The Romans thought that too. Caesar Augustus consolidated power, the republic gave way to empire, and everyone was scrambling to figure out what came next.

Into that exact moment, Jesus showed up. Not with an institutional response. Not with a scalable program. With a gospel and twelve guys.

The Wrong Response to Crisis

The guy in your Tuesday morning staff meeting who used to be steady is now doom-scrolling between agenda items. Your neighbor who never talked about politics is anxious about whether to pull money out of his 401k. Everyone is grabbing for something solid.

In a low-trust environment, that’s exactly the wrong move.

The gospel spreads when a woman at work comes to Christ and starts having her three coworkers over for dinner on Thursday nights. That small group of four becomes a church. That church multiplies to engage another workplace or park. That is how it grows.

Three Years, Not a Crowd

It’s what Jesus was building when he called Simon by name on a dock in Galilee and walked with him for three years instead of managing a crowd.

The crowds showed up anyway. The movement outlasted the empire.

The Tent Booth Was The Entry Point

I heard a church planter recently describing how his funding was drying up and he might have to go get a job or start a business. He was talking about it like his dog had died. Like taking a sales job meant he was abandoning the work.

But Priscilla and Aquila made tents. They worked the booth at the market. Their shop floor is where Paul met them, where the church in Corinth started taking shape. Tent-making wasn’t their backup plan. It was their entry point.

When we treat the pathway as fixed, we’re managing toward our preferred version of the vision.

The grain of wheat that falls to the ground doesn’t get to decide what kind of fruit grows. It just dies. And something bigger comes from it.

This Has Always Been The Mechanism

People read Matthew 24 while watching the news at 11pm and think, this must be the one Jesus was talking about.

He was. And so was every generation before ours. His instruction to all of them was the same: don’t be alarmed, don’t be led astray, and don’t stop.

That’s always been the mechanism. Crisis doesn’t change it. Crisis just makes it harder to believe.

What to Do Right Now

Go find one person. Share the gospel over coffee, in your car, on a walk. Help them bring the gospel into the handful of people already around them.

And if you’re sitting here with a big vision and growing anxiety about whether it’s actually moving, check what you’re feeling. Urgency and control feel the same from the inside.

Start small. Trust God with what grows from there.

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It continues when people walk closely with God and give themselves to what He is actually doing in their place, among their people, in their moment.

That is why Emmanuel’s image of a compass and road signs stuck with me. A map assumes every terrain is the same. A compass helps you stay aligned when it is not. Most of us want a map because we want control. But Jesus’s movement has never been built on control.

It moves through dependence, discernment, and obedience.

The problem is often not ignorance but overload

A lot of us already know too much.

We have heard the stories, read the books, and learned the language. But knowledge does not make us focused.

What Emmanuel surfaced is that the issue is often not ignorance. It is overload.

Many leaders are not stalled because they do not care. They are stalled because they are trying to carry too much at once. Too many goals. Too many needs. Too many good things without enough clarity about what matters most now. So they stay active, but scattered. Busy, but unfocused.

That kind of ministry drift can look faithful from the outside. But underneath, there is very little clarity.

Busyness quietly works against what we say we want

This was the sharpest part for me.

Emmanuel talked about busyness as more than a full calendar. It is a kind of frantic activity that makes us rush our work, skim our responsibilities, and lose the ability to be present with people. We get driven by the urgent. We avoid harder conversations. We miss what is in front of us because part of us is always somewhere else.

That gets in the way of Jesus’s movement continuing locally.

You can spend all day doing ministry and still be unavailable to God. You can fill every margin and still miss the person He put in front of you.

It looks responsible. But it can quietly hollow out the focus and presence that obedience requires.

Beneath busyness is a deeper disorder

What I appreciated is that Emmanuel traced this deeper. He said busyness flows out of a cluttered mind, and beneath that is a disordered heart.

That gets to the real issue. A cluttered mind wants too many things at once. A disordered heart is not fully ordered around seeking God first. So the problem is not just poor time management. It is inner disorder.

That explains why sincere leaders can still feel fragmented.

We are not always blocked by laziness. Sometimes we are blocked by divided attention, mixed desires, and a pace shaped more by pressure than by prayer.

An ordered heart stays near God. It gains clarity. It becomes more able to recognize what needs to be done in this moment and this season.

What starts and stops Jesus’s movement

If I had to boil down what I learned from Emmanuel Prinz, it would be this:

It slows down when leaders become scattered, cluttered, and ruled by urgency instead of discernment.

So the first question is probably not, “What new method do I need?”

A better question is, “What is fragmenting my attention right now? What is thinning out my presence? What is keeping me from hearing clearly and obeying simply?”

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

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He shares the messy, Spirit-led process of multiplication, where broken people find Jesus and unexpected leaders emerge.

Through setbacks, burnout, and failures, Roger uncovers how simple obedience, friendship, and the power of “milk not meat” transformed his approach.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, frustrated, or unsure what’s actually working in multiplying movements in North America, this episode is a helpful deep dive into faithfulness in action.

Tune in to learn how this balance can transform your leadership and sustain kingdom movements for generations.

“Is this a movement of the gospel…or the gospel of movements?”

That line hit different. Because most of us who have been in this space long enough have felt it. Somewhere along the way, the mission became the method. We stopped following Jesus into messy places and started trying to build something impressive enough to be called a movement.

The burnout stories in this episode are not unique. They are embarrassingly common. And they almost always follow the same arc.

You get fired up. You train hard. You apply the methods. You share the gospel hundreds of times. You track the numbers. You wait for the multiplication.

And then nothing. Or not enough. Or not fast enough.

And the disillusionment sets in.

The Real Problem

Here is where it gets honest. The problem is not the methods. The Four Fields still work. MAWL still works. The discovery process still works.

