Church PLANT Manual

78 • Church PLANT Manual

focus on the task at hand while keeping multiplication as a core principle along the way. Failure to keep multiplication at the forefront of the team’s mind will present many challenges. Church plant teams who are solely focused on planting one church will find it difficult to transition that church to next generation pastoral leadership when the time comes to multiply. Without intentionality toward multiplication the church plant team will struggle with the idea of losing valuable team members they have invested so much time to develop. They may resist sending their very best leaders out to plant other churches as doing so might detract from the newly planted church’s effectiveness and capacity. This often leads to churches sending less than their very best to plant a daughter church. Certainly, a church laser focused on and stuck in one-church thinking will never find the required space and time to pray, plan, and tackle the challenges of developing a church planting movement from their church plant considering the strains of leading the one church. All of this to say, a church plant team must work diligently to keep multiplication at the center of their hearts. We offer various models below, as we know there is no “one size fits all” model appropriate for all contexts. In all things, contextualization is key. That said, it is imperative that all churches begin with multiplication in mind regardless of the model. Church plant teams who understand multiplication as their end game will handle the process of planting their first church differently and hold their plans more loosely. A church plant team that has clarity going into their first church plant that the day will come when in some way they will release their “baby” will be freed up to operate with greater openness, creativity, flexibility, agility, and wisdom when the time comes to do so.