Only 39 parking spaces. Really? My wife, Deb, and I had just come to our first pastorate in urban North Long Beach to church that would be considered a Level 1, subtracting church, to use Exponential’s terminology (see “The Next Level”). My dream was to build a megachurch, and the leading book on church growth declared that ample and convenient parking was essential to growth. I counted the spots again and grumbled, Thanks a lot, God.
Nevertheless, on our first Sunday, I looked at our handful of white folks from our diverse and dangerous neighborhood and enthusiastically proclaimed, “If we will pray earnestly enough and love deeply enough, our church, Light and Life, is going to grow big.”
Over the next seven years, God’s work in our church was astonishing. We became the fastest-growing church in our denomination and won the Bishop’s plaque. My dream was materializing—we had become a Level 3 (Adding) church.
To keep growing, however, we needed to relocate to a safer area with lots of parking spaces. I knew that had to be God’s will. Bigger is better, right? Thankfully, my much more holy wife suggested, “We should go away for a week to fast and pray about what God wants next.” I was convicted and agreed.
One day, as we were seeking God separately, he revealed the same unusual passage to each of us: Ezekiel 47, where a trickle runs out of the temple and then becomes a mighty life-giving river. The Lord seemed to say to us, You have built a lake church where people flow in and you keep them all in to help build your dream of a bigger church. I am calling you to something greater. Stay where you are, build a river church, where people flow in, are equipped, then flow back out to start new churches. Your ‘castle’ may not ever get any bigger, but my kingdom will grow much larger.
We surrendered ourselves to this new calling. Our first question was how. How are we going to shift the culture of a Level 3, addition-only church to a Level 4 (Reproducing) church that sends lots of people out the door? But an even greater question emerged: Why? To change a culture, you first need a deep and persuasive why.
Here are five reasons I gave the church why we had to reproduce and multiply:
1. To align with God’s creation design and mandate. God set up all creation around reproduction and multiplication. In Genesis 1, God emphasizes the “seeds” more than the “fruit.” The seed reproduces; the fruit is consumed and gone. God’s first commandment was a multiplication command. In essence, he said, “Fill the earth with people like yourself.” How? By reproducing and multiplying.
2. To follow Jesus’ model and mandate. Jesus focused on reaching the world through multiplication. He loved the crowds, but he invested deeply in a few disciples who would reproduce other disciples who would do the same.
3. To use the methodology in Acts. The first church used a specific ministry model to become a movement. The method was starting new churches everywhere. The church was an equipping and sending organism. It was a river, not a lake.
4. To unleash the power of the priesthood of believers to empower and equip believers into the fullness of their calling. As a lake church, our mantra was “We can build it, you can help.” But as a river church, our motto was “You can build it, we can help.” Unschooled, ordinary believers empowered by the Spirit can astonish you (Acts 4:13).
I often offer a riddle when I speak on the river: What do a truck driver, a milk salesman, a convicted killer, a corporate businesswoman, a Korean rugby player, a Mexican cult member, a California beach girl, an insurance salesman, a Cambodian who escaped from the killing fields, a gang member with only an 8th-grade education, a rental car salesman, a COO of a corporation, a Kansas farm boy, a janitor, a Boeing employee, and a construction worker all have in common?
Answer: They and many others have all become planters/pastors through Light & Life. These “priests” went out to lead churches of 50, 100, 200, 500, even 1,000-plus.
5. To evangelize the greatest number of people possible. In his book Center Church, the late Tim Keller famously declared, “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.” Research continues to show he was telling the truth. All kinds of churches will reach all kinds of people that your current church is not reaching. Bigger is not better. More is better.
Despite these motivations, we faced significant tensions and fears—fears of change, failure, conflict, discomfort, rejection, financial hardship and the hardest obstacle of all, my ego. What if I were forgotten? What if our church never got bigger? What if the churches we planted outgrew us? (In our model, we sent as many people as possible with each plant, mostly within five to 20 minutes of our church.)
The Lord helped me address my fears by making John 12:24 a daily challenge and promise: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The principle is clear: You have to die to multiply.
To shift to a river culture, we engaged in several definitive actions that are also transferable to churches who desire to multiply: practicing radical fasting and prayer; teaching multiplication from Genesis to Revelation; studying multiplication movements, redefining our values, mission, and vision; sharing stories of multiplying churches; budgeting sacrificially for planting; identifying and training planters within our congregation; recruiting launch teams; making heroes of those who went out; and stepping out in faith before we felt ready. Most churches operate as “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, lose the fire.” We sought to be “Ready, fire, improve the aim.”
Our church is about the same size as 25 years ago, but the river has been flowing and growing since 1999. We are now a Level 4+ (Reproducing) church. We have directly planted 35 churches, and some of them are planting churches. We have also started international church planting networks. Thousands of believers can trace their spiritual lineage to Light & Life in North Long Beach—a river church that still only has 39 parking spaces. God’s desire for our church was much greater than my dream. Whatever the size of your church, God has a river dream for your church as well.