The problem is what is driving the engine underneath all of it.

Chuck named it. Mark named it. Dave named it.

They were all, at different points, trying to catalyze a movement. Not join one. Not contribute to one. Catalyze one. Build one. Own one.

That is a completely different thing. And it will hollow you out every time.

Because you cannot manufacture what only God produces. You can be faithful. You can be obedient. You can plant and water. But you do not make things grow.

The moment you forget that, you start playing the Holy Spirit. And as Dave put it, none of us have the capacity for that.

The Glacier and the Avalanche

Chuck offered one of the best images I have heard in a long time.

There is the avalanche: fast, dramatic, impossible to ignore. And there is the glacier: an inch a year, barely visible, but carving out valleys over centuries.

Both are movement. Both matter. Both are on the same mountain.

The avalanche might have been started by one snowflake. One faithful conversation. One ordinary person who said yes.

This is the thing the metrics miss entirely. We count the avalanche. We celebrate the avalanche. But we rarely see the snowflake that started it.

And so we spend our energy trying to become the avalanche instead of being faithful as the snowflake.

Three Words That Change Everything

Mark pulled out three words that have been reshaping how he thinks about this work.

Stewardship. Contribution. Collaboration.

These are not soft words. They are not a retreat from ambition. They are actually a more demanding posture than the one most of us started with.

Stewardship means you are accountable for what God has placed in your hand, not what he placed in someone else’s. Your neighborhood. Your relationships. Your table. Your corner of the vineyard.

Contribution means you are part of something bigger than what you can build. You are a tributary. Not the river. And the tributary does not argue about whether it is the reason the river exists.

Collaboration means you have something to bring and something to receive. Both. At the same time. That second part is the hard one for high-capacity leaders.

What Jesus Actually Built in Three Years

Chuck asked the uncomfortable question.

At the day of Jesus’ resurrection, there were 120 in the upper room. Maybe 500 who had seen him post-resurrection according to Paul. That is it. Three years of ministry from the Son of God.

By most movement definitions, that does not qualify.

And yet. Fast forward 2000 years.

What looks small at the end of a lifetime of faithful obedience looks very different from the vantage point of eternity. Jesus was not trying to hit a movement metric. He was being faithful to what the Father was doing. He was making disciples who could make disciples. He was staying in places long enough for things to take root.

The multiplication was never the goal. Obedience was the goal. The multiplication was the fruit.

The Confession Underneath the Conversation

What made this episode land for me was the honesty underneath it.

Three guys who are still firmly in the movement camp, still talking about disciple-making, still tracking reproduction, still thinking in generations, sitting with the admission that the way they went after it in the early years was, at least partly, about them.

Not cynically. Not maliciously. But the desire to be part of something significant has a shadow side. And that shadow side will masquerade as zeal for God’s kingdom right up until it burns you to the ground.

The diagnostic question is simple and brutal: if no one ever called it your movement, if it never bore your fingerprints, if it never made you look like a catalyst, would you still do the work?

Most of us have to sit with that one for a while.

The Tributary Stays in Its Lane

Chuck’s closing image stays with you:

That is not resignation. That is clarity.

You do not need to be the movement. You need to be faithful in the part of the field God gave you. You need to make disciples. You need to help them make disciples. You need to invest in leaders who will outlast you.

And then trust that the God who made promises to Abraham, promises as big as the stars and the sand, knows how to keep them without your help managing the whole thing.

The kingdom does not need you to be the avalanche. It needs you to show up like a snowflake.

Be the snowflake. Faithfully. Consistently. In the place you have been given.

That is how the mountain moves.

Drop a comment below: where have you felt the pull between building something and simply being faithful?

You show up. Paint a building. Hand out flyers. Do a VBS. Maybe share the gospel with strangers you’ll never see again.

You go home inspired. Then nothing changes.

That’s not what happened in Florida this week.

What an Immersion Actually Is

Brenda came down from Oklahoma City. College student. Works at a gym. Disciples under Nina, who’s discipled by Marcus.

Three generations of disciples on one trip.

Not to do a project. To catch fire.

She watched Houston—a 20-year-old who started sharing Jesus at his gym—tell the story of 60 baptisms in the ocean last year. Young men who met Jesus lifting weights. Who started their own Bible studies. Who are now making disciples.

Brenda works at a gym.

You see where this is going?

MAWL in Real Time

MAWL: Model, Assist, Watch, Launch.

Day one, Brenda was terrified. Marcus modeled. Walked up to a stranger. Shared the gospel. Brenda watched.

Day two, Brenda assisted. Jumped in the conversation. Helped steer it.

By day three, she’s ready to do it herself.

That’s not theory. That’s transferred skill in 72 hours.

The Cool Uncle Syndrome

Marcus has been teaching this stuff for years.

But when Houston—a peer, not a pastor—says the same thing? Suddenly it clicks.

“Wait, this actually works?”

Yes. Because you just watched someone your age do it.

That’s the power of immersion. The vision doesn’t come from one more teaching. It comes from seeing someone like you already living it.

The Question That Unlocks Everything

After Houston shared his story, Nina started asking practical questions.

“What did you do after you shared the gospel?”
“How did you gather?”
“How long did you meet?”
“What did you say next?”

Not theory questions. Action questions.

She wasn’t asking to learn content. She was asking to copy the process.

That’s the shift. From “that’s inspiring” to “I could do that tomorrow.”

Essence and Execution

You can teach the execution all day. The systems. The tools. The game plan.

But until someone experiences the essence—the actual fire—it stays theoretical.

Immersion accelerates vision because it lets disciples see the end before they’ve built it in their own context.

You don’t have to start from zero. You get to start from what someone else already proved works.

Hot coals from one city to another.

