This series of podcasts is called, “My Journey Toward Kingdom Multiplication,” where church planters share personal stories of multiplication. We interview church planters like Bob Roberts who are making progress along their journey. Our desire is to inspire and inform you and your church to move closer toward becoming a level five multiplying church. The theme for this series comes from Todd Wilson and Dave Ferugson’s FREE eBook, Becoming a Level Five Multiplying Church.
Becoming Five is the theme for both Exponential East & Exponential West 2016, as well as the new regional conferences in Washington DC and Chicago. Register for any of the conferences here.
E01: Bob Roberts’s Journey Toward Multiplication
Bob Roberts shares about his journey toward becoming a level five multiplying church. He planted NorthWood Church 30 years ago, and since then, their church has planted hundreds of churches. Joining him for this episode is Scott Venable (pictured below), one of the planters sent by NorthWood. Together, they tell stories of church planting, pivotal moments along the journey, and advice for other church planters.
Pictured: Scott Venable, Bob Roberts, Omar Reyes
Roberts brings to the conversation insights from a global perspective. He shares about how mega churches and small churches can participate in church planting to make not just reproducing churches, but multiplying churches. He defines a church planting movement, saying that their church is not there yet. However, they’re moving toward a vision that excites him. They are moving forward on their journey toward level 5 multiplication.
“There is a glut of church planting information in America today (conferences, books, seminaries), unlike anywhere else in the world. And yet we have no movements. If you go to other church plants around the world, they wouldn’t have five percent of the information we do. But they do have movements. So the next question is, ‘why is that?’ It is because they see [church planting] totally differently.”
“What I began to realize was if smaller units multiplied over seas, that’s what we need [to do] here. Furthermore, we are going to have to change the conversation in America about what a healthy church is. Why do we think a small church is unhealthy? Do you know, sociologically, how many people you can relate to? Sixty. Do you know how many people you can be close to? Twenty. Do you know how many really close friends you can have? Three. And yet we have the idea of [gathering] masses of people. Here’s one of the things I think we’ve got wrong today: Pastors have turned the church (unintentionally albeit) into their fan club. The church is not your fan club—it’s the body of Christ. So I shifted, because I began to see that this isn’t how the church is growing around the world.”
The church is not your fan club—it’s the body of Christ.
Dr. Bob Roberts is the Senior Pastor at NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas. He is also Founder, Senior Leader, and Chief Spokesman for Glocal.net. His primary focus with Glocal.net is connecting leaders and establishing relationships to create transformation. Bob has worked extensively in Vietnam, Afghanistan, West Bank and Gaza, Indonesia, Syria, Belize, Egypt, Turkey, Kenya, Nigeria, Europe, Australia, Iraq, Iran and other countries. He has been called upon by the United Nations and various State Departments around the world to assist with humanitarian and reconciliation projects.
