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Scaling by Subtraction: Why Jesus Chose Twelve, Not Twelve Thousand
In a world obsessed with instant results and viral growth, Jesus’ leadership model seems almost illogical. He didn’t start with the masses. He started with a few.
Robert Coleman’s The Master Plan of Evangelism reveals a divine paradox—Jesus scaled His movement by subtraction. Instead of chasing crowds, He invested His life into twelve ordinary men. He poured Himself into them until they carried His spirit, His mission, and His method.
That’s not just ancient strategy—it’s timeless Kingdom wisdom. Real transformation doesn’t come through programs or platforms but through people. Quality discipleship multiplies. The focus on a few always leads to reaching the many.
Maybe it’s time we rethought success—not by how wide we cast the net, but by how deeply we invest in the ones God’s entrusted to us.
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Transcript
You're listening to the Kingdom Reformation podcast with Glenn Bleakney, equipping the church for revival, reformation, and kingdom impact worldwide.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
Speaker B:Our mission, as always, is turning complex research into, well, immediate strategic insight.
Speaker C:And today we're tackling a really foundational text, Robert Coleman's the Master Plan of Evangelism.
Speaker C:It's fascinating because Pullman digs into the Gospels not just for stories, but for the actual strategic blueprint.
Speaker C:Jesus used the principles behind the movement.
Speaker B:And the core idea.
Speaker B:The hook, is really quite counterintuitive, isn't it?
Speaker B:Which is perfect for a Deep dive.
Speaker C:Totally.
Speaker C:We tend to assume Big Impact needs a big, splashy start, mass appeal right away.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Go viral.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:But Coleman argues Jesus did the opposite.
Speaker C:He deliberately avoided the spectacular stuff, the immediate popular wave.
Speaker B:His strategy was, Coleman says, unassuming and silent.
Speaker C:Yeah, he knew that.
Speaker C:Focusing just on the crowds, well, that energy burns out fast.
Speaker C:His whole plan, it seems, hinged on this intensive, really costly investment in a tiny group.
Speaker B:Quality over quantity.
Speaker C:He get everything on quality, believing that quality, if you sustain it, is the only reliable way to get to quantity that lasts.
Speaker B:So our goal today, unpacking that paradox, you know, how do you scale by subtraction?
Speaker B:Why was focusing on a few key people the ultimate path to worldwide influence?
Speaker C:And maybe more importantly, what does that blueprint mean for.
Speaker C:Well, for you, for how you approach leadership development, influence, whatever your field is.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's start where Coleman starts.
Speaker B:The foundational strategy.
Speaker B:Selection and concentration.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Coleman kicks off by asking these, like, basic but crucial questions.
Speaker C:Is what we're doing worth it and does it actually work?
Speaker C:Does it get the job done?
Speaker B:Has to follow function.
Speaker B:Your methods need to match your goal exactly.
Speaker C:And Jesus ultimate goal wasn't just short term buzz.
Speaker C:It was, you know, lasting redemption, generational leadership.
Speaker B:So how did he plan to achieve that?
Speaker C:Coleman's observation is stark.
Speaker C:Men were his method.
Speaker C:The primary focus wasn't designing killer programs or building institutions first.
Speaker C:It was finding and shaping the men whom the crows would eventually follow.
Speaker B:Okay, so who did he pick?
Speaker B:Who were these initial recruits?
Speaker B:What's the profile?
Speaker C:Well, this is where it gets really interesting.
Speaker C:They weren't key men by, you know, any standard measure of the time or even ours.
Speaker B:Maybe not influencers.
Speaker C:Definitely not.
Speaker C:They were laborers, fishermen.
Speaker C:The sources even call them unlearned and ignorant, impulsive, sometimes temperamental, easily offended.
Speaker B:Wow, sounds like a high risk portfolio.
Speaker B:Why choose them?
Speaker C:Because they had, it seems, two crucial things.
Speaker C:They were honest and they had this genuine hunger for God.