The Messiness Is the Point

Marcus said it: “It’s not A then B then C. It’s all happening at once. And it’s messy.”

But watching the mess happen—and seeing disciples still get made in the middle of it—kills the paralysis.

You stop waiting for perfect conditions. You realize the conditions are never perfect.

You just go.

The Takeaway Brenda Said Out Loud

“Sometimes we just wait to go on a mission to actually share the gospel. But we can do that at home. At school. Where we actually are.”

She doesn’t need to wait for a trip to another country.

She works at a gym. She goes to college. She has proximity to the same people Houston had proximity to.

She just needed to see someone do it first.

What This Isn’t

This isn’t a youth group trip where you paint a house and feel good.

This isn’t a service project where you do work for people and leave.

This isn’t even evangelism training where you learn a script and practice on strangers.

This is vision transfer. Skill transfer. Fire transfer.

You bring the right people—people who are already making disciples, even if it’s just one or two—and you let them see what’s possible when that compounds.

Then you send them home to do the same.

The Simultaneous Move

Here’s the unlock: the four fields don’t have to be linear.

You don’t have to wait until you have disciples before you raise up leaders. You don’t have to wait until you plant a church before you develop the next generation.

You can accelerate the whole thing by letting people see the later stages before they’ve built the early ones.

Brenda hasn’t started a movement yet. But she just watched one. Now she knows what it looks like.

When it starts happening in Oklahoma City, she won’t be guessing. She’ll recognize it.

City to City, House to House

The goal isn’t to export a model from Florida to Oklahoma.

The goal is to transfer vision and ignite work that fits the local context.

What Houston did at his gym in Florida, Brenda can adapt at her gym in Oklahoma City. Different people. Different culture. Same DNA.

That’s not franchise replication. That’s movement multiplication.

The Real Win

After one week, Brenda can turn around and do what she saw.

Not in six months. Not after more training. Now.

That’s the power of immersion.

You don’t need another conference. You don’t need another curriculum.

You need to see someone like you already doing it.

Then go do the same.

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

• Join a 45 Min Skills Lab Zoom Call → https://covomultipliers.com/

• Walk with others → https://forms.gle/YwqLhonNSipybAD8A

His name is Aaron Edwards. He’s 46. He didn’t hesitate.

When asked about it later, he said something simple: “Once a cop, always a cop.”

That phrase is a theology of formation disguised as a job description.

What you see in the photo isn’t the story.

The fence-jump is the harvest. The story is ten thousand reps nobody photographed.

Years of training. Decisions made in low stakes moments when no one was watching. Showing up when it was inconvenient. Building muscle memory for a moment he didn’t know was coming.

His wife texted him a screenshot of the photo, him running toward the device, with the words in all caps: WRONG DIRECTION, SIR.

He didn’t get to think through all of that. That’s exactly the point.

We build instincts, not intentions.

Here’s the trap most of us fall into: we see the highlight reel, feel the inspiration, and leave with an intention. I want to be like that. When my moment comes, I’ll do the same.

And instincts aren’t built in the moment. They’re built in the ordinary Tuesday when you’re tired and nobody’s watching and it would be completely reasonable to skip it.

The habits and rhythms you build today, the conversations you enter, the deposits you make, the reps you put in, those aren’t just disciplines. They’re building who you’ll be under pressure.

Deposits and withdrawals.

If you’re not consistently making deposits into the account, the card will bounce when you need it most.

Mark was sitting in a coffee shop working when the guy next to him started talking. One conversation opened into AI, then job uncertainty, then faith. He was in a spiritual conversation in a public space: not because he had a program or a plan, but because that’s become who he is.

That’s the reps.

The community of practice matters.

Aaron Edwards didn’t develop those instincts alone. He was surrounded by a culture, a precinct, a department, a tribe, where those habits were normal and expected. The win belonged to all of them.

Kingdom instincts work the same way. You need a community of practice. People who hold the same values, do the same rhythms, fail together, and try again. Not a cheerleading section. A training ground.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: most people don’t try because trying reveals that their intentions aren’t as solid as they thought. Community gives you a place to face that: and keep going anyway.

So what are you building right now?

Not what do you intend to do when the opportunity comes. What are you actually doing today that’s building the person who will be ready?

Once a cop, always a cop.

Once a disciple-maker, always a disciple-maker.

That’s not a title. It’s an identity. And identity is built in the reps nobody sees.

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

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Scale fast. Maximize reach. Optimize systems. Execute the plan.

Paul didn’t do any of that.

When the Corinthians started arguing about who to follow, Paul didn’t appeal to his execution metrics. He appealed to something deeper.

“Even if you had 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers.”

Not managers. Not teachers. Not consultants.

Fathers.

What a Founder Actually Is

A founder isn’t someone who shows up with a plan and asks everyone else to build it.

Picture this: 25-year-old guy walks around telling everyone what a good family should look like. Then he says, “Get me a wife, a house, some kids. Set it all up. Then I’ll come in and be the father.”

Insane, right?

But that’s exactly how we think about starting churches and movements.

We want the framework handed to us. We want the hard work done. We want to manage what someone else bled for.

That’s not founding. That’s inheriting.

Three Marks of a Founder

Paul showed us what real founding looks like in 1 Corinthians 3-4.

Let’s look at three marks of a founder.

Foundation Layer

“I laid a foundation as a wise builder.”

Laying a foundation is dirty work. You’re breaking ground. Digging through rock. Nobody’s helping yet. Nobody sees the progress.

You’re way down in the dirt while everyone else is debating what to build on top.

It takes time. It’s messy. And when it’s done, people forget who did it because they’re busy building on it.

That’s the job.

Fire Starter

“We have become a spectacle to the world. We are fools for Christ. We go hungry and thirsty. We’ve become the scum of the earth.”

