Partnerships

Because Multiply is a resource or accelerator organization, most of the work we do is through partnering. We partner with indigenous church leaders in areas the world-over and with individuals and churches who have a heart for supporting those indigenous churches.

But at Multiply, we don’t believe in a fundamental division between our donors and the indigenous church leaders we partner with around the world. While we may at different times play different roles, we are all a part of one vision and one calling and working towards one goal together. This idea is why we refer to ourselves as a family instead of a network or affiliation. Ultimately, we all desire to see the name of Jesus glorified in every corner of the world.

While many international missions organizations worry about the potential messiness that can occur when donors are directly connected with resource recipients, we are fighting for deep connection between family of church congregants and leaders. One reason for this is because our model encourages everyone to be on a pathway to being a mature believer. Our resources for helping people grow in their faith and become better followers, leaders, and church multipliers are freely available to everyone in local and international churches. If you are a donor to Multiply you likely care enough about the Kingdom of God to also want to work on your spiritual life. What’s more is that the Multiply programs don’t just lead donors to be followers, leaders, and an active part of growing churches but also expect the family churches to move from under-resourced churches to donors themselves. To build bridges between Mission Partners and Resource Partners, Multiply actively works to host events and trips that bring the two together. We believe that all of our partners can grow from interactions with one-another, especially our international partners. This will, of course, result in even more new churches reaching the lost!

All these things being true, it can be helpful to have consistent language for identifying who is playing what role and any particular time. The following language helps us to do just that.

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Mission Partners

Mission Partners are members of the Family of Churches who are currently receiving help from Multiply. They are under-resourced. These are churches or organizations that are being helped with the funds given by our generous donors. At any time it may be a rural church in Africa or a Norfolk resident in the beginning stages of their church plant. Whatever stage they may be in, these Mission Partners are on the receiving end. They are busy building capacities by implementing the 3F System so that they can grow and multiply to a self-sustaining and giving capacity. Mission Partners are developed in or adopted into the Family of Churches through assessment, action plans, and applying those plans to their context.

Assess

Before being adopted into the family of churches and becoming a Mission Partner, planters and pastors are vetted extensively. Since Multiply is responsible for stewarding the funds donated from our Resource Partners we must ensure that they are the right fit for our shared goals. To this end, each potential family member is assessed in three categories: Followership, Leadership, and Multiplication. 

From the beginning of the growth process, we want to know that what is being multiplied is rooted in healthy followership of Jesus. Applicants will be assessed on their knowledge, understanding, and experience in following and leading others to follow Christ. We want to know that multipliers have a system for developing followers and that they themselves are healthy followers. 

Similarly, the leadership assessment ensures the planter or pastor candidate has a process in place for developing leaders. If they do not, [Multiply] will give access to our development pathway, designed to move leaders from leading self, to leading others, leading leaders, and leading organizations. Developing leaders who follow Jesus well and know how to develop new leaders sets the stage for multiplying followers, leaders, and churches. 

The multiplication assessment allows candidates and [Multiply] staff to align on their plans to multiply. Assessment for multiplication helps identify the needs of leaders and churches who are ready to plant new churches or send out leaders to a new context to shepherd and develop new followers and leaders. Leaders who are identified through assessment as “multipliers” not only have a plan in place for developing interns, residents, and planters/pastors, but they may also be catalysts for new [Multiply] hubs and network expansion.

Action

After assessment in Followership, Leadership, and Multiplication, candidates are given an action plan tailored to their context in each category. This action plan will identify areas of growth where the candidate needs improvement as a follower, leader, or multiplier. The action plan may have resources to study, comprehension exams to complete or simple alignment tools to help ensure an ongoing healthy partnership. Each partner who is ready to work with [Multiply] will be assigned a coach who will walk with them through the application of their action plan. 

Application

The application plan for each follower, leader, or church will vary by context. Simple Churches are largely concentrated in an international setting and will apply the action plan to their environments based on level of knowledge, understanding, and experience appropriate to their context. Like the other church models, Dura Churches will apply their action plan to develop multipliers through coaching and implementation strategies unique to [Multiply]. Prevailing model churches will be able to leverage their action plans to help their people multiply followers, leaders, and churches. Beginning with followership, our leaders develop into multipliers in any context.

