A pre-Multiplication Example
multiplying ain't easy
Let’s take an example of a place I know and love—Morehead, KY, where I served before I was appointed to Trinity Hill in Lexington. There is one Methodist church in Morehead. There are about 200 people in average attendance there. The county has about 22,000 people. Then there is the county to the north, Fleming County, with about 15,000 in population, but 575 Methodists in worship any given Sunday. They have 11 churches. Most of them are very small. But is that so bad? There are a lot more people in worship because of the number of churches. Proportionally, Morehead should have about 840 people in worship, and probably at least 16 churches. To put it in more perspective, the county to the south of Morehead—Morgan County-- has roughly the same population as Fleming County, but has 75 Methodists in worship, because there is only one church. More churches means more people in worship. We do not need bigger churches as much as we need more churches…but… churches that will multiply!
We tried to address our “low” worship numbers in Rowan County by launching a satellite campus of our church out in the county. Hard to tell how it would have turned out, because we were shut down by the pandemic. But the satellite was averaging 82; subtracting the 20 who were part of the launch team from Morehead, it added 62 to the net worship numbers. Not many churches can say they grew by 30% in a matter of weeks. This, however, was still not multiplication, but addition. But we were aiming for multiplication. What if we launched a satellite from the satellite, and kept on that pattern? Mother church keeps launching satellites and the satellites launch satellites… or even new churches… that would be multiplication.
I think—and this is just Aaron speaking, but I think I have good reasons—the Church is at a point where we will need to get after multiplication, and quickly. The losses in worship attendance over the past 20 years are steep, and addition growth will not be able to gain enough ground. A multiplication strategy—of disciples, small groups, and churches-- is the only thing that can make up the lost ground.