Founders take the risk first. They do what hasn’t been done. They embrace being misunderstood.

You can’t be a founder without being a risk taker. Otherwise you’re just a manager.

Paul’s appeal wasn’t just that he started something. It was that he had the scars to prove it. He wasn’t lighting fires and running. He was staying in the heat.

The scars validate the message.

Father Figure

“I became your father through the gospel.”

This is where it gets dangerous.

Systems scale. Sons reproduce.

Paul wasn’t just building an organization. He was raising people who could do the same thing he did.

That’s process, not production.

A father doesn’t just download content into his kids. He works DNA into their lives until it becomes who they are. So when they leave, they carry it.

That takes time. You can’t scale it. You can’t outsource it.

Essence and Execution

Every father has two jobs.

Execution: Pay the bills. Buy the food. Keep the house running. Do the work that needs doing.

Essence: Raise kids who know how to do the same when they start their own family.

Most kingdom work stops at execution. We build the system. We run the program. We hit the metrics.

But the essence? That’s the DNA. That’s the “being it” not just “doing it.”

Paul had both. The four fields, the church waffle, the apostolic framework—that’s execution. The prophetic wisdom, the connection to Christ, the values—that’s essence.

You need both. But if you only have execution, you’re building something that dies when you leave.

From Boys to Men

Paul called Timothy his son. But he didn’t treat him like a child.

“Go to Ephesus. Be the father figure they need.”

Timothy was still Paul’s son. But Paul released him to father others.

That’s the move every founder has to make. You raise sons. Then you commission them to become fathers.

If you keep treating them like boys, they never reproduce.

The Slow Part Nobody Wants

Starting a family takes time. You can’t skip to critical mass.

There’s a season where it’s just you and the work. Slow. Hard. Nobody watching.

But there’s no other way to build DNA. There’s no shortcut to culture.

You’ve got to go slow to go fast.

We want to celebrate Hudson Taylor and William Carey now. But in their day? They were controversial. Struggled for funding. Lost family members. Got sick. Fought to translate Scripture.

They were fools for Christ.

We love them in retrospect. We would have opposed them in real time.

The Question

Are you willing to be a fool for Christ?

Not just in theory. In practice.

Are you willing to lay a foundation nobody sees?

Are you willing to start a fire and catch the heat?

Are you willing to invest in sons instead of scaling systems?

Because that’s what founding costs.

And there’s no other way to build something that multiplies.

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Most people look at multiplication and think: fast. Explosive. Rapid growth.

From the inside? It feels like a snail’s pace.

But here’s the trick: to the individual, multiplication always feels slow. To the outsider looking in after five years, it looks like you’re flying.

“How did you get there so fast?”

You didn’t. You just kept going while everyone else quit.

The Weather Is Preaching

It’s been raining all week. Overcast. Dreary.

Dave’s son came home from the gym at 4:30pm and said, “Today’s a nap kind of day.” Then went to his room and slept.

His wife: “That’s a good idea.”

Nobody judges that in winter. We all feel it. Everything slows down. You grab a blanket. Get on the couch. Read a book.

That’s not laziness. That’s rhythm.

But we don’t give ourselves permission to live that way in ministry.

The Expectations Trap

When we set expectations too high, we think they’ll motivate us.

They don’t. They burn us out.

High expectations attach to our emotions. When we hit a funk—bad weather, slow response from a disciple, a church in a lull—we think we’re failing.

We’re not. We’re in a season.

The problem isn’t the bar. It’s the timeline. We’re trying to hit it in a year when it takes three.

Extending the timeline doesn’t lower the bar. It gives you room to breathe. To be consistent. To keep going when it feels slow.

Committed Focus and Consistency

You can’t stay on a constant high. You’ll burn out. Your body will force a recharge whether you want it or not.

Resetting expectations gives space for consistency. And consistency over time is what actually multiplies disciples.

CFC: Committed, Focused, Consistent.

Not heroic bursts. Not sprints. Just showing up in the same place, with the same people, doing the same things, year after year.

What Jesus Did That We Ignore

Dallas Willard divides spiritual disciplines into two categories: abstinence and engagement.

Abstinence: solitude, silence, fasting, Sabbath.
Engagement: prayer, study, worship, service.

Winter lends itself to abstinence. Solitude and silence. Getting away from the noise.

Jesus did this constantly. After huge ministry pushes, he disappeared. Went to the mountains. Walked across a lake to get away from people.

The famous story where Peter walks on water? That only happened because Jesus was trying to outrun the disciples to meet them on the other side of the lake.

He needed space.

If Jesus needed it, we do too.

Sabbath at the End, Not the Beginning

We think Sabbath is prep for the week ahead. Rest up. Get ready. Charge your batteries.

That’s wrong.

Sabbath comes at the end of work. Not before.

It’s not about storing energy. It’s about thanksgiving. Reflecting on what God did. Recognizing the grace that was given.

When you reflect on past grace, you’re not afraid of the future. You realize it’s unlimited.

That resets your heart: If God gave me grace for last week, he’ll give me grace for next week.

Without that reset, you burn out. With it, you recharge through gratitude instead of anxiety.

The Breathing Pattern of Ministry

Mark’s been in NYC long enough to see the rhythm. Winter slows down. Summer opens up.

You can’t fight it. You flow with it.

Some disciples got baptized this winter. Then most of them ghosted.

Disheartening? Sure. But if you zoom out to the long view, you realize: this happens every year. Winter breathes in. People pull back. Spring breathes out. People engage again.

The key is trusting God through the inhale so you’re ready for the exhale.

Dave’s Business Rhythm

Ten years running a dry-cleaning business. Same pattern every year.

January and July: low months.
March/April and October/November: high months.