Resource Partners

Resource Partners are valued members of the Multiply Family of Churches that love the Church and the mission of God and want to financially support gospel multiplication with followers, leaders, and churches throughout the nations. Resources can be gifted in a variety of ways: cash, stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. as well as in-kind through donations of cars, boats, and real estate. Planned giving options will be available in the future. Resource Partners can be individuals, churches, or organizations such as charitable foundations. Multiply and all of its work is supported 100% by donations.

These donations typically come in two (2) forms. The first is an individual donor. These are the people, mostly congregants in Family Churches, who give over and above their local church tithing to support the work of multiplying followers, leaders, and churches. The second is Family Church Donors. These are churches that have moved past the under-resourced designation. Each year we ask these churches to make a pledge to cover the full cost of the services that Multiply Central provides to them. They donate the money to Multiply in these amounts. A church that can’t cover their Ministry Capacity pledge is considered under-resourced and will be supported until such time that they become a Resource Partner themselves.   

Multiply has two programs for our resource partners.

The first is called The Harvest. The Harvest is Multiply’s global, recurring, giving community. It is composed of generous, passionate, and determined people from all around the world. Members of this community make weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly commitments to Multiply to be used as needed by the organization. These donations are absolutely crucial to the success of Multiply because they allow us to find and execute on new opportunities for church multiplication. They also give Multiply the stability to do strategic planning for vision execution on a yearly basis.

The Harvest is based on the Gospel of Matthew 9:35-38: 

35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

There is an incredible need for help from Multiply in the Global Church. The Lord has opened up tremendous opportunities and gifted us with the vision and tools to meet this incredible need. We see Multiply Harvesters as the people Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 9. They see the opportunity, that the harvest is ready and plentiful and they are determined to empower those who are reaping it for the Lord.     

Those who join The Harvest get a free T-shirt made especially for Harvest Members. They also receive regular newsletters updating them on how their funds are being used. There is no limit on how much or how little one can give through The Harvest. Every dollar is appreciated, significant, and impactful.

The second program is called Progress Giving. Progress Giving is when donated funds are allocated for specific followers, leaders, or churches on the 3F pathway. At the Resource Partner’s request, their gift will be used to multiply ongoing or future initiatives. Typically, this means a specific initiative within a church, in a specific location that is actively executing the 3F System. Resource Partners who give in this way receive several updates on the specific pathway to which they allocated funds. These updates will allow Resource Partners to follow along the pathway with the Mission Partner as they build a culture of followership, develop those followers into leaders and help those leaders multiply churches!  Project Giving is available to anyone who gives at least $500 in a single gift.  

Whether you’re a Mission Partner seeking to transform a church into all God intended it to be or you’re a Resource Partner denying yourself a dinner out one time a month to make room in your budget to be a member of The Harvest, we want you to know that you’re part of the family and together we can multiply! 

— the [multiply] team

Training: Our 3F System

INTRODUCTION

If in one sense, Ministry Capacity and centralized staff and services represents the backbone of Multiply, then Mission Capacity and the 3F Training System is the heart of the Multiply organization.

The 3F System (3FS) is a time-tested, proven approach. While it draws on many different training tools from around the world, the Multiply 3F Training System is totally unique to Multiply, Inc. 

We believe that the vision for the system was providentially developed so we could help under-resourced churches in a global context.

What is the 3F System? 

The 3F System is a collection of procedures, principles, and content that when implemented into a church or church plant results in healthy multiplication. The 3F System has three (3) main pathways: Followership, Leadership, and Multiplication. It derives its name from the three identifiers it reinforces inside of a church culture: Family, Followers, and Fields. Everything is done in the context of the Global Family of Churches. Support in all forms is showered on those churches working through the 3F process to guard from all forms of attack: physical, financial, and spiritual. While followership is a distinct phase of the 3F process it is foundational and reinforced throughout the entire process. We believe healthy followers of Jesus are both the start and end result of new or revitalized churches. It’s important to keep in mind that the common DNA of the Global Family of Churches is disciple-making that leads to multiplication. We all want to enter new fields. It is a wonderful thing for a local church to be vibrant and thriving and we are all for it! For us, at Multiply, and those that join us, this means that churches are reaching into new fields by the end of the process.

