The Multiplication Factor

I recently wrote about making a disciple versus making a convert.  Making converts is about addition.  Addition is good, but, if all you do is add, your eventual outcome will be meager.  For example, let’s say that you add one dollar per day to your bank account for the next 20 years.  At the end of that period you will have $7,300.00.  Not bad.  But how does that compare with multiplication?  If you take only 1 penny per day and double it, meaning that each penny adds a penny to itself, after just 31 days you’ll have $10,737,417.00.  Now, which would you rather have, a dollar added or a penny multiplied?

Disciple-making is about multiplication.  In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul exhorted Timothy to take what he had received from Paul and invest it in other faithful men who would do the same with other faithful men.  Paul wrote, 2 You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.  Disciple-making is about taking what has been spiritually invested in you and investing it in someone else.  And not just someone else, but someone else who will be “trustworthy” or “faithful” to do the same with another.  When I invest in another and they in another and they in another, that’s addition.  But when I’ve finished with my first investment and I find another and they do the same, we enter into spiritual multiplication.  It was this very strategy that led to the early Christians being accused of turning the then-known world upside down for Christ. 

Converts rejoice that their name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and look forward to heaven.  Disciples do also, but they take it a step further by training those they win to win and train others so many more can rejoice in the benefits of salvation.  Are you a child of God?  Whose life are you spiritually investing in?