Last week I gathered in Tampa with a group of global church planters and disciple-making practitioners — many of them friends we’ve spent time with and run alongside here in the States. We came in from all over the world, and we left with one shared resolve: to implant the DNA of a fourth-generation church-planting focus into our connected house church networks, here in the US and around the globe.
I know you’re probably familiar with the terms, but let me briefly restate the “fourth-generation” ideals. A first-generation church plants a second. That second church plants a third. And that third plants a fourth — each one reproducing out of its own, without depending on the church that started it (except maybe for some strategic coaching). That independence is really important. When the downstream churches aren’t propped up by the ones “above” them, they’re forced to depend on God’s Word and His Spirit to lead them. That’s what 4th-generation (4G) multiplication looks like. Each one is healthy and able to birth the next generation!
The people who study Movements (missiologists) pretty much all agree that once any network has at least four streams of 4th-generation churches, it becomes nearly impossible for anything from the outside to stop it. It’s become a movement of God, impervious to economic crisis, political upheaval, leadership breakdown — or any other circumstance.
That’s our goal.
Here in the US we do have a few examples of fourth-generation multiplication, and they’re a joy to watch. But many of our networks reach the third generation and stall there — hitting some barrier they can’t seem to get past. Our prayer and vision for the LA Metro team is to see at least four streams break through to that fourth generation, and soon.
Our goal has always been healthy churches filled with healthy disciples who can’t help but multiply. Numbers (butts in the seats) have never been the goal! Scripture is clear that there’s only one model for growth — and that’s multiplication. The Church — the Bride of Christ — is a living organism. God’s design is for living things to reproduce!
So why don’t we see it more? There are many barriers; here’s just a sampling (by no means the whole list)
Some pastors are hesitant to release authority to “the common believer.” They affirm the Priesthood of the Believer in principle, but grow uneasy when that authority actually lands in the hands of everyday believers.
Some churches get comfortable and hold tight to their best and strongest members instead of sending them out.
Others simply don’t yet know how to develop leaders.
And perhaps the greatest barrier of all: a thin biblical understanding of how God sees His Church — as the very mechanism He has chosen to advance His Kingdom.
Naming the barriers is how we begin to clear them. Every practitioner who was in that room in Tampa is already back home putting these principles to work — and that’s how a shared resolve becomes a reality.
Which brings me back to those two letters: 4G.
It’s more than an icon. More than a mantra. It’s a war cry — four generations, and a summons to energize and legitimize the work of every believer who longs to see “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Thank you for joining us, for praying over this work, and for your generous support.
Amazed by Jesus,
JT
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