Lincoln came on Bayside’s staff when the church first started and was meeting in a school. He was already a well-known worship leader and recording artist; he landed his first mainstream recording contract by the time he was nineteen years old and had played with rocker Steve Perry (formerly of the band Journey).
But even as Lincoln, who predictably became a stellar worship leader for Bayside Church, continued to rise as a solo recording artist, he sensed something was missing on that trajectory. “I can have only so much effect doing concerts by myself,” he reflected. “I could do more if I’m teaching others how to lead worship, especially if they catch the vision that they too can teach others.” This challenge became very practical as Bayside began exploring the idea of starting new churches and campuses. Early on, Bayside had started a worship-leading conference called Thrive, and out of that they created Thrive School of Worship, a yearlong training opportunity that lets artists study during the week what they do onstage. (They later started Thrive School of Leadership.)
To Lincoln, the logic was clear: to multiply the kingdom, the platform had to be shared. He knew that he could have only a one-to-one ratio—him to one congregation. But if he developed fifty leaders who then created fifty leaders of their own, it would have a much bigger effect. An exponential effect!
Lincoln is arguably one of the most gifted guitar players in the world, but he knows that to maximize his impact, he cannot go it alone. So he diatribo’s; he puts time and heart into mentoring others who lead worship. Lincoln Brewster is creating the platform and then letting other worship leaders stand on it and lead others in worship in campuses and churches all across the country. That’s hero making through disciple multiplication.
Could You Do This Too?
If getting aspiring artists to mentor or apprentice others is one of the more challenging areas to being a disciple multiplier, by contrast one of the easiest is through the development of interns. I hope you read the following story and conclude, “Our church could do that too; we could get a bunch of interns, pay them next to nothing, and see fruits of multiplication beyond our wildest dreams.” (By the way, see appendix 5 on the legal appropriateness of paying your interns “next to nothing”!)
That’s almost how it happened for Chris Hodges, who was on staff at Bethany World Prayer Center. He moved to Birmingham, Alabama, to start Church of the Highlands, which launched in 2001. He had a vision to develop young leaders and place them in ministry. Within months, his only staff member and youth pastor, Layne Schranz, recruited seventeen students to be a part of their ministry school. The church was meeting in a high school on Sundays and had no office space, so for most of the first year, the interns met in the basement at Layne’s house.
“Even before we launched, Chris’s vision was to use, train, and reproduce leaders at every level of the church,” says Layne. That’s how they started: Chris’s family, Layne’s family, the interns, and a mass mailing that drew four hundred people to the first service.
That was more than sixteen years ago. Today the church is one of the five largest in the continent, drawing more than forty thousand people weekly. The ministry school has grown as well; every year, more than nine hundred students attend what is now known as Highlands College.35 (More to come on this topic: we later devote much of chapter 11 to using residencies as a way to accelerate the development of your church’s hero making culture.)
Yet I believe the church’s biggest impact is beyond their walls. Here’s the backstory: Just before Church of the Highlands started, Greg Surratt, senior pastor of Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was convinced that God had given him a vision to help start two thousand new churches. But he knew it couldn’t happen through his leadership alone. So he gathered several prospective church planters in whom he could see great potential, including Chris Hodges, and they formed a church-planting organization named the Association of Related Churches (ARC).36
Through ARC, Greg offered Chris twenty-five thousand dollars to fund the new church, plus any monthly support needed to meet budget for Highlands’ first year. Greg asked Chris, once Highlands was up and running, to pay it forward and invest that same amount into other church planters. I’ve known Greg Surratt for several years, and this is just one example of how he is a hero maker.
Now back to those interns. What Chris and Layne discovered is that churches who reproduce micro will also reproduce macro. The interns eventually got out of Layne Schranz’s basement and caught a vision for being not just ministers but minister makers. Today some of the interns finish their course and come on staff at Highlands Church. Many go to other churches. But the largest number go on staff at churches who planted through ARC. Highlands has become the growth engine behind ARC, even housing its offices. At the time of this writing, ARC has launched 673 new churches and is raising more than four million dollars annually to support the starting of new churches.
In Many Ways, Our Continent Is Trailing Others
Next, I want to introduce you to my friend Mario Vega and have him tell you his story of remarkable apprentice multiplication. It’s important for you to hear from him, because while most of my illustrations come from North America, he is outside that context; and frankly, beyond the American borders is where we keep finding our best examples of the hero maker practice of disciple multiplication. (And maybe the best way to change the American, individualistic, Lone Ranger mindset is for all of us to befriend a pastor or leader in a Level 5 church that gets hero making better than we do!)
As you hear from Mario, be sure to notice two features of how he does ministry. First, they have a six-month training track for mentoring and developing leaders for their small groups (which they call “cell groups”). They also have a weekly meeting to plan the small group meeting, and a separate coaching huddle each week.
