The Vision: Starting, Strengthening, and Multiplying Churches

1. The Apostolic Vision: Starting, Strengthening, and Multiplying Churches—in Homes, across Cities, throughout Regions, and ultimately among All Nations

After Jesus rose from the dead, he commissioned his apostles to make disciples of all nations and empowered them by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to him throughout the world (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8). The rest of the New Testament shows what happened as they carried out that mission. The apostles and those they equipped proclaimed the gospel, made disciples, gathered believers into churches, strengthened those churches through teaching and leadership, and sent workers into new places. From Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and beyond, churches were started, strengthened, and multiplied.

This larger movement brings together several aspects of the New Testament that we sometimes consider separately:

Starting Churches: The gospel was proclaimed, people repented and believed, disciples were baptized, and believers were gathered into churches.
Strengthening Churches: Believers were taught the Scriptures, formed in Christian community, encouraged toward obedience and maturity, and cared for by faithful leaders.
Multiplying Churches: Leaders were developed, workers were equipped and sent, and the gospel moved into new relationships and places where new disciples and churches could be formed.

Peter, James, John, Paul, and many other workers contributed to this expanding mission. They served in different places and roles, but together the New Testament presents a remarkable picture of the risen Jesus building his church through the Holy Spirit as the gospel advances into new places and through new generations of leaders.

2. Our Vision

The Gathering Network adopts this apostolic vision as our own: to start, strengthen, and multiply churches—in homes, across cities, throughout regions, and ultimately among all nations.

This vision organizes everything we do. Evangelism, discipleship, church life, sound doctrine, leadership development, training, coaching, and evaluation are not separate ministries competing for attention. Each contributes to the larger work of starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches.

Evangelism helps start churches.
Discipleship, sound doctrine, and shared church life strengthen churches.
Leadership development, training, and coaching strengthen churches and prepare them to multiply.
Relationships among churches and leaders support this work across homes, cities, and regions.

Our other core documents explain different dimensions of this vision. Our mission identifies what Jesus commanded us to do: make disciples of all nations. Our values and purposes describe the convictions that shape our life together. Our strategy summarizes the apostolic patterns through which the mission advances. Our approach provides a practical way for ordinary believers to participate in that mission. Our resources on the gospel, doctrine, church life, discipleship, and leadership development explain essential parts of the work. Our Network Design shows how these elements fit together as one integrated framework.

The relationship between them is simple:

Vision: What do we long to see as that mission advances? Churches started, strengthened, and multiplied.
Mission: What has Jesus commanded us to do? Make disciples of all nations.
Values and Purposes: What convictions shape the way we pursue this work? The biblical commitments that unite and guide us.
Strategy: What basic pattern guides the work? The reproducible pattern of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development seen in the ministry of the apostles.
Approach: How can ordinary believers put that strategy into practice? By serving, seeking, inviting, gathering, and equipping people within their relationships.
Network Design: How do all these parts fit together? As one integrated framework for pursuing our mission and vision.

The vision therefore answers a central question for our network: What are we ultimately seeking to see happen through everything we do? We want to see churches started, strengthened, and multiplied. Ultimately, this work exists for the glory of God. The Father is making his name known among the nations, exalting his Son as the risen and reigning Lord, and forming a Spirit-filled people who display his character and proclaim his salvation (Ps. 57:5; Rom. 1:4–5; Phil. 2:9–11; Rev. 5:9–10).

3. How This Vision Unfolded in the First Century

The New Testament does not present starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches as an abstract ministry model. It shows this work unfolding through the apostles and those they equipped. The stages overlap, but together they reveal a clear historical movement as the gospel spread from Jerusalem into the wider Roman world.

