Alright, it's been a long time since I've sent one of these bad boys, but I figured it was time to fire up the old email machine and share some things that have been on my heart recently.

Hope you’ve been well! Now down to it…

Ten years ago I became a first time senior pastor with a lot of fire and probably enough insecurity to confuse bigger with better.

I wanted growth. Badly. More people. More seats filled. More proof that what we were doing was working. I watched attendance like it was a scoreboard. I celebrated spikes. I stressed dips. Sundays carried way more emotional weight than they should have.

I don’t say that to knock growth. I’m still grateful for every person God entrusts to our church. I still want to reach people who don’t know Jesus. We still use ads. We still think strategically. We still care about excellence. And honestly our church has grown more in the last season than ever before.

But underneath all of that something has shifted to the surface. Honestly, something that was always my true passion. Making disciples.

Somewhere along the way I stopped obsessing over growth and started caring way more about multiplication.

Early on success was simple. How many showed up. How many stayed. How many came back next week. Not evil, or even wrong, just shallow. And eventually that “growth only” mindset starts to hollow you out.

At some point I had to face an uncomfortable question. Are we making followers of Jesus or are we just good at getting people to show up on Sunday?

Now here's the deal. This actually isn't an either-or type of a thing. There are a lot of people that want to act like churches that are big or are growing are shallow, silly spiritual candy shops, but that has not been my experience at our church, nor many of the growing churches I've worked with.

But the thought messed with me in a good way. Like the old adage says, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." For me, one of the most impactful teachers I encountered was a wonderful pastor named Tony from India, who helped me truly understand what fruitfulness in the Kingdom of God is.

He taught me that fruitfulness isn't when a pastor writes great sermons or a worship leader writes great songs. He told me to think about the mango tree. He asked me a simple question: "What makes a mango tree fruitful?" I said it's when it makes mangos. He said, "That's right. What makes a pastor fruitful?" I thought about it. You’re probably getting there to yourself.

What makes a pastor fruitful? When he makes pastors…yup.

It’s multiplication. Not more ministry.

Multiplication changed how I define success. It’s not how many people gather around my leadership but how many people are being equipped to follow Jesus when no one is watching. Not how many depend on me but how many are learning to depend on Jesus and help someone else do the same.

Here’s the irony. When you stop chasing growth and start prioritizing discipleship growth actually gets healthier and even becomes viral.

When people are being discipled they invite others. They serve without being begged. They give without being pressured. They take ownership. And growth becomes fruit instead of a metric you’re constantly anxious about.

Growth as the goal will burn you out. It’s addition. Multiplication is where it’s at.

I still love big Sundays. I still love packed rooms. I still believe in intentional outreach. But those things are no longer the point. They’re tools not trophies.

The driving question for me now is: are we doing a good job making disciples and multiplying leaders?

Ten years in I’m realizing Jesus was never impressed by crowds. He was patient with them but He was committed to disciples. And when disciples multiplied everything changed.

Again, I want to say that this is not a binary conversation. It's not growth or multiplication. It's growth and multiplication. You can run Facebook ads to invite people to your church, to get some people in the room to hear the gospel. In fact, I think that's an awesome idea, but if we replace multiplication with growth alone, we're actually missing the biblical model of multiplication.

You’re not “seeker-sensitive” because you care how the lobby looks and want clean bathrooms. That’s called good stewardship.

It’s more nuanced. After ten years I’ve just shifted my focus from growth to multiplication. And the fruit is speaking for itself.

Couple of key things we’ve done to put hands and feet to this shift is to:

If you'd like to hear more about the practical changes we've made over the last couple of years to move into multiplication, just shoot me a quick reply and let me know what's interesting to you and what topics you want me to cover.

Talk soon,

Pastor Jake