H a b i t 1 2 : Multiply SEEK THE WELFARE OF THE CITY
Jesus saved us to send us. Right from the start Jesus’s call to follow him was
for the purpose of fishing for him. We are disciples making disciples, we are followers and fishers. Discipleship was never exclusively about us, but about a much larger adventure and mission of making God’s glory known through the timeless method of making, maturing, and multiplying more disciples of Jesus. Thus, this discipleship journey comes to a graduation and transition point that is celebratory, difficult, and thrilling as you multiply Jesus’ movement. Some of you will continue together by pulling some new people into your group, others of you will continue together by being sent out (ideally as a group of 2, we see a biblical pattern of people being sent in groups of 2) to multiply this group—planting a new Discipleship Group that will give Life to others.
MEMORIZE
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. - John 17:18
STUDY JOHN 17 AND JEREMIAH 29:1-7.
John 17 is a long, beautiful prayer by Jesus that gives us deep insight into
the heart of God and his disciple-making mission. Take extended time to discuss and pray through this prayer together. What do you see and learn here about the heart of God, the Trinity, relationships, doctrine, disciple-making, sending and multiplication, danger to look out for, mission, etc.? What connections do you see between John 17 and God’s instructions to his exiled people in Jeremiah 29? What connections do you see among these texts, the core book you’ve read throughout this journey, and with what God has done with your Discipleship Group?
MEMORIZE
Plant gardens…multiply there, and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. - Jeremiah 29
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Robert Coleman
“It all comes back to his disciples. They were the vanguard of his enveloping movement. ‘Through their word’ he expected others to believe in him (John 17:20), and these in turn to pass the word along to others, until in time the world might know who he was and what he came to do (John 17:21, 23). His whole evangelistic strategy—indeed the fulfillment of his very purpose in coming into the world, dying on the cross, and rising from the grace—depended on the faithfulness of his chosen disciples to this task. It did not matter how small the group was to start with so long as they reproduced and taught their disciples to reproduce. This was the way his church was to win—through the dedicated lives of those who knew the Savior so well that his Spirit and method constrained them to tell others. As simple as it may seem, this was the way the gospel would conquer. He had no other plan.”
GRADUATE. BRING THIS DISCIPLESHIP GROUP JOURNEY TO A CELEBRATORY ENDING & SENDING POINT.
It’s important to mark important occasions. You’ve spent 6-12 months fol-
lowing Jesus and fishing for Jesus together, now it’s time to graduate so that you can multiply. Jesus’ “graduation ceremony” with his disciples was the Last Supper. Dream up a special graduation ceremony for your group. You may want to include the naming exercise from Habit #11 as part of this. Perhaps you want to hold a big feast. Perhaps you want to mark the moment by anointing one another’s heads with oil, washing feet, or going back to the place where this journey first began. Take extended time to thank and praise God for everything he’s done throughout this journey. Whatever you do, put intentionality and celebration into this moment. Consider taking pictures for memories sake, and perhaps to share with our entire church family to spur us all
MEMORIZE
on in this disciple-making mission.
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. - 2 Timothy 2:1-2
“In each stage of life and each stage of faith something will have to die before we can experience true growth. We must subject ourselves to both a natural and a supernatural pruning…The model for transition is found in Christ’s passion. Jesus was alive to life. Then he surrendered and died to that life. Then he was raised to a newness of life.”
Rich Plass 100
MULTIPLY!