Jerusalem: The Church is Established and Strengthened: At Pentecost, the risen Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon his followers (Acts 2:1–4, 33). Peter proclaimed Jesus as the crucified and risen Messiah, and those who received his message repented, were baptized, and were added to the community (Acts 2:36–41). These believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42–47). The apostles continued proclaiming Christ, teaching believers, praying, caring for the growing community, and protecting its unity and integrity. From the beginning, gospel proclamation did not lead merely to individual conversions. Disciples were made, gathered into a church, and strengthened together.
Judea and Samaria: The Gospel Moves Outward: Persecution scattered believers beyond Jerusalem, and those who were scattered continued proclaiming the good news (Acts 8:1–4). Philip preached Christ in Samaria, where people believed and were baptized, and Peter and John later participated in God’s continuing work among them (Acts 8:5–25). Peter then proclaimed the gospel to Cornelius and his household, helping the church recognize that God was granting repentance and life to Gentiles as well as Jews (Acts 10:1–11:18). Luke summarizes this growing movement by describing “the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria” as enjoying peace, being built up, and continuing to multiply (Acts 9:31). The gospel was moving outward, and new communities of believers were being established beyond Jerusalem.
Antioch: A Strengthened Church Sends Workers: Believers scattered by persecution carried the gospel as far as Antioch, where a great number of Gentiles turned to the Lord (Acts 11:19–24). Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch, and together they spent a year meeting with the church and teaching many people (Acts 11:25–26). Later, as the church worshiped, fasted, and prayed, the Holy Spirit set apart Barnabas and Saul for missionary work, and the church sent them out (Acts 13:1–3). Antioch therefore became an important turning point in the mission. A church that had been started through gospel witness and strengthened through sustained teaching now participated directly in multiplication by sending workers into new places.
Paul and His Coworkers: Churches Spread Across New Regions: The missionary work of Paul and his coworkers provides the New Testament’s most extensive picture of this movement. Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla and Aquila, and many others proclaimed Christ, made disciples, gathered believers, strengthened churches, developed leaders, and carried the gospel into new places. Acts 14 provides an especially clear summary: Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel and “made many disciples,” returned to strengthen the disciples and encourage them to continue in the faith, and “appointed elders for them in every church” (Acts 14:21–23). Paul continued strengthening churches through return visits, coworkers, letters, prayer, instruction, correction, and encouragement. In Ephesus, his extended ministry contributed to such widespread gospel advance that Luke could say that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:8–10).
James and Peter: Churches Are Guided and Strengthened: Alongside Paul’s missionary work, James and Peter helped guide and strengthen the growing church. James emerged as a major leader in Jerusalem and helped the church address the decisive question of how Gentile believers should be received among God’s people (Acts 12:17; 15:13–21; 21:18). His letter calls believers to mature Christian living through perseverance, wisdom, obedience, care for the needy, control of speech, humility, and prayer. Peter likewise wrote to believers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, calling them to holiness, mutual love, perseverance in suffering, faithful service, and responsible shepherding (1 Pet. 1:1; 4:7–11; 5:1–4). Their ministries show that churches were not merely to be started. They needed continuing guidance, protection, and strengthening in faithful Christian life.
Timothy, Titus, and Other Leaders: The Work is Entrusted to Others: As the mission continued, the apostles equipped others to carry the work forward. Paul instructed Timothy to entrust what he had learned “to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Titus was left in Crete to put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5). Paul’s instructions to these coworkers show that churches needed qualified leaders who could teach, shepherd, protect, and equip others. The mission was therefore designed to extend beyond the personal ministry of the apostles. Disciples became workers, workers became leaders, and leaders strengthened churches and prepared still others to serve.
John and the Later Churches: Established Churches Are Called to Persevere: The writings of John provide a fitting final perspective on churches that had now been established for years. His letters emphasize truth, love, obedience, fellowship, discernment, and perseverance. Revelation portrays the risen Jesus walking among his churches—commending faithfulness, exposing compromise, calling for repentance, and promising reward to those who overcome (Rev. 1–3). The concern of the New Testament therefore extends beyond the initial establishment of churches to their continuing faithfulness. Starting churches was never enough. Jesus remained deeply concerned with the health, holiness, witness, and perseverance of his churches as they awaited his return.

Taken together, the New Testament presents one unfolding movement: the gospel advances, disciples are made, churches are started and strengthened, leaders are developed, workers are sent, and churches multiply into new places. Those churches must then continue in truth, holiness, mission, and faithful witness until Christ returns. The Gospels reveal Christ and his mission, Acts shows that mission advancing, the Letters establish and strengthen the churches that resulted, and Revelation calls those churches to remain faithful to the end. This is the apostolic vision The Gathering Network seeks to pursue in our own generation.

4. What Is the Church?

If our vision is to start, strengthen, and multiply churches, we need to be clear about what the New Testament means by church.

