Review: ‘To Multiply, We Need Another Scorecard’

Review: ‘To Multiply, We Need Another Scorecard’

Eleven22 Pastor Joby Martin on the lessons he's learned and implementing from the Exponential eBook SPARK

Joby Martin

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As the pastor of a fast-growing church,  SPARK: Igniting a Culture of Multiplication–the eBook that kicked off Exponential’s series–challenged me to seriously think through what I thought about multiplication and how I approached it.
I found myself asking specific questions:

• Are we really doing as well as we think we are?
• Are we just growing our own congregation as opposed to actually multiplying the Kingdom?
• Could we make more disciples of Jesus by not just adding to our own congregation, but adding churches?”

Those questions led me to the realization that our church needs another scorecard that is just as important as our current scorecard of weekly attendance, salvations, baptisms, etc. The additional scorecard should measure the number of congregations we’re multiplying at a macro level, not just growing this congregation at a micro level. It’s not addition or multiplication; as SPARK advocates, it’s addition and multiplication.
So, naturally, I began to evaluate some of the things our church currently does to create a culture of multiplication:

• We tithe 10 percent of our operating budget to support church plants both locally and globally.
• We plan to be multisite in 2016, adding a second local campus.
• Our pastoral residency program identifies and trains men who are sensing the call to be church planters.
• As an Acts 29 church, we have clearly staked our claim to being part of a “churches-who-plant-churches” culture.

Finally, one of the most important things I learned is about how I approach multiplication. I say multiplication is important–and I believe it is. But I haven’t done a great job of setting aside time to work on multiplication. Instead, I’ve focused on managing our current growth. So, my personal takeaway is that I will make time to be intentional about multiplication. I’m committing to carve out time to not just solve our immediate issues, but to focus intentionally on macro growth.
SPARK challenged me to the core, changing the way I approach church growth. As planters/pastors, we need to have a plan for both micro growth and macro multiplication.
Joby Martin serves as lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. His personal mission is to live out Acts 11:24, which states, “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.” Martin’s wife, Gretchen, is a songwriter and singer, who uses her talents to lead services with the Eleven22 worship band. The couple has two children, JP and Reagan.