Neil Cole's Blog, page 19

The Secret to Church Multiplication Movements, Part 6

The Seduction of Addition

Multiplication may slower than addition in the initial stages, but in the long run, it is the only way to fulfill the Great Commission in our generation. The population of the world is rapidly multiplying. If all we do is add disciples and churches we will not even scratch the surface of what we have been commanded to do. Nor can we simply add multiplication to our current addition strategies, because each one has completely different requirements. We must stop addin...

The Secret to Church Multiplication Movements, Part 5

A basic lesson in math

I am no mathematician. My High School math teacher would chuckle at the thought that I would have anything good to contribute to a conversation about mathematics. But maybe it takes a simple-minded, mathematically challenged individual to help us to see the obvious.

Basic math is made up of four different processes involving numbers: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In the sequence of positive numbers addition and multiplication gain in numerical sum, w...

The Secret to Church Multiplication Movements, Part 4

We can learn much by comparing the results of the communist revolution in Russia with that in China. Both were bloody revolutions that attempted militarily to snuff out all opposition, close down all churches, remove all missionaries and incarcerate all of the church leaders. The church found in Russia prior to the revolution was centered on cathedrals led by priests and was distant from the everyday lives of the people. When communism seized the church and all her assets the people had nothi...

The Secret to Church Multiplication Movements, Part 3

Imagine a man is pushing a heavy car up hill while near the top. He wants to see it roll far and fast, so with all his might he pushes it up. As he fights against the weight and gravity, he struggles under the load, but he is determined to start this movement. In fact, all he has to do is step out of the way and it will do all he wants and more. He is, in fact, the one preventing what he wants from happening. Every square pound of pressure he invests in this exercise prevents him from accompl...

The Secret to Church Multiplication Movements, Part 2

My friend Alan Hirsch likes to use the following example to make the point. If all the Christians in the world were suddenly killed off or abducted by aliens, and only one little Christian girl was left behind, all that is necessary to repopulate the planet with the Kingdom of God is found in her. The power of the kingdom of God is in Christ present within us. It is that simple and yet that profound. We mess things up by making it all complex. I am not discounting that certain people have gif...

I Discovered the Secret to Church Multiplication Movements!

I have given my entire adult life to trying to discover the secret to starting spontaneous church multiplication movements. It has literally been an obsessive curiosity that has become a life calling. Unhappy with anything less, I have abandoned much in its pursuit. One of the things I figured out through many failures along the way is that the potent DNA of a movement is not found in books, seminars or with elite scholars or specially gifted personalities. The true ingredient necessary for a...

C. S. Lewis on Church 3.0

The church exists for nothing else but to draw men
into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are
not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions,
sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of
time. God became a Man for no other purpose.
— C. S. Lewis

My Awakening, by Erin Cole (at age 13)

My daughter Erin wrote this poem when she was only thirteen to express her own feelings about our church, which is called Awakening. As you can see, she felt strongly that this was her church.

My Awakening
Every Friday night about six - thirty or seven,
I meet and have church with believers of heaven.
We worship and gather together and share,
Of all sorts of things that just need some prayer.
There could be a few of us, maybe five or ten,
Or maybe, on occasion we'll be thirty again.
All of the people...

Wisdom from a Mentor

Every time we eat, we eat the fruit of God ' s
tremendous reproduction power given to plants
and animals. Look around out of doors; it ' s
everywhere — grass, trees, birds, bees, babies and
flowers. All creation is shouting it! This is the way
God works! . . . We ourselves don ' t make the church
grow or reproduce, any more than pulling on a stalk
of corn would make it grow.
— George Patterson

Some verses from the New American Slandard Version of the Bible

John 3:16--"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten church, that whosoever attendeth shall have everlasting sermons."

Acts 1:8--"But you shall receive a belief system when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you shall be my teachers, both in the large church settings and the small ones."

John 13:35--"By this will men know that you are disciples of Mine, by the WWJD bracelets you wear and the bumper stickers you have on your cars."

John 10:10--"I came that they might have meetings...