Multiplication Matters

In the Kingdom of God, mission matters, movement matters, and multiplication matters. When Jesus gave His disciples their mission it was to “go and make disciples of all nations,” He was calling them to movement (Go) and to multiplication (Make Disciples). That call remains the core of what it means to be a missional church.

The altar was packed at the Alabama Emerald Coast Annual Conference two weeks ago in response to two training sessions focused on “Re-Awakening Movement Ready Churches” who are multiplying disciples of Jesus Christ. Jeremy Smith, lead pastor at Crosspoint GMC, exhorted the annual conference to “build a disciple-making blueprint tailored to your unique context.” 

In the earliest days of Methodism, George Whitefield emerged as one of the movement’s most influential leaders. A preacher of extraordinary ability, he reportedly spoke without amplification to crowds of 30,000 or more, and thousands were converted through his preaching. Yet at the end of his ministry, Whitefield offered a candid reflection:

“My brother Wesley acted wisely—the souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in class and thus preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.”

Whitefield’s preaching added thousands of new believers, but John Wesley’s system of intentional discipleship—organizing believers into classes and forming new faith communities with a multiplication mindset—produced a movement that ultimately swept the world.

In the Global Methodist Church, we are committed to the same kind of intentional disciple‑making that leads to emerging new faith communities, each shaped by a multiplication mindset. This commitment is the heartbeat of a truly Wesleyan movement. We have previously celebrated early signs of such movement in Europe, Africa, and Latin America, and it is now deeply encouraging to see a growing awareness that multiplication matters within the Global Methodist Church in the United States as well.

In late April, four GMC cohorts in the USA completed a year together in Exponential’s Multipliers Learning Communities, bringing the total to more than 100 GMC leaders who have embraced the paradigm shift from addition to multiplication in church planting. Included among these leaders are a significant number of U.S. conference superintendents and church multiplication leaders. Exponential recently reported outcomes from these cohorts: before participating, 59.7% were focused primarily on growing their local church through addition; afterward, 62% were moving toward—or were fully oriented to multiplication.

This shift is critically important for the GMC. To remain a growing denomination, we must plant at least 3% new churches annually. Toward that goal, we are working to see 3,700 new Global Methodist churches established worldwide over the next seven years (2033). Achieving this vision will require nothing less than fully embracing a multiplication mindset.

One of the highlights of this year’s Multipliers Learning Community cohorts was the opportunity to learn from Ralph Moore. Now in his eighties, Moore has led one of the most fruitful disciple‑making and church multiplication movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In 1971, Ralph and his wife Becky Moore planted a church in the Wesleyan stream that eventually grew into the Hope Chapel movement. His simple—and highly replicable—disciple‑making system closely resembled that of John Wesley and the early Methodists. Churches planted through this system went on to plant other disciple‑making churches, resulting today in more than 2,600 churches tracing their roots to that original movement. Along with other compelling examples, these stories have equipped scores of GMC leaders to shepherd a disciple‑making, church multiplication movement that is both faithful to our Wesleyan heritage and relevant to the 21st‑century American context.

These developments give growing hope that the GMC is on the verge of seeing a genuine church multiplication movement take root in North America—one with the potential to recover the vitality and spiritual vibrancy of early Methodism. 

A few updates include the Western States Conference is launching a disciple‑making church multiplication initiative in central California. The Emerald Coast Conference and Heartland Conference is engaged with the Re‑Awakening Movement Ready Church Initiative, which is spreading to other GMC conferences. River Network International is partnering with several GMC conferences across North America to mobilize local churches for mission through disciple‑making and multiplication. Numerous other U.S. conferences are taking initial steps to fully embracing disciple‑making church multiplication.

Thailand is expanding the number of churches in-country and also working with disciple-making church plants in all their neighboring countries with excellent results. Latin America is seeing multiplying movement in Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Brazil, with new movements coming online in other countries in coming months. We are seeing disciple-making movements take root in all regions of Africa, including our new Oasis Conference in North Africa. And new work is coming online almost monthly in Western Europe, where the GMC grew from one local church two years ago to 19 last month. Much of this growth is from new faith communities born out of intentional disciple-making efforts. We are experiencing the early signs of a new Wesleyan church multiplication movement on a global scale.

The mission matters.
Movement matters.
Multiplication matters.