When you have the stated mission of multiplication as a movement, it is good to get some help. Because multiplication is hard. In fact, genuine, fruitful multiplication is impossible alone.
As a Foursquare family, we have always looked beyond our own boundaries to partner with, learn from, and bless those of other Christian church families. It takes humility for leaders to reach out across those boundaries, and it takes grace for those not directly involved in our mission to pour into us.
Enter Ed Stetzer, the statistical Bruce Lee of church multiplication. Operating at LifeWay Research in analyzing and informing church movements—but also being in the trenches of planting a church—Stetzer is a great ally to have when it comes to the understanding and implementation of church-planting strategies.
One of the things necessary to such a work is a high commitment to the Word of God and His church, and at Foursquare Connection 2014 in Dallas, Stetzer proved his commitment when delivering a short and powerful vision of multiplication.
The great danger of developing a church-planting strategy is the systematization of something that is Spirit-dependent.
“We are sent to all peoples with a message, and multiply in His power, not ours,” is the statement Stetzer broke down into four points, each with a scriptural backbone, and all under the conviction that “the church is the tool, the vessel, the instrument, that God is using to announce and demonstrate His gospel to a lost, broken and hurting world.”
The great danger of developing a church-planting strategy is the systematization of something that is Spirit-dependent. It is quite possible for us to create a model, and then make copies of that model, but if we replicate in our strength, we will replicate something that lacks the life and vitality of the Spirit. We are partners with God in His plan, not ours. Spirit-empowered mission is, therefore, the kind we must be pursuing.
For more from Ed Stetzer, including a brief interview after his keynote message, watch this video, recorded live at Foursquare Connection 2014, and consider how the scriptural principles help reshape us, not only internationally, but also locally in our own places of service.
To watch more Foursquare Connection 2014 videos, click here.