Speaker C:They were teachable Ah, teachability.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Jesus wasn't looking for polish or prestige up front.
Speaker C:He looked for capacity and crucially, commitment.
Speaker C:He saw potential, which is, you know, a powerful lesson for anyone recruiting talent today.
Speaker C:Don't just look at the resume.
Speaker C:Look for commitment, look for curiosity.
Speaker B:Okay, so he finds these guys.
Speaker B:Then comes the concentration part.
Speaker B:He had a following, but then he deliberately narrowed the focus write down to.
Speaker C:Just 12, the ones he named apostles.
Speaker B:And this is, as you said, radical.
Speaker B:He literally staked everything, the whole future of the movement on these 12 guys.
Speaker C:That's the core of it.
Speaker C:This intense focus on a small group, Coleman says, highlights a basic principle of teaching.
Speaker C:The smaller the group, the more effective the instruction, the deeper the personal modeling can be.
Speaker B:I have to push back a bit there though.
Speaker B:I mean, we live in a world of KPIs quarterly results.
Speaker B:How do you sell this slow burn, hyper focused approach to, say, a board that wants growth now?
Speaker C:You sell it by focusing on durability.
Speaker C:Long term impact versus short term flash.
Speaker C:Look, Jesus actively avoided the easy, wins the crowd's applause.
Speaker B:He could have been made king, the sources say.
Speaker C:Yeah, John 6.15, but he slipped away.
Speaker C:Why?
Speaker C:Because he saw the masses realistically as helpless sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:So the masses weren't the problem.
Speaker B:They were the ultimate goal, but they couldn't be the starting method, is that it?
Speaker C:Precisely.
Speaker C:The crowds were unreliable on their own, easily swayed.
Speaker C:Jesus knew, realistically, the only hope for genuine, lasting help for the masses was to raise up a core of leaders, leaders filled with his life, his vision, who could provide that ongoing personal care and structure.
Speaker B:So focus on the few to eventually reach the many.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:It's the ultimate deferred gratification strategy.
Speaker C:Invest deeply now for a much more bigger, more stable payoff later.
Speaker B:Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker B:It sets up the next phase, then the actual training process.
Speaker B:He's got his team.
Speaker B:How does he build them up?
Speaker B:Coleman highlights association, consecration and impartation.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:First principle in training.
Speaker C:Association.
Speaker C:The curriculum of just being together.
Speaker B:No formal school, no seminary?
Speaker C:Nope.
Speaker C:The training was incredibly simple.
Speaker C:Just letting his disciples follow him.
Speaker C:Jesus was the school, he was the curriculum.
Speaker B:The invitation was just follow me.
Speaker B:And knowledge came first through what?
Speaker B:Proximity, Osmosis?
Speaker B:Almost before explanation.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Learn by watching, by being there, then unpack it.
Speaker C:And the time commitment shows how central this was.
Speaker B:He spent more time with them than.
Speaker C:Anyone else, Coleman calculates.
Speaker C:Yeah, probably more time with just the 12 than with everybody else in the world put together.
Speaker C:Even when he was ministering to big crowds, the disciples were right there watching Listening, learning.
Speaker B:Paying double dividends, as Coleman puts it.
Speaker B:Teaching the crowd and the disciples simultaneously.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:They saw how he handled success.
Speaker C:Crisis, interruptions, exhaustion, everything.
Speaker C:Real life learning.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:That constant proximity sets the stage for the next principle.
Speaker B:Which sounds tougher.
Speaker B:Consecration, loyalty, Obedience.
Speaker C:Yeah, this is where the bar gets raised.
Speaker C:Significantly, they were called disciples learners.
Speaker C:But that required absolute loyalty.
Speaker C:Following Jesus meant willingly denying yourself the way of the cross.
Speaker B:High cost.
Speaker C:Very high.
Speaker C:And this is where you see a filter kick in.
Speaker C:When Jesus started talking plainly about the sacrifice involved the cost of the kingdom.
Speaker B:John 6.66.
Speaker C:Many followers just left.
