Multiplication Illustrations

Linen seed

As a supplement to my article on Multiplication, I would like to present the following illustrations to help you see the power of multiplication with regard to making disciples and church growth.

Illustration 1 – Each One Reaches One, Each Church Plants One
In the table below, we begin with twelve disciples on the left side in 2016. And if each one reaches one person per year, then the number of disciples doubles each year, so that at the end of fifteen years there are 196,608 disciples.

Likewise on the right-hand column (which has no direct correlation to the middle column), we see what would happen if each church planted one church each year. The number of churches would double each year, resulting in 16,384 churches at the end of fifteen years.

		Multiplication Factor of Two
	Year	Number of disciples	Multiplication factor	Number of churches
1	2016	12	2	1
2	2017	24	2	2
3	2018	48	2	4
4	2019	96	2	8
5	2020	192	2	16
6	2021	384	2	32
7	2022	768	2	64
8	2021	1,536	2	128
9	2022	3,072	2	256
10	2023	6,144	2	512
11	2024	12,288	2	1,024
12	2025	24,576	2	2,048
13	2026	49,152	2	4,096
14	2027	98,304	2	8,192
15	2028	196,608	2	16,384
		Multiplication Factor of Three
	Year	Number of disciples	Multiplication factor	Number of churches
1	2016	12		1
2	2017	36		3
3	2018	108		9
4	2019	324		27
5	2020	972		81
6	2021	2,916		243
7	2022	8,748		729
8	2021	26,244		2,187
9	2022	78,732		6,561
10	2023	236,196		19,683
11	2024	708,588		59,049
12	2025	2,125,764		177,147
13	2026	6,377,292		531,441
14	2027	19,131,876		1,594,323
15	2028	57,395,628		4,782,969

In the second table above, we begin with twelve disciples on the left side in 2016. And if each one reaches two persons per year, then the number of disciples triples each year, so that at the end of fifteen years there are 57,395,628.

Likewise on the right-hand column, we see what would happen if each church planted two churches each year, then the number of churches would triple each year, resulting in 4,782,969 churches at the end of fifteen years.

Illustration 2 – A Penny Doubled

Would you rather have $1 Million now or take a penny and double it every day for 30 days? Once you have answered that question, take a look at the table below.

Day Number	Amount at Beginning of Day	Amount at End of Day
1	$0.01	$0.02
2	$0.02	$0.04
3	$0.04	$0.08
4	$0.08	$0.16
5	$0.16	$0.32
6	$0.32	$0.64
7	$0.64	$1.28
8	$1.28	$2.56
9	$2.56	$5.12
10	$5.12	$10.24
11	$10.24	$20.48
12	$20.48	$40.96
13	$40.96	$81.92
14	$81.92	$163.84
15	$163.84	$327.68
16	$327.68	$655.36
17	$655.36	$1,310.72
18	$1,310.72	$2,621.44
19	$2,621.44	$5,242.88
20	$5,242.88	$10,485.76
21	$10,485.76	$20,971.52
22	$20,971.52	$41,943.04
23	$41,943.04	$83,886.08
24	$83,886.08	$167,772.16
25	$167,772.16	$335,544.32
26	$335,544.32	$671,088.64
27	$671,088.64	$1,342,177.28
28	$1,342,177.28	$2,684,354.56
29	$2,684,354.56	$5,368,709.12
30	$5,368,709.12	$10,737,418.24

As you can see in the illustration above if your penny doubles each day, you begin with one penny on day one, but by the end of 30 days, you have $10,737,418.24. That's almost eleven million dollars! So you end up with much more money by doubling a penny each day than if you settle for the one million dollars on day one.

You see, if you take the one million dollars on day one, you are simply adding that amount one time. But if you multiply instead of adding, and you are willing to wait for 30 days, then you end up doing much better in the end.

Think of how this applies to making disciples. Would you rather just add 100 disciples on day one, or would you rather start with one or two disciples and multiply them each year?

Illustration 3 - Minimum Fruitfulness Level
Jesus taught that the minimum fruitfulness level for those who accept the Word is 30-fold increase, or 3000%.

