Exponential: Neil Cole 2

Chaordic Leadership
Neil Cole

How do you know if your strategy for disciple-making is exponential or incremental? Here's the forumla he gave to help.

Your baptism goal (number your church would hope to baptize in a year) x 1 million=

If what you're doing doesn't have the potential to reach that many people, then the strategy is incremental, not exponential.

You can't use an addition system and slowly evolve into multiplication.

A church multiplication movement is not...

• a movement without multiple generations (of churches)
• gathering Christians from other churches
• big revival meetings (you reproduce what you are)
• a centralized leadership development institution that sends out leaders

A church multiplication movement is self-perpetuating and self-propagating.

96% of churches don't multiply/reproduce. If this happened with women we'd be worried!

The DNA of the church

• Divine Truth
• Nurturing Relationships
• Apostolic Mission
• You cannot supplement, subtract from, or seperate the DNA without bad things happening.

Can we have order in chaos? (referring mostly to leadership and decentralized churches)

• You can't control spontaneous multiplication. If you're controlling it, it won't spontaneously reproduce.
• We've confused order with control.
• Who is better at control, you or the Holy Spirit?
• If the DNA remains consistent, the whole will be consistent.
• An exoskeletal structure limits growth.
• An endoskeleton grows with an organism and isn't seen.
• Fractals are an example of consistent order in design at every level.

All reproduction happens on a cellular level (in other words, even the smallest units reproduce in living things)

• We all began as a zygote.
• Development happens naturally from micro to macro
• Disciples-->Leaders-->Churches-->Movements
• Multiply the simple enough times and it becomes complex.

Exponential: Neil Cole

Cultivating Kingdom-Focused Lives
Neil Cole

• You cannot control multiplication.
• Spiritual Breathing: Exhaling
  confession/cleansing of sin (2 Tim. 2:19-22)
  The Bible's clear we should confess to each other.
• Spiritual Breathing: Inhaling
  The consumption of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
  Part of the problem is our churches aren't reading the Bible. They're not learning to
  hear God's voice, they're learning to hear it through their pastor.
  Read the Bible like a love letter--all the way through and over and over.
• Spiritual Breathing: Sharing (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
  This will flow out of breathing.
  We'll only know what to say in the moment if we're breathing.
• Life Transformation Groups
  No leader, equally disciples.
  Three activities: read Scripture, confess sin, pray for the lost.
• In disciple making we have to work with people who will be faithful to the process. Some will try to consume your life with their problems and you can't let them. You're not their Savior.
  

Organic Church

In the last week I've been reading the book Organic Church by Neil Cole. It's been out for a while, but I never read it largely because of the cheesy cover and the cheesy picture of Neil in the back (I know I'm so fickle). I started reading it because I got a copy for free, but had I known what was in it I would have gladly shelled out some cash. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time.

Cole provides a powerfully prophetic message for all Christians. It is true that he promotes a very non-traditional approach to church (which I resonate with), but what he writes is not focused on the form of church so much as it is focued on calling us back to Christ. Here is a tasty sample from the book.

All of us invested in the Kingdom of God long deeply to be a part of a spontaneously growing and multiplying movement where God is doing the work. We read the book of Acts, and our spirits scream to be a part of something like that. When we hear reports of the Kingdom expanding and lives changing overseas in China or India, our souls are touched in a deep place that we seldom feel, and it reminds us that our own experience is so empty. It is unfortunate that we sacrifice our heart’s desire for lesser things. The reality is that as long as we invest in human-driven efforts, we will never see what we all really want to see…There is a risk involved in seeking a spontaneous movement. We must trust God to do His part. We must be willing to place ourselves in a position where, if he does not show up, we will be seen as complete fools. Most have not been willing to take that risk. We are often afraid that God’s reputation will be tarnished. This fear is not from heaven but hell. We will never see the dramatic power of God if we are too afraid to be placed in a position that requires His deliverance.

Do we even know what it would look like to put ourselves in such a place? Are we so comfortable that we wouldn't know how to be risky if we wanted to?