I spent years thinking it was great if our church was growing. “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:27) – What could be better?

Then we got caught up in a church planting network. This was better. Raising up leaders and sending them out to new cities and countries. Exciting. Risky. Adventurous.

But in the last few years I’ve become less enamoured with both of those. From a global perspective, it seems relatively easy for a good pastor to grow their church (what I’ll call 1st generation) and surprisingly common for an influential leader to train up church planters (2nd generation). What’s elusive is for people in those churches to plant churches (3rd generation).

Or in a more relational description, making disciples is somewhat doable, and for those disciples to make disciples I’ve seen happen. But for those disciples, who you don’t even know, to make disciples….

It can’t be about the leader. It must be the gospel. The gospel multiplies all by itself. If it’s not multiplying out past where the leader can influence, then is it the gospel?

“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” (Mark 4:26-28)

So now I scour the globe for places where the majority of the growth is coming from the 3rd+ generation of believers. It’s the question I ask of everyone. I have friends who train dozens of church planters per year. Are those churches multiplying?

It turns out to be a better question than how’s your church, or how many churches have you planted. Because it goes beyond what you can control or accomplish by your efforts. It gets into whether the Spirit has gotten into your people and transformed their lives into fruitfulness.