I like reading Ed Stetzer. I first came across Ed’s stuff when I was in the beginning stages of planting a church. My wife and I had just been hired by Stadia and were sent back home with a stack of books to read. One of those was a book on church planting by Ed Stetzer.
Ever since then, I have tracked Ed via his blog and Twitter (@edstetzer). Here are excerpts of a recent post entitled, “Church Birth Control.”
Seems to be that churches must be on some powerful birth control. They are not reproducing. And I don’t get why. It’s natural. It’s normal. It’s essential. And we all know how to do it. But somewhere along the way, church reproduction and multiplication became unusual or strange in North America. And I am not happy about it.
What’s the most effective? Church multiplication movements. When churches plant lots of other churches, our witness advances exponentially. The Gospel goes viral. We need that kind of movement today. One that cannot be controlled, confined or contained.
Yet I feel like a tired husband in yet another round of false labor. Everyone is talking reproduction, but not enough churches are having babies.
By our definition, a church multiplication movement happens when churches:
-Multiply at a 50 percent rate (100 churches one year become 150 the next year) -Reach 50 percent of their new people through conversion (they are reaching the lost)
-Multiply to the third generation of churches (parent, child, grandchild)