Followership

The first pathway of the 3F System is Followership. Mission Capacity partnership must start here. Why? Because if a church does not have a healthy culture of followership development, then the healthy foundation needed for multiplication has not been formed. Before we can worry about equipping leaders or multiplying churches we must make sure that the great commission is being fulfilled through the local church in a biblical way. So, the first phase of the 3F system helps everyone in the congregation (laity and leadership both) learn to be great followers of Jesus with their local leadership. Generally, great followers show deference for leadership, zeal or excitement, and mission ownership.

Leadership

The second pathway of the 3F System is Leadership. As the name suggests this phase is all about nurturing and developing leadership giftings inside the culture of followership that is already thriving. With potential leaders identified, the 3F System empowers local churches to nurture these leaders into volunteers, program leaders, teachers, deacons, elders, pastors, planters, and missionaries. While we use specific language to describe leaders in a ministry context, there is freedom to contextualize this language for each church. Our tools and resources are available to 3F partners and we consult with each one to ensure a healthy customized installation of the system.

Multiplication

When healthy followership and leadership have been cultivated in the local church, a previously under-resourced church now has a thriving congregation of equipped followers and empowered leaders. The leaders have been nurtured from within the community with a foundation of followership to produce new healthy leaders prepared to multiply new churches. Like the rest of the 3F pathways, this multiplication doesn’t happen overnight. It is crucial at the point of sending that great care is taken to do it well. For leaders who have been integral to the local community preparing to multiply, systems in that sending context must produce health, so that which is multiplied is also healthy. Head, heart, and hands assessments of leaders, pastors, and planters will allow us to ensure that multipliers are healthy followers of Jesus.

Conclusion

Different churches can successfully work through the 3F System at different speeds but on average it takes 2 years to grow from follower to leader to multiplier in the Dura Church model. Prevailing model churches can take even more time to help followers grow through the process. If it sounds like this is a significant undertaking for an under-resourced local church that’s because it is! But remember two things: 1) the 3F Training System (Mission Capacity) is just one-half of the overall partnership that a local church has with Multiply. The second half, Ministry Capacity, is concurrently developed to create the room for the 3F System to be the focus of development for the church at the appropriate time. 2) The 3F Training System comes in multiple forms that adapt to the church-model being employed at the local level whether it’s a prevailing model church or dura church.

— the [multiply] team

How We Help

HOW DOES [MULTIPLY] WORK TO BEST SUPPORT YOU?

The mission of the [Multiply] Family of Churches is to equip the churches in the family to multiply followers, leaders and churches. The way [Multiply] equips the churches is by building their capacity for mission and ministry. By “capacity building” we mean assisting in such a way that the church has the ability to “produce” healthier ministry and mission in their context. 

Each church model has varying levels of need. Some prevailing model churches have larger administrative needs, like financial, human resource, media, marketing, and legal services. [Multiply] assisting with these needs increases a church’s capacity to do ministry. When these churches need assistance in the areas of follower/leader development, internship/residency programs, international missions, church planting processes, and coaching, [Multiply] helps them increase capacity for mission.

Simple and Dura model churches typically have less administrative needs, but may require assistance with legal processes, marketing, and database management to organize people within the church. This increases their ministry capacity. In order to increase their mission capacity, simple churches within the [Multiply] family benefit from followership resources and training to multiply leaders and new churches.

We help partners become multipliers. Our partners are church planters, established churches, and donors who have a passion for growth and development. 

• Our resource partners (donors) love the church and the mission of God and want to fund gospel multiplication in followers, leaders, and churches throughout the nations. 

• Our mission partners are pastors and planters are the workers in the field multiplying followers, leaders, and churches.

