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Spark: Igniting a Culture of Multiplication
“In SPARK, Todd Wilson gives the church a practical and powerful vision of what the body of Christ can resemble when it pursues exponential growth through multiplying believers and churches. I’m thankful for Todd and this helpful book.” —Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center “The book is utterly brilliant. I love it. This little eBook is more dangerous to our prevailing mindsets than its size and accessibility suggest.” —Alan Hirsch, Award-winning Writer on Missional Movements
Founder of Forge Mission Training Network and Future Travelers “Reading Spark filled my eyes with tears. Where was this book when I restarted my church? What a difference it might have made. Folks this is the first book that will go on my classics list.” —Bill Easum, Ministry Veteran, 21st Century Strategies “I found SPARK startling, eye opening, like someone had awakened me with a splash of cold water in the face. I predict it will create a lot of discussion and provide a pathway for those who want to change from a growth-addition motif to a growth-multiplication approach.” —Bill Hull, Author of Jesus Christ Disciple Maker, The Disciple Making Pastor, The Disciple Making Church “Danger Alert. Todd Wilson’s Spark will challenge your definition of church growth and church success. It’s a game-changing, paradigm-shifting, disruptive book that will rock you to the core about how to think and do church.” —Jim Tomberlin, Founder, MultiSite Solutions
Founder of Forge Mission Training Network and Future Travelers “Reading Spark filled my eyes with tears. Where was this book when I restarted my church? What a difference it might have made. Folks this is the first book that will go on my classics list.” —Bill Easum, Ministry Veteran, 21st Century Strategies “I found SPARK startling, eye opening, like someone had awakened me with a splash of cold water in the face. I predict it will create a lot of discussion and provide a pathway for those who want to change from a growth-addition motif to a growth-multiplication approach.” —Bill Hull, Author of Jesus Christ Disciple Maker, The Disciple Making Pastor, The Disciple Making Church “Danger Alert. Todd Wilson’s Spark will challenge your definition of church growth and church success. It’s a game-changing, paradigm-shifting, disruptive book that will rock you to the core about how to think and do church.” —Jim Tomberlin, Founder, MultiSite Solutions
86 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 25, 2020
I’ve read this twice and it’s full of highlights. It’s straightforward thinking about establishing a multiplication culture in your church, not because it’s the latest church growth fad, but because it’s biblical. This book is practical and is helpful for leaders who want to know how to prepare for a shift from an addition focus to a focus in making and multiplying disciples and churches. Best of all, it keeps Jesus at the center, not celebrity pastors.
March 25, 2015
This book is about becoming a "multiplying" pastor of a "multiplying" church. It is a paradigm-breaking and paradigm-proposing book. It suggests that church leaders increase in risk-taking--to send disciples rather than accumulate them. One's goal should shift from making disciples that will grow this church to making disciples who will go and plant/lead another church ad infinitum.
A short read (free ebook) that is highly recommended to pastors and church leaders.
The author states his purpose:
My objectives in writing this book are narrowly focused: to highlight the prominent church cultures you most naturally create; to challenge you to candidly assess which culture you are cultivating; to encourage you to put to death some of the paradigms that drive our idolatry for faulty cultures; and to equip you to surrender your current paradigm for the abundance and fruitfulness of a multiplication culture.
QUOTES:
Today’s average church tends to champion catch and accumulate over release and send.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Their scorecard is more about “who and how many have been sent” than “how many have been accumulated.”
“The vision was to stop becoming a lake church and instead become a river church,” he writes. “In a lake church, people flow in and stay. It seeks to get more and more people around one pastor in one place. In a river church, the people flow in but keep moving downstream. God takes them to other places to minister. The measurement becomes about ‘flow rate’ instead of ‘volumes contained’; about ‘gallons per minute’ instead of ‘gallons retained.’”
Your role in stewarding and cultivating culture may be the most important role you play as a leader.
“How strong is your conviction to be a multiplying church?”
You’ll need to cast a vision to measure success differently.
“Addition is adept at bringing glory to God and to us; multiplication requires humility lived out,”
“Multiplication demonstrates an ‘it’s not about us’ dimension to ministry. It builds a different scoreboard—one that lights up when new leaders are sent out instead of simply when new consumers come in. The glory of the local church gets lost in the glory of the Kingdom.”
Most often, the churches that grow the most provide the highest-quality religious goods and services.
Our temptation is to cater to the consumers who will fund their own comfort instead of calling out the missionaries who will commit to building the Kingdom.
Avoid the mistake of starting out by focusing on the services your church can provide and then trying to shift to a multiplication culture a few years down the road.
The question is, how mature must a church be before giving birth to a new church?
The most effective personal evangelists are not those who are fully trained and matured but rather, those who are newly saved.
A short read (free ebook) that is highly recommended to pastors and church leaders.
The author states his purpose:
My objectives in writing this book are narrowly focused: to highlight the prominent church cultures you most naturally create; to challenge you to candidly assess which culture you are cultivating; to encourage you to put to death some of the paradigms that drive our idolatry for faulty cultures; and to equip you to surrender your current paradigm for the abundance and fruitfulness of a multiplication culture.
QUOTES:
Today’s average church tends to champion catch and accumulate over release and send.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Their scorecard is more about “who and how many have been sent” than “how many have been accumulated.”
“The vision was to stop becoming a lake church and instead become a river church,” he writes. “In a lake church, people flow in and stay. It seeks to get more and more people around one pastor in one place. In a river church, the people flow in but keep moving downstream. God takes them to other places to minister. The measurement becomes about ‘flow rate’ instead of ‘volumes contained’; about ‘gallons per minute’ instead of ‘gallons retained.’”
Your role in stewarding and cultivating culture may be the most important role you play as a leader.
“How strong is your conviction to be a multiplying church?”
You’ll need to cast a vision to measure success differently.
“Addition is adept at bringing glory to God and to us; multiplication requires humility lived out,”
“Multiplication demonstrates an ‘it’s not about us’ dimension to ministry. It builds a different scoreboard—one that lights up when new leaders are sent out instead of simply when new consumers come in. The glory of the local church gets lost in the glory of the Kingdom.”
Most often, the churches that grow the most provide the highest-quality religious goods and services.
Our temptation is to cater to the consumers who will fund their own comfort instead of calling out the missionaries who will commit to building the Kingdom.
Avoid the mistake of starting out by focusing on the services your church can provide and then trying to shift to a multiplication culture a few years down the road.
The question is, how mature must a church be before giving birth to a new church?
The most effective personal evangelists are not those who are fully trained and matured but rather, those who are newly saved.
March 11, 2015
"Multiplication" as a ministry mindset is biblical and refreshing in it simple purity. I pray that lots of church leaders will read this and be courageous enough to accept the massive paradigm shift it proposes.
May 15, 2016
I enjoyed this book because of the challenge in it to move church culture from addition to multiplication. The "Tensions" and cultural shifts they discuss are helpful. I look forward to reading other books from this series.
May 6, 2016
A paradigm shifting view that is catching on in recent years - multiplying leaders and groups and sending them out instead of accumulating them in a particular church. An exponential growth of the Kingdom message instead of the status quo or slow decline.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews