What do you see when you look at an apple – a piece of fruit? Think big! Envision its seeds growing and multiplying into an entire orchard, transforming a barren field. Our family needs to think big when we consider church-planting movements. The church is a life-giving organism that has the potential to evangelize and transform not only individuals, but entire cultures and people groups. This kind of large-scale growth comes from multiplying – reproducing into more churches, that in turn, reach more people.
Family Activity:
Teaching Time: 15 minutes
Materials: calculator, apple, knife (to cut the apple)
Ask family members to choose how they would rather be paid their allowance:
1) $1,000 a day for one month or
2) a penny that doubles every day ($.01, $.02, $.04, $.08, etc.) for one month.
Grab a calculator and do the math:
1) $1,000 for a day for 1 month = $31,000 and
2) a penny doubled a day for 1 month = $10,737,418.24.
This example demonstrates how churches that multiply reach more people and communities than churches who add members.
Cut open an apple and count the seeds. If each seed were planted, how many new apple trees would there be? Each new tree you plant could produce about 6,750 apples a year, for 100 years. Now that’s multiplication!
Discuss:
- What is 2 + 5? What is 2 x 5? What’s the difference between adding and multiplying in math? Why is multiplying better than adding when it comes to churches?
- How do multiplying churches reach more people?
Pray:
Pray that the gospel would spread and multiply in areas of the world without churches.