You can be a multiplier by donating to, or leveraging our capacity building system.

— the [multiply] team

Our Values & Discintives

What kind of organization is multiply ?

Christian nonprofits are typically divided into two categories. Implementers and Accelerators.

Implementers are the organizations that are directly involved in planting, revitalizing, and multiplying churches. Examples of these organizations are local churches and missionary groups. 

Accelerators are organizations that are involved in resourcing church multiplication through prayer, training, tools, community development, research, finances, marketing, networking, and other means. Examples of these organizations include: church planting networks, charitable foundations, and national alliances. Accelerators help Implementers.

In this scheme, Multiply would best fit into the category of Accelerators. Our mandate is to equip - or resource - churches with the systems and training they need to become multipliers. We don’t do any of the mission work ourselves. We help followers of Jesus in the church, church leaders, and church plants do mission work. 

While Multiply best fits into the category of Accelerator, it should be noted that we see Multiply as a major evolution from what an accelerator or resource organization has been in the past. Accelerators typically only offer hands off help. They do things like hold events, coach, train, or send money but don’t jump into the fray with the ministry they are helping. Multiply goes a step further. 

We get deeply involved in three ways: Family, Capacity, and Systems. These are what we value and distinguish us from other resource organizations.

family

Multiply breaks from typical accelerators by partnering as a family. Churches inside church planting networks or missionary groups typically have loose affiliation with one another. At Multiply we insist on knowing and caring for one-another in a familial way. If one of us suffers we all suffer. If one of us succeeds we all succeed. We are truly in this together. This is true of how our Resource Partners are treated as well. Anyone who donates to Multiply is part of the family and deserves the transparency, information, and care due them.

capacity

Multiply’s devotion to their local church partners is shown in its offering of capacity services. This offering makes Multiply a truly unique organization. As a ministry built by experienced missiologists and pastors we understand the limitations of typical church leaders. For a church to become a  multiplying entity they must grow in capacity. Put simply, if church leaders are spending all of their time doing graphic design work, fighting legal battles, or fighting through bookkeeping frustrations they will never find the time and space to multiply followers, leaders, and churches. To create this capacity, Multiply offers a suite of services to under-resourced churches so they can finally focus on the activities that God has called them to.

Systems

Multiply is an organization that developed from the mission field. It was started by pastors and missiologists who could see how the world was changing and how local churches needed help to face those changes. By overcoming their own challenges in multiplying followers, disciples, and churches, these church leaders developed a system that could help others do the same. Because of this, Multiply has developed a hands-on approach that is unparalleled in the ministry world. Unlike many parachurch ministries that only provide training, coaching, or a curriculum, Multiply supplies an entire system for multiplication along with the corresponding assessment of the partner, action plans to be implemented, and the ensuing application and accountability for working the system.  

What MULTIPLY Is Not

Multiply is not a denomination. We do not exercise authority over any church. Our role is simply to help and resource local churches.

Multiply is not a charitable foundation. Like any organization, Multiply uses funds to help accomplish its mission. Sometimes, funds are even shared with member churches. However, raising and sharing funds is not Mutliply’s mandate. Any funds shared are only for family members and only to be used in the furthering of the Multiply mission and vision.

Multiply is not a church. Multiply facilitates interaction between churches but is not a church itself. All of the work that Multiply does is to assist local churches.

— the [multiply] team

Our Mission

What is the multiply mission?

At Multiply, we are on a mission to equip our family of churches to multiply followers, leaders and churches!

It is our sincere hope that one day we will live in a world where every church is equipped to grow and multiply. But, of course, that is not the case today. 

Very few churches will multiply their efforts to reach new people and areas. So it’s no wonder…

• Few churches today have trained leadership or a way of developing new leaders to start new ministries. 

• To make things harder, in most unchurched and under-resourced parts of the world the population is growing so fast that even the existing churches are struggling to adapt. 

• Millions of churches around the world are operating in scarcity while 99% of western missions funds go to already reached areas.

