Church Multiplication

SIM (Serving in Mission) has seen this over the years as well - incredible multiplication of the Church, but with similar results as this quote from a missionary in India -

Christianity is growing at a staggering rate [in India]. Despite rising resistance and persecution, these new believers are also starting to take responsibility for the Great Commission. There are more churches being planted in this region of the world than ever before.

Good news, certainly, but it also presents a unique challenge. Young Christians are working to plant and multiply churches, reproducing new churches ahead of Bible training. Over 90% of them have no formal instruction and will never have the opportunity to get that kind of education.

There are two critical issues that need to be understood. First, when we use the term “reached” this does not mean that every person in that group has become a Christian, but rather that there exists an indigenous, culturally relevant community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group. This community of believing Christians which is capable of evangelizing this group can also be called a church planting movement. It is not the existence of a single Christian group, or even many groups, but 
rather is a broad based movement of spontaneous multiplication of churches which is not dependent on outside assistance. 

The second critical issue is to understand that measuring the existence of a church planting movement is not that easy to do. It is our goal, but how do we know when it has happened? I would like to suggest that we have to look at the issue of “reachedness” as a continuum in the following way: 

completely unreached....................................(transitional area)...................totally reached