Preaching Teams: Multiplication vs. Addition
This post is an excerpt from my e-book, Preaching Teams: Sharing the Load and Building the Kingdom Through Collaborative Proclamation. For a free download of this 40-page book that covers a philosophy and rationale for team preaching, as well as many practical tools and tips gleaned from my 20-plus years on preaching teams, please click here:
Why not Multiply PReachers?
I returned after a decade as a missionary in Western Europe to find a new ecclesial phenomenon in North America. Churches were opening multiple locations – a kind of religious franchising – in which everything from the mother church was meticulously duplicated except for one role: the preacher. Rather than having a preacher in the room delivering a word from God, sermons were beamed in from the mothership and projected on a screen, so that every congregation in the network would hear the exact same message, brought by the exact same preacher.
I must admit, I had some difficulty getting my head around this. My purpose is not to criticize the multi-site movement, and I am grateful and celebrate all the countless people who have come to Christ in these ministries. But the missionary in me can’t help but ask, “Why can you multiply worship teams, children’s workers, greeters, sound and lighting engineers, set-up teams and clean-up crews, but not preachers?”
The answer that keeps coming to my mind is that we feel more comfortable with addition than multiplication. And this comfort comes from two places deep in a pastor/preacher’s heart: our need to control, and our hungry ego.
Who’s Kingdom?
Again, I don’t want to question the motives of every multi-site pastor. I’m sure they are all well-motivated and are pouring themselves out for the sake of the gospel. But here is the danger: Personal kingdoms are built through addition. God’s kingdom is built through multiplication. You can do addition by reproducing everything except yourself, and you remain in control while your influence expands. You can do multiplication only when you are willing to reproduce everything including yourself. But this means you must be willing to lose control, while giving ministry and influence away.
Do you struggle with this? I know I do. My greedy hands cling to control because I don’t trust others to do the job as well as I can. And my fallen, twisted heart craves a bigger audience, to quench my insatiable thirst for recognition, notoriety, and acclaim.
What does all of this have to do with preaching teams? If you are a preacher who wants to pursue kingdom multiplication in your ministry, the thing you most need to reproduce is other preachers. A preaching team provides a great way to do this.
