Delegate or suffocate. It’s a no-brainer. Exodus 18:13-25 is the quintessential chapter in the Bible on this critical link between addition and multiplication; check it out. Eric Geiger shows how this shift in thinking took place in the early church.
Guest Post by Eric Geiger
Luke gives us two powerful progress reports in the early Church.
“Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46–47)
Addition. God was adding to their number daily. But notice a few chapters later that there is a change in the math.
“So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7)
The disciples were increasing greatly in number. Later in the book of Acts, the Word is “multiplying” (Acts 12:24). Multiplication.
What changed?
The early disciples made a significant and deliberate decision between the addition happening in Acts 2:47 and the multiplication happening in Acts 6:7; they empowered others for ministry. They handed over ministry and responsibility to others. At first, the apostles were doing nearly everything themselves—preaching, praying, serving, organizing, and distributing food. But when the needs grew and complaints surfaced, they made a crucial decision to give ministry responsibility to others with proven character and wisdom.
“…It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4)
Adding leaders moves a church or a ministry from a posture of addition to a posture of multiplication. God is the One who is responsible for all the growth—whether addition or multiplication—but He delights in using His people to serve others and impact the world. When God’s people are mobilized, the ministry of a church is multiplied. He has gifted His people, and He has given ministry leaders the responsibility of equipping His own (Ephesians 4:11-13).
When leaders are added, the mission is multiplied.
The application for ministry leaders is clear. To multiply ministry, add leaders. Identify people of integrity who are filled with wisdom and the Spirit. Invest in these leaders and hand responsibility over to them. The difference between addition and multiplication is developing and deploying others. Developing and deploying others must be a consistent priority.
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