Joby Martin: Why Churches Must Multiply, Not Just Grow (Part 1)
Joby Martin is pastor of The Church of Eleven22, both an Outreach 100 Fastest-Growing Church and an Outreach 100 Largest Participating Church since 2015. The Church of Eleven22 is also an Outreach 100 Reproducing Church with a deep commitment to planting new churches.
Outreach editor-at-large Paul J. Pastor caught up with Martin to discuss his path to pastoral leadership; why churches must multiply, not just grow; and how his congregation is finding ways to creatively support reproducing churches.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I did not grow up in the church. Our family was nominally Christian (mostly because of my grandparents), but really we were only the occasional Christmas and Easter kind of people.
I got into a little trouble in high school and ended up at a Southern Baptist summer camp, where I met Jesus and was radically saved. I ended up going back to serve at that camp in college, and then was on staff. My football coach ran it, and he sort of “voluntold” me I was going to be the main preacher. So that’s the first place I ever led a Bible study or preached or anything.
“People want to be called to something big—to life change, to serious worship, to intense Bible study and real discipleship.”
When I was in college, I was planning to go to med school and I did get in. But I was also volunteering at a local church and just felt called to ministry. It became overwhelming. I felt as if God were calling me not to go to med school but instead to teach the Bible for the rest of my life. I talked to my pastor and said, “I think that’s what I’m supposed to do.” One thing led to another, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
How did those early experiences shape your perspective as a pastor?
There were really good-hearted Southern Baptist people in the low country of South Carolina where I grew up who were doing church in the traditions they had grown up with. But if, like me, you didn’t really grow up with it—man, it was like visiting an insiders-only club. I felt like I didn’t know any of the secret handshakes. Everything confused me, from the unspoken rules about communion, to assumptions about dress codes, to the alien-sounding organ music. Even the sermons lost me early on as a teenager.
What connected with me was a camp experience, led by a bunch of college students who just loved Jesus and did all kinds of things to try to connect the truth of God’s Word with kids like me, right where we were. I’d never experienced anything like the love and attention they showed us. A big part of what The Church of Eleven22 is now has grown from what I saw at camp when I was 15.
What are some of those values?
To begin, I saw the value of not going “lite” on teaching. People want to be called to something big—to life change, to serious worship, to intense Bible study and real discipleship. They can handle strong preaching. But what I also saw modeled at camp (and learned to love) was how all those things can be done bathed in love in a way that connects people.
Today, our church is not just trying to be pragmatic or do some bait-and-switch; we just preach the gospel. We worship like crazy. If you come to Eleven22, it’s like the last night of camp. Sometimes it feels like trying to put handles on a bullet train—just inviting people to grab on to what God is doing.
