From: “My ministry is measured by my fruitfulness.”
To: “Are we faithfully setting the stage for multiplication (which may or may not happen during our ministry)?”

Growth is God’s responsibility (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Sometimes attempting to catalyze the first multiplying churches can take quite a few years. Field workers are told, “Only God can produce fruitfulness. Your job is to be faithful and obedient while expecting God to work.” We do our best to follow patterns of disciple-making multiplication found in the New Testament, and we trust the Holy Spirit to bring the growth. (Copied from: https://2414now.net/2020/09/22/mindshifts-in-movements-part-1/)

What if it takes someone besides you? What if it takes someone besides your team? What if you will not live to see the fruit multiplying? Would you still set the stage for multiplication? Abraham was promised offspring as numerous as the stars in the night sky or the sand on a seashore. Would he believe the promise of the one who first imagined multiplication–especially when his wife was barren? That was his crisis of faith. What is yours?

It was fifteen years ago, last month that I first imagined what a DMM in Middle Tennessee might look like. I gathered many groups and tried to use the breakthrough stories from India and Africa to plant a seed of possibility. Every effort crashed on a barrier reef. This morning I saw a new possibility of hope seated in a room. If God blesses that group with multiplication my role will be no more than a small footnote. At one level I am honestly sad at that thought. But God’s glory is a far more significant concern.

If you want to catalyze Movements you have to be good with the role of John the Baptist or Barnabas. Yes, Jesus is the Greater One! Yes, Paul gets more of the limelight, but even he reminds us that the Jesus way is the path of emptying self. Pride will get in the way of multiplication, every time.