Reading Spark, by Todd Wilson, filled my eyes with tears. Where was this book when I restarted my church? What a difference it might have made. Folks, this is the first book of 2015 that will go on my classics list.

The author addressed both the problem and the solution when it comes to developing a culture of multiplication. Wilson asks, “Is your focus on how many people you can accumulate or how many people can you release and send?”

Every leader creates some kind of culture – either a culture of addition, subtraction, or multiplication. The key to creating a culture of multiplication is to change the way we think and act. Our thinking must be to add locally and multiply globally. Our strategy must be a synergy between micro and macro approaches to growth. Our micro culture is to add to our church; the macro culture is to send people out to grow the Kingdom.

The problem facing the church today is that most churches focus on attracting and  accumulating rather than releasing and sending. There is too much focus on micro growth and not enough on macro growth. The reason – most churches start so small that they embed a culture of scarcity, which leads them to think, “If we can just add a few more people we will be viable.”

One story in the book explains it all. Pastor Brett Andrews early on in his plant was faced with a tipping point decision – do I buy land and build or do I plant a church? The decision was to let two of their three staff people go and plant another church. To date his church has planted more than 100 churches.

The only way to develop a macro view of multiplication is simply to do it. Doing so results in tension: after devoting so much time to training this person do we dare send them out to plant a church?

Be forewarned – creating a culture of multiplication is a dangerous journey filled with many tensions. The authors conclude by sharing 18 life-changing tensions pastors interested in multiplication will experience.

Question: What other books on multiplication would you recommend? Share some of your favorites in the Comments section below.