Racing Without Braces

How quickly can your Bible Storying group reproduce itself? Are there any barriers to multiplication? Are you willing to ruthlessly address them for the sake of the gospel?

A little boy once won a footrace in a West African village. What was so special is that he had contracted polio the year before when his migrant-working family was in that village. His grandmother had invested hours straightening the boy’s diseased muscles and forcing him to walk on the weakened limbs. A year’s worth of suffering later, the boy’s legs were strong and swift.

Meanwhile in the same village, there was another little boy who had contracted polio about the same time. Only this little boy had a rich uncle who bought a pair of silver braces that helped the boy walk right away, but with a hobbled step.

When the footrace was won, the boy in the braces was heard saying, “I’ll have to ask my rich uncle for a better set of braces.”

Unfortunately, this is a true story not only for the little boys, but for us, too.

Curtis Sergeant, E3 Partners, once challenged me, “A sign of church health is starting new churches every six months.”

Evaluate your oral learners. Can they access, purchase, or copy all of the resources being used with them? If they wanted to start a new group, how much “baggage” would they need to take with them? And can others keep it going, too?

Church Planting Movements are an act of the Lord. When the Holy Spirit moves, we have a responsibility to ensure there are as few barriers as possible to reproducibility.