Multiply
Habit 12 of the of the Guidebook is Encourage, and it’s probably one you need to hear this week! ( Catch our peek into Habit 11 here )
Jesus saved us to send us. Right from the start Jesus’s call to follow him was for the purpose of fishing for him. Discipleship was never exclusively about us, but about a much larger adventure and mission of making God’s glory known through the timeless method of making, maturing, and multiplying more disciples of Jesus. Thus, this discipleship journey comes to a graduation and transition point that is celebratory, difficult, and thrilling as you multiply Jesus’ movement.
Robert Coleman wrote a whole book about this. The disciples were Jesus’ plan A for advancing His kingdom, and there was no plan B.
“It all comes back to his disciples. They were the vanguard of his enveloping movement. ‘Through their word’ he expected others to believe in him (John 17:20), and these in turn to pass the word along to others, until in time the world might know who he was and what he came to do (John 17:21, 23). His whole evangelistic strategy—indeed the fulfillment of his very purpose in coming into the world, dying on the cross, and rising from the grace—depended on the faithfulness of his chosen disciples to this task. It did not matter how small the group was to start with so long as they reproduced and taught their disciples to reproduce. This was the way his church was to win—through the dedicated lives of those who knew the Savior so well that his Spirit and method constrained them to tell others. As simple as it may seem, this was the way the gospel would conquer. He had no other plan.”
- Robert Coleman
If you’re in a Life Group at Garden City and you’ve come to Habit 12, it may be time to multiply your group and send out a few members to start their own Life Group. Life Group leaders are deacons at our church, so you may consider deacon-ship by talking to your Life Group leader or a staff member. Regardless of what season your group is in, it’s important to mark important occasions and celebrate one another. We discuss some practices of encouraging, naming, and celebrating one another in Habit 11, Encourage.
When you’re multiplying your group, you may want to include the naming exercise from Habit #11 as part of this. Perhaps you want to hold a big feast. Perhaps you want to mark the moment by anointing one another’s heads with oil, wash- ing feet, or going back to the place where this journey first began. Take extended time to thank and praise God for everything he’s done throughout this journey. Whatever you do, put intentionality and celebration into this moment.
When we multiply, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:
Seek the welfare of the city. Be asking God where/with whom you can multiply and plant a new Discipleship Group that would best seek the welfare of the city.
Leave well. When people move away from Silicon Valley/Garden City we deeply miss them, but also learn to see this as a win—it’s God furthering our mission to multiply disciples.
Practice urgency. Martin Luther suggested the church should live as if Jesus died yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow. We are part of the world’s most important mission.
Take a look at this sermon by Justin from 2020 on Habit 12:
Here is the full Habit 11 in the Guidebook to flip through, too:
We also want you to have access to the whole Guidebook if you don’t already, so below is a link to download it. We have a physical Guidebook for you too, so you can scribble down your thoughts and prayers and dive into the resource in a Lifegroup! Join us on Sunday to pick up a copy!