January’s P&L looks terrible. Every January. For ten years.

If you tunnel vision on January, you panic. If you think long-term, you adjust. January behaviors look different than April behaviors.

Same with ministry. Winter: deep conversations around coffee tables. Summer: Topgolf with golf clubs and open air.

Winter is heart season. Deep thinking. Long talks.
Summer is hands season. Skill practice. Action.

Stop fighting the rhythm. Get on board with it.

What Works in Winter Won’t Work in Summer

Bible studies indoors around kitchen tables? Great in winter.

Try that in summer? Nobody shows up consistently.

So Dave gets an unlimited Topgolf membership. Same guys. Same conversations. Different setting.

They swing golf clubs for two hours while talking about Scripture. Works perfectly.

You don’t change the mission. You adapt the method to the season.

The 30-Year Question

Here’s the real question: How do you still be doing this 30 years from now?

Not: How do I accomplish more in three years than one?

But: What kind of life do I need to lead so I’m still faithful, focused, and consistent three decades from now?

You might crush it in five years. But if you burn out so hard you can’t get back in the game for another five years, that’s not healthy.

The goal isn’t a sprint. It’s a lifetime.

You Can’t Do This Alone

Mark’s answer: habits and rhythms. Daily. In a focused Oikos.

But here’s the key: you need other people doing it with you.

You can’t sustain this solo. You raise up others. They come alongside. The shared habits and rhythms create momentum.

That’s what actually multiplies. Not you working harder. But more people working together.

The Destructive Habit Question

If habits and rhythms are this important, and if you’re thinking 10-20 years out, you have space to attack character issues you can’t fix overnight.

So here’s the question: What habit are you doing right now that, if you’re still doing it in 10 years, will be purely destructive?

Doom scrolling? Responding with anger when you don’t get your way? Ignoring the people closest to you because maintaining old relationships is harder than chasing new ones?

Ask yourself: If I keep doing this five years from now, what will it do to the people still around me?

If the answer is “nothing good,” you need to identify it now. Then ask Paul’s question from Colossians 3: What do I need to put off? What do I need to put on in its place?

The Long Game

You thought you could just kick it into gear and keep rolling forever.

You can’t.

Winter will come. You’ll need to pause. Reflect. Weed out the destructive. Add in the life-giving.

That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.

And if you want to be faithful for decades—not just explosive for a year—you have to build a life that breathes.

In and out. Abstinence and engagement. Winter and summer.

The rhythm isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.

Trust it. Flow with it. Keep going.

That’s how you’re still here 30 years from now.

It’s when someone stops saying “I’ll help you with this” and starts saying “I have to do this, even if you walk away.”

That’s the line. And most people never cross it.

The Nebulous Space Nobody Talks About

Every movement has a gap. There’s the leader with a clear vision and calling on one side. And on the other side, there’s a team that shares that DNA deeply enough to carry it forward without constant hand-holding.

The space in between is messy. Undefined. It’s where most multiplication attempts die.

You know what you’re building. You know what it needs to look like. But you’re not sure who’s really with you versus who’s just helping you. And the longer you stay unclear on that distinction, the more you end up managing helpers when what you actually need are founders.

What a Founder Actually Is

A founder isn’t a title. It’s a posture.

It’s someone who has a vision, commits to a specific contribution, focuses their effort on a particular people or place, and then actually does the thing, consistently, until others start to recognize it and rally around it.

Three words: commitment, focus, consistency. CFC.

But here’s the part that matters most: a founder embodies what they’re calling others to. They’re not casting vision from a distance. They’re out front, doing the thing, weird and awkward as it may be at first, like that guy in the TED Talk dancing alone on a hill until others start joining.

The founder doesn’t wait for permission. They go.

The Confidence Problem

Here’s what actually blocks founders from stepping into that role: they’re waiting for someone to tell them it’s okay.

They see a gap. They know they could fill it. But someone else blazed the trail first, and they don’t want to steal thunder or overstep.

If you’re a leader trying to raise up founders, you have to understand this moment. If you miss it, if you don’t actively give them a voice and let their contribution stand on its own, you’ll lose them to helping mode indefinitely.

One practical move: stop having the last word. When someone in your circle says something that carries the DNA you’re after, let it land. Don’t affirm it, then add to it, then summarize it. Let it sit. If people look to you for confirmation, just say, “Yeah, that’s good.”

Your silence is the permission. Your restraint hands them your relational capital.

Trust Is the Glue

You can’t rush your way into a team that moves like a unit. There’s a storming phase. There’s a norming phase. People have to fail together, win together, get into real tension together, before they can actually perform.

The Thunderbirds documentary gets at this in a strange way. When the pilots started spreading out to play it safe, incidents actually went up. When they tightened the formation, wings 18 inches apart, everyone locked in. The risk demanded precision. Precision built trust.

That’s what a tight founding team does. The stakes keep everyone sharp.

But you can’t manufacture that. You can only create the conditions for it and recognize what stage you’re in. Rush it and you’ll either restart or derail.

The Jesus Pattern

In John 17, Jesus says he’s completed the work the Father gave him to do and he points to a handful of people who’ve been with him through everything. That’s it. That’s his report card.

Not the crowds. Not the miracles. The founders.

He spent years flying in tight formation with twelve people, letting them experience the tension, the opposition, the failure, the breakthrough, until they were ready to be handed the keys. Then he released them.

That’s the model. Find people who carry your heart. Build trust through shared experience. Hand them the keys before you think they’re ready.

The Question That Separates Founders

If you want to identify who your founders are, listen for one question:

Not “what do you need from me?” Not “how can I help?”

What’s it going to take?

That question comes from someone who’s taken ownership. Someone who’s going to be resilient when it gets hard, because they’ve stopped seeing this as your mission and started seeing it as theirs.