Second, the small group leader is asked to name people in his or her group who will be asked to take on various roles. This is the core of how they do apprentice multiplication.
Mario Vega
ELIM CHRISTIAN MISSION
SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR37
Apprentice multiplication is in the cell group DNA at one of the world’s largest churches.
Without a doubt, our cell ministry has been the most important multiplication factor at Elim Christian Mission. In fact, we have planted churches across Central America, North America, Europe, and Australia, in part because of the evangelism and leadership development built into our cell group system.
Cell ministry is so important that we track the metrics of group life and multiplication more than worship attendance. In our mother church in San Salvador, we now have 110,000 people in our 9,000 weekly Saturday cell groups. Cells are groups of three to fifteen adults who meet weekly outside the church building for the purpose of evangelism, community, and spiritual growth, with the goal of multiplication. Cells are organized geographically, so that each group multiplies within its own geographical area.
We view our cell groups as an army that is penetrating the city for Jesus. We view our planning meeting like an army preparing, planning, and strategizing for battle. Cell leaders meet on Wednesday to pray, plan, and prepare to evangelize those who don’t know Jesus. We want to fulfill Christ’s marching orders to make disciples of all nations until he comes again.
Our cell ministry is rooted in New Testament teachings about the priesthood of all believers. Our cell groups take us back to the basics of Scripture.
People are not asked to be cell group leaders, but we have created a culture in which they are expected to do so. Leadership is seen as something natural for every believer. The pastor’s role is to equip them to do the work of the ministry. When they move to other cities, they continue doing what they learned in El Salvador: open the doors to their home and introduce their neighbors to Jesus.
That makes every believer a potential minister of the gospel. For that purpose, a training course for new cell leaders has been designed by Elim that is offered to each co
nvert starting the week after conversion. This course lasts for six months and consists of twenty-six lessons imparted weekly.
Leaders at Elim have four meeting commitments each week: Sunday worship, the planning meeting, the coaching meeting, and the cell group itself.
We allow for flexibility in our planning meetings, and each one is a little different. We have found, however, that most of the planning meetings follow a similar order, like the following sample order:
• Prayer. The leader will open in prayer, ask for prayer requests, and have everyone pray for one another.
• Scripture. We start with God’s Word, and the leader might share something that God is laying on his or her heart in their personal devotion time.
• Vision. The leader reminds the group of the overall vision of making disciples through cell group ministry.
• Results. Follow up from the last planning meeting. Accountability is critical. The leader will ask whether people were visited and evangelized and whether the particular tasks were completed.
• Planning. Planning for the Saturday cell group. This is the main part of the planning meeting and takes the most time. The leader plans for the next meeting by doing the following:
– Visitation. The leader will ask willing team members to visit those who have not been attending the cell.
– Sunday. Prepare details about making sure each person has transportation to the Sunday celebration service. We want people in the cell group to also attend the Sunday celebration, and often transportation is a problem in San Salvador.
– Prayer. We take personal prayer requests for those present at the planning meeting and pray about them.
– Announcements. Finish with announcements about what’s going on in the church in general.
Without a doubt, our cell ministry has been the most important multiplication factor at Elim Christian Mission.
All this happens in one hour. We try not to go beyond the time limit, because we know people are busy. We have to constantly remind each core group about the importance of the planning meeting and why we are taking the time to meet together each week to plan for the Saturday night cell group.
We believe that the planning and coaching meetings are a key reason why our groups continue to reach out and multiply throughout the city. Our goal at Elim is to penetrate our city of San Salvador with multiplying cell groups. To make that happen, we need our people to be proactively involved in the process.
Mario’s hero maker tip: Be patient and persistent in giving your leaders a chance to grow. I remember one of our pastors in an Elim branch church abroad took control of all the activities that were carried on in his congregation. He was in charge of the worship, then continued with the preaching, then collected the offering, then dismissed the people, and even provided counseling to those in need. When I asked him why he did this, he answered that he had to, because there was no one else in the church who could do these things as well as he could. He felt that in order to ensure that things were flowing properly, it was better for him to assume the responsibilities.
It was true that there were few people in his church who could do things as well as he could, but this was primarily because he had not created the environment for people to learn and grow. In his desire for control and perfection, he didn’t provide the opportunities for people to effectively develop the skills to do the ministry. So the people settled in and became passive.
The same thing can happen at the cell group level when the leader does not allow the members to develop and grow as disciples through active participation. Things will not be done perfectly in the beginning, but we should only remember that this is the path we have all traveled at some point. If people who helped me had not given me the opportunity to try, fail, and try again, I never would have learned. It is essential to provide opportunities for people so that we can generate new disciples who in turn will generate new cell groups.38
The Apostle Paul Had the Same Message
I wonder if out of reverence for Jesus being divine, we sometimes dismiss his hero-making practices and think, Well, that’s because it’s Jesus; he’s God. Of course he’s the best people developer in the universe. So we admire how he mentored others who went out and changed the world, but we dismiss it as only possible for someone who is God incarnate. I’ve done that.
