I’ve noticed that a lot of well intentioned leaders are making decisions about how to multiply based on “conventional wisdom” rather than being informed by “Kingdom wisdom.” Conventional wisdom is a product of human reason and cultural norms and when strategies are developed out of conventional wisdom they make sense to most people and usually, they work out in a satisfactory way. But “Kingdom wisdom” is different. Kingdom wisdom comes from God and quite often it runs contrary or perpendicular to conventional wisdom.

An example of Kingdom wisdom is the principle of “the first will be last.” From the perspective of conventional wisdom, the “first will be last” just doesn’t make sense. Believing that the “first will be last” requires faith. And if we really believe it, it will change how we act as in, we will cease focusing on trying to be first and let God place us where ever we can best be used.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going consider some common points of “conventional wisdom” I’ve heard from leaders in the world of church planting and multi-site approaches toward multiplying the church and contrast them with their “Kingdom” counterpart. Feel free to think with me via comments.

Conventional Wisdom: We honor God when we are efficient. Here’s how this common piece of conventional wisdom is often manifested. “Why should we go through the expense of starting another church when we can add X number of people by simply adding another worship service?” Underneath this line of logic is the concept that the goal of planting is simply to attract more people to church meetings. If more bodies in the pews is the goal, then it does make sense to simply add another service. That’s conventionally wise and actually does make sense.

But the problem is that efficiency is not necessarily a Kingdom value. Mary, the sister of Lazarus helps make this clear. Was it efficient when Mary poured the bottle of expensive perfume over the feet of Jesus? When Jesus stopped by for a visit Martha was consumed with practical (efficient) concerns, but Mary wanted to spend time with Jesus and Martha’s suggestion that Mary was wrong was not supported by the Lord. As far as I can tell, efficiency was never a guiding factor when Jesus made a decision about anything.

Kingdom Wisdom: We honor God when we are obedient. Efficiency may be right some of the time, but obedience is right all of the time. So here’s the Kingdom answer to the question “Why should we go through the expense of starting another church when we can add X number of people by simply adding another worship service?” Have you asked God what He wants you to do? Are you starting another service because a consultant told you it was the best way to grow your church? That may be efficient, but it’s not necessarily obedient. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against adding services! It may very well be the right thing to do. But it needs to be right for the right reason, not just because it is consistent with conventional wisdom. Because conventional wisdom often runs contrary to Kingdom wisdom.