Now that you’ve practiced the habit of graduation, it’s time to practice the habit
of multiplication. You’ve been praying about and planning for this since the beginning (ever since you wrote out your plan in Habit #1), now it’s time to get final clarity on your plan and to actually multiply. Send out (never say “split” or “separate,” we don’t accidentally split or separate, we intentionally “send”) the 1 or 2 (sending in 2s is ideal) people you and the Lord have selected to start a new Discipleship Group that will one day start another Discipleship Group. See the big difference between addition and multiplication. Addition is simply making 1 disciple or starting 1 Discipleship Group. Multiplication is making a disciple who will make a disciple (see 2 Timothy 2:1-2 on previous page), multiplying a group that will multiply another group, planting a church that plants a church that will plant another church, etc. Walter Henrichsen illustrates the process of multiplication: Suppose a father offers his two sons the choice of taking either 1 dollar a week for 52 weeks, or 1 cent the first week and an amount that multiplies (doubles) each week for the next 51 weeks. The 1st choice would just be adding 1 dollar each week – that’s linear growth. At the end of 52 weeks he’d have $52. The 2nd choice is multiplication—exponential growth. The son who chooses this will have an unbelievable amount of money at the end of the year. His allowance in the 52nd week (not the total amount accumulated over 52 weeks) would be $22,517,998,136,852.48. Initially the multiplication is slow, but don’t let that deceive you. In the long run, addition never keeps pace with multiplication. Multiplication is explosive! Another example: Suppose you start with a checkerboard of 64 squares. On the first square you place one grain of wheat. On the second square you place two grains, and on the third square you place four grains. How much wheat would you have to place on the last square if you continue doubling each succeeding square? It would take enough wheat to cover India to a depth of fifty feet. Jesus’ method of multiplication is powerful! GROWTH BY ADDITION
GROWTH BY MULTIPLICATION
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
4
8
16
6
7
8
9
10
32
64
128
256
512
11
12
13
14
15
1,024 2,048 4,096 8,192 16,384
16
17
18
19
20
32,768 65,536 131,072 262,144 524,288
21
22
23
24
25
1,048,576 2,097,152 4,194,304 8,388,608 16,777,216
26
27
28
29
30
33,554,432 67,108,864 134,217,728 268,435,456
536,870,912
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As you multiply, keep these best practices in mind: • Seek the welfare of the city. Be asking God where/with whom you can multiply and plant a new Discipleship Group that would best seek the welfare of the city. • When people move away from Silicon Valley/Garden City we deeply miss them, but also learn to see this as a win—it’s God furthering our mission to multiply disciples. Whether someone is part of our church and city for 30 or 3 years, we want God to grow these discipleship habits in them so that if God does move them to a new place we can see that they’ve left our church and city better than they found it and we can be confident that their new church and city will be richly blessed as they continue our disciple making movement there. God has put us in a strategic part of the world to send people out to places that were never on our radar for fulfilling the Great Commission. The Spirit calling people to stay here for 30 years, and the Spirit calling people to move away from here after 3 years can both be successful outcomes of our mission to grow disciples deep & wide. • Practice urgency. Martin Luther suggested the church should live as if Jesus died yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow. Let’s live like this! Jesus might come back tomorrow. Heaven and hell are at stake. Let’s multiply disciples and make an eternal dent in people’s lives. Making disciples is one of the very few things you get to do now, but that you don’t get to do in heaven! Let’s give our all to this exciting mission that Jesus has given to us right now. When you’re on your deathbed your best memories and stories will be about relationships, disciple-making, sharing the gospel and your life with people, and the big ways God showed up. • Plan for connection and reunion. As we send people out to multiply groups (or churches) we feel the loss of not seeing them as often as before. Hopefully we’re still seeing each other a lot on Sundays and spontaneous get togethers, but be intentional about scheduling times of reunion and connection. Consider 1x a quarter or 2x a year gathering all the people/Discipleship Groups you’ve sent out for an evening of food and fellowship and storytelling.
“The Christian faith was birthed by men and women with an appetite for risk, and a daring belief in the supreme adventure of Christian mission.” - Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
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“We sometimes like to comfort ourselves by imagining that the ambitious are prideful and arrogant so that those of us who never risk, never aspire, never launch out into the deep get to wear the moralizing mantle of humility. But this imagining is often just thin cover for lack of courage, even laziness. Playing it safe isn’t humble.” James K.A. Smith
PRAY BIG!
Take some extended time to pray big—to pray God-sized, Ephesians 3:20-21
sized prayers for Garden City’s disciple making, maturing, and multiplying movement.
“We are not living primarily for the present. Our satisfaction is in knowing that in generations to come our witness for Christ will still be bearing fruit through them in an everwidening cycle of reproduction to the ends of the earth and unto the end of time.”
ROBERT COLEMAN
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
- Abraham Kuyper
“Some of the deepest and most lasting growth I’ve see in my own life and the life of others has come from one question: ‘If I really believed x, how would I live differently?’” Mandy Smith 103
SING BIG! Let’s never stop singing and believing our Garden City Worship song, “We Give You Glory.” This song, written by Ben Moore, is like our church’s anthem—our battle cry, our big belief, our big prayer, our big passion. Take a few minutes to play and sing this song together.