Find those people. Give them your relational capital. Let them fly.

This is the kind of leadership that multiplies. Not bigger gatherings, not more programs, founders who own it and reproduce it.

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Wrong question.

You don’t find time. You create margin. And margin is where kingdom work happens.

The Real Problem

Most people think their schedule is the issue. It’s not.

I walk people through an exercise. List your three to five priorities. Put them in an ideal week. Then track your actual week.

What shows up? The gap isn’t lack of time. It’s misused time.

You’re spending hours on things that aren’t priorities. They’re just easy. Scroll. Stream. Numb.

The Trap of the No List

First reaction when people see the gap: cut everything.

Delete Netflix. Kill social media. No fun. All grind.

That lasts about three days.

Here’s what actually works: build a yes list first.

What are the non-negotiables? Sleep. Work. Family. Ministry. How much time do each of those actually need?

Put those on the calendar. Then see what’s left.

The 30-Hour Rule

If you don’t have at least 30 hours of white space on your calendar each week, you’re overbooked.

People look at me like I’m insane when I say this.

But think about it. Life doesn’t cooperate. Cars break. Kids get sick. People need you. God interrupts.

That’s not the exception. That’s life.

Margin isn’t wasted space. It’s where disciples get made.

The Bombs That Kill Margin

Over-commitment. You schedule every hour. Then wonder why you’re stressed when life happens.

Procrastination. You have time blocks. Then you don’t use them. Everything piles up.

Forgetting. You spend mental energy trying to remember instead of being present. Write it down. Get it out of your head.

Poor communication. Schedule changes. You don’t tell people fast enough. Chaos multiplies.

Indecision. You wait for perfect information. Meanwhile, nothing moves. Make the 75% call. Adjust later.

The Priority Filter

Here’s my personal filter for everything: family, work, ministry, personal.

Those four buckets get color-coded on my calendar. Everything else is probably a no.

Not always. But usually.

When the unexpected happens, I ask: does this fall into one of my four priorities? If yes, I use margin for it. If no, I decline.

Simple. Not easy. But simple.

The Multiplication Hacks

You can’t manufacture more hours. But you can multiply impact.

• Prayer. God does exponentially more than your effort deserves.

• Training. Teach someone else to do what you do. Now it happens twice.

• Inviting. Bring people into your world. Let them see how you operate.

• With. Stack priorities. Listen to Scripture while commuting. Have a disciple ride along on a work trip. Invite another family to dinner. Take someone grocery shopping.

Your kid has a game? Sit in the bleachers with someone who needs time. Talk between plays.

Why Margin Matters for Disciple-Making

Other people don’t operate on your timeline.

The guy at work mentions his mom’s cancer on Tuesday. Not Thursday at 3pm when you penciled in “evangelism.”

The neighbor’s kid gets in trouble. They need someone now. Not when you have margin next month.

Kingdom moments happen in the white space.

No margin, no discipleship.

The Culture Lie

We’re embarrassed by margin.

Someone asks how you’re doing. “Busy” is the badge of honor.

Stop.

Busyness isn’t the goal. Purpose is.

Work that’s intentional. Strategic. Focused.

Then freedom to rest. To enjoy. To respond when God interrupts.

The Real Win

When you have margin, you can be fully present when it counts.

You can listen to the Holy Spirit instead of your to-do list.

You can grab the unexpected kingdom moment without your life imploding.

You can watch God multiply your work because you’re actually available for him to use.

Stop filling every hour. Start creating space.

That’s where disciples get made.

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

• Join a 45 Min Skills Lab Zoom Call → https://covomultipliers.com/

• Walk with others → https://forms.gle/YwqLhonNSipybAD8A

Sign up. Show up. Serve your shift. Go home.

That scales events. It doesn’t multiply disciples.

If you want to see disciples made in your actual life—not just in theory—you’ll hit two barriers. Everyone does.

Barrier One: Where should I be investing?
Barrier Two: How do I stay consistent?

Let’s break both.

Barrier One: Where Should I Be Investing?

Most people can’t see the obvious answer.

You’re already somewhere. Multiple somewheres.

The question isn’t where to go. It’s where to wake up.

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The Four P’s

Passion. What do you do that other people also do? Zumba in the park. Disc golf. Writing workshops. Crochet groups.

People. What cluster are you part of? Taxi drivers. Uber drivers who hang near airports. Cricket leagues. Soccer pickup games.

Place. Where do you already show up? The gym. The coffee shop. Your apartment complex. The school pickup line.

Profession. Who do you work with? Coworkers. Customers. Vendors. Industry meetups.

Dave’s daughter has been in gymnastics for eight years. Not for ministry. Because she’s a gymnast.

But eight years in that world means proximity. Repeat interactions. Trust built over time.

Now his daughter—15 years old—is the oldest girl at her gym. She’s the one having conversations with younger gymnasts. Not because they launched a program. Because they stayed.

That’s the unlock. You don’t need to find a new place. You need to stop ignoring the place you’re already in.

Barrier Two: How Do I Stay Consistent?

Once you know where, the next question is what.

What do you actually do when you’re there?

You Let the Word Do the Work

Here’s what most people get wrong: they think discipleship is about controlling outcomes.

It’s not.

Your job is to sow seed. God’s job is to grow it.

Dave runs a dry-cleaning business. Ten years. Same customers. He knows their names. Their kids. Their families.

Over ten years, he’s watched people move from not interested to following Jesus and training others.

Not because he had a perfect formula. Because he stayed in proximity and kept dropping the word into their lives.

Soil Types Are Seasons, Not Labels

Mark 4. The parable of the sower.

Some seed falls on the path. Some on rocky ground. Some among thorns. Some on good soil.

Most people read that and label individuals. “That guy’s rocky ground. Move on.”

