“My life is all arithmetic,” the busy pastor explained. "I try to add to my flock, subtract from my weight, divide my time, and multiply me." This wise pastor is right.  We are to be about the ministry of multiplying ourselves. 

As young children, we learned the definitions and principles of multiplication.  Cells multiply, and organisms grow. Reproduction is a normal sign of healthy life.  Healthy churches multiply churches.  Healthy disciples multiply disciples.

Rabbits are experts in multiplying. When we first began our teaching ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, we accepted a gift of two rabbits from a friend. We fenced in a small area under a wooden tree house in our backyard and soon  left on a family vacation. When we arrived home, I jokingly commented how funny it would be to return to a cage full of bunnies. As the car turned toward the bunny house, the headlights lit up six sets of tiny eyes. Our rabbits had multiplied! 

We all know that multiplication means “to grow in amount,” “to become greater in number,” or “to increase in extent and influence.” But, what does multiplication have to do with your church?

Let’s begin to answer this question by asking… What are you doing in your church to purposefully mature believers? What strategies enhance the growth and health of your church? Are you reaching people only to find that they have found the back door or have become frustrated or complacent in serving the Master? Consider which of the following most closely resembles your church’s strategy.

The Strategy of Addition: If you have 200 members in your church, and you add 20 new members this coming year, then you will have 220 members at the end of the year. There would be more of you there, but how can you measure everyone’s spiritual growth?  More members, but what are they doing? More on the church rolls, but how are you doing church? Would just having more necessarily be better?  Who is maturing in Christ?

The Strategy of Subtraction: If you have 200 members in your church, and you lose 20 members this coming year, then you will have 180 members. Admittedly, no one really sets out with this strategy. Nonetheless, if this happens, you lose focus. With this strategy you soon will be discussing how you can sell your property to someone interested in starting a new restaurant.  Again, who is maturing in Christ?

The Strategy of Division:  If you have 200 members in your church, and you divide this number by two, then you have what is commonly called a “church split.”  For whatever reason, two warring bodies cannot get along, and this disruption in the body stifles growth, promotes disunity, harms our witness, and hurts Kingdom growth.  Now you have a regression in the maturity process.

The Strategy of Multiplication: If you have 200 members in your church and each member disciples a new believer, then at the end of the year you will have 400 discipled people ready to disciple a total of 400 more people.  The result of your ministry then becomes discipled people—people who are mature in Christ.

Now, you do the math…if one disciple disciples one person during the first year, at the end of that year you will have two disciplers—the person doing the discipling and the discipled person. If those two disciples then each disciple two more people, after the second year you will have four disciplers. Then, if those four disciples each disciple a person, you will have eight discipled people. If you continue this strategy, where everyone discipled is discipling one person every year, then after thirty-four years, 8 billion people will be discipled (more than the present population of our planet!)  Multiplication means biblical disciple making, and biblical disciple making means multiplication.

The late evangelist Leonard Ravenhill once told of a group of tourists visiting a picturesque village. As they walked by an old man sitting beside a fence, one tourist asked, “Were any great men born in this village?”  The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.”

The same can be said of the church.  Babies in Christ are to be discipled until they become disciplers themselves. As the apostle Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:28, We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  
 
How Do We Accomplish Spiritual Multiplication?

So, how do we accomplish this strategy of spiritual multiplication? First, notice The Proclamation of the Master- We proclaim Him. Every believer is individually responsible for proclaiming, Jesus is the risen Savior! Jesus is the Center of Attention. He is our Focal Point, our Spotlight. Our proclamation is single-minded as we proclaim Him and Him alone. If we teach and preach anything less than Jesus, and He crucified and raised, then we pervert the very commission we have been given.

Second, observe The Presentation of the Message- warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom. Our instructions, warnings, and teachings are directed to everyone. No one is excused from our presentation. “Everyone” does not mean only those with like interests or common economic status. It does not mean only those we enjoy being with.  Everyone means everyone. Everyone is to be discipled. And our presentation is with all wisdom which means that it comes directly from the very heart of God. We proclaim the Master in our presentation of the message which is given to us through His wisdom.

