I’m energized by the action-oriented conversations about church multiplication taking place throughout The Wesleyan Church! Churches of various sizes, locations and histories are engaging–and there is a question that is often being asked:
Are we healthy enough to multiply?
Recently I spoke to a group called “Healthy Growing Churches.” We had an invigorating discussion around the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” More specifically, which makes us healthier, a church growing strong enough to multiply or a church multiplying?
When I served as a local church pastor, we took church health seriously. Every year we had our annual checkup. One year we would use the Natural Church Development assessment, while the next year we would use REVEAL. We found that alternating between the two gave us the best overall sense of our well-being. We had a church health team that translated our learnings into best practices.
But we also discovered that sending out people and resources created health. When we sent out people, that required others to step in and step up. When we sent out resources, that made the need for others to invest more compelling.
Generosity is a muscle, and exercise builds its strength.
The act of sending was life-giving. Generosity fosters vitality.
Here’s something we had to face. While we would never say “never” to the act of faith required in sending, the impact of saying, “not now,” is the same as saying “never.” No action is taken, and no sending occurs.
Is your church exercising faith by sending people or resources to reach a new ZIP code? Just watch what God does to make your church healthier as you step out in faith!
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2018 edition of Wesleyan Life.
