The round goby is an invasive fish species first introduced into the Great Lakes in 1990 from ship ballast water. Twelve years later, their estimated population in the Western Basin of Lake Erie alone was 9.9 billion.1
Spiritual multiplication is more difficult than the round goby’s dramatic expansion. They had little environmental resistance to their population explosion. We have stout opposition from the world system, our sinful nature, and the devil.
Nevertheless, we can multiply evangelists, leaders, teachers, workers, church planters, small groups, Sunday school classes, prayer groups, ministries, and activities. Doing so increases the potential fruit of our ministry (John 15:8). Many successful ministries use the potent power of multiplication.
Successful multipliers equip others to join them in ministering to others. They also pass their ministry batons for the next generation to continue when they no longer can.
In early November 2023, for the first time, I helped people in our church make over 400 apple dumplings. The process went very smoothly. About twenty people took part. Everyone but me had helped previously, had a specific job, and knew exactly how to do it. Multiplying the number of workers from one to twenty enabled job completion in a few hours.
Multiplication figuratively increases the size of the field we’re sowing and cultivating, and ultimately, the size of the harvest. It also ensures farming that field generation after generation. Multiplication requires developing our spiritual fishing (Matthew 4:19), discipling (Matthew 28:18–20), and leadership skills.
Facebook, for example, enables us to use the potent power of multiplication. I promoted a blog post, “Jesus Is Lord” on Facebook for more than a year. It supplies evidence that Jesus is God. More than 40,000 people shared it with their Facebook friends. Each had an average of 338 friends.2 That touched an additional 13.5 million more people with the post. But there’s more.
If I printed the content of “Jesus Is Lord,” put it in an envelope, and mailed it within the USA, for four dollars postage I could send it to six people. For the same four dollars through Facebook, I have reached as many as 114,000 people in a day in the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. With God-inspired wisdom, we can use technology to multiply our spiritual fruit.
How do we get started applying the potent power of multiplication? First, we pray for laborers for the harvest.
Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (Matthew 9:37–38 NLT). We get more workers by asking for them. Praying for laborers for the harvest should be part of every church ministry.
To enhance multiplication, we should:
1. Apply multiplication in your ministry. For example, The Timothy Initiative expects disciples to make disciples and churches to plant churches. They partner with local leaders to reach some of the most unreached areas of the world for Christ. As of 2019, the ministry had planted 60,000 small churches. Ministry multiplication is rare because we don’t even try to do it.
2. Use reproducible ministry resources. We should be able to use the materials that trained us to train others. For example, at least five pastors who were in classes studying my book, “His Power for Your Weakness” in Malawi or Mozambique have taught classes to others using that resource (2 Timothy 2:2). Cru has used Transferable Concepts to teach key spiritual truths for more than fifty years. The Timothy Initiative uses reproducible discipleship materials also.
3. Employ ministry teams. Jesus sent the 72 out in teams of two (Luke 10:1–24). Like the aforementioned apple dumpling gang, ministry teams foster mutual encouragement and accountability, specific training, greater commitment to the Lord’s work, and enhanced fruitfulness.
4. Give ministry placement direction. One or more ministry placement specialists in the church can match people with specific ministry teams based on their personalities, spiritual passions, and spiritual gifts. Trial and error is still involved, but this is a practical tool to help Christians discover their divine designs.
5. Encourage those who minister. Ongoing encouragement from leaders and within ministry teams overcomes the temptation to lose heart and give up because serving the Lord is an unrelenting spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10–20). #freechristiandiscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources
See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com
God has equipped and empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free devotional discipleship resource. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 2,400 people to faith in Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 3,174 people. I invite you to check it out. https://www.christiangrowthresources.com/his-power-for-your-weakness
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