Transforming Church Growth: From Addition to Multiplication

What if church were different? What if we grew exponentially instead of by addition? 

Upwards of 80% of church growth is actually transfer growth.[1] We rearrange the furniture on the Titanic quite a bit, so to speak, but we’re not moving a whole lot of new people into the lifeboats. We’re adding some but we’re not multiplying very much. 

The early church exploded, it didn’t merely add. Larry Hurtado gives this estimate on the exponential growth of Christianity: “One thousand Christians in 40 AD, about seven to ten thousand by 100 AD, about two hundred thousand or a bit more by 200 AD, and by 300 AD perhaps five to six million.”[2] There was a time when Methodists were growing at an outlandish pace. In 1776 Methodists made up just 2.5 % of religious adherents but by 1850 they were up to 34.2 %. Explosive growth has happened at various times throughout church history. How can it happen again in America? 

First, we need to think super simple and super small. 

You may be familiar with the story of the inventor of the chess game. As a reward for his invention he was offered one free wish as his reward by the king of India. As a most ‘modest’ reward, he wished just for a kernel of rice on the first square of the chess board to be squared (multiplied by itself) for every section of the chess board—64 sections in all. That will mean two kernels on the second square, four on the third, sixteen on the forth, and so on. The king, who had initially smiled on it, thinking that he would get off lightly, simply could not grant the wish. He would have to produce 26 kernels of rice, which is 2,223,372,036,000,000,000 kernels, or 153 billion tons of rice.[3]

We must do all the Bible things a church has to do but not all the modern American things, it doesn’t have to do. Simple things can spread quickly, but complexity bogs down. Also, disciples disciple, consumers don’t. 

Second, trust that the Spirit has endowed the church body and individuals with various gifts to build up the body. Every Jesus follower has God the Spirit within them. They have latent potential. When Jesus’ followers work with others in the body, the body grows. It builds itself up in love. All the markings of a Jesus movement are contained in one church body. Just as, “In the seed the whole tree lies coiled, and in the tree, there lies the potential for the production of countless other seeds. In the tree is the full potential of the forest.”[4]

God has gifted His people. We go in the confidence of Jesus the Lord who has “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matt. 28:18). We go with the power of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who is with us and for us. We don’t need huge budgets and fancy buildings. We need to lean into all that God has already provided. It is more than enough. When we overly rely on buildings, budgets, and human wisdom, we often emphasize our power, and not God’s, and thus don’t see explosive growth. As D.L. Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to God.” What if we raise up an army of men and women who set their faces like flint and put their hands to the plow? 

God never promised to bless our innovation or entertainment. He said sow, and then we’ll reap. It won’t always be “sexy,” in fact, it will often be scary, but that’s the work our Master has told us to be about. 

The Jesus movement was not exponential, at first. By definition, nothing is exponential at first. But, if we actually focus on disciple-making, and not injecting Christians with consumerism resulting in lethargy and atrophy, a movement can happen. 

We see a pattern of multiplication in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). God says to Abraham,  “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore”(Gen. 22:17). We see a call for multiplication in Acts (1:8) and we see that multiplication happening: “The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied” (9:31).[5] Thus, later in Revelation, we see “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9-10). 

Paul was about the multiplication of the Church and sacrificed to see it spread. Paul multiplied himself in others to facilitate the multiplication of the Church. Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1 cf. Acts 20:18ff; Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7-8; Heb. 13:7; 1 Pet. 5:2-3).[6] Thus, Paul taught men, like Timothy, who would be able to carry on and teach others (2 Tim. 2:2). Paul’s desire was not to merely preach but to make many disciples. That was Paul’s consuming toil and struggle (Acts 14:21 cf. Col. 1:28-29). He sought the strength of his disciples and not merely their salvation (Acts 14:22; 15:32-41; 16:5; 18:23). 

A church is never meant to be about that one church, it is to be about the Kingdom of God, the Church. So, the church is to pursue multiplication because it is a mere embassy of the Kingdom, it’s a local outpost. But, the church is about the Kingdom, and Kingdom expansion. 

Notes

[1] Ken Sidey says, “research that shows that more than 80 percent of all the growth taking place in growing churches comes through transfer, not conversion” (“Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas” https://www.christianitytoday.com/1991/06/church-growth-fine-tunes-its-formulas/ see also David Dunlap, “The Myth of Church Growth,” Current Thoughts and Trends, 8/6, (June 1998), 7). 

[2] Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 3. 

[3] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 208.

[4] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 206.

[5] “There must have been hundreds of churches in the small cities and towns throughout this large region, but all of them together can be called a “church” (Gk. ekklēsia, singular in the earliest and best manuscripts of this verse, though some later manuscripts have the plural). The NT can apply the singular word “church” to the church meeting in a home (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19), in an entire city (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1), in a large region (as here), or throughout the whole world (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 5:25)” (ESV Study Bible note on Acts 9:31). 

[6] Robert L. Plummber, “Imitation of Paul and the Church’s Missionary Role in 1 Corinthians” in JETS 44/2 (June 2001) 219-35. This article demonstrates that individuals are called to imitate Paul in his witness for the gospel. However, Paul did not expect “bland uniformity” (235) because people are entrusted with different stewardships.