Broken for Blessing: Embracing the Pain of Subtraction for the Joy of Multiplication

Illustration by Kip Henderson

“Jesus took the loaves and fish, gave thanks for them, broke them and distributed them to the crowd.” John 6:11

When I read the story of the feeding of the 5,000, I still see it in vivid flannel graph images stuck up on a room divider in our Sunday school classroom. I can smell the salt and flour in the play dough and hear my teacher ask, “What would you say if Jesus asked for your lunch?”

Anyone who knows me knows I am great at meal bartering. As a kid, I was always looking to swap my cheese and chutney sandwiches for something better from one of my schoolmates. Not much has changed. I still try to barter when I go out to eat with my wife, because what she orders always seems better than mine. Needless to say, this miracle spoke to me back in that Sunday school class on a visceral level.

This was more than swapping a sandwich or dinner plate. In John 6, Jesus has compassion on the hun- gry crowd and asks His disciples, “‘Where are we to buy bread, so these people may eat?’ He said this to test them, for He Himself knew what He would do.”5 Andrew, one of the disciples, finds a boy with five loaves and two fish and Jesus seems to think this lunch will do the trick. So, the little boy with the five loaves and two fish is asked to hand over his whole lunch. John writes that Jesus took the loaves and fish, gave thanks for them, broke them and distributed them to the crowd. The food was multiplied so that all 5,000 men, as well as women and children, ate their fill (the whole crowd was likely closer to 20,000). What a stunning catering miracle! Jesus was a homeless man who provided a meal for a multitude with a little boy’s lunch.

But I have some questions about the story. First, was the lunch given willingly or taken? There are no details of the exchange, simply, that Jesus took the loaves as well as the fish.6 I have to give Jesus and the disciples the benefit of the doubt here because they don’t seem like playground bullies. Still, I imagine the little boy must have been a bit reluctant to part with his lunch, don’t you? Another question. Why a boy? Why someone who had no easy way of replacing the re- sources he gave up? That seems unfair. But my biggest question is, why did Jesus need all five loaves and two fish for His multiplying miracle? If He was powerful enough to multiply loaves and fish for 20,000 people, why couldn’t He just have done it out of one loaf and one fish, leaving the boy with the rest?

That’s the rub for me in this passage. For some rea- son, Jesus requires the boy to hand over his whole lunch. He seems okay to leave him, for a moment, with nothing to eat himself so that others can be fed. That moment must have felt like a lifetime on an emp- ty stomach. Jesus seems comfortable invading the boy’s margins in uncomfortable ways. This was not just a sandwich barter. This was a sandwich takeover for the sake of others. The miracle was made possible because the boy was willing for his whole lunch to be broken for the blessing of the crowd.

This is the very heart of what it is to be used by Jesus for the sake of others, isn’t it? We say, “Jesus, use me to bring Your life to others.” And He does. Yet very soon after we come back to Him saying, “Jesus, I feel used! I feel empty!” He takes all we have; blesses it, breaks it, and multiplies it to bless others. There is no bless- ing of the crowds without the breaking of our loaves. Many people want to be part of the blessing, but few want to take part in the taking and the breaking.

This is the story behind our multiplying story. It is the story of every small or medium-sized multiply- ing church. We have never felt that we’ve had enough resources to feed the crowds but we’ve wanted to be involved in Jesus’ feeding miracle. We know that ulti- mately Jesus, not our churches, is the Bread of Life. And yet we believe that planting churches is the most effective distribution system to get the Bread of Life to hungry people. So we’ve said, “Lord, we are putting our bread in Your hands, even though it’s not that much. Take it, break it and multiply it for the sake of others.” It has been stunning to see many hungry souls fed with the Bread of Life because of this.

I must warn you, though, that this is a dangerous vision. We recently walked with a Southern California church of around 100 adults who felt called to plant a church into Washington, approximately 2,000 miles away. They sent twenty of their best people includ- ing two prominent leadership couples. The send- ing church didn’t just drop to eighty. They quickly dropped to sixty adults because some who were left behind felt like the church just wasn’t the same as it once was! A year later the church had shrunk by a fur- ther twenty people and the lead pastor resigned, feel- ing distraught by the decline of a church that had felt so healthy just a year prior. Eighteen months into the new church plant it had grown steadily, seeing people coming to faith, new leaders installed and disciples being made. It has now reached around eighty adults. But the sending church, tragically, has closed.

