The Biblical Principle of Multiplication

Do you ever feel lost in the magnitude of the Great Commission to go make disciples of all nations?

Does MVVC's vision to reach and disciple the Muskingum Valley appear out of reach?
 
Does asking for 100 microchurches over 10 years seem unrealistic?

Rest assured, God knows we need His help and has also provided some Biblical principles to assist us!

Let's explore multiplication and how it can help us on the mission God has given His church!

Here is an illustration to help us grasp the concept of multiplication:

Image you are presented with a choice between two options:
Option 1 - You receive $25,000 a day for the next thirty days. Each day you wake up with another $25K in the bank.
Option 2 - You receive $0.01 that doubles each day for 30 days. Today you receive a penny, tomorrow you receive two pennies and so on.

Which would you choose?

If you chose the $25,000 option, at the end of thirty days you would have received $750,000. That is no small amount of money!

You may have suspected the penny could amount to more.
But, how much more?

If you chose the $0.01 that doubled, at the end of thirty days you would have received over $10.7 million dollars!

This is the power of multiplication.

The $25,000 option represents addition, while the penny represents multiplication.
 
It is important to note that the penny option does not receive $25,000 until day twenty-one of thirty. This is the same amount the other option received on the first day.

Because of this, multiplication will often see a slow start. The base slowly increases while the potential for impact grows and grows.

Jesus, the master multiplier, is our model for multiplication. He multiplied things like bread and fish. He also multiplied himself in the lives of his disciples.

The followers of Jesus throughout history number in the billions. He has been very successful in reproducing himself through his disciples for the past 2,000 years.

How did he do this?
Jesus spent time a great deal of time with the disciples. He sent out the twelve and the seventy-two to do the works of the kingdom that he had been doing. Before he ascended, he left them with the commission to disciple all nations.

Multiplication can take a small start and grow from one penny to two pennies, until you have millions. That is precisely what Jesus was doing.

He took his life and invested it in others to turn his one penny into twelve pennies. Today we can look back at how the life of Jesus has multiplied to reach billions.
Jesus taught on the relationship between multiplication and the Kingdom of God. Consider the parable of the soils. The seed that fell on good soil will produce a crop and can multiply thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown.

The apostle Paul had the same idea.
2 Timothy 2:2 says, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."

Imagine if Paul taught two other friends the same concept. Now, imagine each of his three friends invested in three other reliable people. And if each of those reliable people invested in three others. 

In this imaginative exercise, Paul's life grew to impact more than just his three friends. As a result of Paul's faithfulness, 9 reliable people and 27 others were discipled.

2 Timothy 2:2 provides an example to take faithful people and make them disciple-makers.

The Great Commission is only possible if disciples are faithful in making disciple-makers.

If we follow Jesus' example, we will focus on the few to reach the many. We will be faithful and take our time with those he has given us to disciple.

It is important to understand that multiplication is a principle and not a promise.

Multiplication as a principle allows penny go a long way.

Yet, the growth of the church does not always occur through multiplication.

In Acts 2, we see 3,000 join the body of Christ in one day because of a handful of disciples filled with the Holy Spirit.

God can always blow open the doors and draw a large number of people in at once.

But, the principle never goes away.

Multiplication is a factor regardless of how people enter relationship with God

All 3,000 baptized disciples may become disciple-makers. Multiplication kicks into gear after a supercharged period of growth.

They went from "twelve pennies" to "thirty dollars" in one day that may now begin to multiply.

We are asking God for 100 microchurches in 10 years.

We may be prone to discouragement if we do not understand multiplication and expect rapid results.

We may also try to speed things up instead of slowing down. Trying to do what we can in our own power instead of relying on God and His power.

Multiplication takes the weight off us and puts it on God.

It is not about speed, it is about our faithfulness.

Multiplication invites us to go slow to go fast.

It allows us to have exponential impact by taking our time and investing in those God has put in our lives to disciple.

Let's invest our one penny in a way that multiplies and continues to grow.