One million.
That’s how many people Suncrest Christian Church in St. John, Indiana, aims to impact through church multiplication by 2034—the year the church will celebrate its 40th anniversary. But, says Lead Pastor Greg Lee, Suncrest is set to exceed that goal by 1 million additional people, assuming they maintain their current trajectory and account for exponential growth.
“It does almost no good just to start one church,” he observes. “This is about a movement.”
The value and importance of church multiplication has been in Suncrest’s DNA since Day 1. It began as a church plant itself that emerged in the early ’90s from the multiplication strategy of Indianapolis’ East 91st Street Christian Church.
“Just as others helped us get started, we would in our story give generously of our financial resources, of leadership support, of our time in order to start as many new churches as we can,” Lee notes.
Located just south of Chicago over the border in Indiana, Suncrest has played a part in the planting of more than 75 new, independent churches. And from those churches, 700 more have emerged. They range from urban plants that require huge investments, suburban plants that resemble Suncrest’s model and demographics, prolific plants of small churches across Liberia in West Africa, and whisper-quiet house churches in semi-closed countries like India. Suncrest has helped to plant them all, and tries to plant equally across all categories.
For those plants requiring more funding, Suncrest gives a minimum of 10% of the total investment. For churches in need of significantly less funding, like those in Liberia or India, the church usually is the sole funder. In any case, Lee adds, Suncrest attendees know that the church’s first 10% of tithes and offerings always goes to multiplication.
“Even when we were on outside support from other churches those first few years, we were committed to generosity,” Lee explains. “We met in a high school the first seven or eight years, and our commitment was that we wouldn’t move into our own building until we helped another new church get started. In some ways it’s been our greatest fundraising strategy to be a church that is so outward-focused and has a vision that’s a million people, not just the 1,500 who were here last weekend. We have to be a church that’s worth reproducing. That’s the kind of church we’re trying to build locally.”
Suncrest doesn’t work alone in its church-planting endeavors. Depending on the type of plant, they partner with various church multiplication organizations. For expensive urban plants, they work with Orchard Group. For midsize suburban plants, they’ve worked with ARC, Stadia and Multiply Indiana, to name a few. In Liberia, Suncrest works with a local partner and with The Timothy Initiative. India’s church plants are made possible by a partnership with Gail’s Girls—an offshoot of Stadia that empowers women church planters to start and multiply house churches in South Asia.
“Our primary model is to come alongside and fund planters who are identified in different ways,” he details. “We give strong financial support, and we give them the healthiest guidance we can without micromanaging. They have someone in their corner and a church they can go to for resources and to ask all their questions. Because we live in this world, we feel like we can be a great advisor, supporter and encourager to church planters. Our job is 80% encouragement, 15% advisory and 5% accountability.”
According to Lee, many churches he talks with feel too many barriers stand in the way to replicate themselves.
“They think they can’t do a similar thing, but they can,” he says.
In its first decade, Suncrest was a young, small church without the resources to do what they’re doing now. But they still chose to make multiplication a reality so that as they grew, it would already be embedded in the mission and vision.
“You make the decisions when it’s hard, really stake your convictions,” Lee adds. “Unless we’re starting churches that start churches that start churches, what are we even doing?”