The Most Important Resource for Church Multiplication

          Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that

provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

The last time I spoke with you, I asked you a question. I asked, “What do you

think is the most needed resource for church multiplication? Buildings, money,

prayer, or people? Clearly, all four kinds of resources are important. But are

they all essential for church planting? And even if they are all essential

resources, which of the four, buildings, money, prayer, or people is most

important?

I suppose there is no final, definitive answer for this question that works in

every church planting situation at all times. But I would argue that in general,

people are the resource your church planting ministry needs more than any

other. But to think of people as resources can be somewhat dangerous. People

are made in the image of God. All people are worthy of honor, dignity, and

respect. So, if we think of people as mere resources, we may fall to the

temptation of treating them merely as instruments and tools to achieve our

goals. That would be a sinful mistake.

But, there is a way to humbly think of people as resources who achieve God-

given goals for the church to make disciples of all nations. This humble way of

thinking begins by valuing each person for the precious treasure that he or she

is.

God has given you many people who worship in your churches. How much do

you know about them? How well do you know their stories? What motivates

each one? What gifts, skills, and talents do they bring to your churches? How

are their gifts being developed and put to work to advance the cause of Christ?

We are stewards, that is, we are managers of the resources God gives us. It is

our responsibility to manage those resources well. One responsibility of a

manager is to make sure his resources are productive and growing, not

declining or left unused.

You can develop your churches’ human resources three ways:

 By vision casting

 By training and coaching

 By mobilization of spiritual gifts

These three ways to develop human resources go hand in hand. You know about

vision casting to help people see God’s plan and God’s methods to achieve his

goals. You know how to paint a word picture of what God has in mind and

activate faith. And you know about training and coaching to impart new

understanding and to help your people develop new skills for ministry.

Mobilization of spiritual gifts builds on vision casting, training, and coaching.

Mobilization of spiritual gifts asks two questions:

1. What spiritual gifts has God given to the people I have trained?

2. How can these gifts be used to achieve the God-given goals of multiplying

disciples, cell groups, and churches?

Leaders who want to multiply ask themselves these questions constantly. As

God provides answers through observation, prayer, and reflection, leaders

become good stewards of the human resources God has entrusted to them. In

this way they are able to empower workers to serve the Church according to

their gifts. This results in greater Gospel impact and much praise to the Lord.

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this

encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #MobilizeGifts #HumanResources