The Ministry Multiplication Cycle

Bill Jones

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725264267
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

After harmonizing the four Gospels into one unified story, the author examines the ministry of Jesus to see what we can learn today for our own churches and ministries. As the story unfolds, one finds Jesus implementing four strategic ministry tactics, in this order:-Outsiders becoming new believers through evangelism-New believers becoming committed disciples through establishing-Committed disciples becoming effective workers through equipping-Effective workers becoming world Christians through missions mobilizationTogether these four tactics form the "ministry multiplication cycle." To determine whether this strategy is truly a biblical strategy or not, an in-depth look is then taken into the book of Acts. There we find the apostles, the men whom Jesus trained, implementing these same four tactics in the exact same order, with the exact same results--powerful growth through multiplication.The question remains whether the ministry multiplication cycle can be replicated today in our own culture. The answer is a resounding "yes," when we learn to think in terms of principles and not just practices.This book is a product of over thirty years of clarifying these principles in the classroom and implementing them around the world, the latter resulting in over two thousand churches being planted among unreached people groups.

Chapter 1

Historical Perspective

What Did the Ministry of Jesus Look Like?

If you are like most followers of Christ who want to impact the world for His glory, you are very busy. Just taking the time to read a book like this may seem like a luxury. And I suspect that you probably didn’t read the previous introduction‒you wanted to get right to the heart of the book, glean what can make you more effective at your ministry, and move on.

But wait! You need to read the introduction to this book. It won’t take you three minutes. It will, however, help you know where we are going. Realizing the destination will motivate you to finish this critical chapter. Though perhaps not very exciting at times, this chapter is absolutely necessary because the information forms the foundation for everything that follows. So be quick about it. Go back and read the introduction.

Welcome back. Let’s get started.

The Story of the Bible

I’m convinced that the average Christian doesn’t know the Bible very well. Worse, I’m convinced that the average Christian worker doesn’t know the Bible very well. Even worse, the average pastor doesn’t know the Bible very well. Sure, most know stories from the Bible, but do they really know the story of the Bible? This concern motivated me to write two books, Putting Together the Puzzle of the Old Testament and Putting Together the Puzzle of the New Testament. Both simply and memorably seek to communicate the unifying story of Scripture. Together these books divide the Bible into ten historical eras. To help remember these ten eras, I organized them into five pairs of opposite words:

Nothing/Something

Exiting/Entering

United/Divided

Scattered/Gathered

Coming/Going

Elaborated, the Old Testament part of the story goes like ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Historical Perspective
• Chapter 2: Tactical Perspective
• Chapter 3: Practical Perspective
• Chapter 4: Biblical Perspective
• Chapter 5: Cultural Perspective
• Chapter 6: Personal Perspective
• Chapter 7: Missional Perspective
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Harmony of the Gospels
• Appendix B: Harmony of the Gospels (Simplified)
• Appendix C: The John 3:16 One Verse Method