Creating capacity for multiplication - 2
From a podcast by Confluence
Alan Frow is a church leader from South Africa, currently leading Southlands church in California. He has authored several books including; "Broken for Blessing: The Underrated Potential of a Medium-Sized Multiplying Church". He is part of the Confluence family of churches which multiplies by church planting.
In a podcast with Bryan Mowrey and Bo Noonan, other leaders in Confluence, they explore strategies and real-life experiences of those who have effectively expanded their churches. They also discuss actionable insights and practical steps to empower your congregation in the mission of profound spiritual change in your community. Part 1 of this blog is here. Here are abridged extracts from the remainder of the podcast:
Alan:
Speaking about training leaders, whether it's another site or a plant, we used a missional training curriculum and then also a theology of living missionally. No teams went out without training, which was normally a year. It was a tremendous way of building culture, building common language and also learning strengths and weaknesses in the team because you had to hand in little assignments and do little 5-10 minute presentations.
We've also started an eldership apprentice course. We've started doing it with other churches and their leaders too. They heard about it and send their leaders to it. Not all of the attendees have become elders, but all of our elders were produced through it. It's kind of a 2 year thing. The first year is more curriculum based - exploring seven aspects of leadership through Acts. Then the second year has sort of a self-assessment. It's been messy to be honest, because as much as you say, "There's no promises here", the reality is, there is expectation. So when you say to someone, we don't feel you're ready, there's disappointment. We've had people leave the church. It's been costly but I don't know how else you would do it.
Thinking about leader qualities, they need vision and drive - they've got to charge this mountain, but they're not so visionary that they can't hold a team. Another analogy - most leaders are either rocket fuel or a guidance system. So they they're either, 'we're going to go' or otherwise they're really wise. Every now and again you get a leader who's both rocket fuel and guidance system. They are generally are unicorns - will grow churches. So I think an AA church planter has to have both rocket fuel and a guidance system. They have to be generalists not specialists. They have to have a high work ethic. They have to have grit. They have to have emotional resilience. Their family and marriage has to be resilient.
Church planters might have a plan but they innovate as and when - they are entrepreneurial. If the person's too pastoral, teams are going to be very happy, but they're just going to plateau out at 60 or 70. I'm not saying that's bad, but you'll hardly ever multiply from that. If the person's too much rocket fuel, they're going to see a city impacted and see the lost saved but they won't be able to hold people.
For a multi-site or multi-congregational, we've found that leaders that are too entrepreneurial chaff in any kind of admin that they have to toe the line to. So I would say if the leader is too entrepreneurial. plant them out as an autonomous church and celebrate that. But tell them that they might not get the same kind of resource - there has to be high cooperation to be in any multi-site and those leaders have to be willing to give up a measure of autonomy because they love the synergy.
It is also partly a thing of age as well as gifting and wiring thing. When I was a 35 year old, autonomy was a novelty, but you grow, you take some knocks. It's like autonomy is a bit of a burden because personally I'm not as enamoured with total autonomy and I'm aware of my limitations and my need for others. A young leader does require a humility and self-awareness to walk within that. Sometimes I wished I was working under someone else's vision and someone just told me what to do today.
So the leader really needs to be strong and mature. The rocket fuel guy has to have real humility. Perhaps the lead person needs to be the guidance system sage and the number 2 support is the rocket fuel person.
Turning to size dynamics of the mother and the planted church, my admission is that we have actually struggled to plant. None of our multi-sites have grown beyond 200. We actually find ourselves in the conundrum. The mother has actually grown quite large, and so there's a gap between her and the churches she's planted. I think of our church plant in Thailand. Even if it was 50, I'd be saying great. But they're around 150 now, but they've planted two other churches. I'm just happy because it's a multiplying church.
Actually all of the churches we've planted except one are growing, but they haven't grown rapidly. We haven't planted anything where it's hit the 300, the 400 mark. So that's either a deficiency in us or otherwise we haven't resourced enough from the get-go. The most we've ever sent out is 90 people - a fifth of our church. It was crazy and we almost said never again. So the last plant we sent out, we sent 35 people and they're six months old and they've doubled. So it's great.
We're trying to make the disciples and we're trying to go for health, but I actually really want to see some of our plants break through that 200 size. I think we've planted 7 times in the last 13 years. So every second year, we're popping out a baby. But I think we've got to be open to planning for different size dynamics. Right now for me, I'm really trying to help our churches move from small to medium size because there is strength in that, and there's the potential of multiplication. Small churches won't generally multiply.
Listen to the 46 min podcast here.
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From a podcast by Confluence, 04/02/2025