The Assemblies of God has planted over 3,000 churches in the last decade, with 406 in 2016 alone. To sustain that level of church planting, Jeff Leake believes the AG needs to have a denominational culture characterized by three key values:

1. Faith: “Young pastors and leaders need to know that we believe in them. They also need to know that we believe that God is able to do a new thing within our day.”
2. Finances: A commitment to generosity “is necessary to see a reproductive wave of new leaders and new churches.”
3. Freedom: It is “vitally important that we create an atmosphere of freedom for new churches to be birthed, without unnecessary restrictions and limitations.”

Multiplier Churches deals with the third of these values, demonstrating how to make the parent-affiliated model of church governance work best.

Traditionally, local AG congregations have been either General Council affiliated or district affiliated churches. The former are “sovereign” or self-governing, while the latter are governed by their district councils.

In 2009, during the AG’s 53rd General Council, voters approved a third form of church governance: the parent-affiliated or PAC model, where “one [General Council affiliated] church can govern and officially oversee another entity.”

Like any innovation in church governance, the PAC model carries both opportunities and risks.

“God is able to do a new thing within our day.” — Jeff Leake

“This new permission to affiliate with the Assemblies of God through another local church has opened the door to new opportunities and creativity,” Leake writes, “but it has also exposed the Movement to new risks and potential abuses.”

To seize the opportunities while minimizing the risks, Leake advises church leaders — denominational and congregational — to adopt three best practices: humility, relationship and collaboration. These practices provide a necessary balance to rules, resolutions and structures. He writes:

Now, I realize that there are some wise steps we can and should take. There are some boundaries that are very healthy to establish. Good systems and structures can provide a level of protection against abuse as well as clear explanations of what we expect in terms of how pastors and leaders interact with one another. All of that is reasonable.

But we must consider how an overemphasis on resolutions and rules can kill initiative. If we try to eliminate all potential problems, we can, without knowing, exterminate all the potential for reproductive and collaborative activity at the same time.

Leake knows whereof he speaks. Since 1996, Allison Park Church, which he pastors, has directly planted 30 new churches, and those congregations have planted an additional 90 churches. Those churches used a PAC model to get started, becoming sovereign, church-planting congregations themselves after 18 months.

Multiplier Churches is a quick read, but it’s packed with sound, experienced-based wisdom about church planting. If your congregation is interested in planting other churches, I encourage you to read it and consider using the PAC model.

Book Reviewed

Jeff Leake, Multiplier Churches: Making the PAC Church Model Work (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 2017).