The truth is that there can be no multiplication without subtraction, and multiplication feels like subtraction for quite some time before Jesus restores the margins of our resources. The gap between subtraction and restoration can threaten the life of a sending church. I don’t know about you, but I like resource margins. Yet multiplication means Jesus invades those margins of finances, leaders, volunteers and energy. We find ourselves feeling empty and used in the process, even

though there is joy in seeing people nourished with the Bread of Life in a new place. We feel the pain of subtraction amidst the joy of multiplication.

There is great testing of faith in the “feeding 5,000” miracle, both the disciples’ faith and that of the boy. Being a multiplying church will test your faith to its limits, too. Is Jesus able to feed the multitudes with the little we have in our hands? Will He just take what we have to bless others and leave us empty-handed indefinitely?

When Jesus requires something of us that seems un- reasonable, it is a test both of our faith and our pain threshold. C.S. Lewis wrote about this when his wife was suffering from cancer. “We are not necessarily doubting God will do the best for us; we are wonder- ing how painful the best will turn out to be.”7

John’s insight into his best friend in this miracle is stunning in verse 6. “He said this to test them, for He Himself knew what He would do.” In other words, when Jesus’ multiplying miracle tests our faith because it seems so mysterious, we must learn to give Him the benefit of the doubt. He knows what He is doing, even if we don’t understand it.

While Jesus seems to require everything the boy has, He uses it to feed the multitudes. “He Himself knew what He would do.”8 While the boy must have felt the pain of subtraction, the disciples are able to gather up twelve baskets full of leftover fragments. The crowds didn’t get just enough—after they gorged themselves on the fish and bread, there were twelve baskets of leftover fragments. The phrase leftover fragments im- plies both abundance and change. When we surrender our resources to Jesus to be broken and multiplied we can be sure He will restore them abundantly, but we are also surrendering the form in which they are restored to us. He restores fragments. Multiplication brings with it a new normal. Our lives will never be the same.

Jesus has never restored our comfortable, self-serving vision of the church to us. We are permanently ruined with a new vision of brokenness for the sake of blessing. For some people, this way of doing church is too unsettling. They have left Southlands to look for a church with a less disruptive vision. But Jesus has restored and continues to restore baskets full of fragments—finances, properties, investors, leaders, servants and friends, though not necessarily in the same form as they were given.

In summary, I want to suggest three ways of think- ing that can catalyze a movement of medium-sized multiplying churches:

A willingness to let Jesus invade our margins

Southlands began multiplying under my watch in 2012 when we had around 500 adults and 100 kids in average attendance. We sent three pastors, nine- ty adults and fifteen kids down the road to start our first multisite community. It was a shock to the sys- tem to send just under twenty percent of our church to a neighboring city; so much so that after a month I asked one of the three pastors to come back! Four years later though, by God’s grace, we’ve multiplied four times. One of those was an autonomous church plant into Thailand. The other two were multisite communities into neighboring cities. It’s been incred- ibly costly because every time we’ve multiplied we’ve had to yield our margins of leadership, people, fi- nances and ministry. And in a medium-sized church, they are margins you can ill afford. It can leave you breathless, but to see Jesus’ life in these new gospel communities is breathtakingly beautiful. We feel that we’ve been an integral part of Jesus’ multiplying miracle of the five fish and two loaves. We’ve had to put the loaves and fish we have into His hands to be bro- ken, and He’s blessed that. It’s then that subtraction begins to turn into multiplication. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus used every bit of that little boy’s lunch for His multiplication miracle? He could have left the boy with a loaf or a fish, but He used it all. Of course, it’s easier for large churches to multiply without invading their margins too much, but apparently, that’s not the only way Jesus works.

When we surrender our resources to Jesus to be broken and multiplied we can be sure He will restore them abundantly, but we are also surrendering the form in which they are restored to us.

The call to be a multiplying church is a costly one whether you are small, medium or large, but it will help your church to avoid self-preservation and self-promotion, as well as passivity.