What the Church is Not: In everyday speech, the word church is often used for things the New Testament would not primarily call ekklesia. We may speak of a building (“we are going to church”), an organization (“First Baptist Church”), an event or service (“church starts at ten”), a style of ministry (“traditional church,” “contemporary church,” or “house church”), or even a personal religious identity (“I’m a church person”). These uses are understandable, but they can subtly reshape our thinking. Church can become something we attend, maintain, evaluate, or prefer rather than a people who belong to Christ and share life under his lordship.
The Church is God’s People: The Greek word ekklesia means assembly, gathering, or congregation and is usually translated church. The church of Jesus Christ is therefore not fundamentally a building, program, event, or organization. It consists of people—those whom Christ has redeemed and gathered to himself.

The New Testament speaks of this people at four interconnected levels:

Christians Who Meet in Homes: The New Testament repeatedly identifies believers meeting in homes as churches (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2). These were genuine gatherings of the church. Believers shared meals, received teaching, prayed, exercised spiritual gifts, practiced the Lord’s Supper, showed hospitality, and cared for one another (Acts 2:46; 1 Cor. 11–14). The historic marks of the church, particularly emphasized by Luther and Calvin, include the faithful teaching of the Word and the proper administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These marks do not depend upon a particular building or size of gathering.
Christians Throughout a City: The New Testament also speaks of the church across an entire city. Paul writes to “the church of God at Corinth” and “the church of the Thessalonians” (1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1). Believers who gathered in particular households could therefore also be recognized together as the church within a city. The church was larger than any one household gathering, allowing believers and leaders to share relationships, teaching, resources, and mission across the city.
Christians Throughout a Region: The New Testament can also speak collectively of the church across a larger geographical area. Acts 9:31 refers to “the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.” Churches and believers were not isolated communities. They were connected across regions through apostolic teaching, traveling workers, letters, financial support, prayer, and shared participation in the mission. This regional dimension becomes especially visible as churches throughout areas such as Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia shared apostolic relationships and participated in common ministry.
Christians in Heaven and on Earth: Finally, the New Testament speaks of the church as the entirety of Christ’s people. Jesus promises, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18), and Paul says that Christ “loved the church and gave himself for her” (Eph. 5:25). In this sense, the church includes the whole redeemed people of God, united to Christ across every place and generation. Every local expression of the church therefore belongs to something much larger—the one people Jesus is building and will finally gather to himself.

One Church at Several Levels

These categories can be pictured as concentric circles: believers gathering in homes, believers recognized across cities, Christians connected throughout regions, and ultimately the one universal church of Jesus Christ. Local churches are concrete, historical expressions of this greater reality. As D. A. Carson observes, the local assembly is an “outcropping in history” of the great blood-bought assembly of God’s people gathered around Christ. This understanding shapes our vision. We are not simply trying to reproduce a particular church size, meeting place, or ministry model. We want to see Christ’s people gathered and strengthened in homes, cooperating across cities, connected throughout regions, and participating together in his worldwide mission. That is what we mean when we speak of starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches.

5. The Public and Household Dynamic of the Early Church

The New Testament shows the church carrying out its life and mission in both household and broader public settings:

Acts 2:46: Believers met together in the temple and broke bread from house to house.
Acts 5:42: The apostles continued teaching and proclaiming Jesus both in the temple and from house to house.
Acts 20:20: Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that he had taught them both publicly and from house to house.

In homes, believers shared meals, practiced the Lord’s Supper, exercised spiritual gifts, received teaching, practiced hospitality, prayed, and cared for one another personally (Acts 2:46; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 11–14). In broader public settings, the apostles and other believers proclaimed the gospel, taught the Scriptures, reasoned with unbelievers, trained workers, and carried out ministry that extended beyond individual households (Acts 3–5; 17–19).

These settings were complementary rather than competing. Household gatherings provided a natural context for shared church life, while broader settings created opportunities for proclamation, teaching, training, and cooperation. The Gathering Network embraces this same dynamic: we gather in homes for the regular shared life of the church, while also cooperating across gatherings for prayer, training, leadership development, and mission.

