Today, June 3, 2008 at about 2pm in the afternoon, the Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God voted to launch the new Church Multiplication Network. Over the next five years, the Network will emerge as a service organization deployed from a national platform to resource, catalyze and facilitate all manner of planting new churches in America.

Initially, the Church Multiplication Network will be deployed in the form of seven systems laser focused on resourcing all manner of church planting in every “corner” of the fellowship. When the Network is fully deployed, Districts, parent churches and planters will all find relevant and substantial support for every aspect of their efforts to multiply communities of disciples in America. The systems that will be developed by the Church Multiplication Network plan include:

• Discovering- inspire and identify potential planters from among the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who are currently involved in an AG church.

• Developing- provide intentional opportunities for exposure to hands-on church planting experiences to assist young leaders to find their proper place in starting new churches.

• Assessing- offer a consistent, high quality tool for screening planting candidates so that sending organizations can be better informed as to how the planters should be most effectively deployed.

• Training- provide a comprehensive array of training opportunities to thoroughly equip leaders involved in starting new churches.

• Coaching- develop a systematic approach to assisting church planting leaders with solid relational assistance throughout the journey of starting the church.

• Funding- develop all manner of creative funding streams that tap into previously unutilized potential revenue streams to enable the CMN and the matching fund to be completely self-sustaining out of the fruit of the harvest and the creative revenue sources that it develops. Additionally, the CMN funding system will provide consultative support for districts, churches and church planters to assist them in developing their own revenue streams to support multiplication.

• Marketing and Communications- harvest the stories of missional planting success and deliver the stories through a variety of communication tools including video, audio, books, articles, webcasts, etc. Use the gathered stories for inspiration, training and equipping. Provide networking tools to empower like minded leaders to find and learn from each other.

These systems rest on the following assumptions:

• that the Lord of the Harvest desires to make Himself known to lost Americans.
  

• It assumes that the Assemblies of God is blessed by God with an array of powerful organizational resources and that God is calling us to use what we have been received to partner with Him on his mission to seek and save the lost.

• The plan also assumes that we can accomplish more when we work together and find ways to leverage our assets and align our efforts around activities that are known to be effective.

The Church Multiplication Network is rooted in the following values:

• #1- The CMN exists so that others can thrive- All of the activities of the CMN are about helping others be successful in their mission to multiply. The CMN must support local missional activity with appropriate systems that enable but do not control or attempt to centralize decisions about where and how churches should be planted. Districts, parent churches and planters are the focus of our efforts. We serve them…we will not direct them.

• #2-Financially Self-sustaining- It must result in a system that over the long term is self-funding. We intend to leverage the financial investment that is made to launch the CMN to create revenue streams that eventually will sustain the future activity of the CMN.

• #3- Inspirational and Strategic- The plan must inspire the heart with a tangible picture of a preferred future and at the same time provide clear action steps that will produce the necessary activities to make the preferred future a reality. This plan provides a balanced approach that is inspirational, intentional and strategic.

• #4- Research based Rigorous Evaluation- It must be informed by research and not just a desperate “shot in the dark.” This plan has been vetted through a variety of screens and every component is based in solid research with specific plans for vigorous evaluation as the elements are implemented.

• #5- Creative Aggressive Innovation- The plan must be appropriately aggressive in direct proportion to the nature of the spiritual crisis we currently face. Doing what we’ve been doing will only lead to a long slow decline in our ministry effectiveness. The CMN is future focused. Bobby Kennedy said, ”Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

• #6- Multiple High Capacity Systems- The plan should result in an array of systems that have the capacity to resource the starting of 500 new American churches annually.

The CMN plan provides a strategy that will result in a dedicated service organization capable of resourcing the starting of 500 churches annually by 2014. The plan also predicts that the CMN will achieve financial and organizational self-sustainability by 2014 and thereafter will generate a positive cash flow in perpetuity.

Over the next few months we will be building the CMN team and hope to have the first layer of team members in place by January 2009. As we begin this next phase of our journey, we do so with a clear understanding that we are wholly dependent on the anointing and empowerment of the Lord. We have no illusions that human structures and strategies can artificially manufacture supernatural results. These systems are simply intentional ways that we plan to act while remaining completely dependent on the Lord of the Harvest. Indeed, it is not by might or power that the Kingdom moves forward. We understand that we are co-laborers with God and we expect him to do great things as we walk in obedience. And so, we plan to “bathe” this entire endeavor in much prayer soaked in humility with the knowledge that apart from Him we can do nothing. Please be partners in prayer with us!