Ultimately, the call to be a multiplying church will involve you in the faith adventure of seeing your resources multiplied for the sake of others’ blessing.

Jesus knows what He is doing.

So what are you going to say when He asks you for your lunch?

Re-Vitalizing Vision

At this time of year we typically think about vision, whether it be personal, for our family, company or church. Vision is more comprehensive than goal setting, although it should contain goals. Vision might be described as an ideal picture of our future that informs the way we act within our present reality. I've been reflecting on how vital vision has been for me and our church the last few years, and how much God has done by His grace as we've responded to that vision. If it's true that without vision people perish, then the converse is true that with vision, people come alive. 

But how do we craft, cast and follow through with vision?

Here are 7 brief insights from the Apostle Paul as he describes his vision.

"Not that I have already attained these things or have been made perfect. But I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining to what lies ahead, I press on toward  the goal for prize of the upward call of of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will make that clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (Philippians 3:12-16)

1. Vision is upward before it's onward. 

Paul's ultimate vision is the prize of the upward call of God, that is, his resurrection and reward after the return of Christ. His ultimate goal is to please Jesus, not himself, which enables him to endure hardship, isolation and even the seeming frustration of his vision in prison. If our vision is ultimately an upward call we will remain faithful when the onward call is delayed. 

2. Vision is call before it's craft. 

While imagination is a factor in vision-crafting, Paul's vision was in response to Jesus' call. I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. It wasn't his grand idea. It was God's. Discerning God's unique call can be tough, but laying hold of that begins by aligning our lives to Jesus' Great Commission.  That should frame every Christian's vision. 

3. Vision is discontented

Paul had attained so much in his life, but he refused to rest on his laurels. He pursued vision by forgetting his past accomplishments and by acknowledging what had not yet been attained. He had a holy discontentment with what he'd attained.  If we begin to glorify what we've already attained we will never press on. In the words of that old U2 song, "We glorify the past when the future dries up." 

4. Vision is defiant  

Paul is in prison. He's old and his eye sight is failing. While he acknowledges the confinement of his circumstances - he's writing a letter because he cannot get to them in person - his confinement doesn't dampen his enthusiasm or slow him down in any way.  Straining to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal. Paul's vision of seeing the gospel advance to new regions through the planting of new churches defied his circumstances. He had to change his approach by writing letters and raising up other leaders rather than visiting churches himself. But ponder for a moment what God did with those letters! I have settled that whatever God calls us to, it will always seem beyond what we can humanly resource ourselves. Faith defies current circumstance as it trusts the faithfulness of the One who calls.

5. Vision is progressive. 

This is a counter-point to the previous one. Paul's apparent forgetfulness is not complete amnesia. He's aware of what he and this church have attained. "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." In essence he's saying, "Don't rest on your past achievements. Build on them!" I've found that people's faith for a vision grows as it becomes more visible. People bless what they see God already blessing. There's a difference between a big vision and an unrealistic one. Start with something quantifiable and attainable and build on that. This past year we cast vision for the Jubilee Campaign, which was intended to get rid of our debt and  build a war chest for church planting. I think one of the reasons people blew us away with their generosity is that they saw we had a track record of investing significantly into church panting.  Ask God for a vision track-record to build upon. 

6. Vision is specific  

In the following chapter Paul thanks the church for their financial generosity to his vision. Their vision had concrete outcomes. I often see leaders cast such vague vision that they cannot be held accountable for whether they achieved it or not. While mission is less quantifiable, vision should be for a set period of time with quantifiable goals that you either hit or miss. 

Just under 3 years ago we cast a vision called 3 in 3 at Southlands Church. We had a vision to multiply 3 times in 3 years. The idea was for one multi-site in Southern California, one church amongst an un-reached people group, and one autonomous church plant in North America. The end point was April 2017.  By God's amazing grace, we have been able to plant a multi-site congregation in Whittier, and a church plant in Chiang Rai, Thailand, and we are now busy with our 3rd of 3 - the adoption and re-birth of a church in Chino that will become Southlands Chino in the Fall of 2017. The sticklers may say, "Well, you missed it. That's two multi-sites and you didn't do it by April 2017." To which I will respond, "You're right. We missed it. But because we aimed at something, we have never had this many people praying, training, giving and going. I'll gladly miss the next vision again like we missed this one." A quantifiable vision need not be a gun to our head. But it can be a much needed spur in our side.

