The Law of Multiplication

                                  

Jesus spent most of his time with twelve average men: fishermen, tax collectors, and the like. While he was with them for three years, they were undependable, slow to learn, and, at times, self-absorbed. Yet Jesus' plan was to disciple these twelve men and then to turn them loose to take the most important message of all time to the entire world.

What if they failed? What was Plan B? There was no other plan. Jesus could have devoted his time to the masses so that they would be saved, but he could not have developed the kind of intimate relationships with them that he had with his apostles. That is the genius of his strategy. By spending time intensely discipling a few, they would be equipped to multiply his message over and over again.

Jesus did spend some time with the multitudes, but he concentrated on the smaller groups, particularly the twelve, and especially the three—Peter, James, and John. After Pentecost, the apostles also spent some time with the multitudes, but they spent a considerable amount of time in smaller groups. In years past, the church has stressed reaching out to the multitudes through rallies, revivals, and crusades. Not as much attention has been placed on conserving the harvest, assimilating new members into the body, and helping them to become healthy, growing disciples. This was not the strategy of Jesus or the early church.

The need is to place greater stress on smaller groups of people, but certainly not at the expense of the multitudes. The church must first build the foundation, and that foundation is the small group, just as Jesus' primary ministry was with his small group. Small groups themselves, however, do not make disciples. Neither do Sunday schools, evangelism programs, or worship services. Programs do not make disciples. Disciples make disciples.

While I was Associate Editor at The Lookout magazine, we once received a letter from a reader who disagreed with an article about the Great Commission. She argued that Jesus gave the Commission to his apostles only, not to Christians today. The thought is absurd! Jesus would not give instructions, especially instructions as important as these, that would be impossible to fulfill. But it would have been impossible for twelve men, or even one hundred and twenty people, to disciple all nations. In fact, the genius of Jesus' strategy is that his Commission would be passed on from disciple to disciple to disciple, through the generations, until all the world could be discipled.

Disciples making disciples is the law of multiplication. In the past, the church has used the law of addition. As an example, say an evangelist wins one thousand people per day (a rather good harvest!). At the end of one year he has won 365,000 people. At the end of twenty-five years, he has won 9,125,000 people.

Multiplication works differently and more slowly. Say a disciple wins and trains one person a year. At the end of one year, there are two disciples. But each of those two disciples wins and trains one person the following year, and so on. At the end of twenty-five years, 33,554,432 disciples have been won and taught. It would take the evangelist nearly ninety-two years to win that many people to Christ (without being able to adequately disciple them). Using the multiplication method as described above, the entire world could be discipled in less than thirty-five years.

If individuals multiplying themselves works this good, imagine how multiplying groups of people could work!

Only certain individuals in the church have the spiritual gift of evangelism (Ephesians 4:11). Peter Wagner says only ten percent of church members have the gift of evangelist and only one-half percent are doing it. But everyone is a witness. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The apostles could be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and maybe Judea and Samaria, but it would have been too much to ask of a few relatively uneducated men to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. That assignment was given to all Christians, and all who are really his disciples have the ability and opportunity to carry it out either in their own neighborhoods or work places or as overseas missionaries.

If God's church is to multiply the way he intended, it must get serious about discipleship. Small groups are perhaps the best places for that to start, but it must originate with leaders. Who are you pouring your life into—discipling, mentoring, apprenticing?

 Written by Michael C. Mack