Wrong.

Soil types are seasons in people’s lives. Not permanent identities.

The person who’s thorny ground this year—stressed, distracted, too busy—might be good soil next year when life breaks them open.

Your job isn’t to sort people. Your job is to stay present and keep sowing.

Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light Isn’t Static

Acts 17. Paul shares the gospel in Athens.

Some believed. Some wanted to hear more. Some mocked.

We treat that like a sorting system. Green light? Invest. Red light? Move on.

But in a live-work-play context—where you see the same people for years—you realize people cycle through lights.

The guy who mocked you in 2022 might ask you about Jesus in 2024 because his marriage fell apart and he remembered you stayed kind.

The woman who was interested last year might go cold this year because work consumed her. Then she’ll circle back when the pressure lifts.

You can’t see that if you only gospel strangers once and move on. You only see it if you stay.

The Conversation Box

Casual → Meaningful → Spiritual → Discovery

Most of our culture lives in casual. Small talk. Surface level.

Moving someone from casual to meaningful takes relational weight. You feel it. They feel it.

And when you get to spiritual, there’s responsibility. You can’t just shrug them off anymore.

That’s the barrier. We don’t always know what to do with that responsibility.

Here’s What You Do

You stay present. You keep sowing. You watch for the ask.

Dave teaches people to end a gospel conversation with: “What keeps you from following Jesus right now?”

That’s an ask. It forces a decision.

Not to manipulate. To reveal.

A soft heart leans in. A hard heart pulls back. Either way, you know where they are.

Jesus did this constantly. The rich young ruler: “Go, sell everything. Give to the poor. Follow me.”

That wasn’t cruelty. That was clarity.

The ask reveals the heart.

The Eight-Year Gymnast vs. The One-Time Mission Trip

You can’t steward soil you only see once.

Dave’s been at his dry-cleaning business for ten years. He’s watched people move through seasons. Rocky to good. Thorny to receptive.

You don’t get to see that if you gospel a neighborhood once and never go back.

This is why live-work-play matters. You’re already there. You’re going to keep being there. So you steward what’s in front of you.

Living Loud

Dave’s wife uses this phrase: “Live loud.”

Don’t hide how you respond to challenges. Don’t pretend you’ve got it all together.

When stress hits, say out loud: “I used to deal with this by shopping. Now I bring it to Jesus. How do you deal with it?”

That’s not preachy. That’s honest.

And honesty plants seed.

The Real Work

Find where you already overlap with people. Stay there. Drop the word consistently. Watch for responses. Don’t label people as hard or soft—watch for seasons. Ask the question that reveals the heart.

Then repeat.

That’s not heroic. That’s just obedience in proximity.

And proximity over time is where disciples get made.

The cost of living is insane. Your savings won’t last. You don’t have a backup plan. But God said go.

So you go.

The Two Passages

When we were praying about moving to New York City, God gave me two stories back-to-back.

First Kings 17. Elijah in the wilderness. Ravens bringing food. Drinking from the brook. Supernatural provision in a season of fear.

Then Second Kings 4. Elisha and the widow. One jar of oil. Go get containers. As many as you can. Not a few. Pour and watch it multiply.

Two models. Two seasons.

The first? Trust God to provide when you have nothing. The second? Steward what God gives and watch it multiply.

God said: “You’ll walk through both. You can’t skip the first to get to the second.”

The Fear Nobody Admits

Elijah just called down fire from heaven. Destroyed the prophets of Baal. Massive victory.

Then Jezebel threatened him and he ran. Fear defined that moment.

John the Baptist did the same thing. Confronted Herod. Got thrown in jail. Then sent his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one, or should we look for another?”

Even the forerunner had a moment of doubt.

I get it. When we landed in New York, I looked around at the hustle, the money, the expense, and thought: This feels insane.

Dave’s Raven Season

Dave and Anna moved to Oklahoma City with nothing. No plan. No funding. Just obedience.

He’s never told this publicly, but there were nights they didn’t eat so the kids could. He drove to funeral homes asking if anyone needed someone to officiate funerals. Because he had the skill and they needed money. They couldn’t afford gas to drive the kids to school.

That was their raven season. Broke. Scared. Trusting.

And God provided. Every time.

The Widow’s Faith

The widow in Second Kings had oil. One jar.

Elisha said: “Go get containers. As many as you can.”

The oil multiplied until the containers ran out. Ten jars? Ten portions. A hundred jars? A hundred portions.

Let it be done according to your faith.

That’s the Elisha season. Not supernatural drops from heaven. Stewardship. Multiplication. Faith measured by how many containers you’re willing to gather.

The Pattern You Can’t Skip

This shows up everywhere in Scripture.

• Elijah prepares the way. Elisha gets the double portion. Elijah tears down mountains, builds up roads, makes straight paths. Hard, grinding work. Then Elisha walks the highway Elijah built and does double the miracles.

• John prepares the way. Jesus launches the kingdom. John baptizes. Confronts. Prepares hearts. Jesus steps into what John built and explodes it into a movement.

• Paul lays the foundation. Priscilla and Aquila build on it. Paul shows up in Corinth. Takes the beatings. Breaks the ground. Brings the prophetic word. Priscilla and Aquila build with gold, silver, and precious stones on the foundation Paul laid.

Same pattern. Every time. Foundation first. Multiplication second.

You can’t skip the raven season.

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What This Means for Covocational Life

If you’re jumping into covocational ministry—using your job or business as a vehicle for the kingdom—understand this: You’re going to have a raven season.

A season where it’s hard. Scary. Uncertain. Where you’re just trying to survive and obey at the same time.

That’s not failure. That’s foundation.

Paul worked with his hands in Corinth. In Ephesus. He provided for his own needs while raising up leaders who would take cities. He didn’t skip the grind. He built through it.

