History of Church Multiplication Points Way to Future

By Paul McPheeters,
CCCC Past President, Pastor of Forestdale Community Church, Malden, MA

In 1998, Cliff Christensen, our Conference Minister at the time, asked six pastors from around the Conference if we would join him for three days at a Church Planters’ Boot Camp in Indianapolis. He wanted to expose us to the church planting movement that was beginning to blossom around the country, and he wanted us to work together on a vision statement for planting CCCC churches.

Amazingly enough, God not only took our fledgling effort at a vision statement for church planting seriously, He also saw fit to use our fledgling efforts at church planting to renew the vision of the Conference as a whole! A Church Multiplication Committee was formed to implement that initial vision statement. And over the course of time, it was that Church Multiplication Committee that began to call the Conference back to the basic mission of Jesus: loving God, loving others, making disciples. It was the Church Multiplication Committee that began talking about nurturing healthy pastors, who would serve healthy churches that would multiply. Thus it was the church planting movement that helped all of us think more seriously about Church Development and Conference Care. It’s amazing to me when I reflect on it, that so many of the ways we have grown and developed as a Conference over the past fifteen years are rooted in that initial step Cliff called us to take back in 1998— to expose ourselves to the church planting movement.

And now we are a part of that movement! We are recruiting, assessing, coaching, training, and connecting church planters in multiple “Hubs” around the country. We have seen 30 or more new churches planted in a variety of settings around the country: urban, suburban, and rural settings. We now have our own church planters’ conference each year called “The Nineveh Project.” This past summer it took place in conjunction with our national CCCC Annual Gathering in Rochester.

However, the real blessing is that more and more disciples are being made. That is the real fruit that we are after. More people who are loving God, loving others, and multiplying disciples in their homes, their neighborhoods, their workplaces and schools. Church Planting, Church Development, Conference Care: all work toward the end of being obedient to what Jesus called us to be and to do. So let’s keep it up, my brothers and sisters: each in our own way, each in our own setting, each using our own gifting and personality. And may Christ make His people and His gathered churches a sign and a wonder to the world around us.