He said: "The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word, which has been sown in them. In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." (Mar 4:14-20)

While the Lord taught that some will have a hundredfold increase, we know that not everyone is going to achieve that level. But what would it be like if every disciple had at least a 30-fold increase every year? The entire world would be reached with the gospel in 7 years, as the table below illustrates.

30-fold Increase or 3,000%

	Year	Number of disciples	Multiplication Factor
1	2016	12	3000%
2	2017	360	3000%
3	2018	10,800	3000%
4	2019	324,000	3000%
5	2020	9,720,000	3000%
6	2021	291,600,000	3000%
7	2022	8,748,000,000	3000%

The chart above illustrates that you could begin with twelve disciples and have 8.7 billion disciples at the end of seven years.

Illustration 4 - One Out of Four Disciples Fruitful
But as we see in the passage above, the Lord taught that not all the seeds would even bear any fruit at all. There were the ones sown beside the road, the ones sown on rocky places, and the ones sown among thorns that all failed to bear any fruit for the Lord. Only the ones sown on good soil became fruitful. He said that only "the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil...hear the word and accept it and bear fruit..." (Mar 4:20)

Therefore, some believe Jesus taught in this passage that only one out of every four seeds sown would bear fruit, while the other three would not last.  I believe there is a lot of truth to that, and my experience has proven that very few of those in whom the seed of the Word is sown actually bear any fruit. In my estimation, it seems like a small percentage ever bear fruit, and it's easy for me to believe that it could be 25% or less. So let’s apply that assumption to our previous illustration above. This time we will only allow one out of every four disciples to bear any fruit, and they will only bear 30-fold increase, not the maximum 100-fold increase that is actually possible.

In the following table, the middle column represents the number of disciples at the beginning of each year, but due to attrition as the Lord described, we retain only one-fourth of those disciples at the end of each year. We will call them the remnant. However, since the remnant are multiplying at a rate of 3,000 percent or thirty-fold, there will still be an increase by the beginning of the following year. Observe the growth that would still occur:

30-fold Increase or 3,000%

	Year	Number of disciples at Beginning of Year	Fruitful Disciples by End of Year (1 out of 4)
1	2016	12	3
2	2017	90	23
3	2018	675	169
4	2019	5,063	1,266
5	2020	151,875	37,969
6	2021	1,139,063	284,766
7	2022	8,542,969	2,135,742
8	2023	64,072,266	16,018,066
9	2024	480,541,992	120,135,498
10	2025	3,604,064,941	901,016,235
11	2026	27,030,487,061	6,757,621,765
12	2027	202,728,652,954	50,682,163,239

By the end of eleven years (2026) there would be 6.7 billion disciples, as the chart above illustrates. Since the earth's entire population is about 7 billion people, then if this sort of multiplication occurred, there could potentially be as many disciples as there are people on the planet before the end of the twelfth year (2027).

Putting it All Together
I hope that these simple illustrations have helped you understand that the Lord wants us to multiply and not add. I hope I've given you a vision and a passion for multiplication. Every disciple must be making disciples, thus multiplying themselves. As each one is being fruitful and multiplying, all the people in the world will ultimately be reached in a relatively short period of time. They would all have an opportunity to hear the gospel and either become one of the three seeds that bear no fruit at all, or become one of the seeds sown on good soil that bears fruit thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.

This is why our ministry, Doulos Missions International, places such a great emphasis on each believer becoming a disciple and then multiplying disciples. Our goal is not to fill buildings with believers, but to make disciples. After all, this is what Jesus commanded us, saying to go and make disciples of all the nations.

Attribution Notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Author's note: If you would like to be equipped to become a multiplying disciple for God's glory, please consider enrolling in our international Doulos Training School. You are invited to read Multiplication, The Kingdom of God is Like This, Being a Witness for Christ, The Sin of Silence, Give Me Children or I'll Die!, Baptized with the Spirit, and Covenant Prayer. You may find more articles about being fruitful and multiplying on the Home Page of this blog. You may also find my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.