We need every church to be multiplying, but these struggling churches need our help! This is why at Multiply, we are working to deliver systems and services that give churches the capacity to multiply followers, leaders, and churches - especially those who are under-resourced.

Few ministries today are directly addressing the problem that is stopping churches from multiplying. Churches in under-resourced areas don’t have the capacity to focus on biblical activities that are at the heart of church ministry. This may be because of: government regulation, lack of finances, persecution, cultural pressures, no leadership development…but it has them stuck.

Multiply comes alongside these churches and offers two (2) things: 

1. Support services that give the local church capacity to focus on the things that matter most to the health of their church and community. Most under-resourced churches are stuck in a pattern of burnout and constantly feel overwhelmed, overloaded, and out of capacity to consider growth. To break this cycle/culture Multiply comes alongside indigenous churches to carry some of the burden for them. We use industry best-practices and time-tested processes to relieve the burden of graphic design, legal issues, bookkeeping, financial considerations, sermon research, teaching schedule design, and marketing. Whether temporary or permanent, this reprieve gives local church leadership the much needed rest and space to re-imagine their God-given call to make disciples of all nations. 

With this newfound Ministry Capacity (as we refer to it) the local church and its leadership now have the margin, energy, and ability to work with Multiply on #2.

2. Systems that build followers, leaders, and churches. Through coaching, training, and mentoring the Multiply staff delivers a comprehensive plan to local churches that ensures three (3) things:

a.) Followers of Jesus are equipped to become better followers who develop others

b.) Leaders are cultivated from the harvest of followers

c.) Churches are planted and/or infused with new healthy leaders from the harvest

We call this Mission Capacity because it greatly increases the ability of under-resourced local churches to reach people far from God and plant new churches.

— the [multiply] team

Our Vision

A multiply Church in Every Under-Resourced Area of the World.

The founding vision of [Multiply] was to see a family of 40 churches multiplying followers, leaders, and churches together in Hampton Roads, Virginia by 2030. We still believe this is what God has called us to and we are working hard to reach this goal for our region!

Over the past few years God started to bring other visionary leaders to [Multiply] who had similar visions for reaching their own context. The first of these areas were India, Mexico, and Rwanda.

In light of these providential opportunities the [Multiply] Board of Directors began to prayerfully consider the role of [Multiply] in helping these indigenous organizations reach their goals. 

What resulted was an expansion of the original vision set for the Hampton Roads region alone.

Now, we believe God wants to use us to bring a healthy, reproducing, [Multiply] Family Church into every under-resourced area of the world. 

We will start by doing this in Hampton Roads by becoming a local family of 40 churches. But we won’t stop there! We will continue to partner with local churches and leaders all around the world who are interested in learning how to multiply followers, leaders, and churches in their region. We will target under-resourced areas within those regions to help churches multiply followers of Jesus. By doing this, we believe we will play a significant part in the Great Commission and ensure that followers of Jesus are maturing and multiplying everywhere there is need. 

why a multiply church?

A [Multiply] Church is a church with Ministry Capacity and Mission Capacity that is using the 3F System to multiply followers, leaders and more churches. It has a pathway for multiplication that is anchored in a culture of followership where people learn how to be followers of Jesus with their local leadership. It has a development program that trains followers to be small group leaders, volunteers, team leads, deacons, elders, church planters and more. 

A [Multiply] Church has the ability to reproduce itself as a new church expression without jeopardizing its own sustainability. Because of this, one [Multiply] Church connected to the global [Multiply] family has everything it needs to see the under-resourced in their region reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It multiplies followers as a family in every field (3F).

what is an “under-resourced area”?

An under-resourced area is any collection of neighborhood, community, town, county, or village of the world where churches need assistance becoming self-sustaining, self-sufficient, and multiplying. The area may be under-resourced economically, spiritually, emotionally, educationally, or systemically. Importantly, a [Multiply] region is not necessarily defined by population size, geographic distance, demographics, or language. Instead, it is determined by the presence or absence of healthy, multiplying, sustainable churches capable of filling their region with followers of Jesus.

— the [multiply] team