Building a viral DNA is something we all strive for.  There are several books out on how to create movement.  The Exponential Conference has focused on movement making.  Much of the missional discussion has to do with creating viral, organic, rapidly reproducing movements.  Church planting is frequently referred to as multiplication and movement.  I think we can all agree that church planting is having a positive impact on the kingdom.  The Christian Post surprised me a bit earlier this year, when they reported that there is no longer a net decline in the total number of churches in the US.  And while this is great to hear, we’d all like to see the number of disciples being made on a rapid incline and the culture itself seeing transformation.  I’d say we haven’t hit movement levels until that happens.

In my opinion, a big part of the problem is that we are planting churches.  Hear me out.  Church planters focus on reproducing on the congregational level (100 – 200 people).  They pour all their energy and effort into creating that large group.  The typical pattern is that after the church launches and the large group is established, then smaller groups of 10 – 20 are created (small groups, programs, bible studies, etc.).  Then as more time passes, the church planter begins to see the need to spend more time on leadership development, elder training, etc. and begins to focus on the micro (2 -3 people).

When the large service is your primary mode of church, this makes complete sense.  The problem is that it is very difficult to reproduce on this level.

1. It takes a very unique leader to reproduce a large congregation.  Church planting assessment is essential because this type of leader is rare.
2. It takes a lot of money.  Reproducing on this level is expensive.
3. With the focus on the large congregation, it is difficult to set a DNA where all Christians are active and involved in the ministry of the church.
4. It is easy for Christians to attend only and outsource the functions of being a disciple to the leadership of the church.

We need to reverse the flow.  Start with the micro and move to the macro.  The flow should look something more like this:

From Micro to Macro

In this structure, the most important group is on the cellular level (2 – 3 people).  Neil Cole calls these the Life Transformation Groups.  These small cells of 2  - 3 are easy to reproduce.  Any Christian can do it.  And this isn’t anything new.  If we look back to the beginning of the church in the US, this structure was present.  The smaller cellular groups of 2 -3 were found within your own family.  The 10 -20 sized groups were your extended family and the larger congregational level was your church.  Discipleship happened in the home.  In the last couple of decades, there has been an increasing fragmentation of the family unit and this structure has largely broken down leaving us with the larger congregational level group, without the foundation of the cellular unit.  More in a future post on how to reproduce this cellular group.

Another issue with starting with the larger congregational group is that it tends to extract people from their spheres of influence with non-Christians.  Most people have little margin in their lives.  They will typically have existing small groups (10 – 20 people) that they are involved with: the friends they party/play with, social clubs, little leagues, co-workers, etc.  The typical church plant that focuses on the congregational level will create programs and small groups for Christians to be involved in.  Discipleship is usually intended to take place on this level.  This creates a problem.  To grow, the Christian has to be involved in these groups of 10 -20 and with little margin, must give up something.  They either will fall away from the small groups they are already a part of or they will not engage in the discipleship programs of the church resulting in either little growth or little evangelism.  When you start at the cellular level, rather than extract people from their existing groups of 10 – 20, you are able release or send them on mission into their existing groups of 10 -20, thus creating an engine for evangelism.  Here are some advantages of this approach:

1. Every Christian can do it.  Anyone can reproduce a group of 2 -3.
2. It is persecution proof.
3. It empowers every Christian with the mission of God.
4. It focuses on reproducing disciples not congregations.
5. It creates an engine for evangelism, discipleship and leadership development.
6. It allows the larger congregational group to focus on worship, vision casting and sending.
7. It is relationally driven.

If you are planting a church my encouragement is that you should first demonstrate reproduction on the smaller cellular level before starting a large gathering.  In my experience, it’s tough to go backwards on this one.  What are your thoughts?  Does this make sense?  Does your experience confirm this?

*I can’t take a lot of credit for this post.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading, most recently Church 3.0 by Neil Cole and have been the Future Travlers group which is coached by Alan Hirsch.  A lot of this post comes from processing what I’ve been learning as well as my experience with church planters.