Given the choice, would you rather have $1 million given to you in a lump sum or ONE penny that doubles every day for 30 days?
If you’re like me, you might be thinking, “pennies are basically worthless….I’ll take the million dollars, thank you!”
This scenario, however, illustrates the power of multiplication, or, in financial terms, compounding.
Compounding is so powerful that Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, “compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it.”
So what happens if you take the penny? At first, not much. After ten days, you’ll have just $5.12. After 14 days you still have less than $100. But on day 20 you’ll have over $5000. By day 30, due the power of multiplication, you’ll have over $5 million.
This illustration is often used to demonstrate the power of compound interest in building wealth. However, the power of multiplication also extends to ministry – specifically discipleship.
Consider the example of Jesus. From a purely numerical perspective, one might consider Jesus’s ministry to be an abject failure. After all, though he preached and ministered to the masses, at the end of his life, he had only a handful of followers, and they all scattered when he was arrested.
But Jesus’s ministry was never about building the biggest following. Instead, Jesus focused on developing a few key people who would be able to carry on his ministry and provide foundational leadership for the church after he was gone.
By investing in and developing a handful of individuals, the early church was able to sustain the explosive growth it experienced at the outset.
In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul tells Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”
Paul is instructing Timothy to follow a principle of multiplication in his discipleship efforts. Essentially, he’s saying, “I built into you, and now I want you to take what I’ve taught you and build into others. But don’t just build into anyone. Build into those who will be able to build into others as well.”
In other words, Paul is telling Timothy to be selective into whom he builds.
A powerful book that outlines Jesus’s ministry strategy is Robert Coleman’s Master Plan of Evangelism. The book is a short read (only about 100 pages) and the title is a bit of a misnomer because the book is not really a book about evangelism but instead, explains Jesus’s discipleship strategy, which employed the principle of multiplication.
Over the years, we’ve sought to employ this ministry principle in our own discipleship efforts. In fact, when we worked with students, we would often take our young leaders through this same book to teach them the importance of building multiplying disciples.
Now those students are all grown up and living in various places all around the world. It’s amazing for us to see the impact they are having for Christ in the different settings in which God has placed them.
Now our focus is on Young Adults and helping them to walk with God and multiply their lives in a workplace environment. It’s a bit more complicated helping Young adults live out their faith in the big people world but the principles are the same – take the things we’ve learned and pass them along to others who will be able to do the same.
In this way, the number of people who can be a force for good and influence others for Christ will multiply over time. At first, the results might seem insignificant, just like that penny. But over time, it’s amazing how the principle of multiplication takes effect.
Please pray for us as we seek to multiply our lives into this next generation and help them become multiplying disciples for Jesus – men and women who impact others for Christ wherever God places them!
The Lowedown 