From the beginning of its inception, Restoration Church has had a strong desire to multiply. We count multiplication as one of our core values. There are questions that quickly arise around the topic of multiplication. The two questions that this article will focus on are the “why” and the “how” of multiplication.
The “why” should be an easy question to answer. If you go back to the Garden of Eden, God gives Adam and Eve the command to, “be fruitful and multiply.” In this particular context, we’re talking about growing families through offspring. The Bible continues the theme of multiplication as you see the people of God grow in numbers throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament, you begin to see multiplication in relation to the number of disciples that are following Jesus. Then you see the multiplication of churches with the ministry of the apostles and the early church. And so, it continues with us! The “why” behind multiplication is to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well” (Luke 4:43).
The “how” of multiplication is a little more difficult to talk about, but I think the conversation starts with culture. At Restoration Church, our desire is to create a sending culture. We want to send missionaries (short and long term), we want to send church planters, we want to send ministry leaders to other ministries, and we want to send disciples into the workplace. To create the culture, I believe there are three practical applications:
Talk about sending and multiplying OFTEN!
Pray for laborers to be sent
Train your people as missionaries
Multiplication and sending don’t happen by accident. You have to talk about it OFTEN! At some point, talking about the same thing over and over can feel monotonous. However, the commands of Scripture should never become boring or monotonous. We try to highlight multiplication anytime we see it in Scripture because we believe that it is part of God’s plan.
Jesus says in Luke 10:2 “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” If we desire to send people out, then we must pray earnestly and expectantly to the Lord of the harvest! We should do this publicly and privately as part of our regular rhythms.
Not only should we pray, but we should train those that respond to the calling to go. Training is key to sustainability on the field, both nationally and internationally. Our goal at Restoration Church is to train up laborers to send into the harvest where they currently live, but also, where God would call them in the future.
Creating and building a culture is not something that happens over night, but a culture that honors God and sees more churches planted and missionaries sent…that’s a work that I’ll give my life to!
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