Crunching Becoming 5

2In the last several months, if you have been talking to Greg, you’ve either heard him talk about the book, Becoming a Level 5 Multiplying Church authored by Dave Ferguson and Todd Wilson from Exponential, or he’s asked you to be a beta tester for the new assessment HGC has developed with Exponential to support the book. Really, it’s probably both.

Becoming 5 is a look at how we can each play our part in moving the needle on church multiplication. This field guide helps leaders compare and contrast the differences between subtraction, addition and multiplication cultures.

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Level 1 :: Subtracting // Level 2 :: Plateauing // Level 3 :: Adding Level 4 :: Reproducing // Level 5 :: Multiplying

If  you’ve read the book and you’re like me, you’ve probably started mentally crunching some of the concepts and wonder what other people are saying about it. As you process, here’s a peak into some great conversations on Becoming 5 from within our network:

I think Becoming 5 nails the Number 1 shift that HAS to occur in order to multiply: shift from churches making disciples to disciples making disciples AND shift from adding consumer/cultural Christians to growing biblical disciples.

If the lead pastors isn’t personally making disciples (not teaching students), then it will never be modeled in the body.  Like personal evangelism, you can’t delegate this to a ministry. I have always assumed that the pastor knew how to make disciples and was making it a priority…this is no longer the case in the Church.

If discipleship isn’t being practiced at the micro level, it is never going to happen at the macro level.  So we can talk all we want about “best practices of church planting”, but what I am seeing is if they don’t buy into the DNA difference of a multiplying church, then they are literally destined to simply repeat the same mistakes that have been made over and over again throughout the western church.

We have to crack to code on micro addition (The art of neighboring…is a good book on this) and micro multiplication.  This micro multiplication is discipleship of a life on life.  That is, expecting followers of Christ to “own” making disciples of others—which is much more than small groups, though it entails small groups. It is more than programs, though it entails content and curriculum.

I can tell you that if multiplication isn’t happening at the “micro” level, it isn’t possible at the “macro” level

Intrigued by our conversations? Download the book here and you can take an assessment to determine your church’s level of multiplication here.

Post contributed by Heidi Tarin, HGC Communications Catalyst.