And third, understand The Product of the Ministry- so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. The effectiveness of our ministry is measured by the spiritual legacy of our making disciples. No one will remember the buildings we build or the accolades we hear during our time here on earth. What will last throughout eternity are those we lead to the Lord and help mature in the faith. Mature disciplers winning our world for Christ is our lasting legacy.

On many occasions, Jesus addressed large crowds. However, Jesus invested Himself in a group of men for three years. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach (Mark 3:14). He invested in their lives. He focused on the few. And He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19). Jesus discipled these men.

This method continued with the early church. In Antioch, Paul and Barnabas invested their lives with the believers (Acts 11:21-26), and a great number of people believed (verse 21), and a great number of people were brought to the Lord (verse 24).  For an entire year, Paul and Barnabas discipled these believers (Acts 11:26) in order that they would be sent out as missionaries—prepared to disciple others. It is no accident that the Greek word for disciple comes from a secular word that means apprentice. A disciple, then, is a student of a particular trade who works alongside the master in order to learn the trade. As disciples, we are imitators of the Master.

It has been said that “evangelism is not complete until the evangelized become the evangelists.” I add this word…”discipleship is not complete until the discipled become the disciplers!”  Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:2. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. This is discipleship! This is the biblical mandate for spiritual multiplication.

We “amen” and applaud when a new believer is introduced to the church family at the end of our worship services, and so we should. However, there should be the same excitement when we connect new believers with mature believers. The fulfillment of God’s disciple making mandate should be celebrated. We proclaim Jesus and present His message so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’    (Matthew 28:18-20)

Intentional Discipleship

The discipleship process must be an intentional one. It takes time and commitment. We must purpose to provide training and organization to the process. There must be accountability, one to another. The only way to reach our world with the Gospel is by continuous multiplication. It is impossible to reach the world by addition. It is caustic to show the world subtraction. It is fatal to teach our world division.  Multiplying disciples must be the focus of all we do in our churches. If not, then we willingly submit to simply adding to, or subtracting from, or even dividing our churches.

Now, take a quick inventory of yourself and your church:
• Does your church care about reaching the lost in your community?
• Does your church view its members as ministers?
• Do your church members view themselves as ministers or spectators?
• How does your church train or equip your members?
• Are you involved in personal discipleship (being discipled or discipling someone else?)
• Does your current church structure encourage making disciples?
• Does your church budget place priority on discipleship?
• Do your personal and church calendars place priority on discipleship?
• If your church lost your pastor and/or staff, would you continue your disciple making strategies?

Do you believe in the power of one? Would you spend as much time preparing a sermon or Bible study for one person as you would for a thousand? One person committed to faithfully discipling another person is the dynamite God uses in changing a life and exciting a church. During this coming year, would you be willing to disciple one person? Would your church commit to undertaking an emphasis of every believer discipling one person during the year? One person discipling one person has a cascading effect on the building of God’s Kingdom.

The same strategy God used in growing the earth, “be fruitful and multiply,” is the same strategy He is using to grow heaven—multiplication. Do you and your church need to relearn or reapply the principles of multiplication? This is really not new math, but rather a solid, biblical pattern of growing heaven.

I recently added some more flooring in our attic to carry on the endless activity of storing stuff out of sight but still within reach. I was mindful of a few open areas not covered by flooring, as I stepped here and there, reminding myself not to hurry. The last thing I needed was to spend my Saturday dangling my legs through the sheet rock of my ceiling.

But in less than ten minutes, that’s exactly what happened.  My right foot had touched an opening and half my body found its way poking through the ceiling. In less than a split second, I lost focus. I knew what I needed to do, and what I needed to avoid, but I lost focus.

When we lose focus—forgetting that our mission is multiplication—we end up with addition, subtraction, or even division.

God, help us not to lose our focus. Keep our hearts pure, our feet on steady footing, and our disciple making persistent… for the sake of the Kingdom! And, May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you!  (Deuteronomy 1:11)

Jerry and his wife, Bayne, have been writing and speaking on the topics of marriage and family enrichment for nearly 30 years. Their passion is to help strengthen homes by teaching families how to become disciple making families. Jerry serves as the assistant to the president and professor of discipleship at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Bayne also serves NOBTS as assistant professor of Christian education.