The apostle Paul didn’t make that mistake. He heard Jesus’ vision of God’s kingdom, how we can bring that to be, and he recruited a young apprentice named Timothy (Acts 16:1–3). I love that Paul picked Timothy, because Timothy was a guy who didn’t have a perfect life, and that makes him very relatable. Timothy’s dad was not around; either he was an absentee father or he had abandoned Timothy and his mom altogether. Scripture describes Timothy as timid (1 Cor. 16:10–11). He was very apprehensive about whether his life could make an impact.
But Paul grabs him and even writes to him how they’re going to change the world together: “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:2).
How many generations of apprenticeship do you see in that verse? Paul is saying, in effect, “Timothy, don’t be content with being a Christ follower; think about others, the rest of the world. I know you have a hard time thinking about impact, but I want you to think exponential impact! Let’s live our lives so as to impact at least four generations.”
• First-generation apprenticeship: Jesus to Paul
• Second-generation apprenticeship: Paul to Timothy
• Third-generation apprenticeship: Timothy to “reliable people”
• Fourth-generation apprenticeship: “reliable people” to “others”
This verse calls us to mentor disciple multipliers to the fourth generation. That’s exponential impact!
Paul was explaining to Timothy (and to us) that if we want to see disciples made in all nations—a movement of kingdom multiplication—it will happen through apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is the core competency of any movement of God.
What Paul discovered is the difference between impact and exponential impact. If we are Spirit led and committed to the mission, our lives can have an impact. But when we add the reproducing piece and even multiplying through apprenticeship, that is when exponential impact is possible. That’s when we begin to see a movement of hero makers.
Simple Tool for Disciple Multiplication
FIVE STEPS OF APPRENTICESHIP
If Paul’s goal of developing four generations of apprentices seems unreachable for you and your church, then I have good news for you. It is not. This goal is very doable if you and your church follow five simple steps.
I don’t think I’m overstating my proposal: the simple tool I am about to give you is worth ten times the price of this book. This tool for disciple multiplication has the potential to exponentially increase the impact of your leadership. But you will get the value out of this tool only if you use it! Before you use this tool, pull out your dream napkin (the tool I gave you in chapter 5). Now ask, “Who are the specific people and leaders I want to develop now so that my dream napkin can become true someday?” Your next step is to take some of them through the five steps of apprenticeship.
Eric Metcalf is a disciple multiplier, and he has used the five steps of apprenticeship with other leaders as often as anyone I know. Eric doesn’t shy away from a good challenge. The latest small group he led regularly drew sixteen people, and it was a challenge. Some were solid Christ followers; most were not. Some were single, some living together, and some married. Some partied really hard! And some were new believers, including one person with a Muslim background, another with a Jewish background (and a Catholic girlfriend), and another with practically no religious background at all.
You might imagine the lively discussions and lifestyle issues represented in those gatherings and conclude, “I think a pastor needs to lead a group like that!” Eric is the pastor for one of Community Christian Church’s
locations on the north side of Chicago. He and his wife, Erin, especially enjoy that group, but Eric knew he had a bigger calling than leading this diverse group alone. From day one, he was praying about which member (or members) he could train as an apprentice to take over this group or lead a new group.
“Hey, I have this idea, and I want to run it past you,” Eric told the group. Then he continued, “For our group to reach more people, I’m going to ask some of you to consider moving into an apprentice leadership role and meeting with me on a weekly basis. We can meet for coffee or whatever, but during that time I will help you get to the place where you are confident and capable of leading a group.” Grace, one of the Christ followers, said to Eric, “I really see a need to take some of the women in the group deeper into accountability with each other. I think I can help them do that, if you would let me lead them.” Eric loved the idea, and she became his first apprentice.
Eric used the same simple five-step apprenticeship tool with Grace that he had used with dozens of other leaders over the years to help them grow in their leadership. Over the next eight months, Eric and Grace used these five steps as a guide to develop her to the place where she was leading her own group. Here’s how it might have unfolded:
1. I do. You watch. We talk. As the experienced leader, Eric leads the group and tells Grace, “You just observe everything that happens in our small group, and then we will find a time to meet and discuss what you observed.” Before the next small group meeting, Eric and Grace debrief, and this includes asking the following questions: “What worked?” “What didn’t work?” and “How can we improve?” This time of debriefing needs to continue throughout the five steps.
2. I do. You help. We talk. In this step of development, Eric gives his apprentice, Grace, an opportunity to help lead part of the small group meeting. In this case, Eric asked Grace, “Could you lead the icebreaker time at the beginning if I lead the rest?” Grace agreed. Again, the small group meeting should be followed up with a one-on-one debrief between leader and apprentice.
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