Dave Ferguson – Session 3 – Continually Reproducing
We have had different ways of counting to 10…numbers, roman numerals, etc.
Fibonacci and his rabbit theory…(go ahead and google this)…after two years of 2 rabbits being in a 4 walled room, thee would be 30,000 rabbits.
Jesus gives us the hope of rapid reproduction.
How did the 1st Century go from 3,000 to millions in the 3rd century.
How do we reproduce churches? Church planting networks, movements, etc.
Not just the big ones, but the one’s that are reproducing.
WE MUST REPRODUCE AT EVERY LEVEL.
Rapid Reproduction.
What will it take to see this in our church?
Big dream is where we start…Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
1. Dream Big
TALK ABOUT YOUR DREAM(S) WITH EACH OTHER.
You must speak your dream out loud. You will receive power. You can do it.
Big dreams change things.
* They change your questions. The bigger the dreams, the more profound the questions you will ask. If I want a church of 100, then you ask that question. If it’s 1,000?…it’s how do I pastor a staff to lead 1,000 people? And so on.
If I want a church of 200, then how do I train myself? If I want 200 churches, how do I develop a system?
You need a larger vision for your church.
Here’s our reality…God has a bigger dream than we do.
* Big dreams also change others around you. It stirs something in them.
2. Start Small
2 Timothy 2:2
(a) Start with your leaders…YOU WILL REPRODUCE WHO YOU ARE
(b) Start with you small groups because they are simple enough to make the mission of Jesus reproducible and it sets a culture in your church.
(c) Start with artists – facilitate your worship services with mentor/apprentice relationships…allowing 2nd tier of worship leadership lead from time to time, with 1st tier.
So foundational…A leaders’s prayer life makes a HUGE reproducible increase.
The goal of the vision is so vital.
How do you know when your church has moved from roman numerals to ten-digit numbers (how do you know when your church is moving from one area of understanding to the next?)…(a) When they learn to leave the 99 for the 1 [personal note from Jeff: this is huge…think about this. If people saw pre-service opportunities as a time to meet and embrace visitors as opposed to just getting to “hang” with each other, that’s when they get it]…(b) When they learn to LOVE the edge more than the center…(c) You start preferring “going” rather than “staying”.
What if we say “we are not going to count the same way that we used to count”…it must be by reproducing leaders.
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