The Rhetoric of Multiplication

In the last decade, the language of multiplication has swept through North American church ministry. Sending language is now the lingua franca for many of our churches and agencies. It is becoming a well-known fact that good churches are missional churches and that means being a sending church.

It was an important step forward when churches began acknowledging the importance of sending. Even more important is the shift to extending resources to a church planter. However, the church that calls an agency, a network, or a state convention and asks for a planter is not actually a sending church. It is, at best, a supporting church. We need supporting churches, but we must not confuse those with the church that actually produces their own sent out ones. Sending church language must mean more than recruiting a planter if we ever want a shot at approaching real multiplication.

We must create systems that match our language of multiplication. Sending church language is helpful with one very important caveat. If we’re going to use “sending church” in this way, it must mean “sending from within.” It cannot mean, “sending someone else’s people.” Sending must be about not only deploying people (providing the resources to go), but also developing people from within our own congregations. In this way, a sending church rightly understood develops from within and deploys out.