7. Vision is prophetic. 

While rooted in our unchanging Biblical call, it does take imagination to craft vision. If you are a leader, gather some of your creatives to help you craft compelling vision.  But be open to the whispers of God through the prophetic! Look at the way the prophetic informed Paul's vision in Acts 16. God has spoken to us with astonishing specificity  as we've continued to follow His Spirit in the pursuit of His vision. Here are a few examples of this.

Southlands, when I woke up on New Year's Day the Spirit prompted me to go to the above passage. As I sat with it, I sensed Him whisper just two words. "Kick on." Kick on is a coaching term used for an athlete who is in the final stretch of a race and is running well. It's the encouragement to pick up the pace and turn advantage into victory. God has been so kind to us. But He is calling us all to "kick on" in 2017 in the final stretch of this 3 in 3 vision. Let's not rest on our laurels. The always previous God has gone before us. We've prayed, given, trained and gone. But the race is not yet won.

When Church Planting feels like Church Pruning.

So, the send-off of our team to plant One Light Church in Chiang Rai, Thailand, has come and gone. What a momentous night it was, soaked with tears, buoyed with faith-filled worship and weighted with sober gratitude for this intrepid team of men, women and children who are laying down their lives to make disciples of Jesus in a nation largely unreached by His gospel.

In the words of John Piper, "Mission is secondary. Worship is primary. We do missions because Jesus is not yet worshipped by a people in a place. We do missions in order that the white-hot worship of the Son of God may go up from every nation, tribe and tongue." This is the reason we plant churches. We believe the local church is God's primary mode for making disciples; people who will worship Jesus with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength. 

Although the team have not all left yet, the sense of loss here is palpable. Dear friends who have become family are not going to be around in the same way, and while social media, skype and air travel make the world a much smaller place, we cannot know these friends in same way we did. The book of Acts, full of bitter-sweet gospel good-byes, gives us permission to rejoice and grieve at the same time at these moments. Perhaps those are the two most appropriate emotions right now; simultaneous gratitude and grief. Gratitude, because we know they are going to be planted to bear much fruit, and grief, because we feel like we have been pruned. That's the thing, isn't it? Planting a church feels like planting for those going, and pruning for those staying. Both planters and senders pay a price, but it's a very different kind of price. 

So what does it look like to care for those going as well as those staying at this time? To shift the metaphor, what does it mean to take care of both the child and the mother who has given birth? Both need to be healthy in order to survive and thrive. Our concern is for all all three of our communities who have each sent excellent people to Thailand. We can never replace the people who have gone, but we are trusting God to replenish us. As elders, we've particularly been asking God for wisdom for Southlands Brea, a community that has sent out around 150 missionaries and leaders  in the last 3 years. What mother that's given birth 3 times in 3 years would not feel a need for replenishment after that? 

Make no mistake though, the joy of new life has made it all worthwhile. We have absolutely no regrets. John's Gospel describes it like this; "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." (John 16:21) We have witnessed such stunning new life as we have sent people to Fullerton and Whittier, and now anticipate the same in Thailand. Even as we speak, there are opportunities opening for us in the Inland Empire too. God, by his extra-ordinary grace, is making us into a fruitful family together, and this fills us with joy. But we want to look at what it means to be this kind of fruitful family in a wise and sustainable way. Jesus' assurance to us in John 15 is that the Father prunes, not because we are unfruitful, but because we are fruitful, and because He wants us to produce more fruit!  

So, in the month of August, we will do community specific sermon series. Southlands Whittier will do a series on the Holy Spirit, Southlands Fullerton will do one on the Psalms, and Southlands Brea will do one on 'The Fruitful Church.' It will be a reminder about why we are called to be fruitful, how we recover from fruitfulness, and how we sustain fruitfulness. If you consider yourself part of the Southlands Brea family, please join us this Sunday as we begin the new series.