1. STRATEGIZE
Surge began as an idea to implement a Biblical method of missions on a global scale. In the year 2000, Pastor Larry was first inspired by the Gideons’ Bible distribution strategy of dividing the world into 12 zones and appointing a trusted leader to oversee the work in each region. Pastor Larry applied this model to church planting worldwide, and the vision for Surge was born.
2. PARTNER
The famous missionary pastor Oswald J. Smith once said, “God’s method is a man.” Paul had a team of 18 men, such Timothy and Titus, to whom he entrusted the oversight of the new works he began in different regions. The next step Pastor Larry took to implement the strategy of Surge was to partner with 12 men located in each of the 12 world zones. These are well-established and trusted apostolic leaders who have sown their lives for the Kingdom into a specific region.
3. DISCIPLE
The purpose of partnering with these apostolic leaders is to establish a global church planting network. Each leader has the vision to plant churches with native believers raised up as spiritual sons through discipleship and impartation. Just as Paul discipled Timothy and entrusted the Ephesian church to his care, our apostolic team is constantly working to see natives raised up as qualified church planters.
4. SEND
Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into his fields” (Mt. 9:37-38, NLT). Through our global network of qualified, accountable church planters, we can now begin to make an impact in the needy and unreached areas of the world by providing the resources to send them out into the harvest to plant new churches.
5. MATURE
The new church planters are overseen by an apostolic leader in our network as the work grows during its first year. The goal for a typical church planter is to mature the members of his congregation within a year to become disciples and tithers such that the work becomes healthy and self-sustaining.
6. MULTIPLY
Pastor Larry has said, “You start a chain reaction of multiplication when you disciple one faithful man.” Embedded in the DNA of the Surge movement is a vision for global gospel multiplication. What began in Pastor Larry’s heart as a simple vision for church planting worldwide is carried through our apostolic team, down to every church plant. The goal is not simply establishing new works in unreached areas, but growing them to be healthy churches that carry our DNA and vision to multiply. For this reason, many of Surge’s church planters will raise up spiritual sons of their own as new workers that will plant even more churches, resulting in an explosive harvest of souls.
