangon, the capital city (formerly known as Rangoon, Burma).

When I asked why they didn't multiply congregations in their own metropolis, he didn't seem to understand the question. He answered, "We are a big church, and we are reaching the city." When I compared the size of his very large congregation to the 6 million people living in that city, his eyes lit up. He suddenly saw the potential for exponential growth in the influential center of his nation. I think he will feel a lot more fulfilled after he begins multiplying churches in Yangon, as well as in the countryside.

One of the most exciting things about multiplying our own church has been what it does at home when we hear news of victory in our church plants. Enthusiasm and momentum are priceless commodities. They are the common returns of church multiplication. I sleep better knowing that my congregation is excited about the gospel.

The excitement quotient rises with every testimony of grace in one of our church plants. It is especially high during those months just before and just after we send out a crew to start a new church. We usually grow in number enough that we fill up within weeks of launching a new church. I believe a stalled congregation can nearly always grow its way back to momentum by preparing for and launching a new church. The
process is invigorating.

In fact, I've watched some pretty unhealthy churches get well through church multiplication. The story goes like this. A church is dying. Some discontented people get an idea to start a new church in order to escape the squabbling and entrenched positions. Meanwhile, someone grows wise enough to dub the separation a birth rather than a split. The proud parent (church) gleans fresh life from the birthing process.

One of my church multiplying friends maintains that some churches should never think of multiplying lest they "clone their unhealthiness." I maintain that such a condition can change through intentional multiplication. Few have ever cloned a church. Most church planters choose the best characteristics from even an unhealthy congregation to use as building blocks. There are very few churches that are too unhealthy to reproduce.

To take this a step further, we should think back to the Protestant Reformation. Luther, in his idealism, broke from the prevailing state church because of what he saw as extreme ill health. Yet he used its basic structure in igniting the birth of a host of new congregations.

Exhaling Is as Important as Inhaling
Your body wouldn't survive if you never learned to exhale. Fresh oxygen turns to carbon dioxide in the blood. It becomes a poison that can kill us. Interestingly, plants breathe carbon dioxide, giving off oxygen as they "exhale."

What is true of your body is also true of the body of Christ. Your church needs to exhale every so often in order to remain healthy. Space won't permit me to tell you all the stories of the "pew-sitters" who have gotten involved every time we have launched a church.

Whenever we multiply, we send out a significant number of active and fruitful leaders. Some of those who leave have grown stale in their slot in our church. But the move invigorates them— it also clears the way for someone with fresh vision to take their place. It has become a hobby of mine to watch for formerly underactive
members to arise and take their place. Exhaling members allows for the fresh wind of the Spirit in our midst.

The Community Benefits
As I've mentioned, our church has been around for more than two decades. While we've planted churches, we've also grown into one of the largest Protestant congregations in our small town. And our job is getting easier. We now enjoy the partnership of the newer congregations in our locale—those we started and those we didn't. As we band together, we strengthen each other's resolve and are able to bless the community in ways that none of us could do alone.

Fellowship between pastors has a long tradition in our town. But the newer churches are the ones stoking the flames of evangelism in the rest of us. I am thrilled knowing that there is a growing cadre of labor ready and available for the harvest in
our community.

As I write, one of our "granddaughter" churches, in another community, just announced that they are launching a new church in our town. We already have two churches of our denomination in a town of just 40,000, but together we reach fewer than 10 percent of the people. We can't wait to welcome the newcomer.

Excerpted from How to Multiply Your Church – The Most Effective Way to Grow by Ralph Moore. Copyright © 2009 by Ralph Moore. Excerpted with permission by Regal Books.

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