“Church is an organism, NOT an organization.”

Take a step back… reflect on the implication of this statement… Every living organism has at least ONE thing in common… they all reproduce… or die off. They all multiply… or become extinct.

Depressingly, today very few churches in America are multiplying. I’m not talkin’ about splitting, or dividing. That is just appalling! I’m talkin’ about churches that live up to their identity as an organism and give birth to churches regularly, frequently, effectively… They give birth to churches that give birth to new churches, and so on and so forth.

Most churches in America have a “come to us” mentality. “Our pastor(s) will evangelize you!”

This is similar to how the church in Jerusalem did it for years, and they did not multiply the way they were designed to. It’s not until Acts chapter 11 that all of that starts to change, radically! Sunday, we looked at the Antioch church in Acts 11:19-30, and 13:1-3, and how it multiplied in just over 1 year, because “when disciples engage society, multiplying churches are born.” The Jerusalem church leaders didn’t even have a church planting strategy for Antioch. It just happened… Then it happened again. And again. And again…

Want to hear about a modern-day example of this phenomenon? OK, think about the church movement in China. Around 1950, when Mao Zedong came into power, there were only about 2 million Christians in China. However, the government decided that Christianity needed to be totally annihilated, so what did they do? They booted out all foreign missionaries, brutally murdered the best of the best church leaders, destroyed Christian institutions, demolished Christian meetings, and declared that those who promote these ideas would be killed.

What do you think happened next? Their pastors are dead… No more buildings… No more Bible schools…

Here’s what they did. They did exactly what the simple disciples who started the Antioch church did. They said to themselves, “We know this Jesus thing is true, and everyone needs Him!” So they started engaging society in the workplaces, marketplaces, wherever they happened to be. They made relationships and shared a very short and simple message about Jesus: who He is, what He did, and what it means for us.

Before I tell you what happened next, think about how counter-cultural this Jesus message was to this country? Think about it… This is not something they were likely to believe. It goes against everything they were taught their whole lives. Oh yea, and it would possibly mean they would be murdered in cold blood if they chose to believe it…

So what happened? Tens and hundreds and thousands and millions of Chinese started believing it and turned their lives toward Christ. Multiplying churches were born over night, and those churches planted new churches, and those new churches planted more new churches and so on and so forth.

By the 1980’s there were around 60 million Christians in China. That’s a 58 million increase in 30 years!

WOW!

Every church is meant to multiply, over and over and over. That means we need you to step up and do your part. “When disciples engage society, multiplying churches are born.”

Here are my questions for you (please respond to any or all of them):

1. Have you ever been part of a multiplying church? If so, can you tell us a quick story?

2. How do you feel about sharing the Gospel with other people? Are you nervous? Are you doing it frequently? Why or why not? We will learn a lot by you sharing your struggles. We’ve all been there!

3. What is at least one way that YOU can engage society with the Gospel? Give us an example how you want to do this at work, at school, at the gym, while you’re shopping, on the phone, online, or wherever…