The Five Actions of Rapid Expansion

What are the actions that will take the church to Rapid Expansion? At annual conferences this year we asked each church to do five things in the coming year. These five actions are the key actions necessary to move the church from addition to multiplication.

These actions are:
I. Teach Submission - Submission is the one human action that brings the life of God into the human heart and into the church (Hebrews 12:9). Rapid Expansion can only happen when the life of God is flowing in the world.

II. Offer Grace - The only thing the church really has to offer is Grace. We try far too hard to "sell" Jesus as a benefit. But in fact, it is the story of Jesus that is compelling. Offer the Grace of forgiveness, of the nearness and the goodness of God that is available to us by the act of Jesus lived out in his life, death, and resurrection.

III. Dispense Grace - Assist believers interact with other people in a way that lives out the compassion of Jesus. We are to dispense the grace of God into the world everywhere we go. "Christian" is a synonym for "gracious person."

IV. Speak the Name - Jesus IS part of our story. We all tell our story every day. We do not have to struggle to "witness", we just have normal conversations in which we honestly tell our story, and include Jesus as part of our story. Every time you tell your story and make Jesus part of you story, the Holy Spirit uses that as an invitation to believe.

V. Start a New Group - The church spread in New Testament times by the creation of new groups. The church has always spread by the creation of new groups. The purpose of every group (read: congregation, home group, Sunday School class, small group) is to create links into the world to create new groups. Ask God what your group needs to do to start a new group in the next twelve months!