An athletic ministry should develop a core of strong spiritual leaders among athletes and coaches who can begin connecting with and teaching others. We want to help them embrace II Timothy 2:2, “And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” When properly equipped, they will begin to trust God to produce faithful men and women who will build into the lives of others. This process is known as “spiritual multiplication.”
Involving them in a “spiritual movement” is the most effective way to see men and women become spiritual multipliers. A spiritual movement occurs when God works through a team of like-hearted people to win others to Himself (evangelism), build them in their faith (discipleship), and send them to the world to do the same (multiplication). It is a groundswell of Spirit-empowered Christian athletes and athletic department personnel who embrace a common purpose in order to bring about a beneficial change: to become actively involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Movement Activity
1. Evangelism: effective personal and broad sowing, connecting lost people to Jesus
2. Discipleship: life changing one-to-one interactions and small group mentoring
3. Multiplication of leaders
4. Generation of local resources (vision, people, ideas, materials, funding, ministry tools, etc)
What sets a movement apart from ministry is the last two items. If you are doing evangelism and if those who come to Christ are beginning to follow Him, then you have "ministry." But when you have a growing number of men and women reproducing others who win, build and send, and when you are able to sustain this ongoing reproduction locally, you have transitioned to "movement."
Note: the implied variable undergirding all this activity is prayer. As we’ve already stated, ministry work apart from communion with the Father will not produce the lasting fruit we seek. We are not simply asking God to bless our ideas of what should happen, but asking him to “establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90) that He has given us to do.
Other Words Describing a Spiritual Movement
- Organic, bottom-up, and grass roots feel but purposeful, unified, and focused action
- Driven by God’s word and prayer
- Dedication and sacrifice
- Developing leadership
- Always seeks to bring about change
- Always ask for commitment of those involved
- Members have differing levels of commitment
- Involves a cause sufficiently great enough that it touches the hearts of people who say, “I want things to be different.”
- The perceived change must be so different or beneficial that it brings forth and requires the best from people.
- Movements are a minority of people trying to influence and change the majority.
One more way to help you visualize a movement is through the concepts of Spirit-led momentum, multiplication, and management.
Momentum: Refers to large numbers of people going in the same direction. Momentum events spark interest and expand vision. They build enthusiasm, excitement and action by stretching faith.
Multiplication: Involves the training of a new generation of leadership. There can be no movement without the training of new leadership. The movement will expand only as leadership is developed.
Management: Involves the planning, organizing, leading, and empowering of a movement. Leadership and management of movement processes transform enthusiasm into action. Without them, no movement can be sustained for any length of time.
Two Illustrations
Suppose a father offers his two sons the choice of taking either $1 per week for 52 weeks or $.01 the first week and an amount each week for the next 52 weeks that is double the previous week’s amount. Which of the two should the sons choose?
The first choice represents addition. At the end of one year the son would receive $52. The second choice represents multiplication or exponential growth. If the sons choose this option, the amount at the end of the year is almost unbelievable. The amount of money the boy would receive in just the 52nd week alone, not the total amount accumulated over the 52 weeks, would be $22,517,998,136,852! Multiplication is explosive. (Henrichsen, W., Disciples are Made-Not Born (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1974), page 174)
The following chart demonstrates the difference between an addition ministry and a multiplication ministry. Two scenarios are represented. First, one person who reaches 100 people per day for 16 years. Second, the process of building disciples who build other disciples by having each disciple build into another disciple every six months.
|
Years
|
Reach 100 / day
|
Each disciple build a disciple / 6 months
|
|
1
|
36,500 |
4 |
|
2 |
73,000 |
16 |
|
3 |
109,500 |
64 |
|
4 |
146,000 |
256 |
|
5 |
182,500 |
1024 |
|
6 |
219,000 |
4,096 |
|
7 |
255,500 |
16,384 |
|
8 |
292,00 |
65,536 |
|
9 |
328,500 |
262,144 |
|
10 |
365,000 |
1,048,576 |
|
11 |
401,500 |
4,194,304 |
|
12 |
438,000 |
16,777,216 |
|
13 |
475,500 |
67,108,864 |
|
14 |
511,000 |
268,435,456 |
|
15 |
547,500 |
1,073,741,824 |
|
16
|
584,000 |
4,294,967,296 |
Obviously, our motivation has nothing to do with accumulating pennies but everything to do with growing people! One of the hardest parts of working through the process of spiritual multiplication is the need to be patient and stay the course. If you begin to compare ministry results with places that encourage addition, your first couple of years will be discouraging (“They have 146, 000 and we only have 256!”), and you will be tempted to start adding instead of multiplying.
Even if these graphs don’t strike a chord in your soul, consider this: you are here ready to minister to others because someone, somewhere, sometime built into you. Somebody prayed for you, answered your questions, helped you love God by explaining His word, made you want to live differently because of the life you saw in them. You can “be a revolution” simply by gathering others around you who are hungry to grow, then turning them loose to do the same.
Movements are the goal. Athletes are the audience. So let’s consider the world of college athletics and the mind of the players and coaches we seek to serve.
Get It Done
Spend a day with the Lord praying for your campus. Pray through the elements of a spiritual movement and ask God to guide you in how to be part of His work.
· Have you ever been part of a spiritual movement as described above? If so, what was it like for you? If not, have you ever read about one or know someone who has been part of one? Find something to read or someone to talk to you that will help give you an idea of what a movement feels like.
· Who are the people who have invested in your life spiritually? Can you think of people who you have invested in? Draw this on a piece of paper, and draw another generation of people being reached by the people you are investing in.