Bind Your Agreement to Multiply

Yes, new believer, you can start a church in your home, as many did after Pentecost. We will coach you as the apostles coached new leaders then, to make your task as easy as possible.

Yes, Lord Jesus, we will gather in your name so that you are present as you said, and that you bind our agreement in heaven. We pledge to you and to each other to accept nothing less than a movement born of the Holy Spirit’s power. Help us discern the “good soil” that you’ve prepared, and help us sow the seed that you have provided, to reproduce a hundred times.

Multiplication is normal!

All living things that God created, all we eat, all flowers, birds, cows, puppies and trees, are the fruit of our Creator’s miracle of multiplication. Nature reminds us daily, “This is how our God works.” Jesus’ parables showed how His Kingdom spreads on earth by multiplication.

Gather with coworkers in Jesus’ Name; agree in prayer on your objective.

Let your agreement be bound in heaven. As Jesus said, when two or three gather and agree in His Name…. Let each team member pray, agreeing from the heart, so that our Lord Jesus Christ will bind your pact in heaven.

Clearly define basic New Testament principles to plant churches or cells that multiply.

Agree that your new churches will evangelize, worship, make disciples and train leaders, in the ways Jesus His apostles instructed and modeled.

Check out carefully any agency or team that you might join, if you are not linked with People of Yes!

Find out if the person to whom you would be immediately accountable agrees with your vision and plans. If they do not agree fully and enthusiastically, then do not hope to change them; that would lead to painful troubles later on.

Protect a People of Yes worker from joining a team or becoming accountable to coworkers who would stifle your agreed plans. A new worker would appear arrogant, if he arrived and told an experienced team leader how to work; nobody listens to a brand new person.

Rather, a People of Yes consultant  should communicate with a potential field director, and state precisely what is the work for which the new worker has been trained and commissioned. If the field director joyfully welcomes those plans, then you have a green light to proceed. If the director hesitates, then you have a red light.

Workers can avoid such friction by going to a neglected field that has no field director – this eliminates dealing with a person who would not allow the worker to implement your agreed plans.

 Resources For While You …

Learn God’s Multiplication Table. Discern how multiplying churches differs from merely planting new ones:

Church growth and multiplication compared

Confirm Jesus’ presence, as you agree on plans:

Let your agreement be bound in heaven

Read about how churches actually multiply. Workers and planners have found George Patterson’s article in the Perspectives Reader motivating and informative:

Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches

Read God’s compass. Start outreach in a right direction by following guidelines from the Book of Acts. This serious study can help you record effective action plans:

Action points in Acts to extend outreach

Common Traps To Avoid

Trying to get as many workers on your team as possible.

If you succeed at that, then you will fail to multiply churches. How many games would a coach win if put every child in school the same squad?

Assume only professionals can plant churches.

Most churches worldwide are started by untrained, new believers who want to win friends to Christ in a nearby community.

Wait to build a strong home base before becoming a sending church.

The longer a church waits, the harder it will be to reproduce, because believers grow accustomed to disobeying Jesus’ commands.

Accept accountability to an organization  that insists on an institutional church, or that allows only professional clergy to baptize or serve Communion.

Such rules force thousands of new churches around the world to disobey Jesus’ commands.

Invite close friends to serve on your advisory board.

Unless they agree fully with your multiplication strategy, painful disaster awaits you.

Fail to examine an administrative yoke before putting it around your neck.

Unwise accountability can turn out to be a painful noose. If you are considering work with an agency or ministry team, then first find out if the person to whom you will be accountable agrees with your vision and plans.

Many workers whose only mission agency is a sending church have started movements. Workers prove most effective when an “Antioch church” sends them with permission to follow New Testament guidelines and to obey Jesus’ commands above all else.