Multiplication

 “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” -Genesis 1:28

We were made to manage and govern. What starts with control of our own lives grows to governing a family, a small group, various projects, then employees, departments, and organizations… The more faithful you are, the more God puts you in charge of. I’ve seen this happen even with stay-at-home moms; when they govern their kids wisely, other parents flock to them to hear their advice. While their domain may appear small to our eyes, the reality is a much larger impact.

The results of good governance can be seen in these verses: fruitfulness and multiplication. Whenever something is being managed well, it will multiply. While I have usually only looked at these verses from a people perspective (that we are supposed to multiply people) I actually think it goes much deeper, talking about all aspects of our lives like the rest of the passage is saying. Multiplication:

• Deals with a geometric increase, and has a compound interest-like growth curve. Addition can be seductive because you get results faster and quicker. In multiplication if you do the right thing for 20 years, you may see little to no fruit for the first 10, then the growth starts and the impact is way more than addition.
• Multiplication implies the fruitfulness of the fruit. For example, in finances getting a salary is addition; every month the amount goes up. But that money isn’t producing more money, whereas in an investment it would be. Addition to the church is where we are adding people to the pews but not training them. Full discipleship is multiplication, and each disciple in turn creates other disciples. Even though the process is painful and slow, when the compounding effect kicks in there is great fruit.
• Multiplication can work in positive and negative directions. 10 x 5 is 50, but -10 times the same number is -50. We need to be careful when we have been elevated in governance because both our strengths and weaknesses are multiplied.

We spend so much time in management setting goals and talking about what are positive results, and it drastically changes depending on what you are managing. However, in one word, God sums up all of his expectations and the results of good management: multiplication. It’s absolutely true… In the library I want people who can multiply the attendance and impact of the books, in the sewing school I want people who can multiply their teaching and products, in the IT sector I want people who can multiply my investment in them.

I am also amazed at how different from accepted reality this one word is… Most people think good management is stability; things will look just like when you left them, but we need to know God expects more and to the people under us we need to give them the freedom and expectation of multiplication.