Speaker C:Walked no more with him.
Speaker C:He didn't chase them.
Speaker C:He let the demands of consecration sift the group.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:He allowed the requirements themselves to do the selecting.
Speaker C:And that obedience wasn't just about following rules.
Speaker C:It was the key to actually understanding more.
Speaker C:Coleman points out their capacity to grasp deeper truth grew only if they kept putting into practice what they already knew.
Speaker B:So obedience unlocks understanding.
Speaker B:Doing leads to knowing.
Speaker C:Precisely.
Speaker C:Commitment wasn't a one time decision.
Speaker C:It was ongoing action.
Speaker B:And that deep commitment, that consecration was needed for the third part of training.
Speaker B:Impartation.
Speaker B:Giving himself away.
Speaker B:What does that mean practically?
Speaker C:It means transferring not just information, but his actual life, his spirit love.
Speaker C:That Calvary kind of love was the core of it all.
Speaker C:His life was this constant outpouring.
Speaker B:But humans can't just replicate that kind of divine love or power on their own, right?
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:And this is where maybe we translate the theology into strategy.
Speaker C:For a moment.
Speaker C:Jesus was clear.
Speaker C:This impartation, this ability to live and minister like him wasn't just human effort.
Speaker C:It came through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker B:Ah, okay.
Speaker B:So the Spirit is the mechanism for impartation.
Speaker C:Yes, strategically.
Speaker C:Think of it as the ultimate force multiplier.
Speaker C:This wasn't just a human enterprise relying on charisma or skill.
Speaker C:It was tapping into a divine power source.
Speaker B:The enduement of power from on high.
Speaker C:That's the phrase from Acts.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It meant they weren't limited by their own limitations.
Speaker C:They could scale beyond what any single leader could humanly achieve.
Speaker C:Because they weren't operating alone.
Speaker B:That power transfer was the secret sauce.
Speaker C:Coleman definitely emphasizes that.
Speaker C:The spirit of Christ making the difference.
Speaker C:That internal empowerment prepared them for what came next, actually doing the work.
Speaker B:Which brings us to the operational phase, getting them out there.
Speaker B:Starting with delegation.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Jesus was always building towards handover.
Speaker C:He didn't wait until they were perfect or felt 100% ready.
Speaker B:That's a key leadership insight right there.
Speaker B:Don't wait for perfection.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:He sent them out two by two.
Speaker C:To do what they'd seen him do.
Speaker C:Preach, heal.
Speaker C:It was like a.
Speaker C:Well, a test run for the whole model.
Speaker B:And he gave them specific instructions, didn't he?
Speaker B:It wasn't just go figure it out.
Speaker C:Very specific.
Speaker C:Strategic, even.
Speaker C:Where to go first.
Speaker C:Market segmentation, you could say.
Speaker C:Focus on the lost sheep of Israel initially.
Speaker C:And crucial advice on follow up.
Speaker C:How to establish a base in each town, find a worthy person, someone receptive, and make that house their base of operations.
Speaker B:Establishing a beachhead, that sounds like solid tactical planning for any kind of expansion.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Find that key local, contact that worthy person.
Speaker C:That person wasn't just a host.
Speaker C:They were the potential next leader in that community, the anchor.
Speaker B:So even in delegation, the focus is still ultimately on identifying and cultivating future leaders.
Speaker C:Always circling back to leadership development.
Speaker C:But just sending them out wasn't enough.
Speaker C:Which leads to principle seven, supervision.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Delegation without follow up is.
Speaker B:Well, it's often failure.
Speaker C:Coleman shows this rhythm.
Speaker C:Assignment, then supervision, then assignment again.
Speaker C:Jesus would bring them back together, okay, report what happened.
Speaker B:Debriefing, essential for learning.
Speaker C:Totally.
Speaker C:They'd share successes, failures and failures.
Speaker C:He'd use those real world experiences to teach, to correct, to reinforce.
Speaker C:You can't just launch and forget.
Speaker C:You need that feedback loop.