The Shift

Eventually, if you’re faithful, you move from ravens to jars. From supernatural provision in scarcity to stewarding what God multiplies.

But here’s the catch: you don’t get to decide when that shift happens. God does.

Your job? Be faithful in the season you’re in. Ravens? Trust Him. Obey. Don’t quit. Jars? Gather as many as you can. Steward well. Pour and watch Him multiply.

The “BUT” Nobody Wants to Hear

This isn’t a formula. You don’t get to demand God fill your jars because you gathered them.

We live in a thorns-and-thistles world. Sometimes you do everything right and it still falls apart.

When it works? Read Ecclesiastes. Success still comes down to knowing God and obeying His commands. When it doesn’t? Read Job. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives and takes away.

God is faithful. But faithfulness doesn’t mean you skip the wilderness.

What Priscilla and Aquila Teach Us

Everywhere they went, they did two things: Had a business. Had church in their home.

That wasn’t a strategy. That was who they were. They weren’t chasing outcomes. They were being faithful. The results? We get to read about them in Scripture.

But the goal was never the goal. The goal was being the kind of people God could multiply through.

Where You Are Right Now

Maybe you’re in the raven season. Scared. Broke. Wondering if you heard God right.

Don’t quit. This is foundation. It matters.

Maybe you’re in the jar season. Things are starting to work. You’re seeing fruit. Don’t settle. Gather more containers. Steward well. Let God multiply.

Either way, you can’t skip the season you’re in to get to the next one. Be faithful where you are. God will move you when it’s time.

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

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Gym. Guitar. New business. Reading plan. Gospel conversations.

Not because you don’t care. You do.

Not because you lack knowledge. You have plenty.

The problem: intention never became behavior.

Here’s What Actually Works

We just started a marketplace discovery group in Oklahoma City. Third week in.

We hit repentance and belief using Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).

The question: “How can we practice repentance and belief this week?”

Answer: Notice when you lose joy.

Catch the moment frustration or anger shows up. Ask yourself: “Why did I let this circumstance steal my joy?”

99% of the time, anger = selfishness.

So practice on the spot:

• “Lord, I confess. I’m being selfish.”

• “Help me trust you in this moment.”

• Move on.

That’s a habit. Tiny. Granular. In the dirt.

Do it enough times? It becomes unconscious. You start walking in joy instead of reacting in anger.

The Real Blocker

Conference. Training. Retreat. Launch night.

We learned to mistake attendance for growth.

But events don’t multiply. Habits do.

What Jesus Actually Did

Jesus multiplied disciples through habits and rhythms. The early church exploded the same way.

Not programs. Not weekend services. Not training events.

Jesus spent three years transferring skills through withness.

He called them “that they might be with him and that he might send them out” (Mark 3:14).

Withness, not witness.

Most people aren’t intuitive learners. They need to watch you do it. Then do it with you. Then do it while you watch. Then do it on their own.

Model. Assist. Watch. Launch.

When 3,000 got saved in Acts 2, the apostles didn’t panic. They didn’t scramble to create something new.

They just kept doing what Jesus taught them: Word. Prayer. Meals. Generosity. Signs. House to house. Daily.

The apostles made them normal. Not special. Not occasional. Normal.

The 3-2-1 Framework

If you’re starting from scratch or helping someone new, here’s the baseline:

3 hours/week: Following and fishing

• Read your Bible (~30 min/day)

• Pray

• Have one spiritual conversation with someone where you live, work, or play

2 hours/week: Gathering with other disciples

• Acts 2 expression

• Get sharpened in the Word

• Set goals, grow in skills

• Get sent out

1 hour/week: Leadership development

• A-team or accountability rhythm

• Reproduce what you’re learning

That’s it. Not complicated. But it’s never less than this.

Start smaller if you must. Just start.

You can grow beyond it. You will. But this is the foundation.

The Running Club Principle

If you want to start a running club and it’s not happening, don’t try to gather people first.

Go for a run.

Then go for another run.

And another.

Eventually, you’ll look left and right: people will be running with you.

That’s how this works.

You don’t manufacture a movement. You become what you want to see, then invite others into it.

The Father is already working. Join Him. Then ask others to join you.

There’s power in the ask. Most people will say yes if you actually invite them.

But you’re not asking them to come look at something. You’re asking them to come be something.

That’s the difference.

Your Witness Multiplies “Withness”

When your habits start changing your life, you create a witness…proof that Jesus is real and transformation is possible.

But when you invite others into those habits with you, that witness compounds.

When two people start confessing selfishness in real time, culture changes.

One person’s habits = witness.
Two or three doing it together = culture.
Four or five = gravity.

People see it. Want it. Join it.

Jesus didn’t just teach them how to do it. He taught them how to do it together.

The Assignment

Pick one habit this week.

Not twelve. One.

• Maybe it’s noticing when you lose joy.

• Maybe it’s starting one gospel conversation.

• Maybe it’s inviting someone to pray with you.

• Maybe it’s reading the Bible for 30 minutes.

Do it. Then do it again. And again.

Conscious to unconscious. Intention to behavior.

You become the kind of person who runs the play. Every day.

This is how ordinary people become dangerous for the kingdom.

Run the play. Invite someone in.

• Start here → https://obey.tools/

• Join a 45 Min Skills Lab Zoom Call → https://covomultipliers.com/

• Walk with others → https://forms.gle/YwqLhonNSipybAD8A

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You'll hear how this couple embodies a sustainable, reproducible lifestyle of mission that integrates faith, work, and home. Learn why their story isn’t just biblical history…it’s a blueprint for today’s leaders.

We challenge you to reimagine your role in God's mission through the lens of a tentmaker's table and a living room church.

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