Forests in the Seed: Takeaways.
Stan Parks
Some highlights from my conversation with Stan Parks, coauthor of The Forests in the Seed.
On the numbers
In 2000, there were 100,000 disciples in multiplying movements. By 2025, there were 100 million.
We know of over 2,000 movements in the world.
On the definition of a movement
Consistent fourth-generation reproduction of churches in four streams. When it reaches that point, only about 1% of the time does it actually fail.
On cascading movements
Movements start other movements. Today, over 90% of movements are started by existing movements.
On movement characteristics
They look very much like the New Testament church. In a country in West Africa, visited-- and as we're talking to different people involved in the movement, "Hey, tell me what you do."
Most of them say, "Well, I'm a church planter, and I'm a schoolteacher. I'm a church planter, and I'm a taxi driver." One guy said, "I'm a church planter, and I'm a judge." His friend said, "Well, he's actually the chief justice of the Supreme Court for the country."
So there's just this sense that everyone is a disciple-maker, everyone is a church planter. They really do believe in the priesthood of the believer, of every believer.
On traveling light
They're not dependent on external funding. They're not dependent on professionally trained clergy. They're not building buildings, for the most part.
On the secret sauce
The key is not tactics, but transformed disciples using proven biblical strategies that result in reproducing disciples, leaders, and churches.
On the Holy Spirit
They're seeing people healed and demons cast out and people raised from the dead. You know, the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives is really the key.
70–80% or more of these households of peace are found through miracles. A healing happens, the household's open. A demon's cast out, the household's open. And again, you see the same thing in Acts. The miracle often led to openness.
On the priesthood
We have--in the modern Westernized church, we operate in some ways very much like the Old Testament. We have priests who interpret God's Word to us and are intercessors to God for us, whereas in the New Testament, everybody was a priest.
On hardship
The most vibrant movements have started in the hardest places.
The largest single movement in the world started in the holiest city of Hinduism, and the largest family of movements was started by people who are former jihadists. God is doing more than we could have asked or imagined.
On outside funding
It's a little bit of a myth that some people have that you can start a movement with no money. Lost people will not pay for their own evangelization. There's always some money to send some people to a new place. And so, the key factor that we're going to keep in mind is how to give money appropriately, so it doesn't create dependence, so it doesn't cause dissension, disunity, and is used the most strategically.
So, typically what happens is the movements are sending people, they're raising funds internally to help in crises, or to send people to new places, or to start businesses to create a stronger economic base to fund the movement and efforts overall. And then the outsiders can come alongside and say, "Okay, you're already doing this, you're showing us a priority through your own sacrificial giving," as one movement leader put it.
So, we'll accept some outside money so we can do more of that, but we won't accept outside money to do things we wouldn't want to be doing, or are already trying to do by ourselves.
On finishing the task
And so, you know, the global church over the last 40 years has grown at almost an identical rate to population growth globally. It's right at 1.8%. Movements have grown at 23% a year. So that's not some, it's not, you know, "Oh, they're doubling every single year." I mean, 23% is significant. That means four churches in a movement, on average, start one new church a year. But that 23% ends up with a 10X factor every five or 10 years.
I think you're going to probably need movement fruit in 40,000 to 50,000 different population segments to actually bring the gospel to the 2 to 3 billion plus people that need it, that have never had the chance. What that looks like, when it happens, how it happens, you know, only God knows.
