Multiplication Simplified

I've been doing a lot of thinking about multiplication in churches. What are the keys, what's the "silver bullet" to get a church growing by multiplication rather than addition.

I realized I'm getting way too complicated. There's no huge, complicated strategy. It's simple.

Churches where just a few people are involved in evangelism will grow by addition. The rate of addition will be in direct relation to how many people are evangelizing and how often/effectively they do it. Churches where everyone is involved in evangelism will grow by multiplication.

A little-known statistic: Most churches would be thrilled with an annual growth rate of 10% (at that rate a church would double in size about every 7 years). In order to achieve a growth rate of 10% every person in the church needs to evangelize and bring into the church 1 person every 10 years.

Not "1 person every week," not even "1 person every year", but rather "1 person every 10 years" (as long as the "back door" is closed) results in 10% church growth! And that growth would be conversion growth rather than transfer growth -- that means the Church is really growing rather than just shifting around...

That sounds like it should be pretty doable, doesn't it? 1 person every 10 years doesn't mean I have to be out knocking on doors and talking to strangers. 1 person every 10 years means I am being a friendly person and once in a blue moon I casually bring up a spiritual topic in conversation and see where it takes me -- not twisting anybody's arm, but simply choosing a topic of conversation that's different from our usual run-of-the-mill type of conversation.

Think about it. Multiplication is just a church with DNA for every-person sharing the gospel -- no other fancy strategy required. And 10% growth is achievable with just each person in the church bringing someone to the Lord once every 10 years. My 2 thoughts for the day...