This is a fight and He’s in it The war rages though it is finished With scars to prove it The receipt for what was paid and what was won The power of God to raise a dead man Beats in our chest and works within us To future glory We’re on the road to who you’re making us to be It has begun: Creation’s healing When all that groans will be set right The One who saves Will bring His justice and His mercy down to reign All the angels watch in wonder They stand in awe of the work of God His saints revealing To the heavens that His glory never ends We give You glory We give You praise We are Your church, God We sing to Jesus who reigns Now and forever For all to see We give You glory To our great God and king You can do more! More More than we can ask for God do more! More More than we can dream
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“A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.” - Oswald Sanders
REPEAT THE PROCESS, AND MIX IT UP.
Maybe get a little rest first, maybe let the fields lie fallow for 3 months, but
then get right back into the thick of the adventure of discipleship. Ideally you still have 1 or 2 people from your original Discipleship Group who are hungry to continue on mission together, or perhaps the most Life-giving move is to start again from scratch. Where do you start? Start at the beginning. Go back to Habit #1: Selection, and prayerfully select your next phase of disciple-making—who you want to share the gospel and our life with, and how you want to do it.
With each cycle through this Discipleship Culture Guidebook you can mix it up however you’d like: select different people, select a different model (top-down, or peerto-peer), select a different core book, select a different format or frequency to what your meetings look like. Listen to what God is saying to you, and to what you desire. Keep it fresh and fun.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain 105
KEEP BELIEVING AND ENJOYING THE GOSPEL! JESUS LOVES YOU!
We started this journey because of the gospel, and we travel onward in this
adventure because of the gospel. Our key discipleship text has been 1 Thessalonians 2:8 “So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our lives, because you had become very dear to us.” This is also a key gospel text, a text that proclaims the good news of how Jesus treats you: • “Affectionate desire”: Jesus affectionately desires you! He started and continues a relationship with you not because you are a duty to him, but because he affectionately desires you. You are so valued and treasured by God. • “Ready to share”: Ready to share is better translated “happy to share.” It is out of an overflow of happiness that Jesus relates to you. If you could see the face of God looking at you, you’d see a smiling face. • “The gospel”: Jesus is the gospel, he’s the good news of God—he came and he comes to happily share with you the best news in the universe. • “Life”: Jesus happily gave you not just his good news teaching, but also his very life. The 2nd person of the Trinity added humanity to his divinity, became a tiny baby in Mary’s womb, experienced the difficulties of life in a fallen world, lived the perfect life we are unable to live, suffered and died in your place, was dead and buried for you, and rose from the grave to blaze a trail out of death for you. Jesus gave his life away for you! Jesus sacrificed his life in order to give you Life: abundant life, new life, eternal life. • “Because you had become very dear”: The finished, present, and future work of Jesus for you is motivated both for the glory of God and because you are very dear to God. You are dear to God. You are desired, delighted in, loved, and treasured. So, may our living out of the adventure of discipleship in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 be powered from an overflow, a contagious delight, in believing and feeling that Jesus first relates to us and loves us in this Life-changing, Life-giving way. You are so loved! God is so big and so good! And there’s so much to be thankful for and hopeful for.
MEMORIZE
Onward!
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
“Anything He did anywhere else He will do here; anything He did any other time He is willing to do now; anything He ever did for other people He is willing to do for us!” A .W. T o z e r
MAIN TAKEAWAY: We’re a church of disciples who practice the habit of multiplication.
What is God saying to you?
What’s your next step?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR HABIT 10: Never stop singing We Give You Glory The Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure, and Courage, Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch A God-Sized Vision, Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge A Theology As Big As The City, Ray Bakke Church Planter, Darrin Patrick Pauline Theology & Mission Practice, Dean S. Gilliland Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymballa Big God, Britt Merrick Multiply, Francis Chan Culture Care, Makoto Fujimura Balanced Christianity, John Stott Seek the Welfare of the City, Bruce Winter Why Cities Matter, Stephen Um & Justin Buzzard
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