Values - Multiplication

When I was a kid my dad liked to teach me lessons about business. One of those lessons was about multiplication. He asked me one day, "Would you rather have $2,000 per day or would you rather be paid $.01 and the amount doubles everyday?" Being an impetuous young man I of course stated immediately that I would take the $2,000. Then he informed me that I made the wrong decision.

$.01, $.02, $.04, $.08, $.16, $.32, $.64, $1.28...you do the math. I will spoil it for you, that number is going to get really big, really fast.

This is the exponential curve. When multiplication happens it explodes. It starts slow, but then begins a meteoric rise to infinity.

This is how Jesus began the movement of the church. When you read the gospels you see how he moves from masses to disciples. As his ministry went on the masses received less and less of his attention and his disciples more and more. He spent most of his time with 12 men and a group of women. They lived together and traveled together. He modeled life for them and taught them. Jesus gave to them all of himself. They in turn did the same for the next generation.

The church in the West has lost our sense of discipleship. We have become much more interested in addition. We are satisfied with $2,000 per day. We don't want to wait for that $.01 to become millions. Why? Because we despise the day of small things. When we'r pouring out our lives in 4 or 5 people it doesn't look successful. When we have 300 people at a worship gathering we do look successful.

The thing is, if we would follow the path of Jesus we would see explosive growth. The visible Church in the developing world is multiplying. They don't have the resources to put on the show and market to the masses. They have to begin with their neighbors. They have to pour out their lives into just a handful of people and help those folks do the same. Is it really any surprise that the center of the "Christian World" has shifted? The Church is growing the fastest in the places where they must follow the model of Jesus.

This is the model of multiplication, also known as discipleship.