I spent the better part of 2008 laying the organizational foundations for the AG Church Multiplication Network. During the first half of the year, I worked closely with Dr. Wood and the Executive Presbyters along with a team of over 50 leaders from across the nation to craft the “Ministry Plan” that is now serving as our guiding document as the Church Multiplication Network becomes a reality. The second half of 2008 was spent finding the right team members to invite to serve on the CMN leadership team.

I’m happy to announce that as of today, our initial leadership team is in place and heading into a 48 hour strategic planning meeting that begins on Tuesday at noon Central Standard Time. Please allow me to solicit your prayers and input for and into this process. Over the next couple days, we plan to do our best to hear from the Lord and determine the action steps we need to take to put in place valuable support systems and organizational infrastructure to assist you in starting new churches. And I really do want your input. You can email your thoughts to spike@ag.org or post them as a comment to the blog.

Of course, for you to provide meaningful input, it might help you to know what the CMN and this 48 hour meeting are all about!

The Church Multiplication Network is the label for an effort initiated in 2007 by our General Superintendent.  In his book “Core Values” released just after the 2007 General Council in Indianapolis, Dr. Wood declared that planting vigorous new churches “must become this Fellowship’s priority.” In partnership with the other Executive Officers and Presbyters, he followed up his written declaration with determined action by setting in motion some organizational restructuring that would better align our behavior with our stated values.

The result is that the Church Multiplication Network is now the hub for the church planting efforts of the Assemblies of God. Our leadership team reports directly to Dr. Wood. And we are tasked with helping church starters, parent churches and districts maximize their effectiveness in making disciples of the millions of Americans who are de-, un-, and/or pre-churched.

The Ministry Plan answers the question, what can best be done from a national platform to appropriately help those who are starting new churches? Our answer is to form 7 “systems” that will be deployed in a manner that cooperatively supports local and regional planting efforts with high quality resources and networks.

The seven systems are:

1. Discovering- intentionally finding people that God is calling to start new churches.

2. Developing- helping those who may be called connect with experiences to clarify and grow in their calling.

3. Assessing- providing quality tools for to help the called discern how God has “wired” them and what might be their best way to contribute to starting a new church.

4. Training- providing “just-in-time” training and strategic planning support to make sure the called can learn from the experiences of other planters.

5. Coaching- providing skilled coaching support for every planter so no one plants alone.

6. Funding- assisting every planting project with knowledge and opportunities to acquire the necessary financial resources from both traditional and non-traditional funding sources.

7. Communications- telling the stories of church planting through the US to assist with networking and as a source of inspiration and information.

And now, please allow me to introduce the team leaders who will provide oversight to the development and deployment of these services.

Overseeing the Discovering and Developing systems is Joel Hunter- Joel is the founding pastor of Northwood Assembly in Houston, Texas.

The Assessing, Training and Coaching systems are led by veteran church planter Dave McNaughton. Most recently, Dave has served with distinction as the Assistant Director of Church Planting and Development for the North Texas District.

The funding system is being managed by Dave Auterson, who previously served as the Stewardship Consultant for the New Jersey District.

The communications system is led by Leo Crosby. Leo comes to us from New Iron Media where he served as the Director of Consulting Services.

Beginning Tuesday at noon, this team of five will be hunkering down for 48 hours to be like the “men of Issachar” who understood their times and knew what to do! We plan to live-blog our meeting.  We also welcome participation from you on the Church Multiplication Network Facebook group. Check back frequently over the next few days as we update you on our progress!

Who knows? Maybe I’m right.

Sometimes you never know how significant a year is until centuries later. 1776, 1492, 33… those were all big years but nobody living in them understood how big they really were at the time they were living in them.

I do know that 100 years from now when our great grand kids are talking history, they might at least refer to 2008 as the year the AG turned a corner. Here are some reasons they might think that:

1. In 2008, the Church Multiplication Network was formally conceived, approved and launched as a General Council initiative to leverage the scale and assets of this fellowship to work together to reach as many Americans as possible through vigorous new communities of faith started all over America.

2. 10 BootCamps were held and hundreds of multipliers were trained to start new churches and help existing churches learn how to multiply.

3. 43 churches were funded and launched through the efforts of the AG Trust and the CMN matching fund project.  These 43 churches have connected with over 70,000 previously “un” or “de” churched individuals, recorded 955 confessions of faith, baptized 189 folks in water and are giving an average of 11% of their income to missions.

4. The initial leadership team for the Church Multiplication Network has been selected and activated. I’ll be announcing our “starting lineup” in a blog post in the near future. Suffice it to say, God’s blessed us with a great team and we are ready to for what’s next!

I’m extremely grateful to the visionary executive leadership team that God has given the AG fellowship. It is an extraordinary privilege to work with George Wood, Alton Garrison, John Palmer, Doug Clay, Zollie Smith and John Bueno. Along with the Executive Presbytery team, these outstanding leaders have taken a bold step in facilitating and financing the creation of the Church Multiplication Network.

Tomorrow, we all start another trip around the sun. By God’s grace, it’s going to be a good one! 

David Olson says only 17% of Americans regularly attend a Christian worship service and the American church is in crisis. Esteemed scholar and professor Rodney Stark says that the American church is just fine. He puts the number of Americans who “belong to a congregation” at 69%. So who’s right?

Both are. Sort of.

Olson’s number is based on actual reported attendance numbers from denominational offices of over 200,000 American churches. Stark’s number is based on a series of surveys conducted by Baylor University from 2005-2007 with a total sample of about 4500 adults. Olson’s measures behavior. Stark’s reports responses to questions asked by interviewers.

So basically, what we learn is that 69% of Americans “belong to a congregation,” but only 17% actually bother to participate regularly in the assembling together of the congregation. Keep in mind, the “congregation” that Stark refers to includes groups like Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-day Saints and other such groups that subscribe to a view of scripture that is at odds with the consensus among most followers of Christ. 

Which leads me to conclude that the title of Olson’s book “The American Church In Crisis” most accurately describes the reality we face in this great nation. Now is not the time to “rest on our laurels.”