6. Why This Pattern Continues

Our vision to start, strengthen, and multiply churches is rooted in what the apostles did under the authority of the risen Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit. We therefore view the apostolic pattern as more than an interesting description of early Christian history. Three convictions shape the way we apply it:

Biblical Foundation: Scripture gives us the essential message, mission, practices, and priorities that shape the work of the church. The gospel of Jesus Christ remains our message. Making disciples of all nations remains our mission. Teaching believers to obey Jesus, gathering them into churches, developing qualified leaders, and sending workers remain central to that mission (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 14:21–23; 2 Tim. 2:2; Titus 1:5).
Apostolic Pattern: Acts and the Letters reveal recurring patterns rather than a single rigid ministry formula. The apostles and their coworkers repeatedly proclaimed the gospel, made disciples, gathered believers, strengthened churches, appointed and developed leaders, and carried the work into new places. Not every incidental feature of first-century ministry must be reproduced in every culture, but the central commitments and movements of the apostolic mission continue to instruct the church.
Transcultural Practice: The cultural forms through which these commitments are expressed may change. Meeting places, schedules, communication methods, organizational structures, and ministry tools can differ substantially across cultures and centuries. But the essential work remains: proclaim the gospel, make disciples, gather and strengthen churches, develop leaders, and extend the work into new places.

For this reason, starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches is both a description of what we see throughout the New Testament and a pattern that continues to guide our mission today.

7. Why We Pursue This Vision

We pursue the vision of starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches for several closely related reasons:

Because Jesus Is Building His Church: The church is ultimately Christ’s work, not ours. Jesus promised, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). The risen Christ gathers, sustains, corrects, and preserves his people through the gospel and by the Holy Spirit. We start and strengthen churches not to build a movement around ourselves but to participate faithfully in what Jesus has promised to do.
Because Making Disciples Produces a People: Jesus commands us to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything he commanded (Matt. 28:18–20). The New Testament does not normally envision these disciples living as isolated Christians. Those who believe are baptized, gathered, taught, loved, corrected, equipped, and sent as members of Christ’s people. Making disciples and forming churches therefore belong together.
Because Evangelism Contributes to Starting Churches: The gospel must be proclaimed, and people must personally repent and believe. But conversion is not the end of the mission. As people come to faith, they are gathered into identifiable communities where they can be baptized, learn the apostles’ teaching, share life with other believers, receive care, and participate in Christ’s mission. Evangelism therefore contributes naturally to the starting of churches.
Because Discipleship Strengthens Churches: Jesus commands us to teach disciples to obey everything he commanded. That growth takes place through Scripture, prayer, example, correction, encouragement, service, suffering, and shared obedience. Churches are strengthened as believers know one another, bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another, exercise their gifts, pursue holiness, and grow together toward maturity (Eph. 4:11–16). Biblical discipleship is not merely the transfer of information; it is the formation of mature disciples within the shared life of Christ’s people.
Because Healthy Churches Need Faithful Leaders: The apostles appointed elders in churches and instructed others to develop faithful leaders who could teach, shepherd, protect, and equip God’s people (Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9). Leadership development is not a separate concern added to church life. It is essential to strengthening churches and preparing them for continued faithfulness.
Because Developing Leaders Makes Multiplication Possible: Paul instructed Timothy to entrust what he had learned to faithful people who would be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). As disciples become mature workers and qualified leaders, the work no longer depends upon a few gifted individuals. New leaders strengthen existing churches, equip other believers, and carry the gospel into new relationships and places. Leadership development therefore creates the capacity for churches to multiply.
Because God Is Glorified Through His Church Among the Nations: The mission of God begins and ends with the glory of God. The Father is making his name known, exalting his Son, and gathering a people from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Phil. 2:9–11; Rev. 5:9–10). The spread of healthy churches is therefore not merely organizational expansion. As churches are started, strengthened, and multiplied, the gospel is proclaimed, Christ is worshiped, his people display his character, and his name becomes known in new homes, communities, cities, and regions.

Through evangelism, discipleship, church life, and leadership development, we participate in Jesus’s continuing work of starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches for the glory of God.

Questions for Reflection and Action

Understanding the Vision: How does starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches bring evangelism, discipleship, church life, and leadership development together into one larger vision?
Understanding the Church: How does seeing the church in homes, cities, regions, and universally broaden your understanding of what Jesus is building?
Evaluating Our Work: Where are you or your church presently strongest—starting, strengthening, or multiplying churches—and where do you most need to grow?
Developing Leaders: Who are the people you should be intentionally developing so they can help strengthen churches and carry the work forward?
Taking the Next Step: What is one concrete step you can take to help start, strengthen, or multiply churches?

For a fuller explanation of how this vision relates to our mission, strategy, values, disciple-making process, leadership development, training, and coaching, see Our Network Design: How Everything Fits Together.

For more information on the development of the early church, see Jeff Reed’s chapter “The Churches of the First Century: From Simple Churches to Complex Networks” in The Encyclicals: A Global Return to “The Way of Christ and His Apostles.”