Speaker B:The example Coleman uses is powerful.
Speaker B:When they failed to heal the demon possessed boy, right.
Speaker C:Jesus didn't just say you failed.
Speaker C:He diagnosed why.
Speaker C:He pinpointed the gap in that case, a lack of faith expressed through prayer and fasting.
Speaker C:It was specific, corrective feedback based on a real event.
Speaker B:So supervision wasn't just checking boxes.
Speaker B:It was active coaching, course correction, constant coaching.
Speaker C:Never letting them get complacent.
Speaker C:Coleman's insight here is key.
Speaker C:Don't assume the job's done just because your team knows the how to.
Speaker C:Supervision maintains the standard, ensures the method is actually being followed faithfully.
Speaker B:Okay, so this whole intense process, selection, association, consecration, impartation, delegation, supervision, it all builds towards the final principle, the ultimate metric, reproduction.
Speaker C:This is the bottom line.
Speaker C:The acid test.
Speaker C:Could these disciples reproduce Jesus life, his methods, his spirit in others?
Speaker B:Because if it stopped with them, the.
Speaker C:Whole thing fizzles out.
Speaker C:The three years of intense investment would, as Coleman puts it, soon come to naught.
Speaker C:It had to be transferable.
Speaker B:Which brings us right back to the great commission.
Speaker B:Matthew 28.
Speaker B:The core command isn't just preach or baptize.
Speaker C:The core command, the verb is make disciples.
Speaker C:Make learners of all nations, meaning build people like themselves, people who would then go and make more disciples who would follow the Master's way.
Speaker C:It's about multiplication, not just addition.
Speaker B:Building leaders.
Speaker B:Who build leaders.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:Coleman stresses the world needs shepherds leaders.
Speaker C:The ultimate reach of the mission doesn't depend on how many initial converts you make, but on how faithfully those converts go out and make leaders out of their converts.
Speaker C:It's designed for exponential generational growth.
Speaker B:That completely reframes how we think about success, doesn't it?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Success isn't just the numbers you see now.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Success is measured by the resilience and the reproductive capacity of the leaders you train.
Speaker C:Can the mission continue and grow after you're gone?
Speaker B:That's the core takeaway from Coleman then.
Speaker B:The genius of Jesus's strategy was its.
Speaker B:Well, its simplicity, really, and its relentless focus on developing quality leaders.
Speaker C:It's a strategy built for the long haul, for durability.
Speaker C:And Coleman makes a sobering point too.
Speaker C:This model works regardless of the ideology.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:He points out how effectively some destructive movements like Communism in the 20th century used this same principle of concentration on training dedicated leaders to achieve massive scale.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's a stark warning.
Speaker C:That kind of focused, intensive leadership development is just strategically sound.
Speaker C:And he contrasts it with what he sees often in the modern church and maybe other organizations too, this default to the easier strategy of mass recruitment.
Speaker B:Big events, lots of initial excitement.
Speaker C:But often the efforts are localized and quickly dissipate because there isn't that core of doubly trained reproducing leadership to sustain it.
Speaker B:So Coleman's challenge really is to adopt the Master's long view that focusing on finding and deeply investing in a few dedicated potential leaders is the only reliable way to ensure a mission lasts.
Speaker B:You have to decide which generation you're building for.
Speaker C:Which leads us to the final thought for you, the listener, directly from Coleman's analysis.
Speaker C:How should you measure success in your own sphere of influence?
Speaker C:Whether you lead three people or 3,000?
Speaker B:The test isn't just the immediate results, the numbers you see today.
Speaker C:No, the real test is, has your life's work successfully guaranteed its own continuation?
Speaker C:Have you invested in others in such a way that they can carry it forward, ensuring the mission, the work, the values are sustained and even advanced by the next generation.
Speaker B:That's the deep challenge from the Master Plan.
Speaker B:Powerful stuff.
Speaker B:Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into Coleman's work.
Speaker C:We'll catch you next time on the Deep Dive.
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