How to Blow up a Church (Part 2)
Spiritually speaking how do you blow up a church, youth group, campus ministry or Sunday school with the right brand of new-believers-being-added-to-the-kingdom growth? In HTBACU Part 1 we discovered the Nitrogen which is to preach the gospel clearly. In Part 2 we discover the Glycerin which is to multiply the gospel relationally!
In Acts 19:8-10 we read, “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”
Here was the situation. Paul did three months worth of “attractional” meetings in the synagogue. As a result a small number of disciples went with him to a local community college nicknamed “The Lecture Hall of Tyrannus” and trained them every day for two years. Many of these schools taught classes in the cool of the day but were open during the hot times of the day. So, most likely, Paul rented the school during the hot part of the day to train his disciples and unleashed them in the cool part of the day to make disciples. As a result of him equipping them to spiritually multiply “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”
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Those Paul equipped to evangelize and multiply did in 24 months what he was unable to do his entire earthly ministry…present the gospel to EVERY person living in the province of Asia. They reached their neighbors, family and friends and then equipped them to reach their neighbors, family and friends until everyone every where in this vast area heard the gospel from someone in their network.
That is the power of multiplication.
Don’t get me wrong. We need attractional events too. We need a base number to multiply from. Paul created his base number from the twelve he originally reached on his way into Ephesus and then added to that base by reaching a small number of disciples in the synagogue over three months. But from that point on it was sheer multiplication as a result of the training these disciples received at the school of Tyrannus.
What if we viewed our churches and youth groups more as schools of Tyrannus than synagogues? What if we used them to multiply disciples and not just add converts? The results would be exponential. In other words the spiritual and numerical growth in our ministries would explode.
How do we do this effectively? First of all we need a prayer strategy because without it we have action but no real traction. Then we need to have a plan to equip our people to evangelize. For help with that check out these free podcasts from Dare 2 Share. Finally, we need a strategy to multiply. At Dare 2 Share we use what we call “THE Cause Circle.” It equips you to pray for, spiriutally pursue and gently persuade others to ABC (Accept Christ, Belong to a church, Commit to THE Cause.) To download a free version of it click here.
This summer Dare 2 Share is doing our version of a school of Tyrannus called Lead THE Cause University. The youth leaders and high will/raw skill teenagers who attend this will learn to multiply disciples in their communities until every teen on every school campus hears the gospel from a teenager they know and trust. Prayers are appreciated for this exciting event. And if you are or know a youth leader who could be a part of this multiplication movement please let them know about LTCU.
What is your plan to multiply? Preach the gospel clearly, multiply the gospel relationally and, finally…stay tuned for Part 3 of How to Blow a Church Up.
