Message Magazine Online - Vol. 53, No. 01, Spring 2005

In This Issue

• A Church on Every Block
  By Donna Messenger
• Preparing the Bride
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• Tsunami Relief
• DNA and The Church: Biblical Church Multiplication
  By Norm Nicklas
• The Most Powerful Human Force in the World
  Dr. Michael G. Loftis, President
• Why Is Missions So White?
  By Bill Commons
• Invoking the Hand of God Together
  By Rev. Charles Ware
• The Missions Committee
  By Jim Ruff
• Equipping a Generation of Global Leaders
  By Jim Jeffery
• Global Access Partnerships: One Church’s Story - Part Two
  By Dave Livermore
• Missions Conferences With Impact
  An Interview with E.C. Haskell
• Women’s Missionary Groups: A Thing of the Past?
  By Dotty Ashley
• Into Life Eternal
• Children’s Corner

DNA and The Church: Biblical Church Multiplication

By Norm Nicklas, Executive Administrator for North America

The biblical account of creation in Genesis chapter 1 establishes the principle that all living plants and animals should multiply after their own kind. The fruit trees yield fruit from the “seed [that] is in itself” (Genesis 1:11, 12). To the living creatures God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22). Following the creation of Adam and Eve, God said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply: fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The DNA in the cells of all living things created by God carries genetic information and hereditary characteristics that make living things capable of self-reproduction.

In the spiritual realm, the same principle is evident when Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Acts chapter 2 records the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, entered into, and filled the disciples with His power as Jesus promised in Acts 1:8. The church, the body of Christ, was born, and it became a living, growing organism. Many believed and were baptized and added to the church. The book of Acts records that “the number of the disciples multiplied greatly” and that “churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria… were multiplied” (Acts 6:7; 9:31).

Church multiplication is biblical; it is part of the spiritual DNA of the church. That means that the church of Jesus Christ in North America must be growing and spontaneously reproducing new churches everywhere. It means our churches must not only support missions and missionaries around the world, but they also must be on mission and doing missions at home.

North America is one of the few continents where biblical Christianity is not growing faster than the population. The current population in the USA is about 295,500,000 and growing at a net gain of 1 person every 11 seconds. In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people. Today there are only 11 churches for every 10,000 people. Church attendance is declining, with actual church attendance at about only 20 percent of the population in the USA and 7 percent in Canada. At least half of all churches last year did not add one new member through conversion.

What must the true church of Christ begin to do? The church must be viewed as God’s people and not a place to go on Sunday. The church must “go into the world,” not sit and wait for the world to come to church. The church must be a people rich in cultural diversity and free of racial suspicion and segregation. The church must make biblical disciples, not just add members.

Finally, the church must commit itself to developing a reproducible system or method of church multiplication that is not primarily dependent on money, land, and buildings. The church, the body of Christ, must rediscover the divine DNA in the power of the Holy Spirit and build reproduction into the genetic code of every new Christian and church. The church must evaluate our North American ecclesiology, our assumptions about the nature of the church, our church practices, forms of worship, system of theological education, and over-dependence upon men, money, and methods. Every church should plant a church that plants a church.